Taoism In The Female Immortal Cohort Study

Tang Dynasty was an important period of development of Taoism, fairy groups in this period also expanded much. Fairies Collections in Yong Cheng summarized all things of fairy beliefs in previous dynasties and laid the foundation of aftertime scale of fairies. The Real Spirits of Every Dynasty in Yuan Dynasty mostly elaborated the overall lineup of fairies, so it is the main study of this thesis. According to the quantitative analysis of statistics and literatures, this thesis generally illustrated the types of fairy groups and analyzed the situation of fairies beliefs in Tang Dynasty. This thesis relates to the following:Firstly, this thesis discusses the types of fairies of Taoist. It mainly studies the fairies in The Real Spirits of Every Dynasty and introduces the development of Taoist fairies. According to different figures, this chapter divides Taoist fairies into three types: the highest level fairies of Taoist,Taoist nuns and monastic females,folk wizardry fairies. Aiming at the fairies of Shangqing Daoism, the thesis analyses the Shangqing fairies listed in The Real Spirits of Every Dynasty.Secondly, the thesis describes the beliefs of Taoist fairies in Tang Dynasty. The contents of fairies in the society have longevity, eclosion, rain begging, child begging, delivering the babies and so on. The thesis also discusses the change and succumbs of Taoism to the folk beliefs in the examples which Taoism obeyed to the beliefs of goddess of the moon and brought silk goddess to the fairies list. There are many characteristics of faith, but the thesis just checks the causes and regional characteristics.Thirdly, the thesis concludes the flourishing causes and infections of Taoist fairy groups in Tang Dynasty. The prosperity of Taoist fairies in Tang Dynasty has internal and external causes. The internal causes consist of activities of female practitioners, fairies of the female Taoists, prosperity of Shangqing Taoism in Tang Dynasty and so on. The external causes consist of wind of becoming fairies in society, the frequent exchanges of Taoists and scholars. The activities of Taoist fairies beliefs had an impact on the Tang society, it brought the Taoism fancy of the Tang females and had an impact on the scholars of the day.In the final conclusion, this thesis is the special study of Taoist fairy groups in Tang Dynasty. We can see the development and beliefs of Taoism in Tang Dynasty through illustration and analysis of fairy groups.