According to record made before year 1916, which was 90+ years ago, in China, the Bai Shen (Deities Worshipping) Group was addressed as Tong Su Dao Jiao, in chn: 通俗道教, which means that the “Taoism” is closely related/associated with the folks’ practises and local customs whereas the “Main Stream” Taoism was addressed as Dao Shi Dao Jiao, chn: 道士道教, which means that only trained or qualified Priests could only be involved in the rituals/ceremonies, etc.
But after certain arguments on the addressing and the sounding, which always mis-lead the others, the addressing of the 2 different groups changed from the above-mentioned to the following-mentioned addresses after the year 1939.
Tong Su Dao Jiao to Min Zhong Dao Jiao, in chn: 民眾道教, which means that this Taoism Group belongs to the Folks, translated to english will be known as Folks Taoism or Public Taoism, whereas;
Dao Shi Dao Jiao to Cheng Li Dao Jiao, in chn: 成立道教, which means Established Taoism or can also be addressed as Main-Stream Taoism or english version: Orthodox Taoism.
Such addresses can be widely seen in records after 1940s.
Additional Point: The starting period of this Min Zhong Dao Jiao starts as early as Tang Dynasty, and who's the one who initial it? No other than the founder of Quan Zhen Sect - Lv Dong Bin aka Lv Yan.
,,,,,,heard from friends that a temple in Punggol will be moving all their "Kim sin" into the new temple in Nov...Only children below 12 years old are allowed to carry the "kim sin" ....why?...from my previous taoist priest...he mentioned that as long as someone "fast" for two days, it will be good enough. Or when the children come..their parents also come,,,to create a better atmosphere???pls help my query?
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha.. all these are man-made customs, this is up to individual temples/sintuas/person to set rules and regulations, its not susprise to see any of rules exist in this world.
ReplyDeleteFor Taoism, all things are natural, so nothing to forbidden to, unless its associated with life and death (in some contexts)
Agreed that's was my orginal thinking....nowadays man-made a lots of things for commericalisation ie marketing to a certain extent.
ReplyDeleteSince that temple wanted to use children to hold the statues, then just follow their rules, at the end, we are respecting the Deities and not the human rules.
ReplyDelete