The Zhenmuwen And Early Taoism During The Han,Jin Dynasties And Sixteen States Period

The Zhenmuwen is a religious burial document that emerged during the reign of Emperor Mingdi of Eastern Han Dynasty,using pottery bottles,lead coupons,and wood chips as carriers.It is an important material for examining society and religion during the Eastern Han Dynasty.Examining its spatiotemporal distribution,it can be found that it is mainly appeared in the Guanzhong of Shanxi,and Henan regions in the Eastern Han Dynasty,as well as in the Hexi regions during the Wei,Jin Dynasties and Sixteen States Period,which were mainly unearthed in the Hexi region.Different temporal and spatial distributions also reflect different social change.The texts of the two periods have different focuses on the content of the text,showing different social history styles,mainly reflected in the differences in text templates,changes in the gods of the tomb,and the reduction of the use of Taoist symbols and drugs.But there is also the connotation of "unchanged" in many differences.In order to achieve the purpose of banishing the deceased and eliminating disasters for the living,they all emphasize the isolation of life and death,respect for the tomb gods,and the use of tomb objects.They all have clear casting purposes,specialized gods,mature spell rituals,and specialized spellcasters.These all reflect that the Zhenmuwen is a mature religious activity.By analyzing the typical content of the Zhenmuwen and combining it with the development of early Taoism,the Zhenmuwen can be regarded as historical relics of early Taoism.Ancient classics with annotation are a special type of the Zhenmuwen,characterized by the character "zhu" in the text.There are numerous the Zhenmuwen,which are of great significance for exploring the relationship between the Zhenmuwen and the society at that time.The concept of "zhu" is related to the "zhu" diseases" in real life,and has developed into a theory of "zhu ghosts" causing diseases in religious activities,which has led to many Taoist explanatory theurgy.The theurgy in funeral activities is the Zhenmuwen.We can link the development of the Zhenmuwen with the theory of "zhu ghosts" and disease treatment,and we can find that the emergence of the Zhenmuwen is closely related to historical religious treatment activities and people’s fear of ghosts and gods.This is not only the reason for the emergence of the Zhenmuwen,but also an important factor in the emergence of Taoism.As an archaeological relic,the Zhenmuwen can supplement historical materials and restore historical facts.By comparing and analyzing the Zhenmuwen with Taoist classics and historical records,we can gain a deeper understanding of the development of early Taoism.From the perspective of theurgy of Taoism,there is a close connection between the Zhenmuwen and Tianshi Dao;From the perspective of the migration of Taoism,it also demonstrates the transmission path of early Taoism from the Central Plains to the south and west.