What are the taboos of Taoism?

Taboos have a very ancient origin. About 18000 years ago, Neanderthals scattered red iron ore particles on the dead, reflecting the taboo behavior of primitive people in China. Oracle bone inscriptions in the Yin Dynasty often record the divination of conquest, hunting and sacrifice, among which saying unlucky words is taboo. There are also records about taboos in the Book of Changes. Among them, the small animal said in nine words: "When the moon is bright, the gentleman will be fierce." "Book of Rites, Rites and Righteousness" says: "A gentleman's lifelong mourning is also called the day of death. Don't use it on the day of death, it's not ominous. " In other words, the death day is the death day of relatives, and it is not because death is ominous that you do nothing else on this day. Therefore, taboo is not necessarily denial, but it only stipulates that you should not do anything beyond the specified date. Taoist taboos inherited and developed religious superstitions about taboos before the Han Dynasty, and integrated them into the daily life of Taoist believers. Taoists are forbidden to live, sit and lie down, eat and live, and perform various ceremonies. For example, don't travel at dusk, don't lie down and light candles, don't stay in a room where people worship mountains and rivers for six days, don't take water from Jing Quan in the middle of the night, or don't cut off dutiful sons, newly married women, people who haven't broken their monthly letters and people who have scabies and diseases, and rise to the altar of Zhaitang. But as far as the problems involved are concerned, they can be roughly divided into the following aspects: primitive nature worship. Taoism forbids north defecation, north haircut, north abuse, north undressing, or looking up at three lights and glaring at the sun, the moon and the stars. Taoism has the Five Classics, in which Beidou is paid special attention, and it is considered that Beidou is "the cardinal of nature, the master of man and god, and … has the power to bring back the dead and destroy." It shows that Taoism forbids doing dirty things in the north because of its worship and deification of Beidou. In fact, in our country, the worship of the sun, the moon and the stars has a very ancient origin. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins is a record of "visiting Japan", "leaving Japan" and "entering Japan", which may be due to the worship ceremony of the Yin people welcoming the sun god day and night. The book Shangshu Shundian, written in the Spring and Autumn Period or the Warring States Period, records that "the fourth level belongs to God, the sixth level belongs to God, and mountains and rivers are everywhere". The so-called class and hope refers to different ways of offering sacrifices to different gods. "Six sects" are the objects of sacrifice, including "Tianzong" three: the sun, the moon and the stars, and "Dizong" three: the river, the sea and Dai (Mount Tai). Primitive animal or totem worship. Taoism forbids eating the meat of animals that are the core memorial of parents' life and animals that are the core memorial of their own life. It is believed that cows have merit, dogs have righteousness, geese have order, and carp and eel are not allowed to eat because they face Beidou. Liang Qiu's annotation in "Shangqing Huang Ting Neijing" said: "Don't eat six livestock fish, avoid five spices." The so-called six animals are cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens and dogs. Fish are ashamed of themselves. Five spices, namely raw onion, garlic, onion, leek, gourd and coriander. However, Taoist restrictions on meat prohibition are not very strict, which reflects that the core of fasting parents' life is the fusion of primitive totem worship and ancestor worship. Taoism has a development process of drinking and eating meat. Early Taoism advocated prohibition of alcohol, but thought that birds and animals "can cure diseases immediately", "birds and animals can walk (as if walking), and animals born in water can also walk, making people worship temples and feed themselves". Volume 12 of Hong Guangming Ji also said that during the reign of Zhang Ling, "there were 24 places where cattle were killed and sacrificed". It can be seen that early Taoism did not fast for meat and fragrance. In the Southern Dynasties and Lu's "Menlue", it was only stipulated that "drinking and eating meat" was not allowed for three days (the seventh day of the first month, the seventh day of July and the fifth day of October). Taoist taboos are related to pharmacology and health preservation, with both essence and dross. Seven Signs of Yun Qi, Miscellaneous Cautions, Avoiding Disasters and Blessing, and Taboo Articles hold that "nature depends on food, and life depends on medicine", and advocate nourishing nature and supplementing diet with medicine. In their view, people are less than 40 years old, and the yang is still strong, so it is not appropriate to eat all the food, which is consistent with the different views of Chinese medicine on people of different ages. At the same time, it also puts forward some measures to treat diseases and prevent diseases, such as "it is not advisable to wash your body when you are sweating profusely"; "It is not appropriate to pillow cold things and stones in winter and summer"; "Enduring cold urinary pulse for a long time into cold joint pain"; "Eating when you cry becomes a gas disease"; "Anyone who wants to see a dead body must first drink and bite garlic with poison gas"; "If you sweat and don't take off your clothes, you will be paralyzed by the wind"; "The key to longevity is in the room", that is, we should pay attention to controlling sexual desire and oppose returning from long-distance travel, extreme fatigue, drunkenness and sexual intercourse due to illness. These regulations have reasonable factors. It is worth noting that Taoist taboos reflect the idea that Taoist scholars attach importance to quantitative change and strive not to destroy the movement balance of all parts of the body. The Seven Elephants of Yunhe taboo advocate "Don't move too fast, don't listen too hard, don't look too hard, don't sit too tired, don't lie too hard", "Don't eat too much when you are hungry, don't drink too much when you are thirsty", "Don't be hot in winter, don't be cold in summer" and "Don't be too spicy". In general, this is of course beneficial to physical and mental health. Generally speaking, Taoism forbids "illness from entering the mouth". On the one hand, it pays great attention to the hygiene of public areas, and stipulates that washing vegetables should be convenient for three times; Wash your hands before fetching water, and treat it like a bug in the water. The water must be filtered before use. Claw nails are not allowed to be dirty when cooking; Sweep the floor with water first, don't raise dust, and don't dust behind the door leaves. On the other hand, they avoid eating a lot of food, which affects the body's absorption of nutrients. For example, the first month of the lunar calendar fasted raw onions; In February and March, spicy food is forbidden. Do not eat garlic seeds, Polygonum hydropiper seeds, liver and lungs, but eat pockmarked seeds, giant fruits and plums. Do not eat garlic in April; Don't eat salty food in May, and don't eat onions, hearts and kidneys. No acid in June, no dogwood; Don't eat Chili in October; 1 1 Don't eat fresh fish scales in February and February. Don't eat spleen, liver and sheep blood in four seasons. Taoist taboos have penetrated into Buddhist rituals. Early Taoism did not stipulate the time for eating, but Quanzhen Taoism stipulated that "no food in the afternoon, no food is tasteless". This shows that Taoism is influenced by Buddhism, and the meal time is also limited for Taoist priests. It is said that the early Buddhism was originally: looking at faces (you can look at fingerprints), eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. Due to the charity of a monk to a layman, the donor pregnant woman opened the door, which coincided with lightning and thunder, and she was frightened and aborted. Later, Sakyamuni learned about it and banned dinner. Of course, some taboos are purely religious theology. For example, leaving a lamp at night makes the six gods uneasy, and lifting their feet to catch fire is a curse on the stove; It is ominous to sit with your arms crossed and your knees covered. Nightmare, get up early and there is water in the east, that is, no blame; The clothes were slightly shaken three times, and it was said that there was no harm in going to the disaster; Tortoise and snake are supernatural, etc. It can be seen from the above that the purpose of Taoist taboo is to deify the object of worship and strictly abide by the rules and regulations; The second is to rebel the normal psychology and cultivate the religious sentiment of Taoists. At the same time, because Taoist taboos are related to pharmacology, some taboo laws later became folk customs and were handed down. For example, drinking realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival is an example.