A Study On Filial Ethic In New Daoism In Southern-Song And Yuan Dynasties

For the past few years, the research of the ethic of Daoism is gradually becoming a hotspot in academy. As for Daoism the research of filial ethic (xiao) is also worth paying much attention. As one kind of religions, there was some complex and contact relations between Daoism and the ethic, especially between New Daoism and Filial ethic in period of Southern-Song and Yuan dynasties. Filial ethic is the moral adjusting the relations between parents and children, or seniors and juniors. The Chinese orthodox ethic morality provides fertile culture soil for filial ethic lasting for long. Daoism enriched its content of Xiao continuously, and shaped its characteristics. It was an important part of the traditional filial ethic.Daoism asked people to carry out the ethic of Zhongxiao and to restrict oneself, thus shaping up a nature and perfect moral ethic ideological system. Taking the faith that the ethic of Zhongxiao is responsible for immortality as its core tenet, the Daoist ethic stipulates the inner prapatti activity through the ethic of Zhongxiao. It takes same importance of the prapatti of morality and immortality. It is even taken that the prapatti of morality is equal to that of immortality. This idea has an effect on the manner of traditional Daoist prapatti. In this thesis, methods of religious sociology, religious ethics and historical study were adopted, as well as the methods of textual research, instance analysis and synthesis induction. We took filial ethic in Daoism as the core problem, and explored the centurial significance of filial ethic in the process of pursuing longevity and immortality in New Daoism.Firstly, the thesis discussed the internalization of Daoism from Tang and Song dynasties as well as the multiplicity of the belief objects in Daoist ethic. The internalization accelerated the development of Daoism greatly and it leads to the exaltation of the moral decision theory. As the same time, it becomes the bridge between Xiao with the belief. On this basis, the ethic of Xiao in Daoism presented its own feature, and was very different from the Confucian ethics. In Daoism, there was not only the ethic between children and parents, but also the ethic between the believers and True Parents, and even the ethic between the prentices and the Masters. They were all brought into the ethic of Xiao, assigned with connote of Xiao, and requested to follow with principle of Xiao. For the first time, this thesis views these relations at the Daoist ethical angle. Thus their logical relations became clear and uniform. By this token, the objects of Xiao pointed at not only parents, but also the faith: True Parents. This chapter reviewed and systemized the concept of True parents for the first time, and analyzed the significance of this concept for the development of Daoism. Then the meaning of Xiao was extended.Jingming Sect took on the most conspicuous mundane feature among all schism of New Daoism in period of Southern-Song and Yuan dynasties. Jingming Sect combined Confucian ethic of Zhongxiao with Daoist prapatti of immortality, and advocated taking the ethic of Zhongxiao as the main principle of prapatti, i.e. achieving Zhongxiao was leading to immortality. By this token, immortal is the tiptop extent of the moral pratatti. It meant that personal spiritual pursuit must be associated with social ethic standard and it accelerated that people abided by the ethical criterion especially filial ethic self-consciously. So it brought out the vibrant characteristics of ethic determinism. Among its theological ethic, Zhai-jiao and Fulu were taken as media, and it amplified the ethic of Zhongxiao to come true through moral poetical justice mechanism. In this case, Zhai-jiao and Fulu were injected certain religious moral intension. In other words, the Zhai-jiao and Fulu in Daoism were the theological expression of Daoist ethic. People realized that the Zhai-jiao and Fulu were only subsidiary means for immortality, rather than decisive factors. People paid more and more attention to the rational element of ethic in Zhai-Jiao and Fulu, and the importance of the ethic in Daoism was emergent gradually. When we understand these issues, we could comprehend why Jingming Sect took on strong social control-function.Quanzhen Sect, as another important schism of New Daoism in this period, represented other Daoist moral characters. Though Quanzhen Sect took the departure from home as its postulate of prapatti, it did not mean that the adherent could not carry out filial ethic. It only meant its ethic was different from that of Confucian. It demanded that the adherent should have not only real morality, but also real behavior. For the adherent monachal, they should obey their masters but their parents. For the adherent at home, they should obey all the feudalist rules with filiality as the first. The appreciation and emphasis on the mundane ethic from Quanzhen Sect strengthened its inner-worldly inclination. In Southern-Song and Yuan dynasties, the type of culture turned to moral absolutism. Daoism was not confined to self-immortality, and it demanded adherents devoting themselves to the real social life. Quanzhen Sect expressed its ethic to moral behavior standard: the Daoist mitzvah. It ensured filial ethic to come ture, and extended the effect and civilizing of the Daoist ethic in society. It should be pointed out that the appreciation on actual action was the ultimate reason of its appreciation on filial ethic. Quanzhen Sect brought virtues into the system of prapatti, and the Seven Masters of Quanzhen Sect were well known as extremely filial obedient persons.When morality became more and more important in the Daoist immortality theory, the development of Daoism tended to be more and more mundane and social. A reflection of this trend was that many a morality books and merit tables came into being and played a more and more important role in society. Filial ethic in the morality books and merit tables was an important part of the Daoist ethic in this period. The appearance of the morality books and merit tables was the result of synthetic factors. It did not only involve the secularized development of New Daoism. They put forward not only a series of advocating-good thought and accomplishing method, but also offered basic models of morality books and merit tables. This had a far-reaching effect on the emergence and prevalence of morality books and merit tables in Ming and Qing dynasties. In these books and tables, filial ethic was theological and quantized. These features made it easy that Daoist ethic inflicted its control function on society.In addition, filial ethic in the annotations of Dao De Jing was an indispensable section for Daoist ethic study. The ethic in Dao De Jing based on Dao and respected nature, as the important part of Chinese traditional morality. It regulated the orthodox Confucian Li-Centric ethic and was the origin and basis for the ethic in the annotations of Dao De Jing through the ages. The annotators in Southern-Song and Yuan dynasties, besides explaining theories in the Daoist classics, they paid more attention to make out new interpretations according to the demanding of the times and add new epochal thought which had exceeded the content in the classics. On the one hand, they promoted the naturalistic filial ethic in Dao De Jing. In the Dao De Jing, Lao-tzu advanced an important proposition: while the relatives were of discord, there was ethic of Xiaoci; while the country was of confusion, there were loyalists. He considered that the society pursuing of exterior Zhongxiao was empty of the ethic of Zhongxiao actually. Lao-zi ethical principle was to obey the Dao of nature. This naturalist viewpoint of filiality was the starting-point of theory for the annotators of Dao De Jing On the other hand, some of the scholars advocated combining Daoism with Confucianism and deviating neither of them. Their filial ethic represented the trend of conjunction and percolation of Daoism with Confucianism. They annotated Lao-tzu with the Confucian ethic, or illustrated the Confucian ethic of Zhongxiao with Daoist view, or hence criticized the social reality and so on and so forth. It reflected the new conjunction of Confucianism and Daoism.Thereby, the Daoist filial ethic, combining the personal immortality necessarily with filial ethic, made ones ethical behavior as the direct determinant to the ultimate concern. It integrated and perfected the traditional filial ethic. The reparation of the Daoist ethic to the traditional ethic and its control action to the society was one of the basic reasons for its persistence in the history. Therefore, filial ethic in Daoism appreciated and grasped Chinese traditional moral ethic from another point of view, and it reflected Chinese particular thinking habits and living style. So that, the Daoist ethic not only provided religious guidance, but also advanced the stability of society in social life of the Middle Ages.The significance of this thesis is that we can appreciate the New Daoist ethic and the method of social control well through general research on filial ethic in the Daoist schism and its classics. At the same time, we can draw lessons from these studies for the reconstruction of modern Chinese ethic. It can advance the research of history of Daoist thought. It should be realized that in spite of so much negative contents in the Daoist ethic such as rendering to mystery and ghosts and prone to lead people to the mystery of ethereal destiny. But we should know how to deal with these mundane moral ethics and inculcated model, then reinterpret and transform them adequately. Consequently, we can provide optional culture resources for the construction of modern moral civilization. This is not only a direction for the adaptation of the Daoist ethic with modern society, but also an important problem popular in the academia of the present time and worthy of further study.