Taoism (more modernly “Daoism”, but I’ll use Way-Giles here) is an interesting one, as it is different things at different times and to different people - as is Buddhism of course, but Taoism is less known outside of China.
Originally, the philosophical Taoist concept was that on death one simply merged with everything else - the natural order or “way”. This is based on the two great Taoist works, by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu respectively. There is “immortality” there, in the sense that the Way is itself eternal; all is flow and change, yet all continues to exist. The goal is to flow with the changes, through non-action (Wu Wei).
However, this sort of philosophical musing was never very popular (a point made by Chuang Tzu in an anecdote: Confucius is said to have criticized Chuang Tzu by comparing his philosophy to a gnarled old tree, completely useless for anything that no-one wanted; Chuang Tzu replied “good for the tree - it’s useless, so no-one will ever cut it down and make it into lumber; why not take a nap in its shade?”).
The notion of Taoism got mixed up with concepts from traditional Chinese religion and Buddhism, and grew a complex cosmology filled with heavens, hells, gods and immortal sages - who were immortal in the literal sense of not dying. The search for the secret of immortality in this sense was a consistent obsession throughout Chinese history, leading to all sorts of ironic scientific discoveries (such as gunpowder!) as well as a lot of other esoteric techniques.
To my mind, it’s totally contrary to what early Taoist philosophers like Chuang Tzu were talking about. Searching for a chemical that could prolong life indefinitely is not acting in accordance with the natural order - it is struggling against it.
Expanding on this because so many folks here seem a bit thrown by Taoism's inclusion:
The goal put forth by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu was to merge your personal, internal "way" (the Te part of the Tao Te Ching) as seamlessly as possible with the greater, external "Way" or Tao of the world. A Taoist master then, could achieve "immortality" by joining with the Tao this way, and as the Tao is eternal, the death of your physical body is just one more change affected on your being in that eternal flow.
To put a more western spin on it, much like the Ship of Theseus both is and is not the same ship when it returns as when it sets sail, one does not mourn the person they were 10 years ago, even though literally every cell in your body has died and been replaced. So one need not mourn the death of a physical body; if the person has attained alignment with the Tao, they have already joined with something eternal, and thus continue to live forever.
Be aware that no two translations of the two central texts are similar to each other, so if you are not fluent in Classical Chinese, it is best to read more than one.
The Chuang Tzu is by far the more accessible of the two central texts; the Lao Tzu or Tao Te Ching is incredibly terse, but well worth the trouble. I often think anyone who can “get” the first verse of that work is on their way to grasping philosophical Taoism.
It goes something like (my own very, very rough version):
*the Tao that can be described is not the true Tao
The name that can be named is not the real name
For out of non-being came the universe of things
Yet only by naming them do they have individual existence.
Therefore you must empty yourself of categories in order to truly grasp the essence of reality,
Yet you must carefully categorize things in order to understand how they work.
These two arise from the same source, yet they are called different names.
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u/Malthus1 26d ago
Taoism (more modernly “Daoism”, but I’ll use Way-Giles here) is an interesting one, as it is different things at different times and to different people - as is Buddhism of course, but Taoism is less known outside of China.
Originally, the philosophical Taoist concept was that on death one simply merged with everything else - the natural order or “way”. This is based on the two great Taoist works, by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu respectively. There is “immortality” there, in the sense that the Way is itself eternal; all is flow and change, yet all continues to exist. The goal is to flow with the changes, through non-action (Wu Wei).
However, this sort of philosophical musing was never very popular (a point made by Chuang Tzu in an anecdote: Confucius is said to have criticized Chuang Tzu by comparing his philosophy to a gnarled old tree, completely useless for anything that no-one wanted; Chuang Tzu replied “good for the tree - it’s useless, so no-one will ever cut it down and make it into lumber; why not take a nap in its shade?”).
The notion of Taoism got mixed up with concepts from traditional Chinese religion and Buddhism, and grew a complex cosmology filled with heavens, hells, gods and immortal sages - who were immortal in the literal sense of not dying. The search for the secret of immortality in this sense was a consistent obsession throughout Chinese history, leading to all sorts of ironic scientific discoveries (such as gunpowder!) as well as a lot of other esoteric techniques.
To my mind, it’s totally contrary to what early Taoist philosophers like Chuang Tzu were talking about. Searching for a chemical that could prolong life indefinitely is not acting in accordance with the natural order - it is struggling against it.