Daoism, China’s indigenous religion, is one of the country’s five officially recognized religions today. Practiced by millions of people in China and around the world, Daoism takes on many forms, stretching back from ancient roots to the modern world.

It challenges the conventions of how people often define religion. Unlike many other faiths, Daoism does not necessarily center on a deity, though there are many Daoist deities. Nor does it have a unified system of beliefs or follow a singular authoritative doctrine.

In fact, followers say the Dao, which literally means the “way,” cannot be truly explained. Rather, it is often viewed as something like a mysterious, balanced cosmic force. Daoist practices, then, are based on the premise that everything that makes up the world emanates from the Dao.

Daoism approaches the world not from the perspective that the world is broken or needs to be saved, but rather that it is naturally balanced. When things go wrong, Daoist, also referred to as Taoist, practice seeks to bring the world back into harmony with the Dao.

As a scholar of Daoist ritual, I am interested in the diversity of Daoism’s ideas and practices. These include rituals related to cosmic realms, guidance for navigating the challenges of daily life and even the worship of powerful deities. Many of these practices stretch back thousands of years, offering a window into China’s religious and cultural past.

Early textual sources describe the Dao not in terms of what it is but rather what it does.

The Daodejing – “The Classic of the Way and its Power” – is the first known text to articulate the Dao as the source of all things. Composed sometime during the fourth century B.C.E. by the legendary figure Laozi, it states, “The Dao begets the One, the One begets the Two, the Two begets the Three, the Three begets the 10,000 things.” In other words, everything we can see and know can be traced back to the Dao.

Intentionally vague........

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