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Taoist monk

A Taoist priest, Taoist monk, Taoist master or Professional Taoist (道士 "master of the Tao") is a priest in Taoism. Along with Han Chinese priests, there are also many practicing ethnic minority priests in China. Some orders are monastic (Quanzhen orders), while the majority are not (Zhengyi orders).

Some of the monastic orders are hermitic, and their members practice seclusion and ascetic lifestyles in the mountains, with the aim of becoming xian, or immortal beings. Non-monastic priests live among the populace and manage and serve their own temples or popular temples.

The activities of the Taoists tend to be informed by materials which may be found in the Daozang, or Daoist Canon; however, Taoists generally choose, or inherit, specific texts which have been passed down for generations from teacher to student, rather than consulting published versions of these works.

Soothsayer outside of Changchun Temple, Wuhan.

History

Pre-Ming Times

During the time that Taoism began taking form, mass migrations of Chinese subjects flooded into Sichuan followed the conquest of the province by the Qin Dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, although both the natives and ethnic Chinese people lived in separate parts of towns, native beliefs mixed with Chinese beliefs. The native people of the area, the Ba people, adopted Taoist beliefs in masses by native leaders as an act of rebellion toward their Han overlords.

During the Period of Division, officials were divided into nine different ranks, the lower the Grade, the higher status they were. Daoist priests were designated Grade Five status and above and were granted the ability to participate in formal rituals (keyi 科仪) since they were educated in internal cultivation or neigong (內功). Daoist priests not trained in neigong were delegated to Grade Six status or lower and were granted the title of "Three-Five Surveyor of Merit” (sanwu dugong 三五度公).

Ming Times

During the Ming dynasty, some Taoist priests were hired to create and perform musical performances where they often danced or played musical instruments for their patrons. Taoist priests also participated in death rituals. However, some wealthy families objected to hiring Taoist priests for their funerals due to their Confucian beliefs that argued against the lavish musical performances that usually accompanied Taoist funerals. Taoist priests chose whether to marry or not. But to continue the hereditary title, the Celestial Master had to be married to pass the title to an eligible male heir.

Taoist priests were also expected to perform various kinds of exorcisms and rituals for people who wanted to cure disease, resolve drought, etc. Such processes were detailed in Thunder Magic texts, which detailed which and when certain ritual items were needed and place such as placing a talisman on some rice. Such rituals were performed near or at temples and other pure areas away from the public eye and if the homeowners allowed it, the priests were able to enter their homes and establish a sacred place to perform the ritual. It is believed that the shortage of such texts from earlier periods were due to the high standards of the officials that approved them and the biased beliefs that these rituals were related to shamanistic ideas and rituals.

Taoist priests organized themselves using different categories and assigned themselves different jobs based on their ranking. Both Taoist priest and priestess performed Taoist rituals. Their rankings were included when Taoist priests signed records for rituals which would be burned for certain rituals such as the Yellow Register Zhai (黃籙齋) rituals, or burial rituals, and Golden Register Jiao (金籙醮), or temple renewal type rituals. Because records were being burned, some scholars tasked themselves with the responsibility of copying down the manuscripts before they were used in the ritual.

Qing Times

Along with ritualistic services, Taoist priests also were visited by people for fortune-telling, explanations for events, and healing services which consisted of using medicine or acupuncture. Some Taoist priests devised new medicinal recipes to which some saw favorable outcomes.

Taoist temples were used as places people could donate to fund new communal structures like bridges or roads.

Orders

Taoist orders are conventionally categorised into two main branches: Quanzhen and Zhengyi.

Quanzhen Taoism

Quanzhen Taoism, which is present almost exclusively in the north of China, includes all Taoist orders which have a monastic institution. Their lifestyle is comparable to that of the Buddhist monks in that they are celibate, vegetarian, and live in monasteries. The White Cloud Temple in Beijing is the main monastery of the Longmen school of Quanzhen, and is also the main headquarters of mainland China's official Taoist Church.

Zhengyi Taoism

The other main priesthood is Zhengyi Taoism, in which the priests can marry, eat meat, live in their own homes, and found and manage their own temples or serve in folk religious temples. They are mostly priests part-time and can hold other jobs. Their lineages are transmitted through training and ordination by another priest, although historically they received a formal confirmation in their role by the Celestial Master, the highest priest. Fragmentation of the lineage of the Celestial Masters has made Zhengyi priests more independent. In mainland China the Taoist Church has in theory taken over the power to regulate them (although only a minority of them are registered with the Church). Zhengyi orders are present all over China, although with different names according to the local lineages. For example, in northern China there are the yinyang masters of the Lingbao sub-tradition.

Sources

• Jones, Stephen. 2007. Ritual and Music of North China: Shawm Bands in Shanxi. Ashgate.

See also

• Altar
• Taoism
• Han Chinese clothing
• Li Bai
• Sifu