Aspetti storico-religiosi del taoismo. parte seconda

Taoism is perhaps the only Chinese indigenous religion. It was born out of various currents and traditions of ancient China, after a long period of historical development and following its own inner logic. Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, became one of the "three great teachings" (san-chiao) of China. Tao is the eternally existing principle of the universe: it can be roughly translated into English as path or the way and is fundamentally indefinable. Tao doesn't know any limits in space or time. The substance of Tao is not-being. In this perspective Taoism can be considered a philosophy and a religion but aboveall it represents the wisdom accumulated in 5000 years of Chinese history. There are different ways to investigate the facets of Taoism. For example, as Livia Kohnsaid: "There is an indigenous Chinese mystical tradition, there are alternative forms of mysticism in China, and the history of this intriguing phenomenon can and should be explored" (L. Kohn, Early Chinese Mysticism, Princeton, 1992, p. 3). This research (divided in two parts whose the first was published in SMSR 68, 2, 2002) can be a modest little step in that direction. Through the academical and traditional approaches we make an attempt to increase our understanding and knowledge of some religious and philosophical aspects of Taoism without moreover any claims to be complete. The study is not determined to do a specialistic analysis of the sources only, examining some European translations of basic works to understand Taoism in its entirety, trying at the same time to avoid leaving out important texts and critical essays too.