Study On Zheng Suonan's Taiji Jilian Neifa

The subject, investigated, of this paper is Taiji Jilian Neifa written by Zheng Suonan who lived in the end of Southern Song dynasty and the beginning of Yuan dynasty. This book, Taiji Jilian Neifa, belongs to the text of Taoist ritual, by which Suonan's purpose is to express the deep feelings hidden in his heart. The whole book consists of three volumes:the first is about the expounding of a complete Jilian ritual, and the other two are generally discussing all kinds of Jilian spells at that time. It is not difficult to know Suonan's alternatives and tendencies from the latter two volumes, of which although the styles of writing are different, they all aim to inherit the orthodoxy of ancient Lingbao sect and promote the spreading of posterior Jilian spell. Thus it can be seen that Suonan's arousal of mind is very sincere and heartfelt. To be specific, the configurations of this paper can be divided into four sections:firstly, the author sketches all Suonan's life and thoughts, the general situations of Taoism at that time and the current researches on Suonan in academe as the foreshadowing of this paper. Secondly, I try to systemize the changing process of Jilian spell, which can be considered as a reference for Suonan to study Jilian spell.Thirdly, the author analyzes the ritualistic structure of Taiji Jilian Neifa, in which I attempt to abstract the inner logic of all component elements of Jilian spell. Fourthly, in the wide and complicated historical backgrounds, I synthetically investigate the latter two volumes of Taiji Jilian Neifa in order to tentatively summerize Suonan's thought characteristics, which include three points:Lian inside and Spell outside, combination of three religions, cultivation of essence and life. The author thinks that, the major reason of Suonan's writing this book is his deep feelings about the conditions in that special times, thus Suonan hopes to save the people from great sufferings and release souls from purgatory. As far as Jilian spell itself is concerned, Suonan has gathered together Jilian and the interior elixirs, which exactly reflects the prevalence and prosperity of the interior elixirs after Tang and Song dynasty. On this basis, it is not hard to understand the uniqueness and importance of Taiji Jilian Neifa.