Institute of Religion, Science and Social Studies

Dialogue on Taoism and Science between Professors and Taoist Masters

On January 24th, 2007, a dialogue on Taoism and Science was held in Taiqing Palace, Mount. Laoshan. This dialogue was hosted by the Taoist masters of Laoshan, namely Master Li Zongxian, Gao Mingjian, An Chuanjun and other masters who joined this conversation as one side. The academic participants of the other side comprised of scholars, researchers and graduated students from Shandong University and Qingdao University, who were led respectively by Prof. Jiang Sheng and Prof. Jin Jiashi.

Professor Jiang insists that Taoism is expected not only to respond to, but also to propose suggestions to modern science and technology that are encountering myriad thorny problems currently. Multitude of Taoist thought will manifest theoretical support in this respect by its philosophical elaboration which does nowhere exist in western realm. Dr. Yu Rusong holds that Taoism, as ontological wisdom, possesses many excellent ideas, such as “Wu Wei (Non-interference action)”, “Zi Ran (spontaneity)”, which could correct the wrong inclination of science and technology thus and make them developed appropriately by following natural and human laws. Master An discusses his understanding, as a Taoist practicer, of modern physics and cosmology. Dr. Li Chuanjun agrees An’s opinion and says that there are two facets, namely macro- and micro- to study the Taoist cosmology while reinforcing other thoughts. The above mentioned topics, as a result, heat up a two-hour-long discussion among scholars and Taoist masters.

Towards the end of the dialogue, all the participants from both sides expressed their appreciation of participation in this dialogue. The Scholars show their support to the Taoism response to modern science, while Taoism masters of Laoshan began to understand the modern science from multi-aspects and also demonstrated their unique concern on science development.