Daoism in the West (Europe, the Americas, Australia)欧美道教传播

Also known as

Daoism in the West, Daoism in the United States, Daoism in Europe, Overseas Daoism, Western Daoism

Type

Daoist Schools

Period

Modern Era

Founded

Brought by Chinese immigrants with their temples in the nineteenth century; localized transmission began from the 1960s–70s (such as the Taoist Tai Chi Society in 1970)

Region

The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, Australia, and elsewhere

Status

Extant — Chinese Daoist temples and the overseas branches of Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland Daoist bodies continue to exist; indigenized Daoist groups are centred on the nourishing of life and on philosophy, with many members but institutionally small religious bodies; Daoist studies has become a prominent field in European and American scholarship.

Overview

The spread of Daoism in Europe and the Americas may be traced along two threads: the Daoism of Chinese immigrants and an indigenized Western Daoism. From the mid-nineteenth century Chinese labourers built temples such as Guandi temples, Tianhou temples and Lit Sing Kung in San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Melbourne and elsewhere, preserving Zhengyi-style sacrifice and seasonal rites; from the late twentieth century priests and Daoist halls from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the mainland successively established branch altars in the United States and Canada (such as the branch halls of Ching Chung Koon and Fung Ying Seen Koon of Hong Kong, and Quanzhen temples in San Francisco and New York), some of them holding conferrals of registers and transmissions of precepts. On the other hand, ever since James Legge and Richard Wilhelm translated the Daodejing and The Secret of the Golden Flower (Taiyi jinhua zongzhi) in the nineteenth century, Daoist thought has spread widely among Western intellectuals, and the Daodejing has become one of the most translated of all Chinese classics. In the counterculture of the 1960s there emerged a "Western Daoism" (which scholars sometimes call American Daoism), centred on taijiquan, qigong, neidan, the nourishing of life, and the philosophy of the Yijing and the Daodejing — for example Moy Lin-shin, who founded the Taoist Tai Chi Society in Toronto in 1970 (now present in more than twenty countries), and Mantak Chia's Healing Tao — most of which are not traditional religious bodies but exist in the form of course-based organizations. Since the 1980s academic Daoist studies has been institutionalized in Europe and America: Kristofer Schipper and John Lagerwey in France; Livia Kohn, Stephen Bokenkamp and Terry Kleeman in the United States; Fabrizio Pregadio and Monica Esposito in Italy; together with the Daoist Studies website and the Journal of Daoist Studies (from 2008). There are also Europeans and Americans who have received precepts and registers at the White Cloud Temple, Mount Longhu and Wudang and returned home to found Daoist temples (such as the British Taoist Association and certain groups in France, Germany, Spain and Russia). Scholars commonly caution that "the popularization of Daoist philosophy," "the marketing of nourishing-life techniques" and "the transplantation of institutional Daoism" should be distinguished from one another.

Core Doctrine

Chinese-community temples continue the Zhengyi or Quanzhen tradition; the indigenized "Western Daoism" is centred chiefly on the philosophy of the Daodejing, on naturalism, on neidan and on taiji-based nourishing of life, tending toward de-religionization and individual spiritual practice and emphasizing universalized readings of such notions as "the Dao," "wuwei" and "yin and yang"; the few who have formally received precepts and registers uphold Quanzhen or Zhengyi doctrine.

Practice & Ritual

Sacrifice and seasonal rites at Chinese-community temples; classes in taijiquan, qigong, neidan sitting meditation and daoyin; reading groups and meditation on the Daodejing and the Yijing; some groups hold the Quanzhen morning and evening liturgy, zhai and jiao rites, or Zhengyi ritual services; academic conferences and translated publications. Western Daoist groups also hold international conferences, study camps and online courses, and some temples offer conversion and ordination; their activities take many forms and are relatively highly commercialized.

Transmission

Nineteenth-century Chinese-community temples → early twentieth-century sinological translation (James Legge, Richard Wilhelm) → the counterculture of the 1960s–70s and the spread of taiji and qigong (Moy Lin-shin, Mantak Chia and others) → the institutionalization of academic Daoist studies from the 1980s and the overseas branch altars of Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland Daoist bodies → Europeans and Americans receiving precepts and registers and founding native Daoist associations in the twenty-first century.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures