Ch 9 Daoism

Which of the following statements BEST represents the relationship between external alchemy (waidan) and internal alchemy (neidan)?

Internal alchemy represented an internalization of what were previously external alchemical processes, where in the eternal elixir was produced inside the alchemist's body.

What role does jing play in contemporary forms of internal alchemy?

Jing is the fixed storehouse of vital essence with which everyone is born and which must be preserved and then refined into increasingly more ethereal energies in order to attain the Dao.

The founder of the Way of the Celestial Masters, ___ is said to have received a vision of Laozi in his divine form as ___ at Crane Call Mountain.

Zhang Daoling, Lord Lao

In the image above, individuals are engaging in the practice of ___, during which the practitioner moves ___ or "vital energy" through their body.

tai chi, qi

Heavenly records used in Celestial Masters rituals, ___ identify individual Daoists by rank and list what divine entities they can call upon for assistance.

registers

Place the following events in chronological order.

According to tradition, Laozo writes the Daodejing. Lord Lao appears to Zhang Daoling, who founds the Celestial Masters movement. Highest Clarity Daoism emerges and largely internalizes Daoist practices. The Complete Perfection movement emerges and introduces monasticism to Daoism. The Chinese Taoist Association is established. The Cultural Revolution destroys Daoist temples, images, and other religious artifacts in China.

Organized Daoism took shape around the time ___ began appearing in China, indicating that Daoism's institutionalization may have been a reaction to having a new competitor in the market.

Buddhism

Confession before a libationer historically represented a central practice in which Daoist movement?

Celestial Masters

Which of the following is NOT a LIKELY reason why it might be difficult to accurately count the number of Daoists in China today?

Daoist practices and Daoist beliefs have generally died out in China after the rise of power of the Communist Party in 1949.

Which of the following statements BEST represents the significance of the Dragon Gate (Longmen) lineage of Complete Perfection Daoism in contemporary China?

Dragon Gate Daosim is the dominant form of organized Daoism on the Chinese mainland today and the gatekeeper for monastic Daoist practice.

Daoism is neither a polytheistic religion, nor a monotheistic one, as it lacks entirely any gods or goddesses.

False

Daoists seek to rid themselves of their physical body as soon as possible, believing the true self to be the immortal spirit residing within the body.

False

From the perspective of the Daoist tradition, humanity is evolving ever closer toward the Dao as civilization and the perfection of human institutions advance.

False

Prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the triumph of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, Daoism enjoyed significant financial and social support from the government of the Republic of China.

False

Select each true statement about Falun Gong.

Falun Gong combines elements of both the Buddhist and Daoist traditions. The Chinese government has labeled Falun Gong a dangerous "cult" seeking to spread superstition and has banned its practice. Falun Gong sees an interrelated relationship between moral practice and successful qigong practice. Falun Gong adherents worldwide accuse the Chinese government of torture, organ harvesting, and murder.

Which of the following statements does NOT represent a transformation of the Daoist tradition introduced by the Highest Clarity (Shangqing) movement?

Highest Clarity Daoism taught that physical immortality was possible in this very body rather than a state of post-mortem flourishing.

What is the Daoist tradition's opinion of human civilization?

Human civilization destroys social harmony through molding and constraining humans' naturalness.

Which of the following statements BEST reflects the attitude of the Celestial Masters movement toward an individual's moral obligations?

Illness and premature death were believed to be punishment from a divine bureaucracy for moral infractions, and adherents would follow strict moral guidelines. Depending on the tradition, these might include opposition to meat and wine offerings to local deities, spirit medium practice, and ancestor worship.

Which of the following BEST represents the Daoist attitude toward immortality?

Immortality represents a vital life with greater human flourishing that extends first one's years and then one's spirit into a new state of transcendence.

Which of the following statements BEST interprets the well-known maxim that Chinese people are "Confucians on the weekdays, Daoists on the weekends, and Buddhists when they die"?

In CHina, religious traditions generally do not demand a believer's exclusive allegiance and individuals generally blend rather than separate Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.

Traditionally attributed to ___, the Daodejing is one of the world's most frequently translated books.

Laozi

In this 1966 wood engraving by Fritz Eichenberg retelling one of the most famous and foundational Daoist stories, what Daoist luminary is depicted?

Laozi recording the Daodejing before departing China forever.

In one of your college classes, you make a new friend named Penghao, who is an international student from Taiwan. He tells you he is a Daoist practitioner and hopes to become more involved in the religion after he graduates. Based on this information, Penghao is MOST LIKELY associated with the ___ sect of Daoism.

Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi)

While many forms of internal alchemy (neidan) focus on transforming the male vital essence of sperm into qi in an effort to achieve longevity, ___ pioneered the development of "female alchemy," in which the female vital essence of menstrual blood was transformed into qi.

Sun Buer

Which of the following actions has MOST benefitted or contributed to the revival of Daoism in contemporary China?

The Chinese government's Bureau of Tourism has promoting an exploration of traditional Chinese culture, and constructing Laozi statues.

Why do Robert Campany and many other scholars of Daoism prefer to translate xian as "transcendent" rather than "immortal"?

The goal of Daoist practice is not merely living forever in one's body, but undergoing a fundamental transformation to experience a life that transcends ordinary human experience.

According to the Daoist tradition, what saps our vital energy and causes us to grow old and die too young?

The human tendency to embrace social conventions, moral norms, and ritual prescriptions over our inborn spontaneity and naturalness.

Identify each item that is an attribute of the Dao.

The universe and all things within it emerge out of the Dao. The Dao ultimately transcends any and all individual things. The Dao is formless, ineffable, and beyond definition. The Dao exists in all things and its patterns can be revealed by closely paying attention to the world around us.

From a Daoist perspective, what statement below BEST represents the significance of this symbol, known as a yin/yang?

The yin/yang represents complementary and balanced principles flowing naturally into one another, which Daoists hope to achieve.

Daoism assumes that change is inescapable and the goal of practice is to learn how to move with the change, rather than fight it.

True

The term Daoism, like the terms Buddhism and Confucianism, was, in part, created by western scholars and observers of Chinese culture. Therefore, it does not necessarily reflect an indigenous Chinese conception of their culture.

True

In examining Daoism in America, scholar Thomas Tweed distinguishes between "adherents" and "sympathizers." Organize the activities below into those more likely to be practiced by what scholars might call American adherents of Daoism and those practiced by what a scholar might call American sympathizers of Daoism.

attend a one-day workshop on Chinese medicine for general wellness read the Daodejing to gain guidance on how to be a better manager practice tai chi in the park on Sunday mornings with a local community exercise group

Identify characteristics of the two main branches of Daoism in China today, Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi) and Complete Perfection (Quanzhen).

authority passes down within the family emphasizes ritual a tradition of householders with married priests successor to the Celestial Masters tradition

If Celestial Masters Daoism emphasized the ___ dimension of religious practice, then Complete Perfection Daoism emphasized the ___ dimension of religious practice, encouraging adherents to meditate in order to tame their wild and unpredictable minds.

moral, experiential

Identify and select the transformations experienced by the Daoist tradition during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

the proliferation of Daoist lay associations a rise in the popularity of local gods and associated practices, including spirit writing and mediumship heavy government regulation of Daoist temples that inhibited their growth a rise in the prominence and worship of female deities

What event in 1949 disrupted the Daoist movement and inspired many Daoists to move to Taiwan, ultimately leading to the 63rd Celestial Master establishing the headquarters of the Orthodox Unity Daoist movement in Taipei?

the rise to power of the anti religious Communist Party of China.

Which of the following statements does NOT reflect a legitimate reason as to why the origins of Daoism are hard to pinpoint?

Due to early persecution, Daoist masters were forced to disguise their religion as a form of Buddhism, making it difficult to ascertain what was intended by the early authors.

Your Chinese friend Lijun just gave birth five days ago and you are eager to visit and see the new baby and mother! However, her mother-in-law, who flew in from Shanghai for the birth, refuses to let you see Lijun and tells you to come back in twenty-five more days, when it will be the infant's full moon day. Why is this the case?

Due to the belief that the mother's qi significantly depleted from the ordeal, Chinese mothers generally undergo thirty days of confinement at home after giving birth and can only see guests when the period is over.

What is the goal of the Grand Offering ceremony within the Daoist tradition?

Grand Offerings are intended to reestablish and reaffirm the relationship between an individual, a family, or a community and their personal gods.

Identify each statement that accurately reflects legends about the life of Zhang Daoling.

Lord Lao named Zhang Daoling the Celestial Master on earth and charged him to usher in a new era of Great Peace through confessions of moral failures. Living as a hermit, Zhang Daoling created an elixir that gave him the power to multi-locate and appear and disappear at will. Zhang Daoling was conceived immaculately between a human woman and a celestial being. Zhang Daoling was initiated into a divine sequence of secret spiritual techniques which allowed him to exorcise demons and destroy evil spirits with talismans.

Your roommate has decided that he wants to learn about the life stories of major world religions' founders, so he goes to the library and checks out the most recent translation of the Daodejing so that he can study the life of Laozi to understand his miraculous birth, his celebrated bureaucratic career, and his eventual journey over the mountains on an ox to leave China. Which statement below BEST explains the problem with your roommate's plan?

The Daodejing does not follow a narrative format and does not include a biography of Laozi.

While strolling through the Chinese collection of an Asian art museum, you see a painting of a man setting fire to his hut and dancing around a fire in joy, while immortals gaze down. Thinking back to your course on world religions, who is this painting MOST LIKELY depicting?

Wang Zhe

Many scholars have noted that Daoist communities in the United States are very different from the Daoist communities and practices found in China, developing new trends towards antiritualism and nondogmatic beliefs. Which of the following represents the BEST response scholars of religion should have to the new environment of "American Daoism," according to the textbook?

We should move beyond questions of authenticity and definitional boundaries of "real" or "true" Daoism to understand the American Daoist tradition as a further step in a continually evolving tradition.

Identify each Daoist meditation practice below that is conducted by individuals today.

visualizing the deities residing within their own bodies' organs, which reflect and mirror the functioning of the larger cosmos inner observation, in which one focuses attention on their breath or on the movement of qi through one's organs. "quiet sitting," in which the practitioner empties their heart-mind of day-to-day thoughts and feelings in order to attain mystical union with the Dao.

One of the key values of the Daodejing is ___ ("nonaction), which emphasizes acting naturally and effortlessly, without plan, pretense, of self-interest.

wuwei