“Taoism: A Question of Balance” is an
old BBC documentary from 1977. The narrator visits Taiwan in order to learn
more about Taoism. Interestingly, he focuses on folk Taoism and “church Taoism”
rather than the philosophical version, which is mentioned only briefly. I
suppose you could say this production is about really existing Taoism!
In
Taiwan, Taoism is strongly intertwined with Chinese folk religion, including
ancestor worship, temples to local gods (one temple has a television set in case
the god wants to watch TV shows!), and seasonal festivals. Inside one of the
temples, a séance is held with a medium undergoing spirit possession. The BBC
team also pays a visit to a traditional Chinese drug store to check out the
alternative medicine.
More specifically Taoist is a burial featuring a Taoist
priest and his acolytes, who carry out elaborate rituals each day for over a
month. Their main purpose seem to be saving the soul of the departed from hell.
As for the philosophy, Tao is said to have emerged from a primordial chaos,
which could also be interpreted as unlimited potential. The duality between Yin
and Yang is not an opposition between good and evil, but rather a complementary
relation, where “the good” is the balance between them, and “the evil” is imbalance.
Which sounds more reasonable than certain other interpretations I´ve heard. The philosophy is demonstrated in action, so to speak, by a Tai Chi master!
There is nothing on esoteric Taoism in this program, perhaps it was considered
too imbalanced…
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