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Taoism

religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin

37 dated entries naming Taoism, drawn from 35 separate years between 531 BCE and 1900 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Daoism, Taoist in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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6th century BC

4th century BC

  • 350 BCEShen Dao, Chinese philosopher known for his blend of Legalism and Taoism (approximate date) (died c. 275 BC)source

3rd century BC

  • 275 BCEShen Dao, Chinese philosopher from Zhao who also served at the Jixia academy in Qi. He is known for his blend of Legalism and Taoism (approximate date)source

1st century

  • 34Zhang Daoling, Chinese Taoist master (died 156)source

2nd century

  • 142The Chinese Taoist alchemist Wei Boyang, author of the Kinship of the Three, is the first to describe an early form of gunpowder solution.source
  • 156Zhang Daoling, Chinese Taoist master (born AD 34)source
  • 164Ge Xuan (or Xiaoxian), Chinese Taoist (died 244)source
  • 200Gan Ji, Chinese Taoist priest and writersource

3rd century

  • 205Shan Tao, Chinese Taoist scholar and official (died 283)source
  • 220The Wei dynasty gives official recognition to Taoism as its religious sect, and the sect's celestial masters reciprocate, by giving spiritual approbation to the Wei as successors to the Han. By the end of the century, most powerful families in northern China have subscribed to Daoist principles.source
  • 244Ge Xuan (or Xiaoxian), Chinese Taoist (born 164)source
  • 252Wei Huacun, founder of the Shangqing sect of Daoism (died 334)source
  • 262Ji Kang (or Shuye), Chinese Daoist philosopher and poet (born 223)source

4th century

  • 341Ge Hong (or Ko Hung), Chinese taoist (approximate date)source
  • 364Ge Hong, Chinese scholar and taoist (born 283)source
  • 365Kou Qianzhi, Chinese high official and taoist (died 448)source

5th century

  • 448Kou Qianzhi, Chinese high official and Daoist (born 365)source
  • 448Kou Qianzhi, Chinese Daoist reformer, dies after having converted emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei and having established Daoism as the country's dominant religion. His death presages a revival of Buddhism as China's dominant faith.source

7th century

  • 631Tai Zong establishes a new Daoist abbey, out of gratitude for Daoist priests who had apparently cured the crown prince of an illness.source
  • 631Yeh Fa-shan, Daoist wonder-worker (died 720)source
  • 656Li Xiăn, seventh son of the Chinese emperor Gao Zong, is made crown prince. His lavish palatial mansion in Chang'an is converted into a Daoist abbey during the Tang dynasty (approximate date).source
  • 690October 16 – Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty, and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire as "Holy and Divine Emperor". She becomes the first and only female "emperor" in 5,000 years of Chinese history. Wu Zetian changes the dynasty's name to the Zhou Dynasty, and begins to murder throne pretendants and ministers who try to oppose her. During her reign she elevates the status of Buddhism above Taoism.source

8th century

  • 713Emperor Xuan Zong liquidates the highly lucrative "Inexhaustible Treasury", which is run by a prominent Buddhist monastery in Chang'an. This monastery collects vast amounts of money, silk, and treasures through multitudes of rich people's repentances, left on the premises anonymously. Although the monastery is generous in donations, Xuan Zong issues a decree abolishing their treasury, on the grounds that their banking practices were fraudulent, collects their riches, and distributes the wealth to various other Buddhist monasteries, Daoist abbeys, and to repair statues, halls, and bridges in the city.source
  • 720Yeh Fa-shan, Daoist wonder-worker (born 631)source
  • 730Emperor Xuan Zong has four palace walls in the northeast sector of the capital city Chang'an dismantled and reassembled to construct a new Daoist abbey, the grounds of which are formally a large garden for the Bureau of Agriculture.source
  • 742Emperor Xuan Zong begins to favor Taoism over Buddhism, adopting the new reign title Tianbao ("Heavenly Treasures"), to indicate his divine mandate. The total number of enlisted troops in the Tang armies has risen to about half a million, due to Xuan Zongs's earlier military reforms.source
  • 745China has accomplishments in poetry, painting and printing, but its monarchical system tends toward failure. Emperor Xuan Zong has fallen under the spell of his son's wife Yang Guifei (one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China), a Taoist priestess. He is ignoring the economy and the Tang dynasty is declining.source

10th century

  • 901Wu Renbi, Chinese Taoist and writersource
  • 960Mazu, Chinese fisherman's daughter and worshipped as Taoist goddess (approximate date)source
  • 989Chen Tuan, Chinese Taoist monk and philosophersource

12th century

  • 1113January 11 – Wang Chongyang, Chinese Daoist (died 1170)source
  • 1148Qiu Chuji, Chinese Taoist religious leader (died 1227)source

13th century

  • 1208April 15 – A fire breaks out in the Song Chinese capital city of Hangzhou, raging for four days and nights, destroying 58,097 houses over an area of more than 3 mi, killing 59 people, and an unrecorded number of other people, who are trampled while attempting to flee. The government provides temporary lodging for 5,345 people, in nearby Buddhist and Taoist monasteries. The collective victims of the disaster are given 160,000 strings of cash, along with 400 tons of rice. Some of the government officials who lose their homes take up residence in rented boathouses on the nearby West Lake.source
  • 1227July 23 – Qiu Chuji, Chinese Taoist religious leader (born 1148)source
  • 1281Kublai Khan orders the burning of sacred Taoist texts, resulting in the reduction in number of volumes of the Daozang (Taoist Canon) from 4,565 to 1,120.source

14th century

  • 1302Fang Congyi, Chinese Daoist priest and landscape painter (died 1393)source

19th century

  • 1900June 25 – Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, where they have been sealed since the early 11th century.source

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