Can a Taoist get married? I believe many Taoist friends and fellow initiates have their own opinions.
The first thing we need to know is: How does Taoism view marriage?
Taoism, as a local religion in China, takes Taoism as its highest belief and takes Yin-Yang and Five Elements as its basic theory. Regarding the concept of marriage, Taoism is not opposed to getting married and starting a family, which has a lot to do with the theory of Yin and Yang. Through the interpretation of Taoist theory of balance of yin and yang, it is not difficult to see that Taoism holds a positive attitude towards marriage.
The early Taoist classic "Taiping Jing" also believes that if there is no marriage relationship, it will inevitably lead to "yin and yang are not connected, which is the only thing in the world." Peng Zu, regarded as the authority of health preservation by Taoism, believes that "a man cannot be without a woman and a woman cannot be without a man" based on human physiological and psychological instinct.
Moreover, many Taoist books have expressed the view that "there is a great relationship between men and women's rooms." Alone yang is not born, alone yin is not successful, and human nature cannot be abolished. " Thirdly, Taoism holds a positive attitude towards marriage.
At the same time, if you want to cultivate immortality, you must cultivate human nature first. Marriage also needs preaching. Imagine Taoist priests hiding in the mountains without getting married. Who will preach in the long run? !
Orthodox disciples can get married and have children for many reasons. However, it must be noted that the same belief and value orientation are the basis of Taoist marriage.
When studying Confucian classics, Taoist priests should be clear about their differences and customs. If they marry a mediocre person in the secular world, they are likely to wander in the turbid world, blocking Taoism, blinding their confidence in learning Taoism and killing their perseverance in monasticism. If there is a huge difference between two people's spiritual world (values), coupled with the gap between Taoist practice and secular life, it is not conducive to maintaining family harmony and happiness. Therefore, Taoism advocates that husband and wife are the same, so that they can make progress together.
Moreover, if both parties can still stick to Taoism and learn Taoism after marriage, they can also make great achievements at home, and husband and wife can join hands with Penglai.
Taoist wedding
Taoist wedding
Fujian Province is located in the southeast coast of China, facing Taiwan Province Province across the Taiwan Province Strait in the east, Zhejiang in the north, Jiangxi in the west and Guangdong in the south. The mountains are surrounded by the sea, the coast is tortuous, and there are many islands in the harbor. There are 1400 bird islands in the province, second only to Zhejiang. Mountainous hills can be divided into western Fujian, central Fujian and coastal plains. The main mountain ranges are Wuyishan and Daiyun Mountain. Minjiang River is the most important river in China. It belongs to subtropical humid monsoon climate, with many typhoons in summer and autumn, and the annual precipitation is about 1500mm. Personally, I think that the influence of such a special geographical environment on Fujian culture can be divided into two aspects. On the one hand, it has inland cultural characteristics caused by mountainous geographical environment; On the other hand, it has the characteristics of marine culture caused by the numerous geographical environments of coastal harbors.
(A) the characteristics of inland culture. The mountainous area of Fujian accounts for 80% of the total area of the province, and it has been known as the "Southeast Mountain Country" since ancient times. Wuyishan in the northwest, Taimu Mountain in the northeast, Boping Mountain in the southwest and Jiufeng Mountain and Daiyun Mountain in the middle. Ancient provinces entered Fujian mainly through Xianxiaguan, Suguan, Chongan fenshuiguan, Fuding fenshuiguan and Zhaoan fenshuiguan. These five customs enter Fujian. These places are very dangerous, so it is not easy to enter Fujian. History records that "Fujian Road is more difficult than Sichuan Road". Furthermore, judging from the population gathering places in Fujian, the river basins are densely populated, such as Pucheng, Wuyishan, Jian 'ou, Shaowu, Shunchang, Youxi, Sanming, Yong 'an, Changting, Shanghang, Zhangping, Dehua, Huaan, Gutian and Pingnan. Therefore, this geographical environment caused traffic congestion in ancient Fujian, and people in different areas were in a relatively isolated state, which mainly affected the culture as follows: 1. For a long historical period (before the middle and late Tang Dynasty), Fujian culture lagged behind the north. Fujian, located in the southeast, was a wild place in ancient times. Backward transportation makes it difficult for the Central Plains culture to spread to Fujian, while the indigenous people in Fujian and Vietnam are relatively backward. At the same time, Fujian's relatively isolated geographical environment is conducive to the formation of different dialects, while different dialects are not conducive to people's oral communication and cultural communication. It has obvious regional and cultural characteristics. Fujian is a big immigrant province. During the Southern Jin Dynasty, the early Tang Dynasty, the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the late Song Dynasty and the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of northern immigrants flooded into Fujian. Different degrees of integration with local aborigines, coupled with inconvenient transportation inside and outside the province, have formed different dialect areas in Fujian, such as Fujian Oriental Dialect Area, Xinghua Dialect Area, Minnan Dialect Area, Northern Fujian Dialect Area and Minnan Dialect Area. In different dialect areas, folk beliefs with local characteristics have been formed. For example, Fujian Oriental dialect area believes in Lady Jianshui and Five Emperors; Xinghua dialect area believes in Mazu; Believing in ancient Buddha in northern Fujian dialect area; Fujian Hakka dialect area believes in the ancient Buddha of Dingguang. Different folk beliefs have also created dramas with local characteristics. For example, there are Puxian Opera, Gaojia Opera and xiang opera. Fujian has a subtropical humid monsoon climate, which is mountainous and suitable for mosquito growth. There are many snakes, and ancient ancestors revered and worshipped snakes, thus forming the totem of snakes. In ancient times, the use of dry column buildings was also related to this climate. According to the distribution of rivers, Fujian culture can be divided into three cultural circles: Minjiang River Basin, Mulan River Basin and Jinjiang River Basin. Therefore, Fujian culture itself has a strong small regional color. 2. Many ancient cultures of the Central Plains have been completely preserved in Fujian. A large number of archaic words are preserved in Fujian dialect. Some common words in ancient Chinese are no longer used or seldom used in Putonghua, but they are still used in Fujian dialect and still have their vitality. For example, the "Ding" in ancient Chinese, that is, the pot in modern Chinese, is still clearly distinguishable in Fujian dialect, and the "face" in ancient Chinese, that is, the face in modern Chinese, is also very easy to distinguish. In many villages in Fujian, there is a tradition of living in groups. The tradition of cohabitation originally originated in the north, but due to historical and geographical reasons, this tradition gradually disappeared in the north. It is preserved in Fujian in the south. The main reasons are as follows: northern immigrants used clans to overcome various difficulties on their way south; Using clans to resist local aborigines; Immigrants in different periods used clans to compete for living space and political interests; The mountainous geographical environment is easy to form a village where people live together. Form a complete neo-Confucianism system. Confucianism is one of the sources of Neo-Confucianism, which was introduced to Fujian with the southward migration after the Han Dynasty. In Song Dynasty, Fujian School, represented by Zhu, reformed Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and built a complete neo-Confucianism system. Folk customs have preserved a large number of ancient customs in the Central Plains. After the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the folk customs of the Central Plains were introduced to Fujian, but they lived in groups because of inconvenient transportation and were quite well preserved. For example, many of the Dragon Boat Festival, Double Ninth Festival and Cold Food Festival in Fujian are imported from the north.
(2) Characteristics of marine culture. Fujian coast is a bedrock coast, with a long and winding coastline of 305 1.02km, ranking second in the country, second only to Shandong province, and the winding rate of coastline is 1:5.7, ranking first in the country. The mountains extend all the way to the seaside, forming a tortuous coast and numerous harbors. There are 125 ports in the province, among which the larger and more important ports are Shacheng Port, Funing Bay, Sansha Bay, Luoyuan Bay, Fuzhou Port, Xinghua Bay, Meizhou Bay, Quanzhou Bay, Xiamen Port, Jinmen Bay and Dongshan Bay from north to south. Shacheng Port, Sandu 'ao, Luoyuan Bay, Meizhou Bay, Xiamen Port and Dongshan Port are the six deep-water ports in Fujian Province. Fujian's harbors are generally deep, with peninsulas and headlands on both sides, forming a situation of "big mouth and small belly", with little wind and weak waves, no icing, less siltation, large harbor area and good cover conditions. The superior geographical environment of a natural harbor, coupled with the inland environment that "eight mountains, one water and one field" is not suitable for farming, has made coastal residents look to the sea. Western Jin Dynasty: The shipping in Minjiang River and Jinjiang River basins has been quite large, and the shipbuilding industry is developed, and the watertight cabin technology of "eight-slot ship" has appeared. Sui and Tang dynasties: the north was shipped to Japan and Korea, and the south was shipped to Southeast Asian countries. Song and Yuan Dynasties: Quanzhou became the "Oriental Port" and the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road. Ming: Zhangzhou Yuegang is becoming more and more prosperous. The development of these overseas trade is reflected in Fujian's strong marine culture.
1, the value of profit. In ancient China, for a long time, the concept of "focusing on the end, focusing on the end" was deeply rooted. However, due to the prosperity of overseas trade and commerce, Fujian's values of valuing righteousness over profit have been seriously impacted. In Song Dynasty, Liu Kezhuang pointed out that Quanzhou was a typical commercial society, which was "only rich in money but not poetry". After the Ming dynasty, it was further strengthened. Li Zhi sighed: "The world is also the best." Business has received great attention.
2. adventurous personality. Ancient navigation and overseas trade are almost a gamble of life, which is very dangerous. Sailing is faced with stormy waves, and ships may be swallowed up by the sea at any time. Therefore, sailors often have to face the test of life and death, which enables them to face all kinds of difficult challenges psychologically and dare to take risks. For example, people in Quannan believe in "three points are doomed by nature, and seven points depend on hard work", especially businessmen in Jinjiang and Shishi. They believe that "young people don't work hard, and old people have no reputation", "if they lose, they lose sweet potato noodles", "strive for money" and "three points of skill and seven points of courage". With the passage of time, this adventurous character developed into a proactive pioneering spirit in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
3. Ignoring moral principles. In coastal families, because men often go out to do business to make a living, women gradually break through the shackles of ethics and go out of their homes. In China, frugality is a virtue of traditional ethics, but due to the development of commercial economy, it has become a fashion to shame the poor and promote the rich in Quanzhou. Great changes have taken place in clothing. For example, the dress before the liberation of Huian in Quanzhou was called "feudal head, democratic belly; Save clothes and waste pants "is very telling.
4. The characteristics of open integration. With the development of commodity economy and overseas trade, the southeast coastal areas of Fujian in Song and Yuan Dynasties treated foreign cultures with an open attitude, especially Quanzhou. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, besides traditional Taoism, Buddhism, nature worship, ancestors and ghosts and gods, there were also Islam, Christian Nestorius, Franciscans, Brahmanism and Hinduism introduced from abroad. Quanzhou has become a "religious museum", which is inseparable from its spirit of integration.
5. Patriotism. The strong and aggressive character of Fujian people is closely related to the primitive clan consciousness. Village fights often occurred in southern Fujian during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Let's not go into the causes of the fighting for the time being, but it seems that it is this unwilling character that can fight back, defend hometown and defend the country in the face of foreign invasion in modern times. For example, in Minnan Cultural Zone, our army fought against the Japanese pirates and successfully recovered Taiwan Province Province, and dozens of overseas Chinese from modern times, Huang, Han Xiqi and so on donated money for their hometown. Another example is that the northern Fujian cultural area is influenced by Zhu thought, and the scholars in northern Fujian pay attention to chastity. At the critical moment of national survival, they advocate honor and loyalty and oppose peace talks. However, in modern times, a group of people with lofty ideals, such as Lin Zexu, Yan Fu and Lin Juemin, have emerged in Fuzhou Cultural District. They have written a series of patriotic chapters with strong patriotism and lofty national temperament.
In a word, Fujian, with its unique geographical environment facing the mountains and the sea, has distinct dual colors of inland culture and marine culture.
Speaking of marriage, in Taoism, there is a saying that "the old man under the moon is destined to respect God"; There are "two immortals of harmony" in charge of the harmony between husband and wife; Xing Jun, the "Hongluan Tianxi", is in charge of the happy event and celebrates together, representing the signal of marriage and tying the knot. At the same time, the Taoist Taiyin emperor, that is, the moon god, "the moon palace is full of phosphorus, the stars are wonderful, the fruits are wonderful, and the moon is sacred" also manages people's marriage problems.