TAN TSE TAO: A CONTEMPORARY CHINESE FAITH-HEALING SECT IN HONG KONG*
I. Introduction
BARTHOLOMEW P. M. TSUI
It should not be surprising, given the laissez-faire attitudes of Hong Kong, to find a frequent occurrence of religious sects which can only be described as out of the ordinary. There are, for example, societies for women who live together and perform Buddhist chants and are bound by rules which make them neither laywomen nor nuns, or Taoist groups which centre their activities around fu-chi (planchette), groups which centre on morning and evening devotions in which the Buddhist prajñā-pāramitā hrđaya sūtra (the hsin ching) and the Confucian canon of filial piety (hsiao ching) are chanted, and groups interested in the primary worship of Lü Tsu, or, again, sects whose beliefs and practices show individualistic combinations of the traditional Three Teachings (san-chiao) and worship of deities of popular religion. Yet, Tan Tse Tao, a contemporary Chinese faith-healing sect which I am about to describe, is extraordinary even among this unusual group. Its origin is attributed entirely to the unusual events surrounding its founder, originally a thoroughly Western-educated Protestant. The foundation of the sect is based entirely on a fresh revelation given to the founder by a god (God, for there is only one God according to Tan Tse Tao) whose personal name has never been used in earlier history. And yet the adherents of Tan Tse Tao claim that its teachings correspond to many traditional concepts in Chinese philosophy, concepts vital to philosophic Taoism. Its faith-healing activity is surprisingly similar to the early Taoist religion of the Heavenly Master's sect of the Han Dynasty, and yet there is little evidence that the founder was aware of the resemblance until well after the establishment of the sect. The sect is noted for its worship of only one god and for the avoidance of crude symbolism in worship. These characteristics lift Tan Tse Tao out of the ordinary.
*Plates 1 and 2.