The ritual that Lanling and Qin Duanyu talked about originated in a very ancient era, at that time, Xuanmen was not called Xuanmen, and the masters of Xuanmen were still everywhere, and there were many demons and monsters in the world living in the deep mountains and old forests, and they would come out to harm people from time to time.

On top of that, there were still immortals at that time.

When he heard this, Gu Qingniao began to be a little confused, is there really a god in this world?

Lan Ling knew what she was wondering about when she looked at her, so she asked, "What do you think the immortals are like?" Or where do they live? ”

"Isn't it living in the Heavenly Palace?" The ancient bluebird thought of the thirty-three heavens.

"You think too much, even if it's a demon or a monster, you let them try it in space? Without atmospheric protection, it was directly radiated to ashes, where did the heavenly palace come from? ”

"What the hell is that fairy?"

Lan Ling thought for a while and said: "This question should start from the rise and gradual decline of Taoism, do you think that in the current country, is the spread of Buddhism and the spread of Christianity more prosperous?" On the contrary, it is the local Taoism in China, and many people are unwilling to believe it. ”

"It seems so." Gu Qingniao nodded and said, "Is there a reason for this?" Because the gods are gone? ”

"Not because the gods are gone, but because ...... It's too difficult to become an immortal. Lan Ling shook his head, turned to a small road with not many people, and walked slowly forward with the ancient blue bird, while beginning to talk about the mystery.

"In the earliest days, there was only Taoism and no Taoism in this world, in fact, the Tao Te Ching, the root of Taoism, is only a theoretical treatise, and its role is to analyze some of the essence of the world and expound some truths in the world."

"Taoist thought began to spread from Li Er, and combined with the Yellow Emperor's theory of self-cultivation and the development of Zhuangzi's doctrine into two relatively large schools, the Huang Lao School and the Lao Zhuang School, these two schools, one advocates the use of Taoism, and the other advocates the development of Taoism."

"According to the current situation, the Lao Zhuang school is a researcher of the design institute, and the Huang old school is the company's production workshop."

"You have to know why there are such two schools of Taoism at the beginning, mainly because at that time, there were still many things in the world that people couldn't explain, and even today's science and technology couldn't explain, and they were all over the place."

"People are willing to explore the world, to dissect the world as it is, and even to approach it with their own bodies, intending to control such amazing powers."

"But with the passage of history, the abundance of material life gradually made the social form more and more perfect, and the ideas of the Lao Zhuang school tended to rule by inaction, so they were not accepted by the people in power at that time, and they were more willing to believe that people could become immortals through cultivation."

So Taoism, with Taoism as the root and the Huang Lao school as the main means, came into being under such circumstances. They studied the art of health preservation and evolved into the way of immortality, advocating that people become immortals through various means, so they were sought after by those in power. ”

"However, the Taoist theory of becoming an immortal is actually a way to build on the chaotic social environment and natural environment in the pre-Qin period, and as there are more and more people between heaven and earth, humanity is immortal, and the strangeness of the gods begins to slowly decrease, and it is also one of the laws of heaven and earth, and they cannot disobey."

"So from this time on, the Taoist theory of becoming an immortal became more and more inapplicable, and it was more and more difficult to achieve, from the disappearance of various sacred people in ancient times, to the later qi eating method, these are all cultivation methods applicable to ancient times, and later people can't realize it at all."

"At this time, those in power began to realize that the methods of Taoism had been reduced to inferiority, so Taoism had been reducing its influence all along, and it was gradually falling."

"In order to save their own status and ensure the living space of Taoism, Taoism began to seek a new way, and they began to vigorously advocate the benefits after becoming immortals, such as moving mountains and reclamation, calling for wind and rain, immortality, freedom and other theories, which were very popular among the ordinary people who suffered at that time, and more and more people were willing to believe in it."

"Plus they used that belief to help those in power consolidate their dominance, so once again they survived."

"Then, the progress of society is still moving forward, the national system is getting more and more perfect, the people's living quality is getting higher and higher, and at the same time, the level of education is getting higher and higher, and more people are beginning to understand the nature of this world and begin to have their own thoughts."

More and more people are discovering that the practice of eating and sleeping in the open advocated by Taoism, as well as the road to becoming an immortal, are fundamentally rootless and sourceless. Because they have seen too many people practicing Taoism, but they have never seen a person who can become an immortal. ”

"So Taoism began to establish its own immortal system, compiling those sacreds that were recorded in history, as well as the masters who had cultivated at that time, as well as some legendary characters and legendary cases in history, all of which were compiled into immortal classes."

"This is the fundamental nature of the Taoist immortal system, in fact, there are no immortals in the world at all, but there are some masters who were born in a good era and can have great power, but no one has achieved immortality, all of them have died."

"At the same time, Taoism also uses the role of gods between heaven and earth to set up statues of gods to deceive the people and make them believe that the gods will really manifest themselves, and they also make a very outrageous propaganda, they say that the gods live in the depths of famous mountains and rivers."

"This is the fundamental problem of Taoist thought, because Taoist thought has actually developed very well since Li Er, and the truth of Taoist thought is still very universal today, thousands of years later, and it is not limited to China."

"It is precisely because of this comprehensiveness and forward-looking nature that Taoist thought rarely has a keen insight into what is happening at the moment and the changes in the pattern, so the Taoist bigwigs at that time never thought that in a few hundred years, those deep mountains and old forests would also be conquered by humans."

"It is conceivable that when more and more people have the ability to enter the mountains to ask immortals, people will begin to discover the lies of Taoism, and then they will patch their myths again and say that the immortals no longer live in the mountains, they have their own system, and they live in the heavenly court."

"This system of legends that cater to the feudal ruling class has strengthened the idea of centralization, but more and more Taoism has developed from a religion of folk believers, and gradually more and more biased towards the ruling class, losing the base of the people."

"Because people still haven't seen anyone become immortals, they used to think that the gods were in the mountains, and as long as they looked for them, they could always find them, which was also a thought. As a result, now that the immortals have gone thirty-three days away, you can't even find it, what hope can you have? ”

"At this time, Taoism gradually changed from a Taoist system of cultivating immortals to a Taoist system of burning incense and chanting Buddha, at this time, foreign religions began to invade, first of all, the majestic Buddhism."

"When Buddhism entered our side at that time, it already had a complete set of doctrines, which were even more complete than the teachings of Taoism, because most of their teachings were practical solutions, which were more pragmatic than the Taoist cultivation of immortals."

"And from the ideological fundamental, Taoism advocates becoming an immortal is like a false empty idea, they tell the people that you can become an immortal, and after becoming an immortal, you can't die, but no one has ever seen an immortal who can't die."

"But what about Buddhism, it tells you to suffer in this life and enjoy it in one life, or it tells you to practice hard and then you go to the Pure Land of Bliss after you die, or it tells you that when you get rid of the physical body, you can become a Buddha."

"This kind of promise that makes people unable to grasp the evidence is obviously more acceptable, after all, the religion that people hope for is not actually a religion that can make them immortals, but a religion that allows them to make their hearts more comfortable in a painful society."

"And so the decline of Taoism began."

"They have made all kinds of attempts at the original roots, first of all, it is similar to Buddhism, which is a theory of getting rid of the physical body, Taoism is called military liberation, and then there are the Inner Dan School and the Outer Dan School, which are all Taoist attempts to explore step by step in the process of decline."

"However, in terms of their ideological roots, they are not very suitable for the development of religion, and Taoist thought is more like a basic discipline, which can be applied to any operational field, and it can indeed make people successful in cultivation, but for ordinary people, it is still not attractive enough."

"Therefore, the history of the development of China's culture is, to a certain extent, the history of the decline of Taoist culture, and it is due to the self-willed degeneration in the continuous struggle of foreign religions."

"And Buddhism and Christianity, which are already feasible enough, have begun to discover the foundation of Taoism - Taoist thought, which has strong universality and practicality, so they began to absorb the local culture and gradually developed into the current religious form in China."

"In fact, if you think about it carefully, there are actually many ways of thinking and idioms around us, all of which have developed from religion, especially Taoism and Buddhism, but you must know that the core ideas rooted in the hearts of our people will always be the most original ideas of Taoism."

"This is something that foreign religions can never change or replace, because Taoism runs through everything from beginning to end in the social, cultural, production, life, and economic evolution process of China's thousands of years of history."

"Even Confucianism, as a tool of the ruling class, is fundamentally a developed branch of the most primitive Taoism, including the hundred schools of thought."

"Because this guy Li Er is really powerful, *** Dejing, he has already said that five thousand years have been clean."

"Therefore, immortals do not exist, and it is impossible to see them in this life, only the way you become an immortal, so metaphysics began to flourish for a while, and Xuanmen began to be established, truly integrating all the remnants of Taoism and constituting the current system."

"Xuanmen is no longer obsessed with developing enough believers, and requires at least high imitation of inaction, and in places that people don't know, it has formed such a practical world, and it is constantly being practical in society."

"After you know it, you should understand that the so-called immortal manifestation in ancient times is just the power of some gods who were born and raised by Taoism and then shown, and the so-called immortal fruit position is just the unity of God's three talents of heaven, earth and man."

"And there is such a group of people in history, they want to become immortals and want to go crazy, but they are limited by the environment and resources of heaven and earth, and it is impossible to cultivate to the highest realm, so they hit the gods with their ideas."

"This ritual is a ritual of taking the fruit of the gods for oneself."