I don't think it is necessary to say more about the monastic value of Taoism. Everyone should understand. Sima Chengzhen said in "On Sitting and Forgetting": Those who are expensive live, and those who are expensive live. He lamented that a dried-up fish still wants to fight for its life, but people don't know how to make a living. A convenient way to learn Taoism is to look at the Taoist scriptures. Many Taoist scriptures in Daozang are paths for people to get happiness from suffering.
In addition, Taoism has many social values. Because the collection of books is beyond the scope of Taoist classics, it unexpectedly provides important conditions for future academic research.
1. First of all, it keeps some ancient lost books. For example, The Dragon Classic of the Yellow Emperor, The Classic of the Golden Chamber and Jade Balance of the Yellow Emperor, The Classic of the Yellow Emperor's Giving Three Sons to the Mysterious Woman, The Bank of Guang Huangdi, etc. are all ancient books that have long been lost, but fortunately they have been preserved by the orthodox Taoist collection. Sun Xingyan, a famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, discovered it and included it in the series of Pingjinting which he carved during Jiaqing period. Yan Kejun, another famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, also made extensive use of orthodox Taoist collections to compile Wen Yi and suicide note when compiling all the records of the ancient three dynasties, the Three Kingdoms, the Qin and Han Dynasties and the Six Dynasties.
2. Secondly, the existing orthodox collections of the Ming Dynasty inherited the treasures of Du Xuan and Jin Xuandou in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Jin and Yuan collections were pieced together on the basis of Zheng He Wanshou Taoist works in the Song Dynasty, so many Song editions were preserved, so they have high edition and collating value. Hui Dong, a famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, said, "Collect Confucian ancient books." The most famous authors are Mozi, Huainanzi and Shan Hai Jing. Bi Yuan, a famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, collated Mozi with Taoist scriptures, and Zhuang Kuiji also collated Huainanzi with Taoist scriptures. The Classic of Mountains and Seas in today's orthodox Taoist collection may not necessarily come from the Taoist collection in the Song Dynasty, but every volume recorded in ZTE's bibliography in the Song Dynasty has a positive meaning. It not only preserves an engraving of the Southern Song Dynasty, but also has a picture (incomplete) attached to each volume, which is an orphan in the existing version of Shan Hai Jing. Therefore, Bi Yuan's New School of Shan Hai Jing and Hao Yixing's Notes on Shan Hai Jing all take orthodox Taoist scriptures as important references.
The value of Taoist classics goes far beyond the above two ends. It is not only the basic data for studying religion, especially Taoism, but also of great research value to many other academic fields.
3. China's philosophy. In feudal times, Confucian scholars always regarded Confucianism as orthodoxy, and thought that only Confucianism was the representative of China's traditional culture and Confucian philosophy was China's philosophy. Buddhism and Taoism are not representatives of China's traditional culture, and their philosophy cannot be elegant. This view also had a considerable influence after the founding of New China. Facts have proved that this is a kind of prejudice or misunderstanding. Generally speaking, China traditional culture, Buddhism and Taoism philosophy and Confucian philosophy are also an inseparable part of China's philosophy. Taoism has participated in the formation and development of traditional culture in China since it came into being in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Like Confucianism, it has widely influenced the cultural life, family life, social life and political life of the Chinese nation. In order to establish and consolidate his immortal religious belief and publicize religious teachings, he made a lot of interpretations of Laozi and Yijing, which he worshipped, and tried to find various ways to achieve this religious goal in practice. Through the interpretation of Laozi and Yi, as well as the elaboration of various alchemy, especially the inner alchemy, a set of systematic world outlook, ontology, outlook on life and morality has been gradually established, thus forming its own unique philosophical thought system.
For example, in many Taoist works, there are a lot of annotations to Laozi and Yijing, and there are many philosophical ontological explanations. In many works of Neidan, there are many explanations of the theory of mind and nature. There are also many profound insights. It should be noted that the development of Taoist philosophy can not be separated from Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which absorbed many thoughts of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Similarly, the development of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism also depends on Taoism, and it also absorbs Taoist thoughts to varying degrees. As far as Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is concerned, its emergence and development depend on the absorption of Buddhism and Taoism.
As we all know, Zhou Dunyi, the founder of Neo-Confucianism, wrote "Tai Chi Tu Shuo" on the basis of absorbing Buddhism and Taoism, in which besides Buddhism, he mainly absorbed Laozi and Taoism. Since then, both Cheng and Zhu have drawn ideological nourishment from Buddhism and Taoism. It is a basic fact in the history of China's philosophy that Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism both struggle with each other and learn from each other. They enriched and developed China's philosophy from different aspects and forged the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. Therefore, it is difficult to have a comprehensive understanding of China's philosophy and traditional culture if we only study one family and two families, but not three at the same time. At present, this point has become the understanding of many people in academic circles.
4. Health care and medicine. In order to live forever, Taoism constantly creates and develops health preserving methods in practice. For example, we inherited the ancient techniques of qi circulation, guidance and massage, and developed them in practice, thus enriching and perfecting them in theory and specific methods. Although its goal of immortality cannot be achieved, it has made many achievements in strengthening the body and prolonging life. Many methods still have reference value today. Such works in the existing orthodox Taoist scriptures provide important research materials for modern health preservation.
At the same time, for the same purpose, Taoism attaches great importance to the research of medicine and pharmacy and has made great achievements. In the history of Taoist development, there have been many famous doctors, the most famous of which are Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao Hongjing in the Liang Dynasty and Sun Simiao in the Tang Dynasty.
Their achievements in medicine and pharmacy are outstanding among contemporary physicians and occupy an important position in the history of medicine and pharmacy in China. They either treat the world with superb medical skills or preserve future generations with medical masterpieces. Although most of these works have been lost, there are Gehong's Elbow Emergency Prescription (including Tao Hongjing's Elbow Repair Hundred Prescriptions), Sun Simiao's Thousand Women's Glory and Thousand Women's Wings, all of which are immortal works in the history of Chinese medicine. After the Tang Dynasty, many excellent Taoist doctors and their works appeared, such as First Aid Fairy Prescription by an unknown Taoist in the Song Dynasty, Secret Recipe of Fairy Art by Zhao, a famous Taoist in the Qing Dynasty, and Prescription for Treating Miscellaneous Diseases, Prescription for Treating Miscellaneous Diseases, Ophthalmology Enlightenment and Treatment by Liu, a famous Taoist in Longmen School in the Qing Dynasty. Although the achievement and development of Taoist medicine can not be separated from China traditional medicine, it has made unique contributions in some aspects from the religious requirements. For example, they attach great importance to medical ethics because they emphasize helping others. Doctors should have a high degree of sympathy and responsibility for patients. No matter whether the patients are rich or poor, no matter how disgusted they are with their friendly friends, they should be "merciful and compassionate" and "go all out to save them". From the perspective of saving all living beings, we attach great importance to the study of diseases of the lower classes and women and children, the popularization of medical prescriptions and the importance of local materials and cheap drugs.
5. Paleochemistry of China. For the religious purpose of immortality, Taoism inherited the ancient alchemy and developed it in practice. They believe that through the smelting of mineral drugs (or herbs), they can be refined into "elixir" to take and live forever. Therefore, many Taoist priests have devoted their lives to the selection, dispensing and refining of medicines. After several generations of efforts, I don't know how many experiments have been done, how many drugs have been studied, and how many mineral compounds have been extracted. Although this alchemy activity is for religious purposes, it is actually unconsciously engaged in chemical experiments. Although the "elixir of life" has not been and cannot be refined, it has observed the chemical changes of many mineral medicines, learned the properties of many mineral medicines, and accumulated rich data for the ancient chemistry of China. Therefore, most chemical historians refer to Taoist alchemy as the pioneering work of ancient chemistry in China, and a large number of works annotated by Waidan and Huangbai in the orthodox collection are important materials in the ancient chemical history of China. Black powder is one of China's three great inventions, which was invented by Taoist alchemy in the third year of Yuanhe in Tang Xianzong (808) at the latest. Its basis can be seen in the Integration of Lead, Mercury, Jiageng and Treasure, Volume II, The Method of Alum in the Fire. The earliest copper hydrometallurgy in the metallurgical history of China was first recorded in the books of Taoist external alchemy, from the first year of Gan Yuan to Baoying, Tang Suzong (758 ~ 762), and it was also recorded in the fourth volume "Fontaine Yuan Jing". As for the oral and external pills produced by Taoist priests in alchemy, they have expanded the source of medicine, and there are not a few.
6. In addition, a large number of books on Inner alchemy collected in the orthodox Taoist collection not only contain rich philosophical historical materials, but also are direct materials for studying Qigong and human science.
7. There are also some works on geography, literature and music in the orthodox Taoist scriptures, which are also of great research value. For example, Li Zhichang's "Journey to the West by a Real Person in Changchun" recorded the geography and people's feelings on Qiu Chuji's way to Yuan Taizu, which was an important material for studying the geography, people's feelings and traffic history of Central Asia at that time.
In a word, the collection of orthodox Taoist scriptures and other scattered Taoist scriptures is not only a record of Taoist activities, but also a treasure house of China traditional culture. If we can follow the principle of seeking truth from facts and make scientific analysis and identification, we will make certain contributions to the construction of socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization with China characteristics.
Main contents of Taoist scriptures
Taoist classics contain a wide range of contents, involving many aspects.
1. There are some classics that have been read or handed down for worship, such as the true moral classics (that is, Laozi), the true southern classics (that is, Zhuangzi), the true Xuantong classics (that is, Wen Zi), the true Xu Chong classics (that is, Liezi) and the true Dongling classics.
2. There are books on doctrines, such as Tao Te Ching, Lu, Fifteen Theories on Chongyang Education, Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, Quanshu of Loyalty and Filial Piety, etc.
3. There are medical books on health preservation, such as Nourishing and Prolonging Life, How to Learn from Mr. Fantasy's Internal Strength, Theory of Loyalty, Pillow Chinese Side, Elbow Emergency Prescription, Thousand-gold Square Yao, Thousand-gold Wing Prescription, First-aid Fairy Prescription, Secret Recipe of Fairy Biography Surgery, etc.
4. There are works of foreign Dan Huang Baizhu such as Shen Dan Jing of Taiying Jinye, Collection of Shen Dan Jing of Huangdi Jiuding, Collection of Xiufuling Shamiao, Fusion of Lead and Mercury, Alchemy of Gods, and Collection of Gengdao.
5. There are cultivation works, such as Zhouyi Shentongqi, Cui Gong's Medicine-taking Mirror, Strategies for All True Saints, Zhong You's Biography, Wu Zhenzhang, Qinghua Secret, Chen's Inner Dan, Da Dan, Zhong Heji, Dayao, Tian Zhi Zhi, and Da Yao.
6. There are Taoist works with runes, such as Five Words Preface of Lingbao, Seven Characters of Clear Face, Fifteen Characters of Natural Truth in Classics, Lingbao Dafa, Meeting Lingbao of Clear Face, Hui Yuan of Daoism, etc.
7. There are books on fasting scientific instruments, such as The Righteousness of Wei Yi, Ten Things about Wei Yi in Xuanmen, Biography of Monks in Taishang, Instrument of Three-hole Temple, Complete Works of Daomen Ke Fan, and Lingbao Jingshi Book.
8. Books on the precepts and precepts include the precepts of the great old gentleman, the precepts of the old gentleman, the precepts of the righteous French heavenly teacher, the precepts of the red pine nut, Du Xuanlv, the classic of Dong Bao's top grade, the Ten Commandments of Lingbao Tianzun and the Ten Commandments of the door to be repaired.
9. There are biographies of immortals and Taoist priests, such as Biography of Immortals, Biography of Nine Immortals in Nanyue, Three-hole Beads Capsule, Three-hole Fairy Records, Compilation of Fairy Garden Beads, Records of Jin Ping Mei, Wei Qing Fairy Spectrum, Biography of Ganshui Fairy Source, Biography of Zhong Nanshan's Ancestors, and Records of Zhong Nanshan's Immortals in Past Dynasties.
10, there are works on mountain records, such as Famous Mountain in Heaven, Mountain Records of Red Pine in Jinhua, Records of Fairy Capital, Records of Tiantai Mountain, Records of Great Victory in Nanyue, Records of Great Victory in Wudang, Records of Maoshan, Dai Shi, Records of Huashan Mountain in Xiyue and Ming of Guan Gong.
The above are just a few important aspects of the composition of Taoist classics, and they are also the main body of Taoist books. In addition, there are some non-Taoist books in the Taoist library. In the Yuan Dynasty, The Outline of Taoist Respect for Inspection said: "Confucian books, medical books, Yin and Yang, divination and hundred schools of thought are all related."
1 1, Confucian books generally refer to Shao Yong's Huang Shi, Yi, Bao Yunlong's Tian Yuan Fa Wei, and a number of Confucian books that study Yi, such as Yi Jing Shang Jing (Li Yiyin) and Lin Yi Shang Jing (Jiao Yilin).
12, medical books generally refer to Su Wen in Huangdi Neijing, Ling Shu in Huangdi Neijing, Eighty-one Difficult Classic of Huangdi, and Graphic Materia Medica.
13, Yin and Yang divination books generally refer to Huang Di Long Shou Jing, Huang Di Zhai Jing, Huang Di Jin Kui Yao Jing, Mysterious White Ape Zhen Jing, Liu Yin Dong Wei Dun Jia Zhen Jing, Dun Jia Jing, Liu Ren Ming Jian Jing, Bu Xiangxing Story, etc. 14, the books in which a hundred schools of thought contend except Laozi, Zhuangzi, Wen Zi, Liezi and Kangcangzi generally refer to Mozi, Xunzi, Heiguan, Gongsun Zilong, Yin Wenzi and grandson.
15, in addition to Shan Hai Jing, Mu Chuan, Han Wudi Biography, Han Wudi Biography, etc.
Confucianism and Buddhism once criticized the miscellaneous books in the aisle sutra. Ma Yuan Duanlin said in the Literature General Examination that classics are miscellaneous and diverse.
Taoist's extraordinary collection of books is not without reason.
1. As mentioned above, The Book of Changes is listed as the first of the Six Classics by Confucianism, but whether it is a Confucian book is still debatable. In fact, it is a tradition of Taoism that the ancestors described the Book of Changes. The Book of Changes and Laozi have been regarded as the theoretical guidance of alchemy practice, especially the internal and external alchemy practice since their creation. Since the Book of Changes was written by Wei Boyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty, various schools of thought, both foreign and internal, have described the Book of Changes. Therefore, many Taoist scholars regard the study of the Book of Changes as important as the study of Laozi, and from time to time there are insightful books on the study of the Book of Changes. Chen Tuan, a Taoist priest in the Five Dynasties, made great achievements in the study of the Book of Changes, which not only profoundly influenced the Taoist Inner alchemy, but also profoundly influenced Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. Yu Yan and Lei Siqi, Taoist priests in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, also made great achievements in the study of Yi. Therefore, it seems reasonable that Taoist Book of Changes and Confucian Book of Changes are collected by Taoist collectors.
2. Another example is medical books. Starting from the religious purpose of immortality, Taoism has always attached importance to medical research, on the one hand, curing diseases and prolonging life, on the other hand, helping the world and benefiting the people. So there are many famous Taoist doctors and medical works in history. While collecting these Taoist medical works, it is meaningful and seems reasonable to collect illustrations from Huangdi Neijing and Bencao Jing. Moreover, the Yellow Emperor is the ancestor revered by Taoism, and it is natural for Taoism to accept the medical books of the famous Yellow Emperor.
Nevertheless, it is an objective fact that Taoist bibliophiles have too many books. Because many of these books have nothing to do with Taoism or have little to do with it.
To understand this problem, the first thing is that Taoism is open-minded and tolerant. If it is insufficient, it may be that the original characteristics of Taoism are not highlighted enough in propaganda. what do you think?
Taoist Collection is a classification system with three points and four auxiliary points. It is not a miscellaneous collection of Taoist books, but a large-scale Taoist series that sorts out many classics according to a certain compilation intention, collection scope and organizational structure. Its organizational structure principle is "three holes, four auxiliary and twelve categories". The "three caves" are the cave truth, the cave mystery and the cave god. Its theory sprouted in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and was put forward by Lu, a Taoist priest in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the seventh year of Taishi (47 1), it was written into the Catalogue of Three Cave Classics and officially classified as Taoist books.
In fact, it includes three groups of Taoist classics, including the Dadong True Classics in Qing Dynasty, Lingbao Five True Classics and Huang San Classics. Taoism claims that these three groups of Confucian classics originated from the three gods of Sanqing: "Tianbaojun is the god in the cave, and ... when this book was published, it was named Yuqing Palace. Lingbaojun is a cave and mysterious deity ... When this book was published, it was numbered as Wei Zi Palace, the Seven Treasures of Imperial Scenery in Qing Du Xuan. Those who cherish the monarch are the gods of cave gods ... When this book was published, the number of cave gods in Huang San was too clear for Taiji Palace. " These three-hole Confucian classics are divided into three categories: upper, middle and lower, or large, medium and small. They are called "top grade" of the true cave classics, "Shangqing Taoist Classics" and "A Tale of Taiwan and Yin Shu", "Lingbao Cave Mystery" of cave metaphysics, "Huang San Inner Text" and "Astronomical Chinese Characters" of cave sacred books.
However, according to the three-hole classification, all the classics (such as the published classics "Shi Tiandao Zhengzheng" and "Taiping Daozheng") cannot be included, so there is a four-auxiliary classification. "Four auxiliary" refers to Taiqing, Taiping, Taixuan and Zhengyi-4 auxiliary sutras, that is, Taiqing auxiliary cave gods, Taiping auxiliary cave xuan and Taixuan auxiliary cave truth, and Zhengyi runs through the three caves and the three halls (Taiqing, Taiping and Taixuan). This four-auxiliary classification came from the Liang Dynasty at the latest, as evidenced by the appearance of Yu Wei Seven Classics Bibliography by Meng in Liang Dynasty. According to his thought, the Taiqing Department is mainly based on Ge Hongchuan's Taiqing Shendan Classic, and all the foreign white books belong to it.
Taiping Department is mainly Taiping Jing; Taixuan Department, headed by Tao Te Ching, includes books that annotate and explain Tao Te Ching, as well as Taoist books such as Zhuangzi and Liezi. Zhengyi is a collection of Shi Tian Taoist classics, such as Zhengyi French, which spread in the Six Dynasties.
The three holes are divided into twelve categories (four auxiliary parts are not divided), which are combined into thirty-six parts. Namely:
This category refers to the original Confucian classics;
The charm refers to the characters of the seal of Long Zhangfeng and the characters of spiritual symbols; Jade formula refers to the annotation and ambiguity of Taoist scriptures;
Turing refers to the graphic or video works of this article;
Recording refers to Taoist books that record Gao Zhen's sainthood and merits;
Subject refers to subject books;
Prestige refers to the works of etiquette and scientific instrument system;
Methods refer to books that discuss the cultivation of truth and nature and the methods of setting up altars for sacrifice;
Multi-skill category refers to books such as Exotic Fire, Change of Five Elements, and Number of Skills.
Biography refers to the biographies of immortals and Taoist priests, as well as Guan Gong's records.
Praise refers to the words and chapters that praise the truth; Expression refers to the chapters and essays presented to the Emperor of Heaven when offering sacrifices and prayers at an altar.
Twelve types of classification were formed in the late Northern and Southern Dynasties, with the appearance of thirty-six venerable classics as evidence.
The formation of the classification of "three caves, four auxiliaries and twelve categories" and its use in sorting out classics indicate that Taoist classics have been assembled into a set. "It is only limited to the conditions at that time and cannot be widely spread." "Three Poems of Lingxuan Lingbao Cave" reflects the situation that Taoist scriptures were "hidden" around the Sui Dynasty: "There are two kinds of treasures: one is always hidden, and the other is not hidden. For the general Tibetan language, three caves and four auxiliaries are regarded as one Tibetan, and the upper, lower, left and right are regarded as heavy categories, each with the title of "Three Cave Treasures".
For those who don't hide, there are seven kinds of four auxiliary works in the three caves: one is the Zhen Sutra of Cave, the other is the Treasure Sutra of Cave, the third is the Tibetan Sutra of Cave Immortal, the fourth is the Taixuan Tibetan Sutra, the fifth is the Taiping Tibetan Sutra, the sixth is the Taiqing Tibetan Sutra, and the seventh is the Zheng Jing Tibetan Sutra. Everyone knows the topic, so that they can recognize each other, if it is safe. "
The same book also records the classics, classics and other regulations. The scroll is a silk bag containing scriptures, with ten or five volumes each. There are several volumes of long-volume scriptures, and one volume of short-volume scriptures. Several letters are combined into one letter. In addition, we can see the format of writing scriptures in Tang Dynasty from Dunhuang suicide notes. Write the name of the sutra first, then write the name of the sutra in a blank line, and then copy the name in a blank line, each line is 17 words. The existing orthodox Taoist scriptures have roughly the same format.