Zhou committed ritual suicide in response to a divine sum-
mons received in the course of his visions. Tao submitted a
textual record of Zhou’s activities and visions, entitled
Zhoushi mingtongji (The record of Master Zhou’s communi-
cation with the unseen world), to the imperial court in 517.
Tao Hongjing’s involvement with Buddhism is often
overlooked. Tao had early exposure to the religion via his
mother and grandfather. Throughout his lifetime he contin-
ued to befriend Buddhist priests, and was actively involved
in debates over Buddhism’s nature and significance. It is
claimed that the founder of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism,
Tanluan (476–542 CE), studied Daoist arts and herbalism
with Tao. In 513 Tao formally took Buddhist vows and
when he died, about a month before his eightieth birthday
in 536 his disciples followed his instructions and arranged
for an equal number of Daoist and Buddhist priests to attend
his funeral.
Tao Hongjing’s legacy is multifaceted. His work on
pharmacopoeia and medicine was of great consequence for
the later development of Chinese medical practice. His al-
chemical studies were also highly influential, due especially
to the methodical and empirical spirit that he brought to
them. In terms of the history of Chinese religions however,
the institutional and textual foundation that he laid for the
Maoshan or Shangqing school had the greatest lasting im-
pact. The semimonastic community that he established at
Maoshan was to provide the base upon which the success of
the Shangqing school was built during the succeeding Tang
dynasty, a time during which Daoism was favored with its
greatest popularity among the Chinese elite.
SEE ALSO Alchemy, article on Chinese Alchemy; Daoism,
overview article and articles on Daoist Literature and The
Daoist Religious Community.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mugitani Kunio. “To ̄ Ko ̄kei nempo ko ̄ryaku.” To ̄ho ̄ shukyo ̄ 47
(1976): 30–61; 48 (1976): 56–83. An excellent source for
biographical information on Tao Hongjing. Relates Tao’s
life to other political and cultural events of the day.
Needham, Joseph, and Lu Gwei-Djen. “Spagyrical Discovery and
Invention: Physiological Alchemy.” In Science and Civiliza-
tion in China, vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, pt.
5, pp. 210–220. Cambridge, U.K., 1983. Section h, discuss-
es historical aspects of Tao Hongjing’s involvement with al-
chemy.
Needham, Joseph, et al. “Pandects of Natural History (Pen Tsao).”
In Science and Civilization in China, vol. 6: Biology and Bo-
tanical Technology, sect. 38, pp. 220–263. Cambridge, U.K.,
- Discusses early Chinese pharmacopoeia and Tao’s
contributions to it.
Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du tao-
ïsme. 2 vols. Paris, 1984. A detailed study of the Maoshan
revelations and the Shangqing textual corpus. Volume 2 con-
tains an extensive annotated listing of Shangqing texts and
their content.
Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of
Great Purity. Translated by Norman Girardot and Julian Pas.
Albany, N.Y., 1993. Excellent general study of Shangqing
meditation.
Strickmann, Michel. “The Mao Shan Revelations: Taoism and the
Aristocracy.” T’oung-pao 63 (1977): 1–64. Discussion of the
social and historical context of the Maoshan revelations.
Contains a translation of Tao’s account of the dispersion of
the Shangqing manuscripts.
Strickmann, Michel. “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching.” In
Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion, edited by Holmes
Welch and Anna Seidel, pp. 123–192. New Haven, Conn.,
and London, 1981. Still the best English-language source for
Tao Hongjing’s life and religious activities. Special focus on
Tao’s alchemical practice and its significance.
Strickmann, Michel. Le Taoïsme du Mao Chan: Chronique d’une
révélation. Paris, 1981. Strickmann’s book-length discussion
of the Maoshan revelations and the Shangqing textual legacy.
The annotated reconstruction of the Shangqing textual cor-
pus is less extensive than Robinet’s, but is still very useful.
T. C. RUSSELL (2005)T’AO HUNG-CHING SEE TAO HONGJING
TAO-SHENG SEE DAOSHENG
TAPAS. The Sanskrit term tapas, from tap (“heat”), was
in ancient India an expression of cosmic energy residing in
heat, fervor, and ardor. Through anthropocosmic correspon-
dences established in early Vedic sacrificial traditions tapas
became one of the key concepts of South Asian religions and
the accepted term in Sanskrit and other Indic languages for
ascetic power, especially a severely disciplined self-
mortification that produces both personal and cosmic
results.
A wide range of religious expressions concerning tapas
appears already in the R:gveda. The gods Agni, the sacrificial
fire, and Su ̄ rya, the sun, both possess heat inherently, where-
as tapas is generated within the warrior deity Indra and his
weapons as a concomitant of heroic fury in battle. Indra’s
heated rage may be connected to certain proto-Indo-
European warrior-cult phenomena; R:gvedic references to as-
cetics who handle fire, as well as other references to sweating
as an initiatory technique, may be connected with pre-Vedic
ecstatic or shamanic experiences. Tapas can be a weapon it-
self, used by Indra, for example, to encircle Vr:tra, or em-
ployed, perhaps ritually, by enemies of priests who pray to
Indra and Varun:a for protection (R:gveda 10.167, 7.82). In
Hymn 9.113 the ritual production of divine soma is accom-
plished by tapas, faith, order, and truth. But perhaps the
most influential R:gvedic speculations on tapas occur in such
late cosmogonic hymns as 10.129 and 10.190, where tapas,
existing prior to both divine and human beings, is linked in
the procreative process with primordial desire (ka ̄ma), mind,TAPAS 8997