Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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Chinese (Philosophical-Religious)

1 of 186 entries in Religions. Click any to see everything it connects to.

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Chinese traditions built on a philosophical account of how the world works (the Tao, the interplay of yin and yang, the movement of qi), which developed alongside that philosophy a full religious apparatus of deities, liturgy, priesthood and alchemical practice. Scholars usually distinguish the philosophical strand from the religious one, but the two were rarely separate in practice.

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Overview
What Defines This Grouping
Chinese traditions built on a philosophical account of how the world works - the Dao, the interplay of yin and yang, the movement of qi - which developed alongside it a full religious apparatus of deities, liturgy, ordained priesthood and alchemical practice. 2
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
Contested: the division of Daoism into a philosophical strand and a religious one is a later convention that specialists now largely reject as a way of splitting the tradition, which did not develop as two things. 3
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Religions 1
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Chinese philosophical-religious tradition

This group gathers a Chinese tradition classed as philosophical-religious, one that began as a philosophy of the natural way and developed into an organised religion with deities, priesthood and liturgy. Taoism is the paradigm, spanning the classic texts of the Dao and the later temple religion alike.

The browser will find the tradition the atlas classes here. The entries describe it across both dimensions, philosophical and religious, which the tradition itself holds together.

Sources
2. Daoism Handbook
Livia Kohn (ed.), Brill, 2000
3. The Encyclopedia of Taoism
Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), Routledge, 2008s.v. Daojia; s.v. DaojiaoView the Source
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