Array
(
    [fullTitle] => For Heaven's Sake: Tian in Daoist Religious Thought
    [abstract] => This essay is an overview of the role of Heaven in Daoist religious thought prior to the Tang Dynasty. Lao-Zhuang teachings portray Heaven as helper of the perfected person, who has parted with the human and thereby evinces a heavenly light. The Huainanzi compares possessing Heaven’s Heart to leaning on an unbudgeable pillar and drawing on an inexhaustible storehouse, enabling one to shed mere humanity as a snake discards its skin. The Heguanzi homologizes Heaven and Taiyi and by the Six Dynasties period some Daoist canonical sources give the face of Laojun to Heaven/Taiyi, increasing the anthropomorphization of Heaven.
    [authors] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [givenName] => Ronnie
                    [affiliation] => Belmont University
                )

        )

    [keywords] => Array
        (
        )

    [doi] => 10.24204/ejpr.v8i1.74
    [datePublished] => 2016-03-21
    [pdf] => https://www.philosophy-of-religion.eu/menuscript/index.php/ejpr/article/view/74/version/23/31
)
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For Heaven's Sake: Tian in Daoist Religious Thought

Ronnie
Belmont University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v8i1.74

Abstract

This essay is an overview of the role of Heaven in Daoist religious thought prior to the Tang Dynasty. Lao-Zhuang teachings portray Heaven as helper of the perfected person, who has parted with the human and thereby evinces a heavenly light. The Huainanzi compares possessing Heaven’s Heart to leaning on an unbudgeable pillar and drawing on an inexhaustible storehouse, enabling one to shed mere humanity as a snake discards its skin. The Heguanzi homologizes Heaven and Taiyi and by the Six Dynasties period some Daoist canonical sources give the face of Laojun to Heaven/Taiyi, increasing the anthropomorphization of Heaven.

Keywords:

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