After this brief introduction to the Cultural Ages, let us see where we are in terms of the original topic, the history of Taoism. Where are we and from where have we come? In the first section we saw that Confucianism as the philosophy of the state named Taoism as the others. Confucianism was the philosophy of the aristocracy while Taoism was a catchall name for the indigenous religions of the people. We attempted to establish that Confucianism and Taoism represent a Chinese philosophical polarity. To fully understand either, it was necessary to understand the other. Or conversely to understand one without the other would be incomplete. We also saw that Taoism, in some ways, was considered the highest evolution of the indigenous shamanistic religions. Its connection with these prehistoric philosophies connected it with the fertility cults. The branch of Taoism that deals with the generation of the fertility of creativity is the filter for this paper.
In the second section we examined the body of China, her geography, her soil, in order to understand the ground upon which these polar philosophies developed. We attempted to establish that cultural development is based upon a geographical foundation. We suggested that the roots of Confucianism were in the north of China, while the roots of Taoism were in the south. In the third section, just completed, we examined the roots of humanity in order to understand the nature of the species of life to be planted upon Chinese soil. Here we looked at cultural development in process, establishing the idea of cultural ages as a socio-technological homotaxial sequence.
In this fourth section, The Ancient Chinese, we are going to look and see what happened when humanity was planted in Chinese soil. We will attempt to identity the beginning sprouts of the Confucian/Taoist polarity. We will attempt to find proto-Confucian and proto-Taoist trends, as neither was named until historic times.
From the preceding discussions we understand, a little better, the nature of the soil of China and the nature of the human seeds that are to be planted. Now let us pick up the story of Chinese prehistory in order to better understand the Confucian/Taoist polarity that has been such a huge part of Chinese development. We are going to weave archaeology, legend, and geography into a rich interconnected tapestry in order to come to a fuller understanding of the prehistoric beginnings of Chinese culture.