Taoism Religion And Literature During The Period Of WeiJin Southern And Northern Dynasties

Taoism has an enormous influence on literati and literature during the period of WeiJin Southern and Northern Dynasties, which can be regarded as an important formative peoriod of Taoism. Regardless of the ancients' perception of the relationship between religion and literature, it is relatively late for the academic circle to study on the issue of the relationship between Taoism and literature. It is in the1930s that some scholars start to research the above issue which has gradually gained more attention since the1970s. Through decades of exploration, this research project has made some considerable achievements, not only obtained many comprehensive research achievements, but acquired remarkable results on the issue of some categorization, such as Taoism&novel, Taoism&poetry, Taoism&drama, Taoism&aesthetics of literature and art, Taoism&folk literature, etc. After carrying out a comprehensive survey, however, we find that the current research results still have some defects and many problems should be made further exploration.In the first place, to the present achievements, the discussion of the relation between Taoism and literature in academic circles stresses on the years after the maturity and prosperity of Taoism, that's dynasties of Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan and Ming. On the contrary, researchers pay little attention to the interrelation between literati, literature and Taoism during Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (220—589) which is the crucial period for the foundation and transformation of Chinese Taoism. The paper discusses the relationship between Taoism and literati, literature during Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties when Taoism was formed, including Taoism's effects on literati's ideology, literary creation, literary form, aesthetic style and the specific aspects of scholars' impact on Taoism. In the meantime, the article makes an investigation of the whole literary phenomenon during Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, not merely limited to the works collected in Tao Tsang (a collection of Taoist scriptures).In the next place, the discussion puts particular emphasis on individual writers and classic works, among which research on quite a few writers and works is in a blank state. Researchers usually focus on few first-class writers who are obviously Taoist as well, so the range of investigation is extremely restricted. Nevertheless, the academic circle pays less attention to writers who have a great deal of Taoist signs without the demonstration of exactly historical data as well as those who are both Taoist and Buddhist. This article makes a case analysis of writers and works that are lack of enough concern or even fail to draw people's attention. Moreover, the paper makes a thorough inquiry of family and age factors behind the behavior like cultivating oneself according to a religious doctrine and taking special pills, preference for the mystic technique, longing for becoming an immortal and etc. These behaviors are participated in by a group of ancient great men, such as Cao Cao, Ji Kang, Wang Xizhi, Tao Yuanming, etc. And it also makes an analysis of the unique influence that Taoism has made on scholars under the reciprocal effect of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.Moreover, researchers attach much less importance to the issues of condition, culture, custom, religious policy, literati's belief and literary expression of northern minority during Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The research of literature and religion in the Northern Dynasty is inferior to that in the Southern Dynasty, which is a difficulty in the comparative study of the two dynasties. According to the study of religion and literature during the Northern Dynasty in detail, this article attempts to generalize the different rules and characteristics of the relation between Taoism and literature in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. From the above, it is extremely significant to carry on a deep research on this issue of "Taoism and literature in Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties".With respect to the study of the relationship between religion and literature, predecessors offer us a lot of valuable experience which could be important references of the paper's research methods. First, this article pays great attention to writers' issues of domestic and individual background, official career, marriage, etc., so as to reveal the effects of Taoist doctrine and its activities on writers' thoughts. People value patriarch system during Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, especially in the two Jin Dynasty, during which the superior noblemen embraced Taoism for generations and this phenomenon was very prominent. Consequently, it is of great significance to investigate writers' family tradition as well as their marriage and friends. Second, the paper studies the connotation of literary works themselves and reveals the deep implication of works by extensively contacting with times and ethos. During the whole Southern Dynasty, the four founding emperors of Song, Qi, Liang and Chen Dynasties do not come out of rich and influential families. They often attach importance to Confucianism and pay equal attention to Buddhism and Taoism, which forms a situation that Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism stand like a tripod quite different from the past periods. Even though in such a background, quite a lot of literati fail to have a special firm religion and they usually make a choice between Buddhism and Taoism depending on royalty's religion. Therefore, it's extremely important to discuss academic background, social thoughts and royalty's attitude to religion during this period. Furthermore, in order to achieve the analysis and interpretation of this selected topic from multi-dimension and multi-level, this article also widely associates with the knowledge of religious studies, sociology, art, culturology, etc.The structure of this paper is arranged as follows:In chapter one, summarizing the relation between Taoism and literature during Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. It discusses the development and social culture activities of Taoist temple and its benefits for the creation of scholars and also investigates the perfection of Taoism wonderland system, immoral genealogy, ways to maintain good health through eating and the respectively corresponding literature performance during this period. According to these details, we could make a macroscopical grasp and understanding of the relationship between Taoism and literature in this period.Chapter two is about Taoism and literature during the three kingdom period(220—280). It mainly discusses the necromancer, the mystic technique and the Taoist thought as well as the immoral thought and the creation of poetry about immortals of Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao zhi; Ruan Ji's immoral spirit and his literature about immortals exceeding that in Han and Wei Dynasties; Ji Kang's thoughts about maintaining a good health, religious behaviors and poetical performances. Meanwhile, it makes a brief discussion of the relation between Taoism and literature in Eastern Wu and Western Shu Dynasties.Chapter three's topic is Taoism and literature in Western Jin Dynasty(265—316). It outlines the relation of Taoism and the extravagant mood of society and natural history in this section. And it also discusses Zhang Hua's composition of knowledge and thought as well as his masterpiece with many relevance to Taoism and so on.Taoism and literature in Eastern Jin Dynasty(317—420) was studied in chapter four. As the rising period for the development of Taoism, Taoism has a close relationship with moral standards of influential families, scenic poems, and mythical novels and so on. It also discusses some scholars' Taoist ideas and literary creation in a specific way.Chapter five is about Taoism and literature in the Southern Dynasty. The mutual influence with Confucianism and Buddhism is one of the most striking features of the development of Taoism during this period. So Taoism's influence on the thought of literati seems to be much more complicated. This section chiefly argues the relation between religious belief of some scholars and literary creation, revealing the major roles that Taoism plays in their thoughts and creation.In chapter six, Taoism and literature in the Northern Dynasty was researched. Regimes continually alternate during this period, which results in religious thought lack of coherence and inheritance. However, Taoism still makes great impact in the Northern Dynasty under the vigorous advocation of individual emperor and powerful feudal ministers. This section mainly extends discussion surrounding some contemporary writers and their works.Chapter seven is about Taoist and literature. The reason why this chapter is specially arranged is allowing for Taoist scholars' contribution to both religion and literature during Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. This section places particular emphasis on exploring ideology and literariness of literary works.The rest of this article summarizes the research situation of the whole paper and makes clear the significance of this selected topic in interdisciplinary aspects.