Page 52 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

I2 T H E ENCYCLO P E DI A OF TAO ISM VOL . T

As was typical in China, heirs to this Way imagined their sacred learning
and the spiritual ties to the Way and its human embodiments as "families"
(jia), "lineages" (zong * ), or 'branches" (pai ~), whose "patriarchs" or "an-
cestors" (zu :f.El.) that had emanated from the Way distributed scriptures (see
*REVELATIONS AND SACRED TEXTS), talismans (*FU), and ritual systems (fa 1:t)
to worthy people. Taoist movements retained the key social value of family
responsibility. The focus on the well-being of ancestors and the family reflected
in early Taoist texts served as a template for other social values, including those
articulated through ritual and scripture. Taoist initiation structured access
to levels of understanding and deployed those aspects of the Way that best
served human beings. Through moral living and sacred learning, an adept
also gained access to larger and more powerful arrays of ritual forebears and
living representatives who were charged with ensuring the orderly workings
of the Way in the world. Taoist rituals served not only as reminders of proper
order manifested in the Way, but also worked to instill that order in them.
Lineages in the history of Taoism. The best-known examples of lineage in
Taoism appear in the chains of Celestial Masters (*tianshi) stemming from
*Zhang Daoling, the *Shangqing (Highest Clarity) patriarchs *Wei Huacun
and *Yang Xi, and sacred lines of Taoist learning, extending all the way down
to the eighteenth-century genealogical compilations of the *Longmen (Gate
of the Dragon) branch of *Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) teachings. For
the great Yuan hagiographer Zhao Daoyi JI}i m - (fl. I294- I307), humans who
"perfected transcendence and embodied the Way" came from all over China
and from all social levels. At the same time, Taoist initiates embodied the purest
emanations of the Way and replicated their activities in the world, reflecting
the basic family values of filiality, brotherly concern, and benevolence. The
Taoist initiate worked not only to save self, ancestors, and all living beings,
but also to bring order to the natural world.
Over time, lineages that had begun as local traditions become embedded in
grander visions of their ties to the Way, including elabora te spiritual genealogies
connecting recent human preceptors to the primordial Way. Later traditions
often stressed ties to classical Taoist traditions such as *Zhengyi (Orthodox
Unity), *Lingbao ( uminous Treasure), Shangqing, and *]ingming dao (Pure
and Bright Way). This process gave rise to tensions between innovation and
tradition, which may be seen in the *Tianxin zhengfa (Correct Method of the
Celestial Heart), *Lingbao dafa (Great Rites of the Numinous Treasure), and
*Shenxiao (Divine Empyrean) traditions, as well as in the cults to various local
deities credited with issuing new Taoist teachings. Traditions like Quanzhen
and *Qingwei (Pure Tenuity) worship their forebears as deities.
As Taoist traditions proliferated, the sacred genealogies that sought to
legitimate contemporary belief and practice expanded and extended, show-