Taoism And The Times Of Science And Technology

As a self-containing system, religion has long been known for its widespread influence on people in some fields that the traditional moral education could not achieve. Historically, religion represented the characteristic lifestyle of early human society and has continuously been active in influencing people and interacting with society. Taoism was an aboriginal religion originated in China with the highest objective as achieving "Tao" , a complex concept incorporating wisdom in understanding the universe, a harmony with the environment, and a power in controlling the situations. It believes in achieving longevity and eternal life after exercising its religious faith, which is Taosim' s distinct features and has been the goals of its followers for thousands of years. Taoism exerted its unique influence on China in a way that the other religions did not exhibit, mainly towards China' s politics, economy, moral practices, traditional culture, folk arts and customs, nationality psychology, culture and arts. As Mr. Lu. Xun once said, ' All the Chinese society rooted upon the Taoism.' As far as social activities are concerned, Taoism is more than an ideology, it actually encompasses people' s attitude towards life, value, moral and other theoretical aspects. It is therefore an independent and indispensable entity in the society that cannot be neglected.Taoism emphasizes people as the essence of the universe. Understandably, people living in any specific historic period will have their philosophical knowledge and thinking style be characterized by the sophistication of social practice and natural science during that period. A special relationship that Taoism has long established with science and technology, a relationship that the other religions failed to achieve, is its intimacy with and recognition of science and technology. The modern philosopher Feng, Youlan once said that Taoism is the only religion in this world that didn' t extend any harsh opposition towards science. As a matter of fact, Taoism favors and supports science in many situations, which can be demonstrated in the fact that Taoism always followed the development of science in Chinese history ( ' Medicinal and Chemical Characteristics in Ancient Chinese Alchemy and the Short History of its Special Traits' , translated from ' Comments of Chinese Culture and History' , Nov 11, 1979. Shanghai Press of Old Books) Because of this, throughout the history of Taoism, it interacted with science and technology, exerting the influence on each other. The practice of alchemy and anti-aging pushed the developments in medicine and chemistry while the latter provided support for the related practices in Taoism.This thesis focused on several issues related to Taoism including itscurrent situation, disciplines and thoughts, theories, activities, and its adapting to the current society. Comparison method and literature method were used in an attempt lo systematically study the relationship between the technological era and Taoism' s development, to further promote the outstanding Chinese traditional culture, and to explore a new possible solution to the many concomitant problems in the process*of modernization associated with high technologies and development.