The Research On Female Taoist Image In Tang Poems

Tang Dynasty is a time when the Taoism has reached its golden age and witnesses the most glorious period of composing poetry. During this stage, with the continuing promotion of national worshiping Taoism police, Taoist architecture was built and the great Taoists came forth successively, with the congregation reaching the peak since its founding in the late Han Dynasty. The female Taoist priests of Tang Dynasty emerged in the prime times of the Taoism, seeing the substantial increase of the members and becoming a special group at that particular time. This group then drew lots of attention from poets and many poems were composed with themes based on them.The title of “The female Taoist priests” appeared somewhere ranging from late Southern Dynasty to Sui Dynasty. Till Tang Dynasty, this title has established itself as a formal appellation, which was written into ancient codes and records. The poets gave a rich and detailed description to the female Taoist priest, with both the honorable princesses and the humble civilian prostitutes involved in the poems. Scattered among them are those nuns who were devoted to the religion, far away from the earthly world and those enlightened priests who were miraculous and secretive, becoming immortals and also those semi-prostitute-type who indulged themselves under the guise of priests and were attached to earthly love.With the changes of the social environment and the secularization of Tang Dynasty Taoist, from the late Tang Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, poets gradually broadened their horizons, with their perspectives shifting from a few specific priest figures to the public priests of lower class. This trend further enables the priest image to be civilian and secular. Through these images, different mentalities of poets in Tang Dynasty can be seen vividly and clearly, among which are the yearning for freedom and longevity, the desire for romantic love and the pursuit for fame and career.