Study On Assimilation Of Zen By South School Of Inner Alchemy Of Taoism

The South-school of inner alchemy is initiated by zhang Boduan in the Northern Song Dynasty. It is accomplished as a Taoist sect in a complete sense by Bai Yuchan,who live in Southern Song Dynasty period. Since then it has grown in strength, and has an conflunence with north-school of Quanzhen during Yuan and Ming Dynasty. The South-school of inner alchemy had a close relationship with Zen thought from the outset and assimilate Zen into Taoism in the cultural trend of "three religions in one". It not only directly take the thought of Zen, but will continue absorb it into the Alchemy, widely involved all aspects of the religious elements,such as Immortal Buddha faith, the Philosophy of Mind, the meditation of Dan and Zen, and monasticism.This article generally include an introduction, five chapters, Conclusion. Study on current situation of academic research on the relationship of Tao and Zen in South-school of inner alchemy were reviewed in the introduction, analyzing the achievements and shortcomings of existing research. On this basis, this paper determines the research content and research methods, namely, using the theory of four elements of religion of Mr. Lv Daji and discussing the South-school of inner alchemy’s assimilation of Zen into Taoism from four aspects.The first chapter mainly introduces the general situation of South-school of inner alchemy and the relationship of Zen and Dan, which are the background of this subject. As an alchemy School of Inner Alchemy, South-school of inner alchemy appears to rise gradually, following Zhong Lv’s alchemy. Beginning with Zhang Boduan’s "Wuzhen Pian" appeared as a symbol, after inheriting and developing by Shi Tai, Xue Daoguang, Chen Nan, Bai Yuchan et, South-school of inner alchemy finally evolved into a mature Taoist sect. The sect had responsed ruler’s syncretism of the three religions cultures, and consciously absorbed, digested, blended with Zen, making assimillation of zen into Taoism become an important feature of the sect. Starting with the attitude towards Immortal-Buddha belief of South-school of inner alchemy, in the second chapter, it is discussed about the borrowing of Buddhist belief,terminology and classic respectively.The South-school of inner alchemy does not simply implement "takeism", but invoke the thought transformation to adopt inner alchemy at the same time, and eventually achieve the confusion and normalization of Buddha and immortal belief. The third chapter discusses the influnence of Zen on the theory of mind-nature, mainly refering to Zen accomplishment of representative of south sect, effects of Zen on Inner Alchemy mind-nature theory, as well as the Ontological theory to reconcile Dan and Zen. The fourth chapter discusses the elements of Zen in evolution of Alchemy, Zhang Boduan’s "Wuzhen Pian" has first put forward the idea of paying equal attention to Dan and Zen,emphasizing Zen as an important study content for Dan scholars. Chen Nan started the evolution of assimilation of Dan and Zen, then,Zen thought is melted into the model of top grade Alchemy,which attatch more view on the mind practice, with obvious style of zen.It even blurs the boundaries between Dan and Zen, ultimately developing the thought of Dan is Zen, Zen is Dan.The fifth chapter focuses on south sect’s system construction, as well as reference, absorption and creative application.to teaching style of Zen institution. South-school of inner-alchemy absorbs the Zen wisdom, invert language, sing assessment, body and function et,which not only inquest student’achievement of Zen, but also Lao-zi, Alchemy, Confucianism, established a confluent study system for Dan and Zen.Finally, the conclusion part briefly analyzes the ideological basis and social conditions of South school of inner-alchemy’s fusion of Taoism and Buddhism, summarized in three aspects:first, both the Taoist "Tao" and Buddhist "Zen " possese the feature of ontology and universality; second, Taoism and Buddhism are very similar in the theoretical expression and religious practice; third, since the Tang and Song Dynasties, syncretism cultural background boost South school of inner-alchemy’s assimillation of Zen. These are also the theoretical and practical basis for the different degrees’assimilation from various religious factors.