The Development And Social Influence Of Taizhou Taoism

Taoism is a native religion, which contributes a lot to many fields of the acient China. These fields included philosophy, literature,art, medicine, chemistry, astronomy and geography. There was not a detailed record about when Taoism came to Taizhou.But it was not suspected that there were Taoism activities in TaiZhou, after Taoism was founded by ZhangJiao in East Han Dynasty.Taizhou stands in the southeast of ZheJiang province, sounded by mountains in threee directions and facing the sea in the esast.The geographical environment of TaiZhou is quite excellent, possesing contious mountains on the northeast, hills and plains on the southeast, with harbors and ilands along the east coast.. There was a saying to describe TaiZhou:seven mountain one water and two fields.A mountain is famed not for its heigh but for its immortals. Taoism advocates nature, and the mountains and rivers were deeply loved by Taoists. Taoism loved people in the acient time always choosed the beatiful and quiet places to live and practise.That became the reason for TaiZhou to be the favourite place for Taoists.During the prevailing time of Taoism, the WeiYu mount in HuangYan, KuoCang mount between LinHai and XianJu, and ChiCheng mount in TianTai were all listed in the ten most famous Taoism resorts.Beside the superior geography conditions, its comfortable climate and rich material resources also attraced the Taoists. Besides all these, there was other reasons promoted TaiZhou's status of Taoism sacred place. One among these was its isolation from political interference. takes a seat in the development of the whole Taoism history in China. This can be proved by lots of famous people and events. These included GeXuan in the Three Kingdoms, TaoHongjing in the Nan Dynasty, Simachengzhen in the Tang Dynasty, Zhangboduan and JinDan faction in the Song Dynasty, Longmen faction of QuanZhen in the Ming and Qing Dynasty.There were many schools and factions in the history of TaiZhou Taoism. They lefted to today a lot of vestiges. What were left by Taoism was not only the materials, but the customs and thinking modes in people's daily life. It was a remarkable chapter of TaiZhou's historical progress.