RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO MODERNIZATION IN TAIWAN THE CASE OF I-KUAN TAO 55
While former passages showed a clear Confucian coloring, this last section depicts an ideal future world whose Taoist stamp cannot escape notice. A crucial point to be observed here is the admonition to spread the Tao all over the world, which will result in the emerging of a paradise-like new society. Since the Chinese expression for “world” here is not t'ien-hsia but shih-chieh, it is obvious that the deliverance is not thought of as confined to the Chinese nation only but is open to all mankind.
I cannot decide for certain which religious group this text originates from. There is some evidence that it was revealed during an I-kuan Tao fu-luan session, but it could also be the product of any other fu-luan cult. In the interpretation of the present time there is a common stock of beliefs which is shared by most of the popular religious movements. According to my observations it normally consists of the following four basic elements:
1. The present political, social and cultural situation is regarded as a time of decay and decadence. This can be seen above all in a general decline of public morality.
2. The present time of decay is interpreted against the background of a religious theory of history. This applies especially for the I-kuan Tao and related groups. According to this theory we are now in the last phase of a cosmic period at the end of which there will be a worldwide catastrophe. Only a few elected, i.e. those who follow the true Tao, will survive this cataclysm. After this they will live in the ideal world of the Great Harmony (ta t'ung).
3. The cause of the present decadence is to be found in the decline of the true Tao, which is a result of the influence of Western civilization. Western civilization is regarded as materialistic and immoral. The Chinese tradition, in contrast, is seen as a fountain of religious and moral values from which the spiritual renewal of mankind will grow.
4. The divine revelations not only stigmatize the present time as a period of decay; the divine revelations also show the way to deliverance. This path is essentially the same one that was marked out by the sages of Chinese antiquity. That means it consists in the observance of the traditional Confucian moral values. While deviation from the true Tao accounts for the cause of decay, observance of the true way contains the key to salvation.
Obviously these views reflect the tensions between traditional