A Study On The Interacted Relationship Between The Transformation Of The Daoist Practices And The Diversification Of The Daoist Views On Women From The Han To The Tang Dynasty

This is an interdisciplinary study conducted between religion and gender studies. From the perspective of social gender, the author tries to study, to understand, and to analyze synthetically some main early Daoist classics and other relevant materials together with the social background at the time. Based on the social gender system, she tries to discover the women's ignored or concealed religious activities and experiences in history by connecting the women believing in and practicing Daoism and the social conditions at the time. By investigating the relevant transformation of the Daoist practices and diversification of the Daoist views on women, the author analyzes the causes and directions of these changes, discusses the characteristics of the women's Daoist cultivations between the Han and Tang dynasties.The change of the Daoist cultivation in this long historical period is the focus of the author. She reviews the popularization of Daoism in the areas influenced by early Daoism (between the end of the Eastern Han and the beginning of the Wei and Jin period ) and introduces the women's participation in social as well as Daoist activities in that period. Based on it, the author explains the ritual for passing at the time and analyzed Daoist views on women reflected in it.The observation on the Daoism ambisextrous Integrated Cultivation in the Wei, Jin and Southern-Northern dynasties focuses on the transformation of the means of cultivation-from ambisextrous integrated cultivation to mono-sexual cultivation, the diversification of authoritative and orthodox views on women caused by the change of official ideology, and the shift of positions between man and woman.In the course of cultivation shift, women developed the quite mature system of mono-sexual cultivation in the Tang dynasty while women retreated from social work or work of the Daoist hierophant. Under such circumstances, women have to survive on the fringe of the society between their social roles as a daughter, a wife, or a mother in the social gender system and the religious role as a Daoist believer.Daoist views on women have changed with the changes of Daoist cultivation techniques. Women have become the obstacles of men's cultivation and refinement and attainment of immortality from the religious masters or hierophants. Daoism's worship for women has fade away from reality and existed in the imaginary and mythological world of Daoism.Such analysis on women practicing Daoism in such a long period of time unfolds the interacted relationship between Daoism and women in this period and the complexity and contradiction of Daoist views on women. It exposes as well the pertinence between the transformation of Daoist cultivation techniques and the changes of Daoist views on women, of the positions of Daoist women, and of the social views on women.The process of the transformation of Daoist cultivation techniques does reveal the complexity and contradiction of Daoist views on women. Compared with other religions or social organizations in the world, the conflicted psychology of Daoism for women contributes to the fact that Daoism treats women with lenience and women take relatively higher position in Daoism than in other societies. Therefore, we may say that women are part of Chinese Daoism rather than anything appended. Women and men practicing Daoism transmit and develop Chinese Daoism together in spite of the fact that women have paid so much for it.