^ABefore the Han dynasty (200 BCE - 200 CE) a number of traditions began to coalesce to form what would later become what we know today as Taoism – philosophical Taoism (Tao jia, which we discussed in previous chapters), techniques for achieving ecstasy, techniques for achieving longevity and physical immortality, and exorcism of demons and evil spirits. Before the unification of China under the Chin ruler (3rd century BCE), the area we know as China was a collection of some 40-50 independent kingdoms. Even after unification, the South of China continued to be quite different from the North. One of these differences was the shamanistic traditions in the South in which gods entered into “inspired” poet-priests and -priestesses – producing the Chuci (songs of the Chu kingdom or region). Shamanism is a religious tradition common to many peoples at a certain stage of cultural development. It is based on the idea that there is a sharp division between the ordinary world we can see and touch and an other unseen world. And since the unseen world is thought to control things in the everyday world it is obviously very important to have some access to the unseen world – to find out what the spirits have in store for us and wherever possible to intercede with the spirits on our human behalf. But since the unseen world is not available to ordinary people in ordinary experience there is need for people with specialized techniques to communicate with the unseen world – and these are shamans. ^top

^BNoticed how the shamans were described in the 6th-5th century BCE.

In ancient times people and divine beings did not intermingle. Among the people there were those who were refined and without wiles. They were, moreover, capable of being equable, respectful, sincere and upright.... Their wisdom could illuminate what was distant with its all-pervading brilliance.... When there were people of this sort, the illustrious spirits (shen) would descend in them. If men, such people were called sorcerers (xi), and if women, they were called witches (wu). It was through such persons that the regulation of the dwelling places of the spirits..were ordered; their sacrifices...were arranged.” (From Kuo Yu, in Fung, Hist of Chinese Phil, vol. 1)

^CBelief in physical immortality, which has long been associated with Taoism, is much older than organized Taoism, going back at least as far as the 8th century BC (as we know from Shang bronze inscriptions). Warring States writing mention a number of expeditions organized by different kings to find certain islands where immortals lived who might be induced to explain their secret of physical immortality, especially their use of special plants which only grew on these islands. This tradition extended to the first emperor of all China, Chin Huangshidi, and his Han dynasty successors. ^top

^DSome of the practices of the shamans included breathing and sexual practices to lengthen life and the avoidance of cereals, which were later to become incorporated into religious Taoism. Some of the exorcist practices, designed to ward off evil spirits and demons, became associated with ancient Chinese medicine, later incorporated into Taoist religion. ^top

^FIn the I Jing (I means change and Jing means classical book, so I Jing is the Classical Book of Change) an elaborate system of yin and yang changes are worked out which have been used for thousands of years (as far back as the Shang dynasty that we know of and probably earlier). Yin elements are represented by broken lines and yang elements by unbroken lines. In the I Jing divination different throws of three coins (in one form) produce yin (broken) lines or yang (unbroken) lines (some with “changes” which adds a further complexity to the reading), each being stacked on top of the one below it, leading finally to three lines (the eight trigrams – ba gua) or six lines (the sixty-four hexagrams), each of which is associated with a particular prophesy of the future. These combinations of yin and yang offer a more complex way to show the mix of yin and yang elements in different entities – a hexagram with (moving from bottom to top) unbroken, broken, broken, broken, unbroken, unbroken and another hexagram with broken, unbroken, unbroken, unbroken, broken, broken are each half yin and half yang but in very different ways resulting in very different individuals. ^top

^GThe wu xing are also changing, not fixed, elements. Sometimes wu xing is translated “the five elements,” which sounds like the ancient Greek theory that everything in the world was composed of four or five permanent elements. But unlike the Greeks who held that the total amount of each element never varied (there is exactly as much water, for example, today as there was thousands of years ago), Chinese held that one element could turn into another. ^top

^HThe order of the Wu Xing changes is Wood, Fire, Soil, Metal, Water (and continuing in an endless cycle -- wood, fire, earth or soil, metal, water, wood, fire, etc., etc.). As the Han dynasty Confucianist Dong Zhongshu says, "Each in turn produces the next and is overcome by the next but one in turn" (ch.42). That is, wood produces fire (in the sense that wood burns and thus sustains fire); fire produces soil (in the sense that fire produces ashes, a kind of soil); soil or earth produces metal (in the sense that heating certain kinds of earth (iron ore) produces iron); metal produces water (in the sense that condensation on a sheet of metal produces water). And as the quote above indicates, each “element” overcomes and is overcome by the “next but one” -- wood skipping over fire overcomes soil or earth (and soil or earth is overcome by the “next but one” which is wood) in the sense that a tree uses up earth to grow larger, fire skipping over soil or earth overcomes metal (and metal is overcome by the “next but one” which is fire) in the sense that intense heat from fire can melt metal, soil or earth skipping over metal overcomes water (and water is overcome by the “next but one” which is soil or earth) in the sense that earth will absorb water – we can drain a swampy area by covering it with earth till the standing water disappears), metal skipping over water overcomes wood (and wood is overcome by the “next but one” which is metal) in the sense of an ax cutting the tree down), and water skipping over wood overcomes fire (and fire is overcome by the “next but one” which is water) as when we put out a fire with water. These relationships can be represented by a circle enclosing a five-pointed star in which the circle indicates how each of the five “produces” the next in turn and the straight lines connecting the points of the star indicate how each overcomes and is overcome by “the next but one.” ^top