A brief introduction to Fang Xian Dao, the relationship between Fang Xian Dao and Taoism

Fang Xian Dao was first seen in the "Historical Records Feng Zen Book": Song Wuji, Zheng Boqiao, Chong Shang, and Xian Men Gao are all Yan people, who are Fang Xian Dao, and the form is dissolved, depending on the things of ghosts and gods. During the Warring States Period, the monks in the Yanqi area combined their immortal doctrine and magic with Zou Yan's Yin and Yang Five Elements Theory to form the Fang Immortal Disturbance Dao, which was mainly popular in the upper class of Yanqi.

The so-called Fang refers to the immortal gods, and the so-called immortals refer to the immortals who live and die. The idea of immortals has always existed, and during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a group of monks was gradually formed with the purpose of pursuing immortal immortality, and they were active in society and infiltrated the upper echelons of the nobility with immortal magic as a means of making a living.

During the reign of Qi Wei and King Xuan, Zou Yan's disciples talked about the five elements of yin and yang, which were absorbed by the monks, and became the immortal family who was poor in academics, but had a few skills in immortal arts, catering to the ruler's fear of death, and vigorously promoting the immortal immortality. From the middle and late Warring States period to the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the immortals and the emperor agitated with each other, setting off the famous incident in Chinese history of entering the sea to seek immortal medicine. Qi Wei, King Xuan and King Yan Zhao, Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, etc., all sent Fang Shi to the Three Divine Mountains on the sea to seek the elixir of immortals and immortals, and their scale became larger and larger, but to no avail.

Therefore, the prosperity period of Fang Xiandao was from the late Warring States period to the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and its representative figures included Song Wuji, Zheng Boqiao, Xu Fu, Lu Sheng, Li Shaojun, Li Shaoweng, Luan Da, Gongsun Qing, etc. The immortal immortal immortal theory of Fang Xiandao's belief became the most basic belief of Taoism in later generations, and its immortal magic was also inherited and developed by Taoism in later generations. Fang Xian Dao is the predecessor of Taoism, and the immortal Taoism of later generations developed from this.

Fang Xian Dao gradually combined with Huang Laoxue to evolve to Huang Lao Dao.

Historical Records Feng Zen Book. Qing Xitai, editor-in-chief: "History of Taoism in China" (Chengdu:

Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1988), Vol. 1, Chapter 1, Section 3. Li Yangzheng: "Introduction to Taoism" (Beijing:

Chung Hwa Book Company, 1989). Part 1, Chapter 2, "The Theory of the Immortals and the Magic of Fangshi".

Fang Xian Dao or Shen Xian Jia is a class of people who specialize in Fang Shu, Fang Ji and other Taoist techniques formed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and is called Fang Shi. Including astronomy, medicine, immortals, divination, physiognomy, Kanyu and other skills, and promote the consumption and sacrifice of people who can grow into immortals. According to the "Historical Records and Feng Zen Book":

The earliest alchemist was Chang Hong during the reign of King Ling of Zhou (571-545 BC), who was said to have learned the art of yin and yang, and understood the affairs of ghosts and gods. Fang Xian Dao was different from later Taoism in that it did not have an organization of its own. The name of Fang Xiandao comes from Sima Qian's "Historical Records":

For Fang Xiandao, the form is dissolved, and it depends on the things of ghosts and gods." It was more prosperous during the reign of Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Taoism, which originated in the ancient Chinese Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, is a polytheistic religion that worships many gods, and its main purpose is to pursue immortality, become immortals, and save the world. It occupies an important position in ancient Chinese traditional culture and is also actively developing in the modern world. Although Taoism has been one of the hundred schools of thought since the Warring States period, Taoism has deified the philosophers who originally "took 'morality' as the core concept".

It was not until the middle and late Han Dynasty that the Order was created. Zhang Ling cultivated in Heming Mountain in Yizhou (present-day Sichuan Province), founded the Heavenly Master Dao, believed in Lao Tzu as the Taishang Laojun, and established the Twenty-Four Rulers as a missionary area. By the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the religious form of Taoism was gradually perfected.

One of the important branches of Taoism, the Danding sect (the general name for the various Taoist schools in Taoism that mainly seek immortals with alchemy pills), was first developed from the ancient immortal family and Fang Xiandao. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Danding faction further developed the Jindan sect of immortal Taoism and made a theoretical summary of it. The early theoretical work of the Danding school is "Zhou Yi Shen Tong Deed".

The representatives of the pre-Qin Fang Xiandao also included Song Wuji, Zheng Boqiao, Chong Shang, Yimen, Lu Sheng, Han Zhong, Hou Gong, Shi Sheng, etc., and the two Han Dynasty had Li Shaojun, Li Shaoweng, Ximen Junhui, Luan Da, Gongsun Qing, Gan Zhongke, Yu Ji, Gong Chong, etc. They were all famous scholars at that time, and these monks were all seeking immortality for the emperor, or looking for immortals, or collecting medicines and alchemy for them, and promoting that immortals could be learned and sought, and these activities continued until the end of the Han Dynasty and were still very active.

Fang Xiandao is still a religious myth, not an independent religion. The emergence of Fang Xian Dao is a symptom of the evolution of Huang Lao's Taoism into a religion. One was first seen in the "Historical Records: Feng Zen Book" Song Wuji, Zheng Boqiao, Chongshang, and Xianmen Gao are all Yan people, who are Fang Xiandao, and the form is dissolved, depending on the things of ghosts and gods.

During the Warring States Period, the monks in the Yanqi area combined their immortal doctrine and magic with Taoism and Zou Yan's Yin and Yang Five Elements Theory to form the Fang Xian Dao, which was mainly popular in the upper class of Yanqi society. The so-called "prescription" refers to the prescription for governing the Tao, and the so-called "immortal" refers to the immortal immortal. Huang Laoxue is a Taoist scholar under the Qi Kingdom, and they revered both the legendary Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu as the founders of Taoism.

Qi Tian advocates Huang Lao, and scholars who govern Huang Lao have swarmed. Huang Lao's thought contains many elements of mysticism; Among the scholars who treated Huang Lao's learning, there were originally many monks, who used the idea of immortal immortality and the theory of yin and yang and the five elements to make religious explanations of these factors, so that Huang Lao's learning developed in the direction of immortal magic. To the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu were further mystified, and from the emphasis on respecting the Yellow Emperor, to the deification of Lao Tzu, and gradually formed the Huang Lao Tao that worshiped Lao Tzu as a god, becoming the predecessor of Taoism, at that time a major sect of Taoism, Taiping Dao, its founder Zhang Jiao, originally belonged to the Huang Lao Dao believers.