As we all know, film and television dramas will cater to the audience's aesthetics, and the arrangement of the TV series A Dream of Red Mansions is also consistent with everyone's consistent impression of monks and Taoists. As a vegetarian, why do Taoist priests give people the impression that they are thin, while monks often love to gain weight? This has to start with the difference between the two religions.
As we all know, there are three major religions in the world: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. At the same time, there are three major religions in China: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Everyone is familiar with Confucianism, so let's not discuss it for the time being, let's talk about Buddhism first. According to textual research, some Buddhist ideas originated from China's ancient Xiangxiong civilization and later spread to India.
Indian Buddhism was introduced into China in about 67 AD (when China was under the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty), and then it gradually combined with local culture, forming a branch of Buddhism in China. Therefore, the history of Buddhism in China has been 2000 years, but it is difficult to count the number of people with specific beliefs.
On the other hand, Taoism is the indigenous religion in China. Different from Buddhism, Taoism belongs to "polytheism", with a complex religious system and countless immortals. "Tao" is invisible, but it can enlighten all things, which is different from Buddhist concepts such as reincarnation and karma. Buddhists pay attention to cultivation of mind, discipline, stability and wisdom; Taoism is a world of self-cultivation and the pursuit of immortality.
Buddhism and Taoism have different ideas and practices, so they leave different impressions on everyone: Buddhist disciples sit quietly and recite scriptures in daily classes; Taoist disciples pay attention to physical exercise, health preservation and appearance maintenance. In fact, this kind of cognition is completely wrong.
Many people think that monks and Taoist priests are vegetarian every day, but monks don't pay attention to exercise, and Taoist priests often exercise, which is why monks are fat and Taoist priests are thin; In fact, "all monks and Taoists are vegetarians" is a false proposition. According to historical records, the vegetarian tradition in Han Buddhism originated in Liang Wudi and Liang Wudi in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. They believed in Buddhism and paid attention to not eating meat, and fully developed this commandment.
Before it was popularized in Liang Wudi, it was common for monks to eat meat. Even today, there are still monks in the world who are not afraid to eat meat, but are afraid of five spices (garlic, onion, onion, leek, canal); As for Taoism, Taoism generally has taboos on cattle, mullet, swan goose and dog meat, because they represent the traditional "loyalty, filial piety, chastity and righteousness".
As for other meat products, there is not so much stress. No matter whether it is orthodox Taoism or Quanzhen Taoism, some people don't avoid meat. In that case, why do people always think that monks are fat and Taoist priests are thin? The reason is only four words: packaging effect. Historically, the development of Buddhism in China is better than Taoism in some aspects, and its influence and attention are also high.
Therefore, once any scandal breaks out, people will always feel that the size of Buddhist temples and the arrogance of monks have formed a fat and lazy habit, which has led some people to deviate from Buddhist teachings; In contrast, some people think that Taoist priests generally live in seclusion and are not well known to the public. They live with clear water and cabbage every day ... in layman's terms, one is like a rich child and the other is like a poor child.
People naturally think that rich children are fat and poor children are thin. This kind of imagination makes sense. But imagination, no matter how reasonable, is just imagination. There are many skinny monks and fat monks. Don't treat the immortals in TV dramas as real Taoists. In order to show their "fairy spirit" in front of the camera, they must be very thin. This kind of packaging should not be regarded as truth.