A Study Of The Daoist Monasteries In Pre-Tang Dynasties

Daoguan, the Daoist Monastry, is not only a religious building, but also a reflection of particular forms of organization and activity of Daoism. The emergence of Daoist Monastries presented a great transformation of Daoism in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. From then on, the Celestial Masters Daoism began to lift the control over its grass-roots believers. The priest Jijiu who once lived in local society now turned to be cenobitics living in Monastries. Furthermore, they did not charge the believers for religion taxation any more, but relied on voluntary donation and religious service incomings. This transition occurred in the Heavenly Master ecclesia of southern and northern area spontaneously in the middle of the5th century. It was the continuation of Kou Qianzhi and Lu Xiujing’s reform on the ecclesia and showed the tendency of religion nationalization. The Daoist Monastcim finally replaced the Jijiu system, and turned into an official religion like Buddhism in Tang Dynasty.In this sense, Daoguan was at the center point of the Daoist transformation in Medieval China. Comparing with the fruitful researches in Buddhist Monastricism, there are few works focusing on Medieval Daoist Monastcism. This paper makes the Daoist Monastries in pre-Tang Dynasties as the object of study and inspects primary questions in the history of Daoist Monastcism with textual research in detail.This paper includes two main parts. The former part is "The History of Daoist Monastries in pre-Tang Dynasties",and the latter is "A Compilation of Daoist Monastries in pre-Tang Dynasties".Chapter I discusses the definition of Daoist Monastry. Not all Daoist places or space of practice could be called a Daoguan. The typical Daoguan was an architectural complex with a Tianzun Dian as its axle centre in which lived a group of celibacy Daoists. They separated themself from social life, lived in a Daoguan, pursured particular religious disciplines and practiced together. Daoguan was not personal property, but joint property of all cenobitics living in it. Many world religions had the same structure, commonly known as the "Monasticism". The Daoguan first appeared in the mid5th century and then flourished in the South-East region.Chapter II elaborates the historical background of the emergence of Daoguan. In the early period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the imperial power revived and began to control every kind of entrifugal forces, including the Heavenly Master ecclesia. The leaders of ecclesia were conscious of the predicament, and tried to reform. Driven by this idea, Lu Xiujing and Kou Qianzhi left their dwell sites in the mountains and went to the capital, and tried to make the ecclesia compatible with the regime. The effct of this endeavor was the establishment of the earliest Daoguan.Chapter III elaborates the origin of Daoguan. Based on the study of comparative religion history, we may find out that like Monasticism in Christianism and samgha in Buddhism, Daoguan was also originated from anchorite tradition. At first, the anchorite in the north lived in grottoes or soilpits in mountains, and then more and more anchorites gathered in and began to build a better residence. Finally, the earliest Daoguan made its appearance.Chapter IV elaborates the statistics, layouts, facilities, organizations, members, economic incomes and religious activities of Daoguan, and tries to make an overview of Daoist Monastries in pre-Tang Dynasties. We may find88Daoguan in historical records, most of them in the Jiangdong area, especially in mountains. The central building of Daoguan is Zhaitang. The members of the Daoguan included Guanzhu and his disciples. The incomings of Daoguan included voluntary donation, agricultural production and religion service.The last part of this paper is a compilation of Daoist Monastries in pre-Tang Dynasties. By thoroughly checking existing literature, we are able to provide a complete list of Daoguan in historical records with textual criticism to every Daoguan. In addition, there is one chapter focusing on the Jiuxi Zhenren Sanmaojun Stele.