Whether a “non-Western esotericism,” including a Chinese one, exists is a controversial question. Zoccatelli offered a solution, which led him to study Tai Ji Men with interest.
by Massimo Introvigne*
*A paper presented at the CESNUR 2024 international conference, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Bordeaux, France, June 12, 2024.
This presentation starts with a homage to, and a quote from, PierLuigi Zoccatelli, who left us on May 24, 2024. “There are chairs, reviews, and even an international association of scholars that include in their names ‘Western Esotericism.’ However, in recent years, ‘Western esotericism’ is becoming a contested label. Some maintains it has the advantage of identifying a tradition scholars have now studied and circumscribed for decades. Others regard the label as ethnocentric and claim there are no reasons to regard esotericism as a specifically Western phenomenon, since there are esoteric currents in the traditions of Asia and other continents as well. We will certainly not solve this debate today. However, I would like to suggest that Tai Ji Men’s unique approach to the theme of peace is also part of what I called ‘esoteric paradigm.’ Perhaps this may help exploring the extensions of the paradigm beyond the West.”
There is, indeed, a bitter international debate among scholars of esotericism on the subject. Some, such as Egil Asprem, argue that the category of “Western esotericism” is inherently Eurocentric and colonialist (as if only Westerners would be capable of creating an esotericism). Others, including Wouter Hanegraaff, insist that “Western esotericism” should be maintained as it identifies a well-defined object of study and avoids vagueness.
A different debate concerns how we should call and categorize movements that are formally structured like the new religious movements but whose content is esoteric rather than religious. Most of them emphatically claim they are not religious. In a lecture at the 2002 CESNUR conference in Utah, Zoccatelli noted that my 1990 proposal of calling them “new magical movements” had met with resistance (perhaps because “magical” was ambiguous in itself) and proposed to regard them as part of an “esoteric paradigm,” which would also include non-Western organizations.
As mentioned earlier, Zoccatelli regarded the Taiwanese movement Tai Ji Men as part of the “esoteric paradigm,” which led him to reflect on whether the “esoteric paradigm” can be used as a tool to study quintessentially Chinese phenomena. Scholarly literature on Tai Ji Men in languages other than Chinese has experienced a significant growth in recent years. However, most Western scholars have studied the Tai Ji Men tax case in Taiwan and/or the movement’s outreach through peace activities. The question of esotericism has remained comparatively unexplored.
Zoccatelli believed that Tai Ji Men was part of the “esoteric paradigm” “because” rather than “despite” its activities for peace. To assess this statement, we should examine shortly what Tai Ji Men is.
Tai Ji Men claims to be an ancient menpai (similar to a school) of martial arts, qigong, and self-cultivation rooted in esoteric Taoism, whose 6,000-year-old wisdom has been transmitted from one Shifu (Grand Master) to another throughout the centuries. The present Shifu, Dr. Hong Tao-Tze (b. 1944), reports that in 1950, when he was six years old, a mysterious master called Shang-Zhi, accepted him as a dizi (disciple), and prepared him to be the next Master. As far as I know, there are no documents about Master Shang-Zhi or his predecessors. Rather than a criticism of Tai Ji Men, this is in itself a strong indication of a relationship with the “esoteric paradigm,” which according to Zoccatelli includes movements whose origins are part of a “regime of secrets” and cannot be documented empirically.
Although Dr. Hong started teaching dizi and established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in its present legal form in 1966, in 1999 he explained in a speech in the United States that Tai Ji Men had been historically an esoteric tradition but now it was time for the dizi to bring to the suffering humanity what they had learned. This was thus a case of “disoccultation” of an esoteric tradition (or part of it), justified by the fact that humanity was plagued by wars and rumors of war, epidemics, and economic crises and was desperately in need of receiving the essential wisdom of Tai Ji Men. Today, there are 17 academies in Taiwan and 4 in the US, and dizi in several countries of the world.
The ceremonies where Dr. Hong invites world leaders (political, cultural, and religious) to ring the Bell of World Peace and Love started in 2000. Tai Ji Men global activities have reached 103 countries with cultural exchanges and performances by Tai Ji Men dizi.
On the one hand, we can interpret these activities as a typical form of outreach practiced by East Asian religious and spiritual activities, which include international peace education activities where they often try to involve political and other authorities and the United Nations. On the other hand, as Zoccatelli wrote about ringing the Bell, “While it can be appreciated just as a beautiful message of love, for the Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) it has a deeper meaning, which is in fact esoteric. At the core of Tai Ji Men worldview is the idea that a harmony between yin and yang, heaven and earth, heart and qi (energy), was part of the original purity of human beings. It was since lost, but it can be restored, together with peace. Ringing the Bell is part of a movement restoring the world and humanity to its original purity.”
Zoccatelli added that in an esotericism that includes its “Western” incarnation but goes beyond it, “sacred objects may function as catalysts of unseen energies and determine effects going well beyond what non-initiated may see or predict. Sacred sounds, in turn, may generate powerful waves of energy. The Bell of Peace is much more than a secular symbol of good will. It is a sacred artifact, each component of which has a precise esoteric meaning.”
On the top of the Bell there is a crystal ball known in the movement as “the Dragon Fireball.” The crystal ball is sustained by two dragon heads, symbolizing justice, strength, and wisdom. There are also the eight trigrams of the Chinese classic “I Ching,” the Book of Changes, which are born from the interaction of yin and yang and correspond to the eight elements of the universe (earth, sky, wind, thunder, mountain, lake, water, and fire).
The body of the Bell features four kinds of animals: the mythical one-horned qilin, messengers of stability and prosperity; lions playing with a ribbon ball, symbols of safety and happiness; phoenixes, a celestial symbol of peace; and dragons chasing a pearl, signifying harmony, and the search for a world free of pain and fear. On the four sides of the bell, a decoration includes sixteen knobs, for a total of sixty-four knobs, representing the sixty-four laws of the nature.
Let me conclude about the Bell and its double function by quoting PierLuigi Zoccatelli again: “The Bell of World Peace and Love is a microcosm, and according to Tai Ji Men has a mysterious but real correspondence with the macrocosm of the universe. That they know it or not, dizi believe that those who ring the Bell enter into a powerful energetic current whose roots are in a millenarian Chinese tradition, for which the Bell, as an esoteric artifact and a sacred object, serves as a catalyst. On the one hand, Tai Ji Men’s approach to a world of peace and love is part of an ‘esoteric paradigm.’ On the other hand, ringing the Bell is part of… an effective ‘citizen diplomacy,’ which achieves demonstrable results in a secular sphere.”
One spectacular part of Tai Ji Men performances are the dragon dances, for which only hand-made dragons are used. The process starts with collecting bamboo in Tai Ji Men’s sacred land in Miaoli, and all stages of the dragon-building are organized according to ritual and spiritual principles.
For Tai Ji Men dizi “the spirit of the dragon” is a spirit of justice. Harmony in the macrocosm and the balance of the universe itself requires that justice reigns on earth, which gives its deeper dimension to Tai Ji Men’s campaign for human rights and for legal and tax reform.
Tai Ji Men dizi’s sense of justice comes from their own experience. In 1996, the first democratic presidential elections were held in Taiwan. The then President Lee Teng-Hui, of the Kuomintang party, sought to be democratically re-elected. It didn’t expect serious opposition, but it came, and he won with the comparatively narrow margin of 54%. Since one of its opponents was a member of Fo Guang Shan, the largest Buddhist movement in Taiwan, after the elections he ordered a purge of the religious and spiritual groups that had not supported him, including Tai Ji Men. Dr. Hong, his wife, and two dizi were detained and accused of fraud and tax evasion.
As it happened with most other religious leaders targeted by the 1996 purge, Dr. Hong and his co-defendants were found innocent of all charges, including tax evasion, with a verdict confirmed in 2007 by the Supreme Court, which even gave them national compensation for the previous unjust decision. However, as a by-product of the criminal case, tax harassment by the National Taxation Bureau continued.
Tax bills for different years issued for the alleged tax evasion were litigated separately. Eventually, after protracted litigation, the NTB agreed to correct to zero all the Tai Ji Men tax bills, except the one for the year 1992. The NTB maintains to this day that for the year 1992 (and for that year only) a court decision against Tai Ji Men has become final and unappealable and there are no further remedies for challenging it.
Tai Ji Men countered that under Taiwanese law an obviously erroneous “final” decision can always be revised. The NTB disagreed and based on the 1992 tax bill in 2020 it seized, unsuccessfully auctioned off, and confiscated land in Miaoli Tai Ji Men regards as sacred and intended for a self-cultivation and educational center. This generated widespread protests by thousands of dizi in Taiwan and the United States, which continue to this day.
It is important to note that the fight is not about money. Tai Ji Men has spent in legal expenses more than it would have paid through a settlement it always refused. Again, the reason it has adopted this position is not strictly legal or economic. It is moral, spiritual, and ultimately esoteric as well. Injustice has broken the harmony in the universe. Not injustice against Tai Ji Men only, as dizi started studying Taiwan’s tax system and found systemic problems. They argue that a settlement (besides encouraging further governmental wrongdoings) would not repair the injustice done. Healing the wound and restoring harmony requires a public acknowledgment of what went wrong and a full restoration of justice.
It is not a mere problem of taxes; it is about what Tai Ji Men is all about. Zoccatelli would have said it is all part of the “esoteric paradigm.”
