Chinese and Taoist Perspectives Flashcards
Reflects 4 strands of influence
• Ancient indigenous o Triple world o Spirits • Confucianism o Proper behavior • Daoism o The dao o Natural way of life • Buddhism o Karma and rebirth
Ying-yang
o Developed in the middle of chaos
o Balance is good
o Imbalance is evil
What is the “Yellow Springs”?
- mythological Chinese realm of the dead
- dark and vaguely defined realm
- located beneath the earth, but it was not until the Han Dynasty that the Chinese had a clearly articulated conception of an underworld below in contrast with a heavenly realm above
How do the Chinese honour the dead?
• Shooting of the gun constantly • Tons of the family come to the grave to pay respect o Cheerful o Renewal of life • Music • Funeral parades
What is the relationship between gods, ghosts, and ancestors?
• Gods are yang phenomena
o Worshipped by general community
o Offered fruit or packages food
• Ghosts are yin phenomena
o Can become harmful if the body or spirit is not properly burried or cared for
o Offerings can be left outside to deter the ghosts
• Ancestor are yang phenomena
o Venerated by their individual families
o Can be worshiped as an ancestor spirit by the family and feared as a ghost by others
o Offered cooked food with condiments
Hun [yang] soul
o Chi [breath/cosmic energy]
o Up to the Heaven
• Soul goes here and becomes ancestor or diety
o Ancestor spirit tablet
• The ones in Mulan
• Some families have mini temples for all the tablets
P’o [yin] soul
o Nourished by food
• Physical body
o Down to the earth
• Grave and ghosts
How does philosophical Daoism view death?
• Heaven -Court of the celestial Jade Emperor
• Hell - 10 kings of hell
o Judge the souls based on souls from this life
o They send to punishment or heaven
• Isles of the Blessed - paradises of the immortals
o Related to the practices of Daoism
o Thought to be island mountains in the East China Sea
• People can be promoted to Heaven through priest
• Dao de Jun [The way and its power]
o Associated with the nature and source of all things called Dao
o Harmony with the Dao
What was involved in the ancient Chinese search for immortality?
• Search for balance of ying and yang • Actionless Action o Going with the grain of things • Inner Alchemy o Immortal body through practices of the mind and breath
What is involved in the “attack on hell” in a Daoist funeral?
respect
How do the Chinese show their concern for the dead?
• Oragami to be comfortable • 20 years later o Second burial o BODY IS REASSEMBLES AND PUT IN AN URN • Spirit money and old clothing is sent do the dead has stuff to wear and spend
The Dao
- Way, path or road
- Source and order of the universe which manifest in all things
- Dao is the natural way of things
- More mystically as the ineffable source that shoes itself in nature
