Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
Taoism's influence on xuanhuan fantasy fiction (including xiuzhen novels about cultivating perfection, novels about cultivating immortality, and xianxia novels) is all-encompassing and profound. It has not only supplied xuanhuan fiction with a rich cultural source text and creative material, but has also deeply shaped its themes, narrative patterns, characterization, conceptions of time and space, and language, providing the basic nourishment and creative elements for cultivation and xianxia fiction. Its specific influence shows mainly in the following ten areas.
1. A Deep Tradition of Taoist Literature Provides a Solid Foundation
If you enjoy tales of gods and monsters such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai Jing), In Search of the Supernatural (Soushen Ji), Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi), and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi), you may already have encountered Taoism without realizing it.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas, compiled roughly during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, covers ancient mythology, geography, local products, sorcery, religion, early history, medicine, folk customs, and ethnic peoples. It is of extraordinary documentary value for the study of ancient Chinese history, geography, culture, religion, folklore, and mythology.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas records a great many myths and legends and preserves an extremely rich body of mythological material. It contains stories such as Pangu separating heaven and earth, Nüwa mending the sky, Kuafu chasing the sun, Houyi shooting down nine suns, Jingwei filling the sea, Yu the Great taming the floods, and the Yellow Emperor's great battle with Chiyou. These stories not only reflect the ancients' awe of nature and their inquiry into the origins of life, but also express their longing for a good life and their praise of heroes. Heroic figures such as Pangu, Nüwa, Yu the Great, and the Yellow Emperor are all important deities of Taoism and have been worshipped in Taoist temples and monasteries through the dynasties. Many contemporary cultivation fantasy novels draw directly or indirectly on the content of the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
The emergence and development of China's earliest fantasy literature—the zhiguai tales of the strange from the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties—were bound up with Taoism in countless ways.
Zhiguai fiction records strange tales and uncanny events in nature, society, and human life. During the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties, Taoism spread widely through society, and all kinds of biographies of immortals recording their transformations and ascensions appeared, such as Ge Hong's Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian Zhuan) and the Esoteric Biography of Emperor Wu of Han (Han Wudi Neizhuan). Under this influence, a great many zhiguai works came into being. These can be roughly divided into three types, each closely related to Taoism.
Type One: Geographical Encyclopedias—“Traveling” with the Immortals
Works of this type follow changes of location as their thread, recording marvels and strange events along the way. From the Han dynasty onward such works grew more numerous; the most famous is the Treatise on Curiosities (Bowu Zhi) by Zhang Hua of the Western Jin. Zhang Hua was erudite and talented; his Treatise on Curiosities takes mountains and rivers as its main line, draws widely on many books, and records a great deal of Taoist material: stories of immortals, the grotto-dwellings of immortals, all kinds of wondrous arts... It could be called “an encyclopedia of Taoist fantasy.”
Another representative work is the Record of the Ten Continents and Three Islands (Shizhou Sandao Ji), attributed to Dongfang Shuo. It invents ten immortal continents, including Zuzhou, Yingzhou, Yanzhou, and Changzhou, focusing on the dwellings of immortals and elixirs of immortality, and is an upgraded version of the legend of the “Three Divine Mountains” that had circulated since the Qin and Han. The book was later included in the Taoist Canon (Daozang) and became an important Taoist scripture. The expressions we still use today, “the Ten Continents” and “the Ten Continents and Three Islands,” come from this zhiguai work. Clearly, zhiguai fiction in turn influenced the Taoist conception of the geography of the immortals.
Type Two: Unofficial Folk Histories—Writing Immortal Tales as “History”
Works of this type are mainly biographical, mixing historical anecdotes with folk hearsay. Gan Bao's In Search of the Supernatural is the masterpiece of the genre. Gan Bao himself was fond of yin-yang arts and numerology, and his purpose in writing the book was “to show that the way of the spirits is no fabrication”—to prove that ghosts and spirits truly exist. The book records a great deal of folk belief in shamans and ghosts and of Taoist esoteric arts, making it a treasury for later research on religious belief in the Wei and Jin.
Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) of the Jin dynasty also wrote a Sequel to In Search of the Supernatural (Soushen Houji). You might not expect it, but this outstanding pastoral poet came from a family with a Taoist tradition—his great-uncle Tao Dan was a devout Taoist recluse. The Sequel records many legends of immortals, the most famous of which is the secluded “Peach Blossom Spring.” The land of peach blossoms in Tao Yuanming's writing actually derives from Laozi's ideal blueprint of “a small state with few people” in the Tao Te Ching; later enriched by Taoism, it became an important prototype of the Taoist immortal paradise.
Type Three: Dream and Vision Narratives—Using Dreams to Depict the Inner “Battle Between Heaven and Humanity”
Works of this type center on dreams, narrating stories of spiritual response and visions. The representative work is the Records of Mr. Zhou's Communications with the Unseen (Zhoushi Mingtong Ji), written by Taoist priests of the Northern and Southern dynasties. It records the intellectual journey and inner conflicts of the Taoist priest Zhou Ziliang, centering on the struggle between life and death and the conflict between shamanic belief and Taoist faith. Through its depiction of dreams, it reveals the spiritual growth of a Taoist believer from wavering to firm faith.
From the immortal mountains and jade pavilions of the Record of the Ten Continents, to the ghosts, monsters, and esoteric arts of In Search of the Supernatural, to the reclusive paradise of the “Peach Blossom Spring”—Taoism supplied Wei-Jin zhiguai fiction with inexhaustible material and inspiration. In turn, these fantastic stories enriched the imaginative world of Taoism and brought it closer to people's hearts.
It could be said that without Taoism there would be no Wei-Jin zhiguai; and without these zhiguai tales, later works such as Investiture of the Gods, Journey to the West, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, and Notes of the Thatched Abode of Close Scrutiny (Yuewei Caotang Biji) might have lacked their distinctive “immortal aura.”
2. Tendencies in Core Ideas and Creative Themes
The theme of cultivating immortality and cultivating the Tao: the narrative pattern in xuanhuan fiction of “a protagonist who, through arduous cultivation, fighting monsters to level up, and seeking the Tao, succeeds in becoming an immortal” derives directly from the Taoist idea of cultivating immortality. Taoism stresses “defying heaven to change one's fate” and “my fate is up to me, not to heaven,” which fit closely with the premise of protagonists who constantly break their limits and defy heaven to change their fate.
Tempering the mind and karmic retribution: Taoism stresses “dual cultivation of nature and life” and “accumulating good deeds and cultivating virtue.” The plot devices in which protagonists must overcome inner demons, accumulate merit, and pass through tribulations during cultivation, as well as “karmic retribution,” all grow out of Taoist ethics of practice and the idea of inherited burden (chengfu) of cause and effect.
The unity of heaven and humanity and the Tao following naturalness: the Taoist cosmology of the unity of heaven and humanity provides the philosophical basis for the grand worldbuilding of xuanhuan fiction (such as grotto-heavens and blessed lands, or the stars of the cosmos), binding the novels' cultivation systems closely to the natural laws of heaven and earth.
3. Borrowings in Cultivation Systems and Power Settings
Stages and realms of cultivation: the realms common in xuanhuan fiction, such as “Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment (laying the foundation), Golden Core (the golden elixir), and Nascent Soul,” borrow directly from the stages of Taoist inner alchemy (neidan) practice (such as “refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, and refining spirit to return to emptiness”) and from the cultivation formulas in Taoist scriptures.
Cultivation methods and magic treasures: settings in the novels such as “ingesting immortal elixirs, refining magic treasures, using talismans, and chanting incantations” are all taken directly from Taoist alchemy, the talismanic schools, magical arts, and the liturgy of fasts and offerings (zhaijiao).
Counteracting powers and the idea of the “Five Phases”: combat settings of mutual generation and restraint, such as “using thunder magic to subdue evil demons” or “fire overcoming water,” derive from the Taoist doctrine of yin and yang and the Five Phases.
4. Views of Right and Wrong and the Setting Up of Realms of Action
Pantheons and the opposition of good and evil: the conflicts in xuanhuan fiction between “the righteous path and the demonic path” and “the human path and the monster path,” the oppositions between immortals and demons and between humans and monsters, draw heavily on Taoism's vast pantheon (such as the Three Pure Ones and the various True Lords) and on the Taoist narrative tradition of “contests of magic between the orthodox and the heterodox” (as in the setting of Investiture of the Gods).
Otherworlds and xianxia spaces: Taoist belief in all kinds of “secret realms” and “grotto-heavens and blessed lands” provides imaginative space for the multiverse settings of xuanhuan fiction, such as “secret realms,” “mind-realms,” “small worlds,” and “the great chiliocosm.”
5. Borrowings in Character Types and Narrative Archetypes
Banished immortals and mortals cultivating immortality: the Taoist motif of “the banished immortal cultivating the Tao” (an immortal demoted to the mortal world for a fault who returns to the celestial court after passing through tribulations) provides a template for narrative archetypes in xuanhuan fiction such as “the loser's comeback,” “reincarnation and re-cultivation,” and “accumulating merit and virtue.”
Masters renowned for attaining the Tao and scriptures bestowed by immortals: plots in which “a hidden master (such as a recluse, an old Taoist, or a patriarch) teaches the protagonist cultivation techniques,” or in which “a true immortal bestows a book,” borrow from Taoist legends of practitioners receiving “books bestowed by true immortals” and “enlightenment from masters” in the course of their practice.
6. Incorporating Cultural Symbols and Aesthetic Atmosphere
Implements and secret formulas: the various Taoist ritual implements that appear frequently in the novels, such as “the horsetail whisk, the gourd, the bagua diagram of the Eight Trigrams, and the bronze mirror,” as well as mental methods like “fasting of the mind and sitting in forgetfulness,” are direct literary renderings of Taoist cultural symbols, transformed and put to direct use.
Evoking atmosphere: the atmosphere Taoism puts forward of “clarity and stillness and non-action (wuwei)” and “carefree wandering,” and its special emphasis in practice on comprehending “Tao-thought” and “Tao-meaning,” have provided aesthetic models for xuanhuan fiction's portrayal of the reclusive image of the “master beyond the world” and for evoking the atmosphere of “seeking the Tao” and “realizing the Tao.”
In summary: Taoism has provided xuanhuan fiction with rich cultural soil, allowing it, within the framework of “cultivating immortality,” to blend Taoist philosophy, thought, ideas, magic arts, and mythology into a fantasy world with a distinctly Eastern character. At the same time, xuanhuan fiction has, through modern storytelling, creatively transformed and spread Taoist culture.
7. Expanding Worldviews and Cosmology
1. The Way of Heaven and cosmology: xuanhuan novels often take “heaven and earth are not humane; they treat the myriad things as straw dogs” as their underlying logic, setting up the Tao as the ultimate origin and operating law of the universe—for example, the Taoist ideas of “the cycle of the Way of Heaven” and “inherited burden of cause and effect”—which echo closely the Taoist ideas that “the Tao follows what is so of itself” and of the unity of heaven and humanity.
2. Immortal paradises and systems of gods and demons: the spatial settings in the novels—sects, the celestial court, immortal mountains, hells—and the division into the Jade Emperor, the Three Pure Ones, various immortals and gods, and monsters and demons, draw heavily on Taoism's pantheon and its architecture of cosmic space.
8. Establishing Cultivation Paths and Themes of Practice
1. Cultivation paths and realms: stages in the novels such as “drawing qi into the body,” “refining qi into spirit,” “the Golden Core stage,” “the Nascent Soul stage,” and “transforming spirit to return to emptiness” all grow out of Taoist inner alchemy, the ingestion of medicines, and daoyin (guiding and pulling exercises); they are concrete literary descriptions and practical applications of the Taoist stages of cultivation.
2. “Dual cultivation of nature and life” and awakening to the Tao through practice: Taoism stresses “dual cultivation of nature and life” (that is, equal weight on cultivating the body and cultivating the mind) and “my fate is up to me, not to heaven” and “defying heaven to change one's fate.” The protagonists of xuanhuan fiction often break through realms by overcoming inner demons, being tenacious and unyielding, daring to take on challenges, undergoing trials in the mortal world, and accumulating merit, embodying the Taoist philosophy of “dual cultivation of nature and life” and “awakening to and realizing the Tao.”
3. Defying heaven and following it: the underdog narrative of “defying heaven to change one's fate” in the novels fits the positive Taoist view of immortality and longevity expressed in “my fate lies with me, not with heaven.” At the same time, some novels also incorporate the Taoist ideas of “clarity, stillness, and non-action” and “following nature” as the life philosophy of masters and recluses.
9. Borrowing Magic Arts, Treasures, and Techniques
1. Magic and incantations: common feats in the novels such as “summoning wind and rain,” “flying on a sword,” “changing form and becoming invisible,” and “drawing talismans and chanting incantations” all derive from Taoist esoteric arts, talismans, incantations (such as incantations of the “by imperial command” type), and shamanic culture. They are literary expressions of communicating with the gods, gathering the energy of heaven and earth, awakening latent potential, wielding magic power, and defeating powerful enemies.
2. Magic treasures and ritual implements: Taoist ritual implements such as the horsetail whisk, the ritual sword, the gourd, the bagua diagram, and the bronze mirror, as well as arts such as the “Orthodox Method of the Five Thunders,” have been transplanted wholesale into the novels as the protagonists' treasures for subduing demons and means of defeating enemies, and given corresponding energy attributes (such as thunder magic overcoming evil and fire magic overcoming water).
3. Observing and gazing at qi: settings in which the protagonist “observes qi” energy—discerning good and ill fortune, identifying treasures, unraveling formations, breaking through illusion arrays, and judging an enemy's strength—all derive from the Taoist “art of gazing at qi” and “art of observing the stars.”
10. Core Ideas and Characterization
1. Dialectical thinking about strength and weakness: the dialectical idea in the novels that “reversal is the movement of the Tao” (as in “when things reach their prime they grow old” and “the weak overcome the strong”) is often used to build plot conflict, for example the protagonist achieving a “spiral ascent” through “calamity and destruction,” or finding a way to survive by “keeping to weakness.”
2. Good, evil, and cause and effect: the Taoist ideas of “inherited burden of cause and effect” and “slaying the Three Corpses” are often transformed in the novels into karmic retribution, the dissolution of karma, and trials of practice that break attachments, deepening the characters' growth arcs and the philosophical depth of the works.
3. Character types: roles in the novels such as “loose immortals,” “recluses,” and “qi practitioners,” as well as the mind-cultivation model of “the great recluse hides in the marketplace,” all carry a strong tint of Taoist reclusive culture.
Through extracting, adapting, blending, and transforming elements of Taoist culture, cultivation, immortality, and xianxia fantasy fiction has built a unique literary world with an Eastern fantasy character, preserving the philosophical depth of traditional Taoism while giving modern web literature a rich space for the imagination.