Taoism
Taoism names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Taoism or TAONISM that had preceded them
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or TAONISM that had preceded them, by believing firmly that ultimately good would gain the victory over evil, and by insisting that good should be returned for evil, as the sure way to overcome it. The head of the body was a sort of patriarch, who had the power of transmitting his dignity and office to a member of his own family, and the descendants of the first are said to have held the office for centuries. Tao was afterward personified, and regarded as the first being of the universe. The Taoists attributed to him eternity and invisibility; but they do not seem to have regarded him as being in any way able to assist or comfort his followers. All they had to do was to contemplate him and his virtues, and to strive to keep in the "way." When Taoism appears as a definite factor in the history of China, in the 3d century B. C., it appears as a congeries of superstitions. Taoism was largely modified by Buddhism, some of the doctrines and practices of which it adopted; but it still adheres to its old superstitions, though in its treatises it enjoins much of the Confucian and the Buddhistic morality.
Taoism ta-o-izm, the religion of a certain sect in China
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ta-o-izm, the religion of a certain sect in China. The word is from a Chinese word tao, meaning reason. Many deities are worshipped, including a number of genii. The greatest of the gods is the Exalted Monarch; the greatest of the genii, the God of Long Life. The high priest is called Master of Heaven, and is supposed to be an incarnation of the Exalted Monarch. Buddhism has had considerable influence among the lower orders of people where Taoism prevails. Among many other Buddhist ideas that of the transmigration of souls is believed firmly.
Taoism or TAONISM obtained by heating the fluotantalate of potassium
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or TAONISM obtained by heating the fluotantalate of potassium or sodium with metallic sodium in a covered iron crucible, cooling, and washing out the soluble salts with water. It is a black powder, insoluble in sulphuric, hydrochloric , nitric, or even in nitrohydrochloric acid, but is slowly dissolved in warm aqueous hydrofluoric acid, very rapidly when nitric acid is present.
Taoism or TAONISM, one of the three religions of China
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or TAONISM, one of the three religions of China. Its founder , Laotse, lived, according to tradition , in Tao is a word entury B. C. the 6th century, "way." The whole teaching meaning "way." was vague and unsatisfactory; but its followers made a great advance on those
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's called the teaching in 1921 "vague and unsatisfactory" and "a congeries of superstitions," a judgement few scholars would print now; the tradition is usually spelled Daoism in modern pinyin and studied as a religion with its own liturgy, monastic orders and canon. Two spectacular finds have transformed study of the text these writers knew only in translation: silk manuscripts of the Daodejing excavated at Mawangdui in 1973 and bamboo-slip versions from Guodian in 1993, all older than any copy then available, and most specialists now treat Laozi as a legendary figure rather than the historical sixth-century founder Collier's reported. Aiton's "Master of Heaven" is the Celestial Master, whose lineage relocated to Taiwan around 1949 while the mainland church was suppressed under the People's Republic and gutted during the Cultural Revolution. Temples and ordinations have revived on the mainland since the 1980s under the state-supervised Chinese Taoist Association, and Daoist ideas now circulate worldwide well beyond China.
Written for this edition, 2026.