China And South Korea Taoist Thoughts

Taking the comparative studies on Chinese-Korean Taoist thoughts as the main content, the author intends to point out their similarity and diversity based on the history and the situation of Chinese-Korean Taoist studies.This treatise is divided into four parts:In Part One, the author mainly describes the present situation and the focuses of Taoist studies in Chinese-Korean academic circles. He emphatically introduces plentiful results gained by the Chinese academic circle by way of emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts and advancing with the times after 1980s as well as theresults of Korean Taoism study after 1990s. On this basis, he mentions several fields and questions, which have not been well studied by Chinese and Korean Taoist scholars.In Part Two, the author mainly summarizes the development history of Chinese Taoism. And then, he emphatically expatiates the major belief and basic essence of Chinese Taoism, making an account of such beliefs as "Tao", "celestial beings", "rituals and Taoist magic figures or incantations", "Taoist magic" and so on. Its basic essences are as follows: 1. The heaven and the beings are in harmony, and they interact each other; 2. Reversing the course of events and the universe; 3. Life is determined by itself instead of the heaven and the earth; 4. Spirits exist in everything, and everything has its own law; 5. Everything is natural and eternal.In Part Three, the author mainly sums up the development history of Korean Taoism. Moreover, he emphatically expatiates the major belief and basic essence of Korean Taoism, making an account of such beliefs as "Mi Way", Celestial Venerable of the Original Beginning and multi-deities. And its basic essence is safeguarding the county and the people, propagating the good and retraining the evil, cultivating one's moral character and behaving ethically and living a long life.In Part Four, the author mainly discusses the similarity and diversity between Chinese and Korean Taoism, pointing out that their similarity lies in the following facts: 1. Both of them are rooted in the soil of their national cultures. 2. Both of themhave the characteristics of comparatively "lower" culture. 3. Less importance has been attached to both of them for a long time. And their diversity lies in the fact that Chinese Taoism is a national religion in a whole sense and Korean Taoism is not. Moreover, in China, Taoism is an official and orthodox one, while Korean Taoism is characteristic of rituals and cultivation. Besides, in China, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism are entirely different. However, in Korea, those three are often mixed up and have no any definite distinction.In short, Chinese Taoism has greatly changed since it was introduced into Korea and integrated with original Korean religions. For example, the "Eight Immortals" in Taoism have changed their names and the costumes and adornments worn by Taoists and rituals are different from those in China after the introduction of Taoism into Korea. However, the author has no intention to mention the diversity in his treatise, for it is beyond the primary research.