How Did Daoism Change Over Time

It can be seen through context that the religious beliefs of the people that live along the Silk Road have radically changed over time because of the effects of the travel and trade along the path and the diverse cultures that passed through the area over time. For a little over two thousand years, the Silk Road was a network of webbing that allowed various minorities the right to travel, leading to the dissemination of differing religious ideologies across Eurasia. It seemed that the Greek colonies of Central Asia had been left behind after the collapse of the empire, that had been converted on a larger scale from Greco-Roman paganism to Buddhism. Often one of the most important aspects of the identity of a person can come in the form of religion,
and therefore, it became difficult for people to travel to places that their practices were not welcomed. The traders of the time, that would travel along the Silk Road regularly built numerous shrines and temples of their own faiths whenever their feet settled for the night, this was to maintain their beliefs and practices on their travels to places far from their homelands. Missionaries would maintain the faiths of this time, travelling with the traders in a conscious attempt to expand their practices and persuade the people along the road to convert to their faith.
There is a rather strange dynamic at work along the Silk Roads that is crucial, though little-remarked, as it provided a difference and the recognition of difference between two fundamental variations of religion. Normally, the religions of this time were either proselytizing, or non-proselytizing, meaning that they would either actively attempt to recruit new members of their faith, or they did not. The first of the great missionary faiths to take advantage of the mobility that the travel route provided as it extended the reach of the religion beyond its native ground. Numerous Buddhist merchants from areas across the world built temples and shrines along the Silk Road, before priests and monks of the religion that travelled and staffed the voyages would preach to the local populations and passing travellers, which furthered the spread of the religion and the essential message of the practice. The arrival of Buddhism in China brought about a rather vast change in the court as an active program started to translate sacred texts to Chinese from the original doctrinal that was constructed in India. The religion spread to various other Asian-pacific cultures, but retained a rather dominant position in China – Thereafter Buddhism remained an important part of the Chinese culture although the practice remained private it was still considered a sponsored religion.
When Religious Daoism came about, in the form of several competing sects, that were later absorbed by many of the local religious temples and doctrines of ancient China – It was discovered that Buddhism and Daoism could interacted other unlike most religious beliefs of the time that would seek out to deconstruct another’s constitution and sect.
Much like Buddhism and there belief of universalism, the doctrines of Daoism held a similar context – The religion offered believers the chance of spiritual immortality in the form of reincarnation in a celestial pantheon. As Daoism spread westward into Central Asia along the travel route, the religious facilities started traveling along with the believers, which was an important part of the spread as it brought about more complex temple developments within the Buddhist temple. It can be seen in this duel religious communication that the duel-belief became great deal as the Chinese Chan tradition of Buddhism owed a good deal of Buddhist-Daoist Syncretism. There were important changes taking place along the Silk Roads as the Western civilisations started reaching the trading
route.
This change marked the start and transformation of Christianity, that started with a local phenomenon on the region that is now comprised of Israel and Palestine, before it branched out and started expanding much like other proselytizing religions through Christian apostles.
It was a religion that thrived at the expense of classical paganism – In the Christian homeland, Judaism remained a dominant religion that was a non-proselytising religion that even though it did not spread much, it learnt to evolve and incorporate new traditions of study and practice. As the religion expanded eastward as well as westward, the process of evolution and change occurred and as a result there were numerous differences from place to place in the original doctrine and the form of worship. The spread along the Silk Road was more so in the form of Nestorianism, which followed the teachings of Nestorius, who was a fifth century patriarch of Constantinople who outraged the Roman and Byzantine Empires with his unorthodox doctrines, such as the one that gave the Virgin the titles of the “Mother of God”. The Nestorian format for Christian belief spread to Persia, India, and China, which was brought across in the format of the Syriac language. Undoubtedly, there were far less Christians than there were Buddhists in Central Asia, but there had been an almost equal amount of churches in the
area.
The Silk Roads faith from the Middle East to the North Western reaches of China were challenged, and in time, displaced because of the spread of Islam, which at the time was the most present of the faiths in the countries that spanned along, and near the old Silk Road. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad was born around born around 570 CE and after spreading his traditions and beliefs at the age of forty, the series of revelations spread across the globe, more so throughout the middle-east and the Silk Road.
Although, the initial expansion of Muslim rule was based on gaining authority over neighbouring regions, the death of the original prophecy resulted in conquest in the form of religious expansion. It effected the work of the Muslim preachers, traders, and rulers that later lead to their expansion across the old silk roads and trading routes. In the Silk Road context, a good example of the process of committed devotees would be the Sufis as their lives were committed the spiritual life and the unity amongst other traditions and religious beliefs, that existed in all vernacular religions, and cultures of the people living along the Silk Road.