Bo-side Taoist Thought

The ultimate care for life almost runs through in all philosophy and religion schools. Compared with other religions, Taoism has a very prominent characteristic, namely demonstrating the " word " through various magic arts. Of the arts which used in Taoism, making pills of immortality possesses the utmost importance. According to the history of Taoism, the inner cinnibar art made a breakthrough from Tang Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty. In that time, Zhang Bo-duan was outstanding with his book Wuzhenpian, which layed a foundation for later theories of Taoism.Zhang Bo-duan (983 - 1082 ),whose nickname is Pingshu modified as Yongcheng later, was also called Ziyang and born in Linhai county, Zhejiang Province.There were many arguments on who was Zhang Bo-duan's teacher. Bai Yu-chan, living in Southern Song Dynasty, declared that Zhang Bo-duan's teacher was Liu Hai-chan and built a genealogy : while Weng Bao-guang , Zhang Bo-duan's disciple's disciple, indicated that Old Gentleman Qingcheng had imparted the method of making pills of immortality to Zhang Bo-duan; Someone else thought Zhang's teacher was True Man Xihua , and some contemporary scholars simply regarded this question as a false question, declaring that Zhang Bo-duan hadn't have any teacher. According to what mentioned above ,it is possible that Old Gentleman Qingcheng was Zhang Bo-duan's teacher, and he should get in close touch with Liu Hai-chan, or he himself was Liu Hai-chan .Zhang Bo-duan's thoughts on Taoism was mainly embodied in his book Wuzhenpian written with poetry, complimentary address and other forms , which summed up the orthodox secrets of the inner cinnibar art before Song Dynasty and became a famous book inheriting the past and ushering in the future in the Taoism history. Besides Wuzhenpian , Zhang Bo-duan's works included Four-hundred Words About Inner Cinnibar , Qinghua Secret Composision , and The Cassic of EightVeins etc.Zhang Bo-duan's thoughts on Taoism was deeply influenced by The Cassic of Morals and The Cassic of Yinfu. What's more, it was mutually related with the book Zhouyi Cantongqi and the inner cinnibar art of Zhonglv closely. According to the history of making pills of immortality, there was a process in which the arts of the outerdecreased and the inner cinnibar increased. Zhouyi Cantongqi , regarded as classics jointly by the arts of the outer and the inner cinnibar , was gradually well-known in Sui and Tang Danasty . Based on the art of the inner cinnibar, Zhonglv developed the theory of Zhouyi Cantongqi and founded the unique school of Taoism . Zhang Bo-duan succeeded Zhonglv's theory and transformed Zhouyi Cantongqi so that he could make Taoism of the inner cinnibar completely ripe .Taoists before Zhang Bo*duan often assumed the necessity and urgency of making pills of immortality as a matter of course and need not demonstrate specially .While Zhang Bo-duan showed life and death to everbody .persuading people to make pills of immortality so to live long.After emphasizing the necessity and urgency, Zhang Bo-duan inquired into the possibility of becoming an immortal by making pills of immortality .Since becoming an immortal didn't equal to keeping healthy, there should be some transcendental foundation .Then Zhang Bo-duan turned to Laozi's theory on the "word" and Zhouyi.'s theory on Yin-Yangi regarding them as his inner-cinnibar Taoism's basis .According to Wuzhenpian , Four-hundred Words About Inner Cinnibar, Qinghua Secret Composision and the successors' annotation , Zhang Bo-duan's art of making pills of immortality included four steps:The first step was laying a foundation ,which meant recovering the body's function so to go in for more difficult art. Zhang Bo-duan explained " Xuanguan "and eight veins detailedly .criticizing those who regarded " Xuanguan " as certain position of body .He also emphasized the importence of YmqiaoVein.The second step was "smelting Jing into Qi" , also called "one-hundred-day barrier". Zhang Bo-duan differentiated innate " Jing-Qi-Shen " from postnatal ones and summarized the method of "smelting Jing into Qi" as "picking" , "sealing" , "smelting" and "stopping" . In other word ,after being sent into the pubic region below ,Qi was sealed, and then went upon to the top of the head through Du Vein. At last, it came back into the pubic region below again. The whole process was called one Small Zhoutian, and the process must stop as soon as running 300 times Small Zhoutian.The third step was "smelting Qi into Shen", also called "ten-month barrier" . Zhang Bo-duan summarized the art of "smelting Qi into Shen" as "three creams assembled on top of the head" and "heaven and earth blended" .It meant Qi wasmoistened in between the middle pubic region and the pubic region below after running Big Zhoutian .About the opportune moment to running Big Zhoutian , Zhang Bo-duan said little .Maybe Wei Yao comprehended the main idea.The fourth step was "smelting Shen into Emptiness", also called "nine-year barrier" . Zhang Bo-duan concluded the art as "process Of making bodiless lacquerware" and "shape and Shen both fine",which meant the inner cinnibar went out of body and resulted in emptiness after it was sent to top of the head .Besides arts of making pills of immortality, the relationship of practising Xing and practicing Ming and the relation of Confucianism .Buddhism and Taoism were also the important contents of Zhang Bo-duan 's Taoism thought .He advocated practicing Ming first and practising Xing second , regarding the doctrine of Xing and Ming as a joint point of the three religions .In spite of praising Dhyana's " free from care and nature manifesting itself" highly, Zhang Bo-duan's basic viewpoint showed no difference to the principal aim of Taoism .The influence of Zhang Bo-duan's thoughts was profound and lasting in the history of Taoism .A colossal faction of Taoism ,which was called Southern Sect, was established after Zhang Bo-duan's passing by.At the same time , Zhang Bo-duan's thoughts about inner cinnibar spreaded widely.