Series of lectures on intensive Chinese studies (1): Taoist immortals "three cleanses and four emperors"

Taoism believes in immortals, regards immortals as the most ideal realm and takes immortality as the ultimate goal. Taoist priests will become immortals one day as long as they practice step by step according to Taoist teachings and act in a standardized way.

Immortals in Taoism refer to people who practice Taoism, change their magical powers and live forever. "Yin Tian Zi Shen Jie" said: "Those who can change are called immortals." After careful analysis, there is a difference between "God" and "Immortal". "God" usually refers to an innate god, while "immortal" refers to a person who practices Taoism in the secular world. "Zhuangzi" said that "those who do not leave the essence are gods" and described the image of gods in detail: "The mountain you photographed is inhabited by immortals; If the skin is ice and snow, if you are a virgin, don't eat grains, suck wind and drink dew, ride a dragon on a cloud and travel around the world; Its spirit is condensed, so that things are not incomplete and mature. " Later, Taoist books also said: "Its qi is connected with God, and Yin and Yang are unpredictable, so it is called God Man." "release the name, release the young" and say "old and immortal, immortal and immortal"

Immortals began in the Warring States Period, and the large-scale immortal seeking activities of rulers such as Qi Xuanwang, Yan Zhaowang, Qin Shihuang and Emperor Wudi greatly promoted the development of immortal thought. After the establishment of Taoism, it has continuously developed and enriched the concept of "immortals", developed a unique Taoist theology, and listed gods and figures in ancient legends as immortals, forming a complete and rigorous immortal pedigree. With the help of folk literature, the theory and system of immortals finally matured.

1. Taoist immortal pedigree

In the immortal world of Taoism, Sanqing is the supreme god, and there are many immortals who do their own jobs, and these immortals have become a complete immortal pedigree.

"Sanqing" is the highest-ranking god in Taoism and the founding god of Taoism. There are "Four Emperors" under the Sanqing, which is different from Sanqing and is the god of command. Among them, the jade emperor is the head of the gods who rule heaven and earth; Dong and the Queen Mother of the West are in charge of immortals; There are three officials in charge of heaven, earth and water, namely, heaven official, earth official and water official; In charge of the world is the star king, that is, the five-star seven-obsidian star king and the four spirits for twenty-eight nights; Raytheon Dian Mu and Dragon King Fengbo. In addition, there are door gods, kitchen gods, earth gods and other details in charge of God. These gods with different levels and responsibilities constitute a complete pedigree of the Taoist immortal world. Taoism not only fantasizes about the existence of immortals, but even outlines the whole fairy world according to its own imagination. In Taoism, immortals and everything are created together, and each has its own responsibilities.

2. Sanqing worships God

The Taoist classic "Nine Heavenly Immortals Chapter Classic" specifically discusses "Sanqing". "Sanqing" refers to the three supreme gods: Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun and Moral Tianzun.

Tianbaojun, also known as Jade Qing Yuanshi Tianzun and Jade Qing Emperor, is the God of Yuanshi. Jade Qing Yuan Shi Tian Zun is the first deity in the Taoist deity system, and he appeared in the Jin Dynasty. Before that, there was no record of his name in early Taoist classics and ancient myths in China. The appearance of Buddha statues in the early Yuan Dynasty was first seen in Ge Hong's Book in the Pillow. It is said that the king of the Yuan Dynasty spent four robberies in this chaotic state, and Taoism said that every robbery was 440 million years apart. After the four robberies, heaven and earth began to split, with a distance of 36,000 miles. Yuan Wang lived alone in Yujing Mountain above Tianxin. After the three robberies, there appeared a jade girl in Taiyuan, nicknamed the Virgin of Taiyuan, with a wonderful figure. When the jade girl meets under the Yuan Dynasty, she becomes a husband and wife in the human concept. The emperor who was born with thirteen heads was named Dong Dafusang. Then she gave birth to the daughter of Jiu Guangyuan, the Queen Mother of posthumous title. The emperor was born in the emperor, and the emperor was born in. The Taiting family, the Dong family, the Shennongjia family, the Zhu Rong family and the Wulong family are all descendants of the Yuan Dynasty, and they live on the Five Mountains respectively. He is the first deity in Taoism's "worshipping God in Sanqing", and he lives in Luo Tian, ranking first in the 36th heaven. Tianbaojun experienced immortals such as Taishang Laojun and Wu Fang Tiandi, and later became Tianbaojun in the first year of Han Long (the Taoist name for disaster).

Lingbaojun is a mysterious god, also known as Shangqing Lingbaotianzun, Taishang Avenue Jun and Shangqing Emperor. He is second only to Yuanshi Tianzun in the highest order of Taoism. Judging from the history of Lingbao Buddha, it appeared later than Taishang Laojun and Yuanshi Buddha. "Zhendong Dadong" and "Dongben Yuanjing" said: Lingbao Tianzun was refined from Erchen and entrusted to the Hong family. His mother has been pregnant with him for 3,700 years, and was born in the Yue of "floating Rodin Yuan in the Jade Tea Mountain in the West". Born to be human, "people are like dust." The golden couple have 300,000 guards. "Ling Baojun lived in the upper Qing Dynasty, that is, Yu Yutian. He was called Dongtou, who taught Dongjing and metaphysics, and later became Lingbaojun when he opened the map in the Long Han Dynasty.

Shenbaojun is a cave god who respects God, that is, Taiqing moral deity, also known as Taishang Laojun, mixed Yuan Laojun, born emperor and Taiqing Emperor, which comes from the myth of Taoist figure Laozi. Because the book Laozi had a great influence on the formation of Taoist theory, later generations positioned him as a god, saying that he was reincarnated as a god in the first year of the bell.

Today, we can still see the connection between Taoist immortal belief and its world view in the Sanqing Hall of Taoist temple. For example, the gods of the Yuan Dynasty enshrined in Taoist temples, with their left hands empty and their right hands empty, symbolize the chaotic state of the early universe; At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the left side of the Buddha statue is Lingbao Buddha, holding a half-black and half-white circular "mirror of Yin and Yang" with white spots in the black and black spots in the white, symbolizing the two states of Yin and Yang derived from chaotic state. On the right of Lingbao Buddha is a moral Buddha, holding a fan with a mirror of Yin and Yang, symbolizing the transformation of everything from Yin and Yang. Taoist belief in immortals is unified with the thinking of the whole universe. Taoist classics believe that the three gods come from their original vitality, that is, the so-called "one gasification and three cleanness", which not only shows the sacredness of Taoist avenue, but also shows the myth of belief itself.

"Sanqing" refers to the three holy places where immortals live, namely, Jade Qing Holy Land (in the clear sky), Upper halal Land (in the sky) and Taiqing Wonderland (in the red sky), collectively referred to as Sanqing Land; It also refers to the three supreme gods who lived in Sanqing, namely, Yuanshi Tianzun (also known as Jade Qing Emperor), Lingbao Tianzun (Shangqing Emperor) and Moral Tianzun (also known as Taishang Laojun, Hunyuan Laojun, Birthday Emperor and Taiqing Emperor).

3. Four empires

Under the most revered Sanqing God in Taoism, there are also "Four Emperors". "Yu" is a respectful name for the emperor, and it also means to manage things. The Four Emperors are the four gods who live under the Sanqing, are above all gods and dominate the universe. The Four Emperors were the gods who assisted the Sanqing Movement. In the past, they were called six emperors. In order to conform to the classification of the four auxiliary Taoist scriptures (Taiqing, Taiping, Taixuan and Zhengyi), the Jade Emperor and Tsinghua Emperor were removed and evolved into today's Four Emperors. Namely: Zhongtian Arctic Emperor Tai, Antarctic Immortal Emperor, Gouchen Shanggong Emperor and Houtu Emperor. The emblems of the four emperors were all added by Song Zhenzong and Hui Zong.

In addition to the four emperors, there are the Jade Emperor, the Tai Chi Emperor in the West, the Wei Zi North Pole Emperor in Zhongtian, the Tsinghua Emperor in the East Pole, the immortal emperor in the South Pole and the post-local emperor. This is based on the concept of "Liuhe" in ancient China. The so-called Liuhe, that is, up, down, east, west, south and north, represents the huge space of the whole universe.

There is another different interpretation of the Four Emperors, which is called "Four Emperors". In the north, the Arctic emperor Wei Zi always ruled all kinds of stars, in the south, the Antarctic emperor immortals always ruled all kinds of things, in the west, the Taiji emperor always ruled all the gods, while in the east, the East, Tsinghua emperor always ruled all the gods.