The Study On Tan Yangzi And Taoism Belief In Late Ming Dynasty

Tan Yangzi was a woman Taoist during the Wan Li period,and she lived to be twenty-three.Tan Yangzi learned Taoism from the age of 17,and On September 9th,the year of Wanli,she flew up to heaven before 100,000 people.During the Wanli period,there are famous literati,such as Wang Shizhen,Wang Xijue,Tu Long,Feng Mengzhen and others competed to worship Tan Yangzi as a teacher.In order to spread her deeds,Wang Shizhen wrote a biography of more than 10,000 words——The biography of master Tan Yang.The biography was spreaded widely and it caused great controversy,and court officials used it to impeach Wang and Wang Xijue.The biography of Master Tan Yang also aroused a lot of suspicion among the literati.Since then,the deed about "false Tan Yang" happened and arouse debate among the public.Besides Tang Xianzu wrote The Peony Pavilion,and people assume that Tan Yang is the prototype of The Peony Pavilion.The people who lived in Qing Dynasty still paid much attention to the relationship between Tan Yangzi and the Peony Pavilion.Tan Yangzi had an important influence on women and Literati in Ming Dynasty.Tan Yangzi claimed to be the reincarnation of Tan Luan in the southern and northern dynasties,and Tan Luan advocated the integration of three religions.Tan Yangzi's thought is mainly "TanDan",and he founded the religion of Dan.Because of the bondage of ethics,women's monastic practice in the Ming Dynasty was often confined to the Taoist temple or the family,and the range of religious activities was narrow.However women's participation in religious activities has increased with the rising of female Taoists like Tan Yang.Wang Xijue and Wang Shizhen,as the closest disciples of Tan Yangzi,under the influence of Tan Yangzi,moved into the Tan Yang temple after becoming immortal and devoted themselves to monasticism.Many literati and officialdom followed Tan Yangzi.The reasons why they followed Tan Yangzi on the on hand is in order to fulfill his desire to become immortal,and on the other hand,with the matter of Zhang Juzheng contending for love.These scholars themselves were well versed in Taoist doctrines and advocated the integration of the three religions.Under the efforts of Wang Shizhen and Wang Xijue in building and spreading the three religions,they eventually came under the Tan Yangzi school for reasons of political stance,emotional factors or religious beliefs,Tan Yangzi has also became an important link for the cohesion of the masses.The incident of Tan Yangzi rising to immortality is the embodiment of the development of the literati religion and folk religion in the Ming Dynasty.The policy of Taoism in the early Ming Dynasty had two sides,and with the rising of the status of Taoism,from the emperor to the Literati and officialdom,they made friends with the Taoists and pursued immortals.On the one hand,scholars seek Tao out of religious belief,on the other hand,in order to achieve a balance between being out of and joining the world.The rapid development of the literati religion in the late Ming Dynasty accelerated the process of the integration of the three religions.In the Ming Dynasty,the immortal Taoism gradually became secular,and the emperor put the Taoist priest in the important-position,and the Taoist priest went into the people at the same time,which promoted the development of folk religion.In the Ming Dynasty,the fusion of folk religion and Taoism was accelerated,and the planchette writing was popular among all classes,including Tan Yangzi.Due to the influence of the divination of Long Sha,Tan Yangzi had a high prestige among the literati and the people,and became a female master with 100,000 followers.The three-dimensional image between Taoism and the Society of the late Ming Dynasty will be revealed by a comprehensive study of Tan Yangzi,women,lterati,officialdom,and religious belief.