Taoism and Chinese History

Most Chinese historians just view the dynastic histories and look through for a mention of Taoism disregarding the religious texts. Terry F. Kleeman, leading scholar of the early texts of Taoism, discovers the history in a different way. He uses the religious texts and the work of Kristofer Shipper and Franciscus Verellen that includes dates for every document. The discovery of these old Taoism religious texts provide information about China as well. It dates back to the year of 142 in ancient China and tells us information about China. One piece of information gained is that early Chinese history never included an alternative political model other than an emperor. This model was held for over 2,000 years! Taoism is different from ancient China, it is based on theocracy, a system of government where the priests rule in the name of the Gods or God. In addition, there are still some aspects of ancient Chinese history and Taoism that are still being studied today. For example, if Hakka has remenents of Taoism in there descendants. Religious Taoism texts revealed many details about ancient Chinese history and revealed details about Taoism as well and many details of this history is still being studied today.