Taoism is a native religion in China. As a traditional religion in China, it has a long history, because China has a long history, and it is the only ancient country in the world history. Taoism is in God. ...
Taoism is a native religion in China. As a traditional religion in China, it has a long history, because China has a long history, and it is the only ancient country in the world history. Taoism was born in the arms of China and nourished by the traditional culture of China. In the process of its creation and development, it absorbed many China traditional cultures as its nutritional components. After a long period of development, Taoism has a rich cultural accumulation and penetrated into many fields of China society.
The traditional culture of the Chinese nation is a pluralistic and complementary culture. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are the mainstream of traditional culture in China. But Taoism has been left out in the cold. However, in recent years, the study of Taoist culture has attracted the attention of overseas sinologists. As a native of China, it is necessary to know about the national traditional religious culture.
The definition of "Tao" in China Encyclopedia is that the traditional religion of China with "Tao" as its highest belief came into being in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was gradually formed on the basis of China's ancient religious beliefs and following some religious ideas and practical methods of Fang and Huang. I believe that after a certain amount of cultivation, people may live forever and become immortals. Religionize Laozi and Tao Te Ching, call Laozi the leader and respect him as a god; Take the Tao Te Ching as the main classic and make a religious interpretation. When it was founded, it was mainly popular among the people and combined with the peasant uprising. After Wei and Jin Dynasties, Taoism was partly supported by feudal rulers, which made Taoism gradually superior and combined with Confucian orthodoxy. In some dynasties, they also participated in court politics. Taoism, which continues to spread among the people, has also developed some secret religious organizations, which have become the flags and ties to mobilize and organize the masses in the struggle between some farmers and the poor. In the long-term development process, Taoism has accumulated a large number of classics and books, which were later compiled into Taoist classics, which had different degrees of influence on philosophy, literature, art, medicine, pharmacology, chemistry, astronomy, geography and other aspects of China feudal era, and made certain contributions, becoming an integral part of China's ancient cultural heritage.
The emergence of Taoism has a long gestation and brewing period. From the early years of the Warring States to the final organization, * * * has been prepared for about 600 years, including two stages: Fang and Huang. Fang and Huang are actually the predecessors of Taoism.
First, the party
The so-called "square" refers to the fairy square, and the so-called "fairy" refers to the immortal. Therefore, the so-called Fang Xiandao refers to the groups and people who have mastered the magical formula of immortality and pursued the belief of immortality. The immortal alchemist who mastered the prescription of immortality appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Fairy alchemists came into being after the Spring and Autumn Period until the mid-Warring States Period. They still only have "skills" in their hands, but they have no theory and have little impact on society. In the Warring States Period, Zou Yan of Qi combined the ancient thoughts of "Five Elements" and "Yin and Yang" and established the theory of Yin and Yang and Five Elements to explain various phenomena in nature and society. The alchemists thought this theory was very useful, so they absorbed it and combined it with their own magic to give the fairy magic a theoretical color. Since then, the influence of fairies and demons on society has been increasing, and there are more and more believers, especially some emperors. They hope to find a way to make themselves immortal and achieve the goal of enjoying the world forever. What they are particularly interested in is that there are three immortals on the sea and fairy medicine on the mountain. It was under the impetus of these emperors' strong pursuit of the elixir that three famous waves of alchemy were set off in the history of China from the middle of the Warring States Period: one was in Wei Qi, Xuanhe and Yan Zhaowang in the middle of the Warring States Period; Second, when Qin Shihuang; The third was the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. These three waves are getting bigger and bigger.
Representative figures at the end of the Warring States Period: Fang Xiandao, Song Wuji, Zheng Boqiao and others; Qin Shihuang had Xu Fu, Han Zhong, Hou Gong, Lu Sheng and others. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty includes Li, Yao Meier, Shao Weng, Yida and Gongsunqing.
As the embryonic form of Taoism, Fang's form is very incomplete. There is no religious organization or a set of religious ceremonies, but an unorganized belief group. But it already has many religious features. First, it has a religious belief, that is, people who believe in it can live forever and become immortals through cultivation. Second, there is a religious theory, that is, Zou Yan's theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. Third, there is the ancestor of sacrifice-the Yellow Emperor. In the middle of the Warring States period, the philosophers fought for the Yellow Emperor, with Taoism and immortals as the most prominent ones, which shows that they regarded the Yellow Emperor as their ancestors. Fourth, practice with magic. The earliest works in Zhuangzi include Qi, Breathing, Peeping into the Valley, etc. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, alchemy had increased. For example, Li can turn cinnabar into gold, that is, he can make an alchemy. Li was an early inventor of alchemy. Liu An, the uncle of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, was a master of immortals in ancient times and the Western Han Dynasty. He "attracted many guests to write 2 1 book, many foreign books and eight novellas, all of which talked about the skills of the immortal yellow and white, with more than 200 thousand words." ("Han Shu? The eight-volume novella "Biography of the King of Huainan" is a book that summarizes the magic of immortals, but it has long been lost and cannot be seen from all sides. The book Huainan Wanbi, compiled by the Qing people, may have the contents left by this book.
Second, yellow
What comes after the square is yellow. This is the second stage of Taoism. Huang is the product of the combination of Huang Lao Xue and Fang. Since the Warring States period, the theory of Huang Lao has appeared in the society. Due to the needs of society at that time and the promotion of emperors, it prevailed from Qin dynasty to Han dynasty. However, before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty exclusively respected Confucianism, although these two thoughts and forces had some influence on each other, they were not obviously combined. However, after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion and decided to "oust a hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone", especially after Confucianism occupied the dominant position in the Han and Yuan Dynasties, the situation changed, and Huang Laoxue lost power in politics and had to withdraw from the political arena. Many scholars of Huang Lao no longer study its statecraft attentively, but focus on its self-cultivation and even many people live in seclusion. At the same time, many alchemists are no longer satisfied with Zou Yan's theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, but instead study Huang Lao Xue, especially Lao Zi, so as to combine alchemy with Huang Lao. In this way, taking the "exclusive respect for Confucianism" in the Han Dynasty as an opportunity, the process of combining Huang Lao's learning with Fang Xiandao began. The famous Taoist scholars in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty can be said to be the earliest typical example of this combination. According to historical records, Yan Junping lived in seclusion and made a living by divination. In him, he embodies the characteristics of literati and alchemists, and embodies the initial combination of Huang Lao's learning and Fang.
After the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the rise of divination theology, the tendency of religion and alchemy of Huang Lao Xue was greatly accelerated. At this time, more scholars of Huang Lao focused on Lao Zi's regimen. For example, in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most people in the society regarded Laozi as a book to fix the truth. Driven by many scholars' efforts to study the content of Huang Lao's health preservation, the study of Huang Lao has gradually become a study of cultivating truth and nourishing nature, which has accelerated the pace of other scholars and religions. This trend continued to develop, until about the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (until the late Wei and Jin Dynasties), another book named Lao Zi appeared, called Gong Jian Sentences of River Merchants. This is a typical book that turned Laozi into a alchemist and a religious scholar. It completely explains Laozi with immortal thought and Taoist magic, which makes Laozi become a cultivation work of immortal alchemists from a philosophical work. The appearance of this book marks the final completion of Laozi's alchemy and religionization, and also marks the final completion of Huang Lao's learning and Fang Xiandao.
At the same time, the book "Laozi" has changed from the way of governing the country to the way of cultivating truth and nature. At the same time, the myth movement of Laozi has also been carried out in depth and widely. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in Ming Di, Liu Ying, the son of Emperor Guangwu of Chu, sacrificed Laozi and the pagoda together. After the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, the myth of Laozi spread in a wider range. For example, in the first year of Yongxing, he wrote "The Monument to the Virgin of Laozi": "Laozi, Tao also, was born before the invisible, began before the beginning, and walked in. Floating in the air, going in and out of the nether world, looking at the miscellaneous without judging, not seeing clearly without distinguishing. " This clearly shows that Laozi is not an ordinary person, but the incarnation of the God-Tao that existed before the formation of the universe. By the time of Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the image of Laozi as a born god had been completely established in people's minds.
It is the above-mentioned apotheosis of Laozi that in the process of Laozi's alchemy, Laozi's learning gradually combined with Fang and eventually turned into yellow. The completion time of its transformation was roughly in Shun and Huan periods.
Compared with the previous Fang, Huang has the following differences: First, Zunzu is no longer the Yellow Emperor, but Lao Zi. As mentioned above, after the Han Dynasty, mainly in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the apotheosis of Laozi has been basically completed, from a philosopher to an out-and-out god. Taoism gave him the title of "too old gentleman", which appeared in the Han and Wei Dynasties. Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty called Lao Zi the old gentleman many times. Second, Huang Lao-dao's theory and belief are basically Lao Tzu's "Tao". Although he absorbed Fang's immortal belief, he brought it into the overall system of "Tao" to make it more theoretical. After the formal establishment of Taoism, this thought continued to develop, and finally "Tao" was the commander-in-chief, and Taoism's teachings, theories and magic were based on "Tao". Thirdly, there is the classic work "Taiping Ching Ling Shu", which is now the Taiping Jing. This may be based on the Taiping Jing of Tianguan Li Baoyuan written by Gan Zhongke, a Qi man in the Western Han Dynasty, which took many alchemists in the Eastern Han Dynasty a long time to complete. According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Xiang Kai Zhuan said that the opening corner of Feng Huang was "well written", which proved that people who believed in Huang at that time regarded it as a classic. Fourthly, from the perspective of Taiping Jing, Huang's magic methods mainly include keeping god and one, drawing water and drinking water, praying and so on. It will be inherited and developed by the Taoist school of symbols in the future.
After a long brewing and development process from Fang Xian to Huang Lao, it laid a solid foundation for the emergence of Wudou Mi Dao and Taiping Dao in the future, and also laid a solid foundation for the formal emergence of Taoism.
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