A Study Of The Relationship Between Taoism And Political Power In The Tang Dynasty

Taoism gained the status of the religion for imperial use to some extent when the royal family of Tang Dynasty established the authority of giving orders in the name of the descendants of Laozi.Taoism was strongly supported by the Li government in the whole tang dynasty,which was the consensus of historians.Perhaps because the relationship between Taoist and imperial authority is too close and friendly,it is inevitable for historians to generalize.In fact,there are contradictions between the Taoist tradition and the State Administration in the Tang Dynasty,and disharmonious factors between the two sides in the political and religious relations.Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties,Taoism has gradually established the development mode of Taoist Temple with the strong support of secular government.Under the influence of this trend,it is the general trend for Taoists to live together and Practice.However,in the classic Taoist literature,the hidden mountain and forest cultivation tradition,which was mostly seen in the Northern and Southern Dynasties,was still recognized in Taoism;In the Practice of Taoism,there were many Taoists who practiced this tradition.The different views of the way of practice constitute the contradiction between the secular regime and the tradition of Taoist.In terms of the authority of the use of temples,there is a big contradiction between Taoism and the regime,which is mainly manifested in the different positions of the secular behavior.A remarkable feature of Taoist temples in Tang Dynasty is its openness.Secular people and religious practitioners can live together.However,from the perspective of maintaining political stability,this kind of mixture of saints and customs is potentially dangerous.Duty is the reason,the secular countries continue to make efforts to clean up the Taoist Temple.But Taoism did not actively seek change.On the contrary,they try to maintain the holy authority of the religion as much as possible in the context of the holy and profane;and show their determination of Taoism to accept secular mortals.The phenomenon that Taoist disciples violate the management policy of national religious personnel constitutes the specific connotation of the conflict between Taoism and the state.In view of the frequent appearance of religious forces in the change of dynasties and political struggle,the government of Tang Dynasty restricted the daily communication and behavior of Taoist personnel:strictly forbidding the Taoists to contact with the secular mortals;the government tries to deprive the Taoists of the traditional habits of the long-standing medical and divination techniques.However,facing the constraints imposed by the secular regime,Taoism has never shown a submissive position.There are also contradictions between Taoist temple and secular regime in the process of developing economic power.The government of Li and Tang Dynasties granted land to the Taoists,ennobled them and award them.The above economic resources provide the basic material basis for the development of Taoism.Taoism has gradually grown into a powerful economic entity through extensive participation in secular economic activities.Taoism's massive possession of land and population resources caused serious dissatisfaction of the state power.Whereupon,the administrative attack against the economic forces of Taoism has followed.However,the need for the existence of real temples and the support of economic ethics in Taoism add great courage to the temple against state power.In order to strengthen the control in the ideological field,the Tang government launched a call to salute to the emperor and the elders in the early Tang Dynasty.However,Taoism has always failed to cater to the claim of the secular government,because the Taoist literature has set up its own value system of loyalty and filial piety that is different from the secular value orientation and is full of religious meaning.With the growing state power during the Kaiyuan years,like Buddhism,Taoism chose to submit to secular ethics.However,the new tradition seemed not to be fully accepted as an acknowledged practice standard within Taoism.