Chapter 18 Section 6 Taoism in the Late Tang and Five Dynasties

The end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties were troubled times. With the collapse of the Tang Empire, Taoism no longer had the prosperity and dignity of the past.However, Taoism has the special ability to serve the emperor, such as fasting and offering immortality, so it can still continue to develop. Du Guangting, a Taoist priest in the pre-Shu period of the Five Dynasties, named Dongyingzi, was very famous at that time.He had taken the imperial examination earlier and wanted to find an official position, but failed, so he became a Taoist priest.Later he was appreciated by Tang Xizong, who gave him exquisite Taoist costumes.When Xizong went to Sichuan to escape the chaos, he was asked to preside over the Taoism there. Later, he stayed in Qingcheng Mountain to practice Taoism and did not return to the mainland.Wang Jian established Qianshu in 907 AD. He asked Du Guangting to be the teacher of his son, the crown prince, and gave him a lot of official titles.Wang Jian said: "I have a Mr. Du, who is comparable to the four highly respected old counselors of the so-called "Shangshan Sihao" by Emperor Xiaohui of the Han Dynasty." Fu's "Jinluzhai".

Du Guangting told people that the Taoism handed down from Zhang Daoling and Lu Xiujing is about to be lost now.Therefore, he actively collected and sorted out books on the rituals of Taoism, and also wrote many related works. He is another Taoist priest who contributed to the establishment of Taoist rituals after Zhang Wanfu.Du Guangting's longest work on the Rituals of Zhaijiao is Daomen Kefan Daquan Collection, which has 87 volumes.In addition, he also spent a lot of energy on research throughout his life, and wrote the "Tao De Zhen Jing Guang Sheng Yi". There are more than 20 kinds of his works included in Daozang.

During the Five Dynasties period, some emperors were still obsessed with Taoist alchemy.Liezu of the Southern Tang Dynasty was one of them.He thought day and night, hoping to get the magic pill, and one day he had a dream, dreaming that the fairy gave him the magic pill, and when he woke up, he told the people around him to go out and ask for it.At this moment, a Taoist priest came to the gate of the palace to offer pills. He was very happy and said that the Taoist priest must be an immortal in his dream, so he asked the Taoist priest to make pills for him, but he also died of poisoning after taking the pills.When he was about to die, he regretted it very much, saying that he had taken pills to seek longevity, but who would have died faster, and asked future generations to take him as a warning.

During this period, more and more people talked about practicing inner alchemy.Some Taoist priests in history did not advocate refining external elixirs to become immortals, and they did something else.For example, Sima Chengzhen, a famous Taoist priest in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, wrote a special article "Zuo Wang Lun", which talked about a "sitting and forgetting" cultivation method.He believes that people practice Taoism and seek immortality because the Tao itself contains endless vitality, and if they get the Tao, they can live forever and become immortals. "The gods and supernatural things of the husband and the Tao are spiritual and have nature." The human heart (that is, the spirit) is based on the Tao. Due to interference from external things, it seems that the heart is covered with a layer of dirt, and as a result, it is separated from the Tao. opened.If these dust and dirt are removed, the heart and the Tao can be reconnected and the Tao can be obtained.The so-called "sitting and forgetting" is this kind of practice. It focuses on the word "forget". , All kinds of troubles and thoughts are dispelled, and when you reach a quietness in your heart, you will be able to combine with the Tao, so that you will live forever.This is actually a kind of spiritual practice, or it can be called mind control. It is similar to the practice method advocated by some people who advocate the "Dao of Heavy Mysteries".

Some Taoist priests in the Five Dynasties period talked about inner alchemy, but did not completely deny outer alchemy.Many people actually advocate refining both outer alchemy and inner alchemy.Because there was an explanation for the poisoning of the outer elixir at that time, it was said that the person who died of poisoning had not refined the inner elixir, so his body could not withstand the powerful effect of the outer elixir.It is also said that there are internal and external points for health preservation.Internal refers to the essence and qi inside the human body, which cannot be solidified by golden stone elixirs; external, refers to the body of a person's limbs, which needs to be reborn, and cannot be cultivated by inner elixirs.Only refining the inner alchemy can only keep the essence alive; only refining the outer alchemy can only change the body shape. Only by combining the two can one achieve Taoism and immortality, and ascend to heaven in the daytime.

In the history of Taoism, it is advocated that one can become a fairy by taking the golden stone elixir, and it has been very influential since Ge Hong.After the Song Dynasty, the Inner Alchemy School gradually took the main position, advocating that those who practice inner alchemy can become immortals, and later gained the upper hand.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, inner alchemy and outer alchemy basically developed at the same time. After the Five Dynasties, outer alchemy began to decline, and inner alchemy began to rise.The ancients believed that only when the body (shape) and soul (god) are united can a person become a living person.The idea that inner alchemy and outer alchemy must be cultivated at the same time is probably based on this basic understanding.

Therefore, in a certain sense, the Five Dynasties period can be regarded as a transitional period connecting the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the Song and Yuan Dynasties.