The Derivation Of The Taoist Secret Figures

There was a great number of long-paged research works on the history of Taoism in the 20th century. How the Daoism derived from the Chinese culture, however, was generally dealt with superficially. In view of this condition, Mr. Chang Jin-cang, my tutor, has been arranging one concerned treatise for each year of graduate students, in attempt to deepen this research. This thesis "the derivation of the Taoist secret figures" is one part of the total project.The research of the Taoist secret figures is one of the fields which need strengthening urgently. Although predecessors have made great contributions, there were some faults in the thinking method and specific conclusion. Therefore, these researches gave some negative impacts on the research of origin of Taoism, the reason of which was that some researchers neglected the variety of the world cultures, and applied the western social theories mechanically. Some researchers tended to look for the absolute origin. Some other researchers overly emphasized the importance of the regional element. All these issues abstracted the research from improving.This article tries to analyze the previous researches in theory and experience, and to put forward my opinion as well. The article believes that "the theory of witchery era" isn't suitable for explaining the derivation of the Taoist secret figures, the revival of witchery in Spring-Autumn and Warring States was the result of various cultural elements interacting each other. A lot of such elements that impacted the Taoist secret figures came into existence in this period. Meanwhile the concept of witchery inevitably involved in the process of the derivation of the Taoist secret figures. The Chinese characters were reformed by makers of Taoist secret figures and became the most characteristic witchery in the world.This article is composed of three parts. The first part mainly makes necessary preparation for the analysis of those elements which impacted the Taoist secret figures. It points out the value of the research of Taoist secret figures, and sums up the variety of opinions about the origin of the Taoist secret figures. This part points out the faults of previous researches and puts forward the method applied in this article梐nalysis of cultural elements.The second part mainly analyzes how various cultural elements impacted the derivation of the Taoist secret figures. Firstly, the incantation was the core of all witchery, which was the origin of the Taoist secret figures and restrained the Taoist secret figures consistently. Secondly, the Taoist secret figures made use of the seals, which were used as warrants in society. The makers of the Taoist secret figures were enlightened by the concept of auspicious signs. The ancient people related the sign of nature to the society and created a lot of gods with personality. This thought was also absorbed and became special secret figures of astrology. There were close relations between Chinese characters and paintings. They were widely used in society and were offered the function of communicating the human and gods and repelling the ghosts. The Taoists priests reformed the Chinese characters and paintings valorously. Finally, the Taoist secret figures became the most characteristic witchery in China. It was the interaction of local Chinese cultural elements that formed the Taoist secret figures.The third part is the conclusion. It briefly introduces the relationship between these elements.