Jade hairpin said with a smile: "When telling the story of Zhong Liquan, Lu Dongbin's second master, and the reincarnation of the white crane Han Xiang, there is also content about "trying". ”

Chu said, "Oh? Han Xiangzi was also reincarnated as a white crane? ”

Jade hairpin smiled and said: "Well, "abandon the family to practice Xiangzi and turn into a beautiful woman to try Xiangzi for the first time", that is, Zhong and Lu Erxian made the mountain gods and land-like beauties tempt each other, and test whether Han Xiang still has a lustful heart;

"The tiger and snake block the road to try Han Xiang, and the demon hides to avoid the real fire", it is to use the snake, tiger and ghost judgment and other demons to test whether Xiangzi has "fear". Through various tests, Han Xiang was proved to have a Taoist heart and got rid of the shackles of the world, so that he could see Zhong and Lu Erxian and be awarded the Dan Dao. ”

Zhong Liquan said with a smile: "Taoist ethics, as a kind of religious morality, has a strong "birthism" color. Therefore, although it takes secular morality as its basic content, it will inevitably show religious characteristics that transcend secular morality in many aspects, and even form conflicts and contradictions with secular moral concepts. In the twenty-fourth chapter of "Journey to the East", in addition to the "Seven Tests" in the aforementioned "Flying Sword", the content of "try" is also added "Seeing your family sick and dying, not grieving or complaining" (the first test), "Believe in the Taoist master, test the pill with death" (the eighth test), etc., these are obviously religious ethics content that transcends secular morality. ”

Hui Chu said: "The image of Lu Dongbin in the literary works of the Ming Dynasty has a duality. On the one hand, he displayed a positive spirit of "accession to the WTO" and embodied an attitude of strong concern for and active intervention in the real society. On the other hand, there is a strong "birth" color in his image, believing that people can only cultivate immortals and prove their truth when they die. The story of "Huangliang Dream" essentially reflects the strong conflict and incongruity between "cultivating immortals" and "joining the WTO". The author of popular literature in the Ming Dynasty introduced this story into his works in large quantities, which was to promote an attitude of disappointment and abandonment of reality.

In fact, the duality of Lü Dongbin's literary image is a reflection of the basic conflict faced by Taoism in the process of development: how should Taoism, which aims at cultivating immortals by individuals, adapt and coordinate with the actual prayers of the people in secular society for Taoism and Taoist immortals. That is, how to reconcile the individual's goal of "becoming immortal" with the social psychology of the people's desire to be "saved". ”

Zhong Liquan said with a smile: "Taoism in the Song and Yuan dynasties attached great importance to the cultivation of "Neidan", so it was particularly demanding for cultivators to "control their desires". This makes Taoism, especially Quanzhenism, have a strong "forbidden" color.

In fact, the Taoist cultivation of "Neidan" and the cultivation of "mind" are both based on the basic goal of "removing desires and keeping quiet". Quanzhen Tao believes that only by abandoning desires can people "see the nature of their hearts" and become immortals. The Quanzhen Sect classic Chongyang Quanzhen Collection, Volume 2, "Tang Gong's Quest for Practice", says: "Cultivation must avoid human affection, and following human affection will not succeed", and believes that practitioners can only attain the Tao if "all five emotions and six desires are dissipated", "get rid of the shell of man, and become disciples of heaven". Wang Chongyang's "Golden Guan Yu Lock Formula" also said: "The only spirit is true, and the four major bodies of the body are false." Zhang Boduan's "Afterword to the Enlightenment of Truth" also said: People "have their bodies because of their vain feelings, and if they have their bodies, they will suffer, if they don't have their bodies, where does the trouble come from?" Therefore, the cultivation of the "Inner Dan" of the Quanzhen Dao is to exhaust people's "flesh and bones", believing that only by destroying the mortal form can they become immortals. Obviously, this reflects the strong birth doctrine and ascetic overtones of the Quanzhen Path, which calls for believers to sever all ties with secular society. ”

"But such a proposition will naturally encounter strong pressure from secular society," Jasper said. In essence, as early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, some of the "birth" ideas of Taoism dissatisfied the secular rulers. The reason is very simple, if people live in seclusion and seclusion, there will be no ruler to govern. Ge Hong once defended the accusation that "a recluse person is not a subordinate", saying: "What is it! ......'On the shore of the land, the Mo bandit king' can also be known. In the court, Chen Li is a man who is doing things, and those who are in the mountains and forests are cultivating the Tao and are greedy. There is no other king, the world is home, the sun and the moon shine, the rain and dew reach, all of them are in their realm. This justification is obviously an attempt to reconcile the contradiction between immortal and humane. However, the "Jindan School" has the characteristics of birth doctrine and self-cultivation in terms of doctrine and cultivation methods, so it cannot fundamentally resolve this contradiction.

The kind of monastic thinking of secluding in the mountains and forests, ignoring the rights and wrongs of the world, good and evil, has been widely criticized. This change in the cultivation method from birth to entry into the WTO is actually a requirement for immortal cultivators to be "humane" and set a moral example for people in the world. ”

Xuan Chu said: "So that's the case, I think this idea is very good, everyone doesn't ask about the world, the gods don't care, who will set an example!" ”

Zhong Liquan said with a smile: "After the Song and Yuan dynasties, with the development of the city's economy and the growth of the citizen class, citizen consciousness gradually formed a huge influence in the society. At this time, the people's demand for Taoism was a practical demand, that is, they hoped that the gods they believed in could play a role in their daily life to solve their worries and difficulties. This kind of belief psychology not only gave birth to many "new" idols that are closely related to the daily life of the people, but also put forward new requirements for Taoist beliefs, that is, Taoism must combine the traditional concept of "cultivating immortals" with the actual needs of the general public in real life.

Therefore, most of the various Taoist sects represented by the Quanzhen sect that emerged after the Southern Song Dynasty emphasized the unity of "internal cultivation" and "external use" in the concept of monasticism, and tried their best to achieve a balance between the "birth" requirement of "purifying the heart and eliminating desires" and the "WTO accession" spirit of "accumulating merit from the outside". ”

Xuan Chu said: "Then, those Taoist priests who draw talismans can't survive without entering the world?" ”

Jade hairpin smiled and said: "The Taoist priests of the Fu Zheng sect were originally mixed with the dust of the city and had a close connection with secular society. Even those "Neidan" Taoist sects, such as the Quanzhen Dao, which are characterized by single cultivation and independent cultivation and have a relatively strict monastic system, are also faced with strong pressure from within the religion to "join the WTO" and various social pressures, and finally adapt to the "trend". ”

Zhong Liquan said with a smile: "The Quanzhen Dao originally had a strong connotation of birth and asceticism, and it required the disciples to sever all kinds of ties with the secular society. But on the other hand, the Quanzhen Path uses "true deeds" to encourage believers to look outward to society and practice secular morality. "Jin Zhenren Quotations" explains "true deeds": "If you want to be a true practitioner, you must cultivate benevolence and virtue, help the poor and pull out suffering, see people in distress, always have the heart of salvation, or turn good people into Taoism and practice." Obviously, in the idea of "birth" of the Quanzhen Dao, there is also a certain color of "accession to the WTO."

This idea of "accession to the WTO" has been further emphasized in the remarks of other Neidan theorists. For example, Zhang Boduan, who is known as the "Ancestor of Inner Dan", clearly opposes the cultivation method of ignoring dust affairs and advocates "great concealment" in the world. In the "Enlightenment Chapter", he said: "If a person with lofty ideals can cultivate, why not live in the city." He himself was a non-monastic monk. ”