Xiuzhen
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Xiuzhen (修真) is the principal technique in the Taoist quest for immortality, a historical subject documented since the Yellow Emperor (2697-2598 B.C.E.). The Taoist quest of immortality is supported by many Taoism scholars. [1] The term is derived from a yet undatable map called Xiuzhen Tu or the Chart of the Cultivation of Perfection, which some Taoists say would be nearly as old as the Neijing Tu or the Chart of Inner Warp from the Huangdi Neijing, which outlined the fundamental techniques of Xiuzhen.
Xiuzhen is a knowledge containing alternative biology, ontology and teleology from the perspective of Taoism, and within it complex relations were established among the precepts of yin and yang, wu xing, bagua, I ching, Jing Qi Shen, Jing mai, Shen Xin Yi and karma or causality.
Xiu literally means to practice or to better, Zhen the truth or the ultimate reality. Taken together someone partaking in Xiuzhen is to practice and learn the way of the truth. The term was sometimes synonymous with Xiudao meaning to practice the ways of Tao, or towards understanding the Truth.
Xiuzhen must be practiced in tandem with Xiushen, which is a betterment of one’s conduct based on the principal teachings in Taoism and Confucianism including De.
Historical contexts and myths
One of the earliest recorded emperor was Qin Shi Huang (259 B.C.E.-210 B.C.E.) who with the wrong counsel, sought eternal youth by reputedly sending fleets of virgins off to Japan for this knowledge. Admittedly there had been many unscrupulous daoshi (Taoist practitioners), con-men whom for profit (from followers) or power (as counsel to the throne or the emperor) either had no understanding of the nature of Xiuzhen or intentionally distorted the method to render it exclusive and mythical.
Since the days of the Yellow Emperor, the Taoist's orthodox method prescribed the practice of Xiuzhen, in harmonizing with dao and purification of the Jing Qi Shen. And Taoist practitioners do not claim exclusivity to this quest, in that they believe the meditation from Buddhism and other schools would produce the same result, with souls eventually ending up as purified or as one of enlightened Sheng Fok Xian Zhen.
Also mythologized with this immortalization technique were those associated with waidan, deeds and practices of Fangshi who were able to summon and command the realms with fulu talisman and skills called the Tiangang 36 methods (天罡三十六法) or the thirty-six methods to manipulate the Heaven and the environment , the Disha 72 ways (地煞七十二術) or the seventy-two ways to manipulate the Earth and surroundings, and which were different superhuman skills decreed by heaven onto the specific fangshi. A Taoist guidance book called Tiantang Yiuji explained some of these extraordinary skills in details which included the western alchemy of turning stone to gold, TCM and superhuman feats that no longer exist. Fangshi could be Taoist practitioners and it was their superhuman abilities that scholars generally confuse with the core teaching of Taoism as something akin to superstition or regard as shamanism.
Another prevalent phenomenon was the flourishing of a myriad of branches such as those recorded in Daozang, all claiming legitimacy. This is still happening today. True to the Tao Te Ching (TTC Verse 56), historically authentic practitioners or temples would not stake orthodoxy to flush out these offshoots for power or numbers in the context of organized religion- clarification was just not an agenda, as Xiuzhen is ultimately a self realization. And a potential adherent would need to decide that.
Scholarly myths
Mainstream Taoism scholars apply to their writings on Taoism with a filter, one that is methodical and analytical, with nomenclature pinned to many Taoist terms when none were called for. One went as far as to divide Taoism into categories like contemplative, purposive,[2] and even Hsien .[3] Many specific terms in Taoist teachings take on multiple expressions, like the term Tao can be Wuji, Hunyuan Yiqi, mother of all beings etc; Jing Qi Shen can be Sanqing, Sanyuan, Sanbao and so forth.
Early twentieth century scholars have frequently split Taoism into Philosophical or Folk-religions, that is Daojiao and Daojia.[4] This is but a taxonomy-filter to reference and group practitioners in order to better understand their thoughts in a scientific methodology. Suffice to say the word Jiao or religion (教) did not appear in any classical Chinese literature or Daozang for the concept is foreign. In Tao Te Ching, Taoism was described by Laozi as the Door to Dao, or Daomen (道門), sometimes as Daozhong (道宗). Taoism is the school of Dao, Daojia in brevity. It is not a religion, and Taoist adherents historically never viewed themselves as belonging to one.[5]
And scholars have not treated the subject of Xiuzhen as a serious treatise although many have given lip service to it, like calling it as Hsien-Taoism, or a search for immortality or longevity, in the main regarding it as superstitious for obvious reasons- Xiuzhen can not yet fit into any current scientifically acceptable or biologically sound model, for scholars to deem it as the principal objective of Taoism.
Core Tenets of Taoism
Daodejing (TTC) has been interpreted in many ways in the past two millennia [6], as were classical scriptures like Xishen Jing and Qingjing Jing with applications as wide afield as imperial governance and psychology. Again Xiuzhen or the quest for immortality rarely appeared as the central tenet to Taoism, and possibly it might have alluded scholars that many mystical or cryptic vocabulary or passages in the TTC and the other classics will become intelligible if the immortality template is used.
Xiuzhen and immortality
The nature of Taoist immortality is at the one level a spiritual immortality, where after attainment the purified souls would return to the original state as Yuanling (原靈 or yuanren 原人), one of the original 9.6 Billion original beings from the Mu Gong and Jing Mu in the Chinese creation myth.
The second level is the mythical eternal youth or extended lifespan for the living. In the Taoist fable Laozi himself lived upwards of nine hundred and ninety-six years in his last of thirteen incarnates as Laozi the author of Tao Te Ching, likewise the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors all lived to biologically improbable ages.
In Taoism a parallel objective during the lifespan of a mortal is to attain a state of Xiu Qi Zhi Ping (修齊治平) from Xiushen Qijia Zhiguo Pingtianxia (修身齊家治國平天下), which is a set of progressive nobler tasks to better one’s being, one’s family to enable one to reign a country eventually contributing to world peace. This is expected as the ultimate humanly goal for all Taoist adherents, in parallel with Xiuzhen striving for spiritual immortality. This set of objectives was explained in Confucius' Lichi.
Xiuzhen and values
Taoists believe that lives do not end at death. Depending on the deeds and de (功德) mortals have accrued in their life times, the soul would be subject to a system of rewards and punishment (賞善罰惡), which is applied at death or in Souyuan, the Chinese equivalent of Judgment Day. Within the system the realms are wide ranging, there is a thirty-three layers of heaven for the enlightened or transcended, ten-prisons and 153 wards or jails in hell for the incarcerated, reincarnation in different forms for those neither pure enough to ascend nor too sinful to damnation. The spiritual remains of mortals had and would reside in one of these realms despite of death.
This is also the reason why the Ancestor worship or veneration was widely practiced by the Chinese throughout history from the Taoist’s perspective. The deceased are not seen as dead, but merely passed on from a physical reality to a spiritual realm. Veneration of parents and elders thus continue well after their departure, as part of the filial piety one accords to them.
Other Xiushen conducts like those in De and Deeds, have been passed down and became part of the Chinese culture and Chinese thought.
Divine and Secular Purposes
Taoist look at Xiuzhen from the creator's perspective, that as Yuanling were originally created from Dao, or Wuji, that is Xuanxuan Shangren and then the Five Supremes, these primordial souls or original men belong to heaven. All of these Yuanling should therefore seek and attempt to return to the original realm, to Taiji and to Dao. Many latter day Sift Text dictations revealed this as Attaining One or Attaining Unity (得一),[7] or as Preserving Unity (Souyi) [8] as everything in existence in all three realms (三曹) change and are subject to change, save for the this One or Unity (一), which is the spiritual oneness of ling (靈).
This transcendental concept can also be understood in some of the writings of René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Titus Burckhardt in the Traditionalist School on perennial philosophy and the Primordial Tradition. The differences are, the Traditionalist scholars believed much of that knowledge was lost in the Abrahamic Religions and in Hinduism and induced a cosmology similar to that in Taoism; Taoists believe Xiuzhen is still a current, viable vehicle to achieve spiritual transcendence, and within a cosmology that is still active and alive today.
Taoists' Xiuzhen is, at a secular level, an attempt to learn to be a Sheng Fok Xian Zhen, or to be a saint. It is also an attempt to conserve and coalesce one's energy in Jing Qi Shen to the level of pre-birth, an embryonic state, to reverse life (逆生)[9] as it were. Life in this regard is only a vehicle or a temporal state for any given yuanling, and one which continues to muddy its purity, until the mortal shell realizes the need to reverse the process. And the consequences otherwise, that is to follow the progress of life and death, a mortal would be subject to cycles of reincarnation without hope of returning to the oneness, or the admission to heaven. Xiuzhen to the Taoists is a process to prolong the physical lifespans on earth and which will eventually contribute to a spiritual immortality.
For this admission an adherent or the candidate needs to be a rounded person, one who has the prerequisite of living their life by attaining the minimum benchmark Gongde, or Deeds (功) and De (德) with Three Thousand Deeds and Eight Hundred De (三千功八百德), according to the part of the heavenly merit system loosely called the Jade Principles Golden Script (玉律金篇 see reference link).
Xiuzhen Tu
Both the Xiuzhen Tu and the Neijing Tu were attempts to visualize crucial aspects of the Jing Qi Shen in the human anatomy identifying the Jing mai, the pressure points, various stages of Neidan attainment. Neijing Tu is more picturesque in that the human anatomy is not depicted where as the Xiuzhen Tu is anatomical.
Definitions
- Three Roles and Five Humanities 三綱五常 where the Three Roles means a King would be the role-model for his Minister, a Father be a role-model for his Son and a Husband be a role-model for his Wife 君為臣綱，父為子綱，夫為妻綱; Five Humanities refers to Benevolence 仁, Honour 義,Code/Courtesy 禮, Wisdom 智 and Trust 信, confer Wikipedia chinese, together establish the cornerstones of human relationships.
- Five Tenets and Eight De 五倫八德, Five Tenets refers to that between Father and son, King and minister, husband and wife, among sibling in a family and between friends (父子有親、君臣有義、夫婦有別、長幼有序、朋友有信). Eight De 八德 are Filial Piety 孝, Sibling Piety 悌, Loyalty 忠, Trust 信, Conduct 禮, Honour 義, Integrity 廉 and Humility 恥.
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Creel, Herrlee G. What Is Taoism?: and Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History (Chicago University of Chicago Press 1982). ISBN 0-226-12047-3.
- Fowler, Jeaneane. An Introduction To The Philosophy And Religion Of Taoism: Pathways To Immortality (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press 2005). ISBN 1-84519-085-8.
- Kohn, Livia. Daoism Handbook (Handbook of Oriental Studies / Handbuch der Orientalisk - Part 4: China, 14). (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers). ISBN 90-04-11208-1.
- Maspero, Henri. Taoism and Chinese religion (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press 1981). ISBN 0-87023-308-4.
- Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth of a Religion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997 [original French 1992]) page 103. ISBN 0-8047-2839-9.
- Pregadio, Fabrizio. The Encyclopedia of Taoism. (Routledge 2008).ISBN 0700712003.
See also
- Taoism
- Tao
- Jing Qi Shen
- I ching
- Wu xing
- Chinese folk religion
- Chinese mythology
- Neidan
External links
- Xiuzhen Tu 修真圖
- Xiuzhen Tu 修真圖武當version
- Different versions of Xiuzhen Map
- Xiuzhen Tu 修真圖 explanation by Daoist Association Information
- Xiuzhen Tu History from HK Kam Lan Koon 金蘭觀
- HK Kam Lan Koon 金蘭觀 2003 Annual Report web link(note featured Xiuzhen Tu not included in link)
- Neijing Tu 內經圖 Text & Map
- Neijing Tu 內經圖 HTML Map
- Neijing Tu 內經圖 HTML Map in Colour
- Neijing Tu 內經圖 Text from Daoist Association Information
- A Base explanation on JingQishen from Daoist Association Information
- Definition of Inner Unity from Chinese Taoist page Q&A
- Definition of External Alchemy
- Taoist Canons and Historical Sects
- Tiantang Yiuji 天堂遊記
- Tiantang Yiuji 天堂遊記 in chinese
- Merit System called Jade Principles Golden Script 玉律金篇 (in Chinese Only)
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