Study On Nan Huaijin's Taoist Cultivation Thought

Taoism,the China's native religion was created in Han dynasty.Improved and developed by Ge Hong,Kou Qianzhi,Tao Hongjing and Lu Xiujing in Wei and Jin dynasties,Taoism reached its prime in the Tang dynasty.And in that time,the rulers regarded Taoism as a church.The social status of the Taoism creator-- Lao tze was changed from "Lao Jun " to "Great Xuan Yuan Emperor". During that period, the status of Taoists was higher than Confucians and Buddhists. After Tang dynasty, in Song and Yuan period, the Taoism has been kept its brilliant,and at the same time,there are many new branches of Taoism was developed, for example : Shenxiao,Jingwei, Jingming, Quan Zhen,Zhenda,Taiyi and so on,in aspect of academic innovation, an alchemist was created and popularized. However, during in Ming and Qing period, due to the feudal society enters a period of decline, and combined with the central government strengthen the control and management of religious affairs, the Taoism began to decline. The upper Taoism began to be slowly translated into folk Taoism. In the same time,Taoism and Confucianism and Buddhism also slowly in the fusion. And the new folk religion organization such as Huangtian,Hongyang and Bagua etc began to appear. But these folk religions were menace for the ruling class in a long time. So, they were always been suppressed.Since entering modern times, under the impact of western culture of science and technology,Taoism that in terminal decline become more difficult to survive in the long time war. Then suffered the devastation of the cultural revolution, Taoism has lost its glory forever. Therefore,it is a difficult problem for Taoism to survive and develop in today's environment.Nowadays,there are two kinds of Taoism researching people, one is academic team dedicated to Taoism academic theory research, anther one is Taoist practice and research of Taoists. However, in general speaking, there is a deep gap between China Taoism research and abroad. The overall Taoism studies in our country is still in the primary level.So, there is no Chinese representative to attend in the first and second international conference of Taoism studies.Even going around the speech of "Taoism originated in China, but the research center in the west". In nowadays,due to a lack of religious practices,the study of Taoism is difficult for academic team to deeply research the hard core areas. When Joseph Needham written his book science and civilization in China he consulted many scholars and experts who study Taoism. But they all can't answer his doubts about Dan. At the same time, due to the weakness of Taoism, now it is difficult to find a profound guru figure to give guidance.Taoists just given priority to their own practice not in professional academic research. So it is a big difficult to study Taoism.However,Master Nan is an exception. In theory, he is not only familiar with Confucianism, Buddhism,Taoism but also other Chinese traditional philosophy.He is also a senior practitioner of Buddhism and Taoism.It was said that he was the person who answered Joseph Needham's confusion for Dan.Master Nan study Taoism is manly based on the method theory with practice. But he give more priority to practical way at the same time. And in terms of research contents he manly based on Taoism theory such as Laozi, Zhuangzi,Liezi,Zhouyi and Huangdineijing. He added his own practice experience that he accumulated in his years into these books when he explained them. His knowledgeable and earthy humor writing style make his books become the good guide for beginners in Taoism.This article is mainly to study Master Nan's Taoist cultivation thought that also named the research of the practice of Taoism.In term of content,the brief introduction for Nan Huaijin,the primary coverage of Nan's Taoist cultivation thought(including the internal conditions for Taoism practitioners, external factors for the Taoist practice,main methods and principle for the Taoist practice) and the outstanding contributions for Master Nan combining religious thought with contemporary social trends are included.