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Testing times for Taoists
A Quanzhen Taoist at temple on Mount Lao, 30 kilometers from the sub-provincial coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong Province. The highest coastal mountain in China at 1,133 meters, Mount Lao is known as one of the birthplaces of Taoism. AFP
The Taoist hermits rode the clouds, teleported through space and were once worshipped across the nation for their extreme pursuit of ultimate freedom.
Yet the attractive philosophy of the ancients can sometimes seem somewhat out of step with modern cravings for conspicuous consumption.
Even those who choose to separate themselves from the manmade material world soon find they must face challenges from the corrosive aftershocks of reform and opening-up.
Testing times
Taoist nun Liu Chongyao speaks at an authorization ceremony for religious activities at Youminguan, a Taoist temple in eastern Beijing on August 7, 2008.
Youminguan's regular 10 or more priests prospered here, benefiting considerably in the 16th century from the old Grand Canal connecting Beijing to Hangzhou.
Nun Liu Chongyao of nearly 30 years took over the second-largest Taoist temple of eastern Beijing in 2007 after its rebuilding in 2004. Since the Beijing Religious Affairs Bureau permitted her nunnery in August last year, Liu has had regular reasons to ponder the trade-off between seclusion and survival. She must grapple with an inconvenient truth that her religion needs money to drive forward.
She has two disciples in the 1.6- acre temple. In the old days, free food and housing was all anyone needed, she says, but nowadays some would-be nuns will inquire about the monthly salary first. Nearly all the priests and nuns have mobile phones and are saving for a computer.
Liu often tries to talk teenage girls out of a nun's life. She fears they will fall astray as temple life comes under assault from the temptations of rampant secular materialism.
"Some people say religion should keep pace with the times like Shaolin Temple Abbot Yongxin, who revitalized the economy and Buddhism,"Liu says. "But I'd rather go back and return to original simplicity."
'Wicked priests'
There are two major schools: Quanzhen in North China and Zhengyi in South China. Compared with Quanzhen school , Zhengyi school will perform the rituals and therefore form a closer connection with society.
Yuan Ningjie, 22, a believer from the Zhengyi school, has traveled all over China visiting renowned masters in Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces of southern China. He said he met wicked priests and cheats, and doubted the Taosim legacy. He worried some Taoist priests can fall into womanizing or corruption.
Tao Guanjing, 27, a lay Taoist of the Zhengyi school from Beijing. He said the Zhengyi school ceased being a spiritual pursuit but instead became an occupation. The priests would go to the temple at office hours wearing robes but take them off when they were off-duty.
New breed
Priests chant at the traditional Taoist ordination ceremony on the 25th of the second lunar month, birthday of Taoism's founder Laozi, in Lüzugong, downtown Beijing.
On the ninth day of the Chinese New Year, 30 Taoist priests gather at Lüzugong Temple, a Taoist temple in downtown Beijing, to celebrate the birthday of the Jade Emperor. Chang Gaolu is among them, a 26-year-old successor to a 1,800-year-old religion.
He entered Taoism at 19, after an illness was cured by a Taoist priest's prescription in his hometown in Shandong Province. He was coming down a Taoist mountain from a holy place one day when he burst into tears asking himself, "Why didn't I become a Taoist earlier?"At 22, the Taoist became manager of a Taoist temple in northeast Pinggu district of suburban Beijing.
He explained that Taoist teaching is rich and occult, transcending the material world. It embodies traditional Chinese thinking, the Book of Changes, martial arts, alchemy and feng shui. Usually he meditates, chants or studies the classics at temple. Although secluded, the Taoists study modern knowledge. "I log onto the Internet to check the news, such as the Winter Olympics. It's important we keep up with the times,"he says.
Alleged decline
Since 2003, the Chinese Taoist College has been open to priests and nuns to earn an associate or master's degree in temple management.
There are more than 5,000 Taoist temples and 50,000 Taoist priests and nuns on the Chinese mainland by 2007, according to the Chinese Taoist Association.
Religious policy and management is good in China,Taoist nun Liu says. The problem to her mind is a lack of proper practitioners. In her opinion, Taoist temples abound, but Taoist priests or nuns aren't so easy to find, unlike the Buddhist nunnery on Wutai Mountain that attracted more than 300 nuns to live at temple and follow monastic rules. Taoism's image is tarnished, in comparison with its imported rival.
Taoism is declining, believes the well-traveled Yuan. "No one has been able to arrest its decline since its peak in the middle of the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644)," he says. Perhaps it is their individuality that makes Taoists so slow to unite. Sects refuse to obey each other, he says. A revival would depend on an overhaul of the education system, Yuan believes."If only Taoism could attract a better class of believers – true intellectuals – that might conjure some hope."
Government policy
The government in late 2007 launched a scheme to build up groups of religious workers who are politically reliable, knowledgeable and morally convincing.
"We should help and guide them to strengthen their self-supporting capabilities, improve self-management in accordance with the law, reflect the wishes of believers, and earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of religious community,"said President Hu Jintao.
Temples are encouraged to finance themselves by selling incense, running stores or restaurants.
The faithful are forbidden to conduct "superstitious activities disrupting social order or endangering people's physical and mental health".
Most temples can get by on donations, says a director of the Beijing Taoist Association who requested anonymity. "Priests usually earn 500 to 1,000 yuan a month,"he says. Since 2008, Taoist priests have been qualifying for certificates from the local Taoist association, according to a document from the Chinese Taoist Association. The certificate provides proof of a priest's identity and recognition of their beliefs, the director says.
From Global Times
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