The Causes Of The Decline Of The Quanzhen Sect In Ming And Qing Dynasties

At the period of Song and Jin Dynasty,the Quanzhen Sect,a newly developed Taoism,was founded by Wang Chongyang(1121-1170)in Shandong Province,who was born in Shanxi Province.The core thoughts of the Quanzhen Sect is cultivating both Nature and Life,and Nature is prior to Life,which is based on the precondition of consummating Lao-tzu's thoughts—the truth of Quietism,in order to be the true Celestial Being.The foundation of the Quanzhen Sect was about to transform the traditional Taoism,in fact,it had occupied an important position in the history of the development of Taoism.The Quanzhen Sect was developed rapidly in the war,reaching its peak in Yuan Dynasty,but remaining silence in Ming and Qing Dynasty,then falling into decline.It changed that radically,there is much to think about.The reason of the Quanzhen Sect's declining has been analyzed,lying in the government,society and itself these three aspects.The 1st chapter tells the development,the background,the inheritance and the decline process.of the Quanzhen Sect.Based on the research,the 2nd chapter explored the external reason of the decline of the Quanzhen Sect,mainly including the negative attitude and oppressive policy of government,the social development,and the people's psychology.The 3rd chapter is the main part of the paper,mainly analyzing the internal reasons of the Quanzhen Sect in details.First,the doctrines of the Quanzhen Sect is conservative,secular,and oriented;second,the monasticism and the discipline is very strict and out of life;third,there was no master leaders and the quality of the monks were low.There is some research having been done by some other scholar on the reason of the Quanzhen Sect's falling,but only on the external reason of the government and society,the inner reason of its declining is rarely studied.By literature research method,the paper has analyzed the background and development of the Quanzhen Sect,having found the basic reasons of the Quanzhen Sect's declining,which provide an inspiration of the way to explore the rise and fall of a religion.