Taoism's Rural Dojo

Taoism is an indigenous and inherently Chinese religion that holds the highest belief in the way of immortality. It teaches believers the way of immortality by using the immortals to persuade them to live long and become immortal through the cultivation of health and morality, and ultimately to free themselves from death and seek eternity. From the very beginning of its formation, Taoism has engaged in or participated in funerals. The Chinese emphasize the importance of nourishing life and sending off the dead, and require that this be expressed through certain rituals, mainly to give peace to the spirits of the dead, while at the same time to separate people from ghosts, so that the shadow of death no longer hangs over the living, and to ensure the peace of the living. At the same time, the ancients attached great importance to the spirits of the dead to be able to go to heaven and be with the gods and ancestors. Early Taoist sects were mainly active in folklore, so participation in folk funerals was almost a matter of course. For example, the lifting of the tomb door (a ritual performed for the tomb of the deceased to separate the ghosts from the humans and also contains the function of suppressing the tomb) and the lifting of the re-linking (so that the bad luck and bad luck that caused the death would not interfere with the living), were all regular activities. Later on, the connotation of funerals gradually emphasized the theme of filial piety. It was emphasized that the Taoist priests would perform the rituals so that the dead could ascend to heaven as soon as possible, and so that the deceased ancestors could be released from their suffering in the underworld as soon as possible.

The local Taoism is a kind of Taoist funeral, commonly known as "do Taoist", its specific formation in the local era and origin is not known, 1949 before the liberation of the very prosperous, in the temple and the farmers' homes often perform, as a kind of ritual activities or mourning the dead. The preacher's family ancestral Taoism, his grandfather, father and brother are Taoist priests, the Republic of 22 years (1933), he was formally engaged in doing Tao.

The Taoist funeral has a fairly complete ritual, although many folk elements have seeped into the folk implementation. The local preacher's ancestral Taoism, belonging to the Zhang Tianshi Zhang's school, has the ancient Taoist legacy, but also has the ancient art of preaching, the family has ancient paintings of the "Three Ancient Bodhisattvas", ancient clothes and robes, equipment for doing the dojo, and ancient books of Taoism passed down from family to family, and so on. When doing Taoist ceremonies, Taoist priests wear various kinds of robes and do Taoist melting, blowing, pulling, playing and singing (chanting sutras: Taoism believes that chanting sutras is of great merit, and chanting sutras for the dead can make them free from the suffering of the netherworld as soon as possible. In the funeral rites, the classics often recited are the "Man's Sutra", "Jade Emperor's Sutra", "Three Officials' Sutra", etc.) in one, the tunes are all ancient heredity, the actors sing in a high-pitched and bright voice, and their recitation is in the local dialect, with the contents of specialized Taoist books. To "untie the knot" (a form of dojo), by the two perform "lyrics", sung by the Changxing local ditties clear, melodious. In the dead after 12:00 a.m. when the coffin, the Taoist priests perform "turn free", the action from slow to fast, accompaniment from light to heavy, from scattered to tight, very wonderful. "Treading gossip" is another form of dojo, Taoist priests flexible movements, reading humor, singing voice. Do Dojo accompanied by musical instruments are reed, flute, xiao, erhu, Qin Qin, suona, Dudu board, gongs, drums, etc., the performance content and music are richer.

These practices are mainly intended to fulfill the filial piety and charity, and also to bring a sense of security to the family and relieve the psychological shadow brought by the death of a loved one.