A Study On Du Guangting And His Works

This article is a research on Du Guangting who was a famous Taoist priest in Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Firstly, by means of analyzing Taoist priest Du Guangting and the censor Du Guangting, it makes sure that the man it discusses is the Taoist priest. Then it makes a inspect of some questionable points on his life, such as his style, literary name, his native place and the year of his birth and death. Secondly, the article discusses Du Guangting's works. All his life he wrote over 30 kinds of books, which are in complete in over 270 volumes. It discusses their contents and the origin and the development of their editions so that people can get a basal impression. What's more, it probes into some doubtful questions .At last it sums up Du Guangting's Taoism theory. About understand of Tao, for the first time he stated, "Tao is spirit." On the other way, in order to cater to the ideal of Taoist priests, he considered Most Exalted Lord Lao as the embodiment of Tao. There were also some new contents in his theory of supernatural beings. For example, by means of analyzing the Taoists, he expanded the way to Fairyland. Thus Taoism could gain more followers easily. This is an obvious reflection that in Tang Dynasty Taoism had become more secular than ever .on way of practicing Taoism, he took The Classic of the Virtues of the Tao as the origin and emphasized that people should purify their heart and cultivate themselves through the meditation. Besides, Du Guangting created a system of fair maiden. This system is a rigidly stratified one, which took Shengmuyuanjun as the head and linked with blood relationship. As the spokesman of the ideal of Taoism, they reflected Taoist's pursuit of mercy, kindheartedness and living forever.