Chen Xian-wei's Concept Of Xian-sheng

Taoism is the indigenous religion in China. It regards Long Life and Immortality as its objective and ultimate aim. The man who acquires the Way of Heaven is often called Shen-xian (supernatural being), Zhen-ren (true man), Zhi-ren (perfect man), Sheng-ren (sage). It is infrequent that people use Xian-sheng as the name of immortal man. Xian-sheng was first put forward by Master Lie. From then on, the Taoists always mentioned Sheng-ren in their works. In their eyes, Sheng-ren is another way of saying Xian-ren. Consequently, we can use Xian-sheng as the substitute of Xian-ren or Sheng-ren.The reason why I use Xian-sheng as a replacement is not to try to behave uniquely. I just want to make it different from the Sheng-ren in Confucianism. Chen Xian-wei was a Dao Shi in Nan-song Dynasty. When he created his book "Subaudition of True Scripture of Wen Shi", the Neo-Confucianism was in his rapid development. The concept of Sheng-ren in Neo-Confucianism was dominating in the academic realm. So I adopt "Xian-sheng" to show that Chen Xian-wei 's concept of Xian-sheng not only assimilated the distillate of Neo-Confucianism, but also have the Taoism's characteristics.This paper which talks about Chen Xian-wei's concept of Xian-sheng is composed of six parts.In the Introduction part, I explain the reason for choosing this topic, and the significance of my paper.Chapter One introduces Chen Xian-wei and his works, including the culture background of his times, which influenced his concept.Chapter Two discusses the foundation of Chen Xian-wei's concept of Xian-sheng. This section argues that the traditional concept of Taoism's Xian-sheng is the culture source of Chen Xian-wei's concept of Xian-sheng, while Dao is the philosophy foundation. Chapter Three introduces the main idea of Chen Xian-wei's concept of Xian-sheng, including the quality of Xian-sheng, and the feature of the Concept of Xian-sheng in given times.Chapter Four talks about the methods what Chen Xian-wei offered to pursue Dao and to be a Xian-sheng.The last part of this paper is the conclusion which expatiates Chen Xian-wei's influence on the elucidation of "True Scripture of Wen Shi".