The Study On The Taoist Temples In The Metropolis

Taoism, the traditional religion in China, together with Confucianism and Buddhism, was once the main stream of Chinese culture. In modern China, Taoism plays an important part in the five religions. Moreover, it still has a great influence to Chinese people. Especially in the folklore, we can its influence everywhere. So at the time being, Taoism is still full of vitality.With the advancement of modernization, the problem of religion and modernization is becoming increasingly prominent, in which Taoism is involved. One of its significant parts is urbanization. In China, Shanghai is one of the most famous metropolises. So I choose Shanghai as a study object, and we can see the relationship between urbanization and religion clearly.After a survey, we can see the history of Shanghai Taoism is not so long compared with those in Jiangsu Province and Jiangxi Province. But after modern times, Shanghai developed greatly and stick to its economic centre of China, thus attracting a lot of religious groups to develop in Shanghai. Meanwhile Shanghai Taoism has showed a more different influence than it used to be. It not only has impact in Shanghai, but also carries out wide-ranging cooperation and exchanges with other countries including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and many oversea countries.In this paper, I think the so-called 'Metropolis Taoism' should have the following four characters. Firstly, Taoism should lie in the metropolis and keeps a friendly relationship with it. Secondly, its development should consistent with that of metropolis, history included. Thirdly, 'Metropolis Taoism' should take part in different affairs of the metropolis and plays an active role. Last but not least, 'Metropolis Taoism' should connect with the metropolis and the oversea believers.Meanwhile we should notice the many problems existing in spite of its good development. This paper points out some problems inharmonious in the process of modernization and urbanization. By my observation and study, I want to draw some reasonable conclusions, hoping to provide some useful information for Shanghai Taoism.