Lu Xiujing’s Research On Taoism Academic Thought

Lu Xiujing, as the founder of the southern Tianshi Taoism, is a milestone in the history of Taoism. He organized and transformed the southern Tianshi Taoism, collected and systemized Taoist scriptures actively, formulated Taoist rites, promoted the developing of old Taoism’s reformation and the new Taoism which related to the intelligentsia. Like Kou Qianzhi’s northern Taoism in the northern Wei dynasty, he occupied an important position and produced a far-reaching influence in the history of Taoism.The paper consists of four main parts. The introduction section is a research summary, which includes lateral and vertical academic research review in my subject. It summarizes the related researchful achievements of predecessors about Lu firstly, then it expounds the causes of this topic, research contents and innovations of this thesis.The first chapter introduces Lu’s religious background and personal life. Politically, Liu Song intellectuals and commoners had a heavy contradiction. The commoners who represented by Sun En and Lu Xun, use Taoism to lauch a large-scale rebellion. This mauled Taoism heavily. In addition, Liu Song Dynasty indulged in the witchcraft, which also stimulated the reform of Taoism. As to Taoism culture, the chaos of Taoism theory, some anti-social elements, the rise of Buddhism, the reform is imminent. Aiming at the situation, Lu conducted a fruitful reform.The second chapter discusses Lu’s Taoism thought. It has mainly in three aspects, religious organization, rituals, religious ethics. Lu kept up with the trend of the historical development, argued that the organization form which separated the church from the state, and he put forward a set of effective measures, such as monastic system, meeting system, administration system. He made the “nine lents and twelve methods” in the system, so it had been the standard model of the religious activities and the fan of Taoist rites. On the ethics, in addition to the implementation of “don’t be evil, insist on doing good”, Lu laid emphasis on relieving thought in all kinds of rites.The third chapter elaborates the classification of Taoist scriptures and the thoughts on arranging the documents. Lu, a Taoist priest from South dynasty, collected and sorted out three genres’ scriptures. And he wrote out a book named “the catalog of three dongs” which had 1228 volumes. It is the first bibliography work in the history of Chinese Taoist, and it has a groundbreaking significance. This paragraph explains Lu’s three dongs around the origin, connotation, influence, and the literature thought which was ordered by the origin of factions and the time. Up to now, his taxonomy for Taoism books laid a solid theoretical foundation in our country.The fourth chapter explains Lu’s researches about the literary concept. It includes three following parts. The first point is the beauty of religious rituals. In Taoist rites, there are all kinds of stylized ceremonies. Taoist priests cast charms and spells, they sometimes beats drums, sometimes dances with step yu, sometimes recites the scriptures, in order to produce amazing dreamy scenes and communicate with gods. These activities add imagination for the aesthetic spaces. The second point is Buxu. This is a type of Taoist literature which accompanied by Taoism rituals’ gradually improving. The third point is Lu’s literary view of scriptures. It is the production of the literary style which tended to consciousness during the Wei-Jin era. In Lu’s works, his twelve kinds of Taoist scriptures are reflected the comprehensive literature understanding about styles, especially for the grasp of contents and forms which come from some styles, is completely same to the normal sense of literary style. The final point is the evaluation about the historical value of his Taoism music and calligraphy. Lu had a extremely deep music accomplishment. He had written plenty of Taoism music, and he combined the music with the contemplation, the path of cultivation. At the same time, Taoist magic figures, chapters, scribes, praises were involved in calligraphy, so Lu paid more attention to copy Taoist scriptures by the way of folding the concentration. He is always adhering to the piety of heart.