Were there ever Taoist missionaries?
Upvote:0
Yes, and there still are.
Taoism is generally not known as a proselytizing religion because most Westerners don't read Chinese and the ones who do, especially early on, mythologized and orientalized it. The Confucians had no such qualms and tried to get it banned as a noxious superstition by the Rites Bureau whenever they got the chance. The Chinese Taoist Association isn't as aggressive today because it's run to harmonize its activities with the atheist CCP, but historically China has had plenty of popular religious movements and the only way to pretend they weren't Taoist is to No-True-Scotsman them all. (The English catch-all for these NTS movements and ideas is 'Chinese Folk Religion'.)
Val's answer is right that the plagues, floods, and wars that ended the Han Dynasty seems to have been a fertile time. Zhang Jue and his Yellow Turbans were dramatic and influential but short-lived; Zhang Lu (no relation) and his Celestial Masters following the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice had epiphanies of Laozi, medical miracles, and tried to establish a holy land for their chosen people. Their ideas shaped most subsequent Taoist movements.
Upvote:4
Generally speaking, there were very few Taoist missionaries in Chinese history.
The most famous Taoist missionary would be Zhang Jue from the Three Kingdoms era:
From the Chinese wiki: In AD 184, plague spread throughout China. Thousands of people were cured after drinking Zhang's ash water. He sent 8 major missionaries and his followers covered around 2/3 of China. They then became the major army of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. This rebellion led to the end of the Han Dynasty.
Upvote:6
Taoism gained much popularity by the end of the Southern Song period.
When the Mongol Empire started invading, they had the habit of massacring the whole population after a city was sacked. Taoist missionary Qiu Chuji visited Genghis Khan and managed to convince him not to commit any more massacres after battle.
More post
- 📝 How were new states admitted to the Union?
- 📝 Are there notable incident(s) where Russia/SU was wrongfully accused by Western powers in the 20th century?
- 📝 What do men in the middle of a phalanx contribute?
- 📝 Why didn't the Incan Empire use iron?
- 📝 What is the current academic consensus on Charlemagne's genealogy?
- 📝 Who placed first on entrance exam 1805 at École Polytechnique?
- 📝 Benefits of Athenian citizenship
- 📝 Why and how were the Mongols able to invade Russia successfully?
- 📝 Why does Latin America have a higher number of surviving Native Americans than North America?
- 📝 Why did the Levee en Masse call for children to make lint?
- 📝 Was the pigment minium (lead oxide) named after the river Minus in Iberia?
- 📝 Was Brezhnev's rule an "era of stagnation"
- 📝 Why have wheat and rice been consumed in different forms?
- 📝 What's the earliest example of a permanent embassy?
- 📝 Pennsylvania is not a state, it is a Commonwealth. Why?
- 📝 Could Margaret Beaufort have been responsible for killing of the Princes in the Tower?
- 📝 What was life like for Australian convicts in the last few decades of transportation?
- 📝 Did ramming tank battle tactics occur in WW2?
- 📝 Jurisdiction in German occupied territories after WW II
- 📝 Did (other) PRC or Soviet leaders give 3+ hour congress speeches?
- 📝 What actions did the KKK take against miscegenation after 1967?
- 📝 Why was a gold standard not stipulated in the U.S. Constitution?
- 📝 How are dates in BCE ordered?
- 📝 Where did the families of constables live in the middle ages?
- 📝 Examples of Romans repeating early stages of the cursus honorum
- 📝 How might someone have gotten a note forwarded from a transport train headed to Auschwitz?
- 📝 Why did France surrender so quickly during ww2?
- 📝 When did the spherical shape of the Earth become common knowledge?
- 📝 Has mercantilism ever been successful?
- 📝 Why was China so underdeveloped until not so long ago?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were there ever Taoist missionaries?
- 📝 Were there ever wars/battles where infantry were given multiple rifles to speed up rate of fire?
- 📝 Were there ever actual organizations of pirates?
- 📝 Were there ever any farming societies without a calendar?
- 📝 Were there ever any libraries in medieval villages?
- 📝 Was there ever a war mission where the personnel were instructed to surrender when the mission complete?
- 📝 Were there ever instances of sailors pressed into British service in Europe ending up in the Caribbean?
- 📝 Was there ever a situation where members of two warring militaries were on leave in the same neutral location?
- 📝 Was there ever a type of powered model car/vehicle racing, where the cars were in no way controlled, and were all on the one single shared track?
- 📝 Has there ever a period in history when people were not killing each other?
- 📝 Has there ever been a war where 2 parties who were at war with each other cooperated on a strike against a third party?
- 📝 Were there women who were against giving women the right to vote?
- 📝 What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
- 📝 Has there ever been a truly multi-sided war?
- 📝 Has there ever been a non-rectangular banknote?
- 📝 Why were there no internment camps for German-American citizens in USA during WW2?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case when a traitorous military commander took command again for the side he betrayed?
- 📝 Why were there no nuclear detonations in 1959?
- 📝 Has there ever been an instance of an active nuclear power plant within or near a war zone?
- 📝 Has there ever been a cold war other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
- 📝 Was there ever a treaty between 2 entities with significantly different translations to the detriment of one party?
- 📝 Why were there no religious wars in Poland?
- 📝 Were there U.S. weapon restrictions during 19th century?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
- 📝 Were there large scale protests after earlier presidential elections in the US?
- 📝 Has there ever been a battle with only a single survivor?
- 📝 Were there occasions when a sovereign country voluntarily joined another country?
- 📝 Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
- 📝 Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?