Taoist Precepts Of Research With The Traditional Social Order

Religion only exists in specific cultures and societies. During different historical periods, it not only has a close relationship with the formation of the social order, but also is one of the factors driving social transitions. In the evolution from prehistoric societies to ancient ones, religion's direct effect on the political field gradually weakened. At that time, its social influence was primarily embodied in an ethical dimension. The same was the case with Chinese Daoism. Chinese Daoism is the result of the rationalization of primitive religion in ancient Chinese society. During its historical development, Daoism not only regulated the internal life of Daoist communities by the establishment of a sacred cosmos, but also influenced family ethics, socio-economic ethics and the legal systems of secular society. It participated in the social control system profoundly and became one of the factors that affected the traditional social order. In this thesis, I study the important functions of Daoist ethics in the construction and control of the social order in traditional Chinese society by making use of the theories and methods of religious sociology and history and taking Daoist precept as a significant source of information.Daoist precepts germinated during the period of late Han dynasty and Wei dynasty. Prehistoric religious ceremonies provided some of the primary material for its ideas. In particular, the concepts and precepts (jie 诫/戒) in the Taiping jing 太平经 and Xiang'er zhu 想尔注 were its direct sources. Tianshi dao 天师道 (Way of the Celestial Masters) and Taiping dao 太平道 (Way of Great Peace) both applied certain community rules and precepts. As an important means of the reform of Daoism, Daoist precepts were greatly developed during the period of Jin and Six Dynasties. Ethics became increasingly mature, and the status of Daoism was finally established. Its classics became abundant, and the systematic compilation of its texts was first initiated. From the Sui to the Yuan, Daoist precepts had a tremendous development. The systematic collection of older precepts was completed. With the emergence of the new Daoist sects, many precepts with new forms and content were created, such as morality books (shanshu 善书), registers of merit and demerit (gongguo ge 功过格) and temple rules (qinggui 清规). During the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Daoist precepts developed into a period of stabilization and summation again. They...