| Summary: | 碩士 === 南華大學 === 宗教學研究所 === 102 === Zhaijiao keyi, commonly called Taoist rites, is a unique ritual of Taoism that has become an important mental habit for people’s life and culture for thousands of years. Growing on fat soil of Chinese sacrificial culture, it absorbs worship ceremony culture of Chinese ancient primitive religion as well as sacrifice of patriarchal clan system, thoughts of Taoist practice and folk customs that are handed down from pre-Qin period. Current rich and comprehensive Taoist ritual (Keyi) model is formed through a gentle evolution of official and folk ways of sacrificing and a summarization by high-level Taoist priests of different generations. Taoist rites can not only embody theological thoughts and philosophic theories but also be practically applied to life and thus affect internal mental level. Taoism advocates morality, privacy, naturality, health maintenance, stable state and home, safeness, benefits to neighbors, and an idea of upholding justice; all these concepts are deeply rooted in people’s mind. Consequently, abundant data about Zhaijiao ritual can be found in historical records, biographies, notes, novels, collected works, poetry anthologies, inscriptions, alchemy and literatures. Zhang Zehong indicated in “Introduction” of “Taoist Belief of Immorality and Sacrificial Ceremony”: “in development of human religion, belief and ritual are always two important scopes. Each religion has a belief in gods and ritual is precisely an action of practicing such belief”. In Zhaijiao ritual, actions for a sacred belief in natural law, humanity and earth law utilize symbolic expression of such ceremony to present people the large group of 3600 Taoist immortals.
This paper is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 explains principle of respecting the god and abiding to ancients, Zhaijiao of Taoism and etiquettes of ancient sacrifice offering ceremony. Chapter 3 gives definitions of “Zhai” and “Jiao” and introduces Zhaijiao Keyi of Taoists. Chapter 4 compares ancient and modern Zhai ceremonies. Chapter 5 draws conclusions.
Chapter 1 is an introduction, which describes main motivations and purposes of this paper, statuses of contemporary people engaged in Zhaijiao Keyi of Fulu Taoist and relevant researchers, investigates values and significance of ancient rituals in modern Zhaijiao Keyi, as well as explains research scope and overall framework of this paper.
Chapter 2 shows that modern Zhaijiao is an extension of “blessing” implied in the principle of respecting the god and abiding to ancients.
Chapter 3 expounds significance of Zhaijiao and evolutionary process of “Zhai first and Jiao later”. It also explains that it’s necessary to abide by precepts and deeply regret for previous mistakes before practicing Zhai and thus to be qualified to host Jiao ritual or show appreciation to the god.
It also summarizes high-level Taoist priests and works that can be traced back to Han, Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Song, Yuan, Ming, etc so as to prove extensive and important contents inherited by nowadays rituals.
Chapter 4 implements a comparison to demonstrate current Zhaijiao Keyi, concepts and rites that are originated from ancient methods, and proposes concrete meanings by virtue of contents, purposes and significance stated by high-level Taoist priests of different generations.
Chapter 5 is “conclusion”, which describes HH research results, generalizes ancient and modern Taoist rites introduced in preceding five chapters, and provides notable points and future prospects to persons engaging in Keyi and those in charge of Taoist temple constructing, repairing and directing.
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