Why Are China's Ancestors and National Heroes Revered as Taoist Patriarchs? What Is the True “Great Way” to Perfection and Immortality?

Liang Xingyang, Quanzhen Taoist Priest

Are you willing to cultivate the Tao?

Are you willing to guard this path to immortality?

Are you willing to carry on the tradition of serving society and to practice the “Great Way” of cultivating perfection and becoming an immortal, which saves oneself and transforms others?

There is a strange phenomenon in Taoist belief: many of the immortals and patriarchs it worships are ancestors of the Chinese nation, wise sages, national heroes, generals, and civil officials, and only a very few of them were actually Taoist priests.

In their lifetimes they had no clear Taoist identity, or did not even know what Taoism was, yet they have become Taoist deities and are worshipped as such. Why does this happen?

If Taoism is a religion of cultivating immortality, shouldn't those who are Taoist priests have a better chance of becoming immortals? Where has our understanding gone wrong? Some even use this to attack Taoism, saying that Taoist philosophy and the Taoist religion are not the same thing, that the Taoist religion has drawn folk beliefs into itself and is therefore not a mature religion, merely co-opting sages to gild its own image.

Perhaps some Taoist priests would like to argue that gods and immortals are different, that we cultivate immortality rather than becoming gods. But to ordinary people, what difference is there between gods and immortals? Isn't that just like Kong Yiji, in Lu Xun's story, explaining to people how many ways there are to write the character hui in “fennel beans”?

Nowadays some Taoist priests enter Taoism wanting only to cultivate immortality and attain the Great Way, or to escape the troubles of the world and find clarity and stillness, or to sit motionless, practice grain avoidance (bigu), and refine elixirs to become immortals. Some, having barely entered the Taoist gate, think themselves above others and look down their noses, forever saying they “eat the Patriarchs' rice.” They treat themselves as immortals, superior to others, affecting lofty airs and accepting offerings with a clear conscience. They even look down on lay people, feeling that they themselves are cultivating the Tao while worldly people remain in the red dust without awakening to it, striking a pose of pitying heaven and humankind, alone pure and lofty. And like this they still dream of becoming immortals?

As for the saying that “lay practitioners and faithful devotees must not speak of the rights and wrongs of Taoist priests”—it is just a brick that gets used, moved wherever it is needed.

I, Xingyang, have something to say here; I don't know whether I should say it, but I will say it anyway: “Many Taoist priests have misunderstood the true meaning of cultivating the Tao. Do not dream of becoming immortals yourselves!”

Grain avoidance to cultivate immortality—do not believe such talk. Clinging stubbornly to the meditation cushion, closing the throat and clenching the teeth to put on the appearance of the Tao, is only to ruin one's own future. If everyone learned to do this, then in the saying “constantly responding, constantly still,” what would there be to respond to? In “great compassion and great vows,” what compassion would there be? And in “saving all beings,” whom could they save?

These are nothing but a flock of corpse-guarding ghosts. They want to transcend the world themselves without caring whether others do, which is in fact selfish. Even as for their own transcendence—having sat motionless for thirty or fifty years, with life and death passed by, how could they possibly go out into the world to save others?

The Patriarchs left behind the gate of Taoism: the Five Arts of Taoism—“mountain” (self-cultivation), “medicine,” “destiny,” “divination,” “physiognomy,” and “mystery”—to help all beings, and liturgy, vestments, ritual spaces, and more to display dignity. While helping beings and displaying dignity, the aim is to carry on Taoist thought and traditional culture. More importantly, through the enactment of Taoism, the deeds or divine majesty of the immortals and Patriarchs are proclaimed to the world, telling people how to become immortals. The duty of a Taoist priest is not to become an immortal himself, but to guard the path to immortality for the people of the world!

Through the form of religion, Taoism lets the world see that it is not that ordinary people cannot become immortals, but that their hearts are not firm enough!

In history, the Yellow Emperor, the Flame Emperor, Yao, Shun, and Yu, Laozi, Zhang Liang, Guan Zhong, Guan Yu, Yue Fei, Lü Dongbin, Han Xiangzi, Mazu, and others became immortals through great merit, great wisdom, great perseverance, and great compassion. The Patriarchs who founded Taoism did not proclaim their own merits or proclaim that their own god created all things; rather, through the scriptures they let the world understand: look, so many Patriarchs have become immortals—others can too!

What is a Patriarch's sacred proclamation? A Patriarch's sacred proclamation does not proclaim how right he is and that those who do not believe in him will go to hell; it shows the world the process of cultivating the Tao and becoming an immortal. Take the Sacred Proclamation of Grand Clarity: “Establishing teachings according to each place, saving people kalpa after kalpa; teacher of sovereigns, teacher of emperors, teacher of kings; taking assumed names and changing titles, he established the Way of heaven, the Way of earth, and the Way of humanity. Concealing the sage and appearing as a commoner, he commands the twelve hundred official lords and embraces the Brahma qi of a million layers. His transformation has spread through past and present; he wrote the Tao Te Ching in five thousand words. He holds yin and yang in his hand and commands the thunder using the numbers nine and five. Of great compassion and great vows, great sage of great mercy, Lord Lao the Most High (Taishang Laojun), Heavenly Worthy of the Tao and Its Virtue!”

Through the Sacred Proclamation of Grand Clarity we learn why and how Laozi, that is, the Heavenly Worthy of the Tao and Its Virtue of Grand Clarity, became an immortal: he established teachings according to each place and saved people kalpa after kalpa; through the ages, emperors, kings, and all beings took him as their teacher; he handed down the five thousand words of the Tao Te Ching and opened the wisdom of the world. This is Lord Lao's path to immortality!

When Taoist priests chant the scriptures and enact the teaching, they are passing on such ways of cultivation and letting the world know the true ways of seeking the Great Way—not superstition, blind obedience, or extremism, not submitting forever to divine majesty, but having enough humility to kneel and pay homage to the sages and Patriarchs of the past, and enough courage to stand up and face our lives!

Some people are alive yet already dead; some people are dead yet still alive. To die without perishing is longevity; to perish yet remain numinous is to be called an immortal.

When the Patriarchs have transcended the dusty world, their merit, wisdom, spirit, and compassion remain, carried by Taoism, proclaiming the meaning of the Tao to the world. This is the fundamental responsibility of Taoism.

The Yellow Emperor, the Flame Emperor, Yao, Shun, and Yu, Laozi, Zhang Liang, Guan Zhong, Guan Yu, Yue Fei, Lü Dongbin, Han Xiangzi, Mazu, and many more deities were not Taoist priests. They are enshrined on the altar because the Great Way is not confined by religion; in this way Taoist priests guard the faith and guard the path to immortality for the people of the world.

Throughout Taoist history, ordinary people have continually been made gods, and in the future others will enter the Taoist pantheon of immortals through merit, wisdom, compassion, and fearlessness. Cultivating immortality takes place in the mortal world; Taoist priests preach the teaching. We proclaim this idea so that people accept this set of values and can be made gods and become immortals.

The Taoist priests mentioned above who dream of becoming immortals or already regard themselves as immortals are mostly deluded. What we pass on is the essence of the Patriarchs, not a sense of superiority. People revere Taoist priests not because we have done so well, but because the Patriarchs and sages of Taoist history did well enough to give us sufficient dignity and weight to proclaim the Great Way.

We “eat the Patriarchs' rice,” but we must not know only how to eat; even more, we must guard this path to immortality. So-called magic, supernatural powers, and divination are only means of spreading the teaching, not ways of becoming an immortal.

Only by clearly recognizing our own identity can we devote ourselves more fully to spreading the Tao, instead of being arrogant. Do not think that becoming a Taoist priest makes you superior. When devotees respect Taoist priests, that is their respect; we must not fail to respect them. We are only their guardians, guarding the path to immortality on behalf of all beings!

We are the disciples of the Patriarchs; we are cultivators on the path to immortality. When this path is broken or goes astray, repairing it is what cultivating the Tao means. Practicing in person, humility, fearlessness, and compassion should be our attitude.

Even without believing in Taoism, one can become an immortal.

Taoism holds that even if you do not believe in Taoism, as long as you hold fast to justice, pursue truth, and are kind to others, the Patriarchs in the unseen world will protect you just the same; even if you are not a Taoist priest, as long as you can interpret the Great Way and enact the truth, you will be revered as a Taoist immortal all the same. And we will guard this path to immortality for you. We cultivate the Tao, we repair the way to immortality, and we help you become an immortal!

Perhaps one day a sacred proclamation like this will really appear in a Taoist temple: Receiving heaven's mandate, he expounded the teaching of the atomic nucleus. Descending into the world in a Jiazi year, he manifested in Huaining. In a chaotic age he escaped calamity; in a flourishing age he upheld peace. He established his method in the Academy; his virtue shone throughout the world. He sought truth from the sages of the past and inquired of the Tao in the highest heavens. He achieved the feat of the “two bombs” and taught the source and handle of primal chaos. He set forth his words in the nation's highest academy and attested the Tao in the Gobi wastes. He glimpsed the opportunity of the Great Way and wielded the power of yin and yang. Bearing the fame of the two bombs, he secured the Nine Provinces in the Central Plain. Protect our China, that it may forever enjoy peace. How great! Immortal Master Who Taught and Enacted Yin and Yang, Great Perfected Deng Jiaxian.

Mr. Deng Jiaxian was a great scientist and an atheist, but that does not prevent Taoism from revering his spirit of devotion to his country and people, nor Taoists from carrying on his ideas, nor Taoists from honoring his virtue!

It is through such forms that Taoism has guarded the right Way, carried on the spirit that truly belongs to us, and protected our spiritual world and faith, telling the world that this is the right thing to do. However the times may change, the value of this spirit can never be erased!

Have we truly understood the “Great Way” to becoming an immortal?