Page 148 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

108 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I

strove to recast the local cults they supported (and which supported them) in
a Taoist light.
Taoist institutions. Taoist temples and shrines may therefore be divided into
two broad categories: Taoist institutions, and the temples and shrines of local
saints that were integrated into a Taoist liturgical and theological framework.
In the first category, the earliest attested types are temples of immortals,
which appear in the epigraphic records of the later Han. These are indeed
among the first well-documented temples of any kind in Chinese history, and
predate-and were never part of-the Celestial Masters organization. They
were apparently built by groups of devotees who prayed to immortals for
protection in general, but also for initiation in immortality techniques. Such
temples devoted to miraculous ascetics, men or women, appear frequently
throughout Chinese history, and many came to resemble in every respect
temples of local saints.
A second type of Taoist institution appears with the Way of the Celestial
Masters, which commanded the building of meeting halls for its parishes (*zhi).
Also, each priest, as well as many wealthy devotees, had a chapel (*jingshi) for
meditation and prayer. Meeting halls and chapels contained no icons or offer-
ings, but merely an incense burner and writing material. Beginning around the
fourth century, groups of eremites and disciples gathering around the chapel
of a master, or a site where immortals had practiced before leaving this world,
slowly formed more or less permanent communities with lodgings, teaching
halls, and shrines. These were institutionalized under the name of "abbeys,"
a process aided by state recognition and financial support. The abbeys came
to be considered monasteries just like their Buddhist counterparts.
With the gradual dissolution of the Celestial Masters' parish system, the
abbeys became the main type of Taoist institution. They housed married
or celibate priests, in permanent residence or for training and ordination.
The largest state-sponsored abbeys were centers of learning, with libraries
and Taoist scholars compiling erudite works. The largest rituals, sponsored
either by the state or by local communities, took place in abbeys. Like Bud-
dhist monasteries, particularly under the Tang, the abbeys were centers for
local religious life. They were built in cities, on major mountains, or on sites
historically connected to Taoist hagiography (*Louguan, *Taiqing gong, and
others). In accordance with Taoist theology, however, the abbeys housed no
shrines except those devoted to the purest deities, such as the * sanqing (Three
Clarities), Laozi, and the various Celestial Worthies.
The *Quanzhen order, which formed during the late twelfth century, soon
came to control most of the preexisting abbeys, and introduced rules calling
for stricter cohesion of the clerical community (see under *MONASTIC CODE).
A the same time, the general evolution of Chinese society caused the focus
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