Abstract: As the main object of discussion in philosophy, psychology, religion, and sociology, the "self" has been explained in many chinese and foreign thoughts. Taoism advocates that "my life is up to me", and Neidan cultivation starts from "refining oneself to build a foundation", reflecting The Taoist emphasis and reflection on human subjectivity. Systematically sorting out the relevant research on the current self-view in the academic circles is conducive to our multi-dimensional and multi-level understanding of the different aspects of the Taoist self-view, providing a better perspective for its in-depth research, and also providing a possible field for expanding Taoist philosophy.
About author:Zhu Zhanyan, Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Researcher of institute of Taoism and Religious Culture, Sichuan University.
Theme word: Taoism Taoism Self-view
The original article is published in Studies in Religious Studies 2022 (01), and the content of the article has been abridged.
As the main object of discussion in philosophy, psychology, religion, and sociology, the "self" has been valued in Chinese and foreign thought. Lao Tzu emphasizes, "So I have a great patient, for I have a body, and I have no body, what is my disease?" "After the body and the body first, outside the body and the body." He believes that attachment to itself is the root cause of various sufferings and disasters, and advocates "selflessness for selfishness." Confucius advocated the four absolutes of "no intention, no will be fixed, no self", emphasizing that we should not be stubborn in looking at problems. Zhuangzi's forgetting of fame and fortune, honor, right and wrong, gains and losses, and even "losing me" and "having no self" all highlight the importance and thinking of the ancient sages on self-problems. Taoism advocates that "my destiny is up to me", and Neidan's cultivation starts from "refining oneself to build a foundation", which all reflects the Importance That Taoism attaches to human subjectivity. Therefore, systematically combing the relevant research of the domestic self-view is conducive to our multi-dimensional and multi-level understanding of the different aspects of the Taoist self-view, and providing a better perspective for the in-depth study of the Taoist self-view.
I. An Overview of the Study of Self-Perception in Lao Zhuang Thought
As a representative figure of the pre-Qin Taoist school, Lao Zhuang's self-concept in his thinking has always attracted the attention of the academic community. From the perspective of the theme of the research results, it mainly revolves around topics such as "noble body", "no body", "lost me", "no self" and "me".
The body, as the physiological basis of self-composition, is an important issue that Lao Zhuang thought pays attention to. The question of whether "noble body" or "no body" comes from the interpretation of the main theme of the thirteenth chapter of Lao Tzu. In his article "Debate on "'Noble Body' or 'No Body' [Lao Tzu'] Chapter 13", Deng Lian summarized three current interpretations in academic circles, namely, "noble body", "no body" and "no body with noble body". Scholars who hold the theory of "no body" include Feng Youlan, Chen Guying, Gao Ming, Li Zero, Peng Fuchun, and so on; scholars who hold the theory of "no body" include Zhan Jianfeng, Gao Heng, Zhang Songru, Zhang Yangming, and so on; and scholars who hold the theory of "no body" and use the theory of "noble body" include Jiang Xichang, Liu Xiaodang, and Liu Kunsheng. The author believes that all three interpretations are biased, and that the theory of "noble body" easily slides into the "theory of self-interest", which contradicts the "rear body", "outer body", "body retreat" of other chapters of Lao Tzu and the "bodyless" thinking of this chapter; the theory of "no body" is easily understood as the "altruism" of "no self", which also exalts lao tzu's political and philosophical character; although the theory of "no body" with "noble body" conforms to the original purpose of the whole book of Lao Tzu, as far as this chapter is concerned, the analysis of Jiang Xichang, Liu Xiaodang, and Liu Kunsheng all have their own problems. The reason for the disagreement in this is that ancient and modern scholars have misunderstood the "body" as the body and the body shape, so that it only has a narrow health care meaning, and even falls to the Taoist immortal thought of later generations. Therefore, the author believes that Chen Peijun correctly pointed out that the "body" in the sentences of Lao Tzu (chapters 7, 9, 13, and 66) does not refer to the body, but to the identity and status of the subject, and is a kind of "subjective consciousness" or "subject self" based on the relative value standards of political society.
In response to Deng Wen's interpretation, Wang Shaojun said in "The Bodyless Is Noble and the Bodyless Body Is the World—(Lao Tzu)" Chapter 13 Interpretation: "Mr. Deng Lian insisted that 'body' is only one meaning, so the noble body and the bodyless body are literally contradictory and cannot be established at the same time. He also believes that the original appearance of the text of the two sentences at the end of the chapter, 'Noble........Love...', is difficult to verify, but it is certain that the two sentences are intertextual. The author does not agree with Mr. Deng's judgment. However, those who hold the theory of having no body and no noble body have not been able to give a reasonable and coherent explanation of the relationship between the noble body and the world. After comparing different versions of Lao Tzu texts, important notes on ancient and modern times, and research treatises, the author believes that "the two propositions at the beginning of the chapter are 'spoiled, insulting; expensive, and troubled like the body', and this new sentence reading can help us accurately grasp its meaning, and also initially shows Lao Tzu's denial of 'body'. Further analysis can be found that the relationship between the bodyless and the noble body is not contradictory, and Lao Tzu actually believes that the bodyless is the noble body, and the noble body is not rare in the world, so that it can be trusted by the world. This kind of thinking seems paradoxical because Lao Tzu did not always use the concept of 'body' in the same sense. Knowing this, the long-standing dispute between the semester and the absence of a body or a noble body can be resolved."
From the differences in the academic circles on Lao Tzu's "body" theory, we can see the ambiguity, complexity and importance of the word body in pre-Qin thought. Ge Hongbing believes in "An Original Position of Chinese Thought I - The Concept of "Body" in Chinese Thought Before the 3rd Century AD" that the theory of the noble body is one of the cornerstones of Chinese pre-Qin thought and the most important starting point of Chinese thought, in the time of Lao Tzu and Confucius, its thinking was substanceism, as a substitute, they only used "body" to refer to the self, "self" is "body". For the "body", the author believes that there are at least three levels of meaning in Chinese thought: the first level is the body, the body without prescriptiveness; the second level is the body as a body, subject to the internal driving force; the third level is the "body" as an identity, affected by the external driving force (social morality, civilization consciousness), which is a "body and mind" dichotomy, and the "heart" as the dominant, later Chinese thought equates the body with identity, and forgets the "body" under the action of the more fundamental internal driving force.
In addition to exploring Lao tzu's self-view from the category of "body", "self" as the first pronoun is also closely related to the self, Song Degang's "Lao Tzu) "Self" class word philosophical category interpretation" made a special discussion on this issue, that the pre-Zhuzi period has appeared a concept of a thought "self" class words, and from "Lao Tzu", "self" class words into the philosophical category, "self" class words can be divided into "self" of "not self", "self" and "nature" these three main categories, It also has a four-layer logical structure of "non-self" from the perspective of existentialism and cosmology, "self-realization" of all things from the perspective of existentialism and politics and value theory, and the concept of "nature" and the concept of "nature".
Zhuangzi and his descendants, as the inheritors and promoters of Laozi's thought, also conducted in-depth discussions on the problem of self, and their topics focused on "I lost myself" and "to others without self", and the discussions in the academic circles around these issues also had their own emphases. Zhang Yaonan's "On the Difference Between "I" and "I" and "I" and Its Relationship with "Self" in "Zhuangzi"" believes that Zhuangzi has long recognized the split of the subject's personality, and has seen two different levels of "self" - "me" and "I", the two are not absolutely independent things, but two aspects of the same "self", therefore, the author agrees with Chen Gu's view that "I" should be the true self and "I" is the paranoid me, and also agrees with Cao Jiji's "I", referring to the me who is enlightened today. I refer to the self who has not forgotten myself, forgotten my work, and forgotten my name." Chen Jing distinguishes "I" into the form of me and the state of me, believing that "I" is not the form of me, nor is it the state of me, "I" is free, but does not explicitly determine the meaning of "I". In view of the meaning and relationship between me, mourning, and me, Luo Anxian's article "Interpretation of the Meaning of "I Lost Me"" reinterpreted from the three aspects of distinguishing my mourning, the object of mourning, and how to mourn, arguing that "I" is an ordinary and objectified me, while "I" expresses a special and affectionate me; "mourning" is not "forgetting", its original meaning is to have it and then throw it away, "I lost me" is different from "I forget me", and the "I" I lost is actually not "I" itself, but the "I" of the layman in reality. All kinds of psychological difficulties and various embarrassments in life can be said to be quite innovative in the interpretation of "I", "mourning" and "I". On this issue, Chen Shaoming made a detailed examination of the classic case list of the "I lost me" fable in "Zhuangzi Qiwu" from four aspects: the retrospection of the history of the annotated history, the discernment between me and me, a framework for understanding the "self", and the "loss" of the lost self, and believed that "I" would not be determined by the frame of reference of non-self, so "I" as I am not himself, but the self, and the self is therefore different from the "me" who is positioned by me. In addition, Sun Jiyang sorted out this topic from the successive commentators of "I lost me", believing that the annotations of the past generations understood "I" as the "false self" synthesized by the sense will, the "shape of the skeleton of the flesh and blood" and the self-centered "I cling", which tended to "I cling to the self".
In addition to the above case study of "I lost myself", Yang Guorong's "The Individual and the Self in the Philosophy of Zhuangzi" discusses the self-view of Zhuangzi's philosophy as a whole, affirming Zhuangzi's concern for the diversity and uniqueness of existence forms, believing that "the individual refers to specific things in a broad sense, including the individual, and Zhuangzi has made a multi-faceted investigation of the latter from different dimensions, and its focus is on highlighting the intrinsic value of the individual or self and the non-negligible nature of the individual." The "I" of "I who lose me" is the socialized and civilized "me", "bereavement" or "selflessness", neither of which negates or dissolves the self or the individual in the general sense, and all that is lost or nothing points to the "me" of Li Le Ren yi.
Second, the study of self-view from a philosophical perspective
At present, the domestic research on Confucianism and self-interpretation is mainly discussed from the philosophical perspective, mainly based on general theory, generation and case analysis, and most of them are compared with the background of Chinese and Western cultures. Regarding the study of Confucianism and interpretation of self-concept, the main treatises are "On the Self" in Zhang Shiying's "Introduction to Philosophy", Fu Xiaofan's "Study on the Late Ming Self-View", Ma Xiaohu's "The Evolution of the Individual "Self" Before The Wei and Jin Dynasties" and other monographs. Journal papers include Yang Guorong's "Beyond the Self-Nature: Xunzi's Personality Theory from the Evolution of Confucianism", Zhang Qiong's "On Confucius's Self-View", Li Xiaojun's "Self-Consciousness in Mencius's Thought", Fu Xiaofan's "On Liu Zongzhou's Self-View", Gu Hongliang's "Gong Zizhen's Self-View and the Beginning of the Philosophy of Subjectivity", Yang Yuchang's "Comparison of Self-Consciousness in Zen Buddhism and Christianity: Taking Huineng and Kierkegaard as Examples", Dong Xicai's "Buddhist Self-View and Criticism of the Immortality of the Soul", etc.
Zhang Shiying conducted an in-depth discussion of the self in the book "Introduction to Philosophy". The book explains the different views of China and the West on self-problems from the perspective of Zen Buddhism and Western philosophy on self-view, and believes that Zen Buddhism has broken through the subject-object dichotomy of Western philosophy in solving self-problems, and thus embarked on the road of transcending the self. He believed that the Zen view of the self can be divided into two parts: "self" and "self", and that the "self" is the part that we recognize in our daily lives, that is, the entity that is known as an object, which is subject to external objects and others, and is therefore unfree. The "original self" is the "true self" that transcends the subject-object dichotomy and transcends self-consciousness, which is characterized by non-attachment, non-entity (i.e., non-object), which is both the universe as a whole and its own personality.
Fu Xiaofan's "Study of Late Ming Self-View" mainly takes representative thinkers of the late Ming Dynasty, such as Zhan Ruoshui, Wang Yangming, Luo Qinshun, Wang Tingxiang, Wang Geng, liu Zongzhou, Gu Yanwu, Wang Fuzhi, Huang Zongxi, etc., as individual cases, and discusses their self-concepts respectively, and believes that the characteristics of the late Ming self-concept are manifested as rebellions against the science of science, and this rebellion mainly unfolds from the three paths of reason, qi, and heart. In the definition of the self, the book believes that the self as a philosophical category has ontological significance, is the theme of practice, thinking, emotion, will and aesthetics, and is expressed as the personality and personality that distinguishes others. The self-concept is composed of three parts: rational essence and perceptual existence, individual and society, real self and ideal personality.
Ma Xiaohu's book "The Evolution of individual "Self" before the Wei and Jin Dynasties" mainly expounds the evolution process, expression form, internal laws and historical effects of individual "self" in different historical backgrounds during the pre-Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties. The characteristic of the book is to use the intersection of history, economics, anthropology, sociology and psychology to explore the historical evolution of the individual "self" before the Wei and Jin Dynasties, introduce the political, economic, cultural, psychological and other factors of the time into the study of the individual's own personality, put forward the self-representation form of "natural individual", "clan social individual" and "national social individual", and believe that the connotation of "self" is mainly a philosophical model of physiological and psychological duality, or the logical structure of physical and mental duality, as a kind of "natural individual", "clan social individual" and "national social individual". The entity's self" does not exist. In terms of the form and level of space-time expansion of the concept of "self", it mainly discusses different contents such as the basis of individual "self" identity, the object of individual "self" identity, the identity of individual "self", the individual "self" consciousness, and the psychological adjustment mechanism of individual "self". At the same time, it is worth mentioning that the book takes into account the psychological factors of individual survival, such as exploring the position of psychological elements such as fear and protection, shame and honor in the formation of individual self in ancient Chinese society.
Li Da's master's thesis "Chinese and Western "Self-View" under a Comparative Perspective" mainly starts from three parts: introduction, a review of Chinese and Western "self-view", and a comparative study of Chinese and Western "self-view", believing that the Western self-view is truth-seeking in teleology, while the Chinese self-view is seeking goodness. Ontologically, it is believed that the Western self-view pursues universal truth, while the Chinese self-view focuses on the practical guidance of being independent. In terms of methodology, it is believed that the Western self-concept pays attention to objectification analysis, while the Chinese self-concept pays attention to the overall perception. Therefore, the West pays attention to exploring the human self from the perspective of rationality, while China pays attention to cultivating itself from the heart.
In terms of journal papers, Yang Guorong's "Beyond the Nature of the Self from the Evolution of Confucianism to Xunzi's Personality Theory" looks at the rational personality pursued by the early Confucians from the perspective of informed intentions, and believes that Xunzi has taken a different path from the Simeng school when delineating the original self and the ideal self. Zhang Qiong's "On Confucius's Self-View" expounds Confucius's self-view from the perspectives of the background of the formation of Confucius's self-concept, the formation of Confucius's self-view, the characteristics of Confucius's self-view, and the meaning and evolution of Confucius's self-view. Li Xiaojun's "Self-Consciousness in Mencius Thought" believes that the self-consciousness in Mencius Thought starts from the two aspects of "what can man become" and "whether man can create his own life", explaining Mencius's concept of human nature based on the theory of sexual goodness, and the creation of life in the main way of self-cultivation.
Fu Xiaofan's "On Liu Zongzhou's Self-View" believes that Liu Zongzhou has a unique view of the role of human subjectivity, recognizing that reason is the result of man's abstract thinking, rational thinking can transcend tangible limitations and reach infinity, but at the same time he directly identifies human life with human spirit, regards "oneness" as the ontology of human will, advocates the combination of reason and will, in order to suppress people's sensual desires, so his self has the color of asceticism. Gu Hongliang's "The Beginning of Gong Zizhen's Self-View and the Philosophy of Subjectivity" believes that Gong Zizhen's self-view has three main meanings, namely, the ontological materialized self, the sociological sense of the perceptual self, and the ethical sense of the moral self. Yang Yuchang's "Comparison of Self-Consciousness in Zen Buddhism and Christianity: Taking Huineng and Kierkegaard as Examples" compares the way of self-awakening: epiphany and "the jump of faith", the meaning of the self: "Man and Buddha are not two" and "the essential difference between man and God", and the destination of the self: transcendence and salvation. Dong Xicai's "Buddhist View of Self and Criticism of the Immortality of the Soul" mainly explains the Buddhist view of self from three aspects: the psychology of religious philosophy, the overall understanding of the self in Buddhism, and the rebuttal of the philosophical view of "God and Me". In addition, in other studies on the Buddhist self-view, Mr. Chen Bing introduced and commented on the relevant views of academic, religious, and Western psychology in the ninth chapter of his "Buddhist Psychology", which will not be repeated.
Third, the study of self-view from the perspective of psychology
Understanding the issues of human self and personality from the perspective of psychology has always been the focus and frontier of self-view research in the academic community, which is different from the philosophical level of speculation, psychology has its advantages in empirical, general psychology, and developmental psychology. In terms of domestic psychological research, there are mainly Chen Bing's "Buddhist Psychology", Zhu Ying's "Culture and Self", Zhang Qin's "Introduction to Taoist Refining Psychology" and so on.
In the ninth chapter, "Self and Personality", "Buddhist Psychology" widely introduces the sutra theory, respectively, from what is "me", the five aggregates are not self, the five aggregates are not self, the hidden self is no self, the false self, the selflessness and the true self, and systematically explain the Buddhist "self-view" from the aspects of establishing self-awareness and selflessness, believing that "the original intention of the Dharma force to say that there is no self is to break the various misconceptions of sentient beings as non-real self as the real self, and to guide them to realize the true self through the true view of the non-self, the nirvana true self, the Buddha-nature great self." This is the ultimate meaning and starting point of Buddhism's non-self-talk." In contrast with Western psychology on self-consciousness, the author believes that "the self-consciousness of Western psychology is the meaning of the subject of life, the meaning of personality, the psychological meaning and the ethical meaning, which is equivalent to the false self and the secular self of Buddhism, although it is false and not true, but from the perspective of secular truths, it is not illusory, and it is very important for people's secular life and even the practice of Buddhists." Buddhism has less to say about this kind of self, but Western psychology attaches great importance to it and has quite in-depth research." It can be said that we have seen some areas overlooked by the traditional psychology of Buddhism, and the false self and the ordinary self are actually the basis and premise for the "true self" to be cultivated.
Zhu Ying's "Culture and Self" mainly introduces the cutting-edge methods and theories of current psychology for self-research, introduces the empirical research methods of neuroscience into the study of human self-view, and believes that the three levels of Western philosophy, Western psychology, and Western (subject) neuroscience are consistent in self-concept (structure), that is, they all highlight the individual's self-self, exclude the connection between the self and others, and highlight the initiative of the individual self in philosophy, without talking about the relationship between the individual and others. In psychology, the independence of the individual self (no connection with others) is reflected in brain activity, and the medial prefrontal lobe only represents the self and does not represent the mother; Chinese philosophy, Chinese psychology, and Chinese (subject) neuroscience Are also consistent in the concept (structure) of the self, that is, they all highlight the connection between the individual self and others, and philosophically emphasize that the self determines the self, the self is inextricably linked to others and others, and in psychology, it emphasizes that the self contains parents, friends and other close people. Reflected in brain activity, the medial prefrontal lobe characterizes both the self and the mother. Thus, Zhu argues that the Western self is an independent, unconnected self, and the Chinese self is an interdependent, connected self. The book is divided into six topics to discuss the relationship between culture and self, namely the philosophical self, the psychological self, the psychological self (Ι): the self-referential effect and the mother-referencing effect, the psychological self (II.): the mechanism of the self-referential effect, the psychological self (III): self-face recognition and autobiographical memory, and the neuroscientical self.
The research on Taoist psychology mainly includes Zhang Qin's "Introduction to Taoist Refining Psychology". The book mainly discusses the theory and operation of Taoist alchemy psychology from eight aspects: the theory of perception of the Tao, the theory of lust of the Tao, the theory of consciousness of the Gods, the study of the body and mind refining of shouyi Cun Sishu, the study of refining the cultivation of the qi and the fetus, the study of the alchemy of the room, the study of the physical and mental refining of neidan, and the modernization and modern analytical psychology of neidan.
Fourth, the study of self-view from the perspective of Taoism
At present, the domestic academic circles have less special discussion on the study of The Taoist self-concept, and most of them are revealed and elaborated from the level of Taoist philosophy of life, Taoist anthropology, Taoist mentality, and Taoist personality.
Cutting into Taoist teachings from the perspective of the philosophy of life is an important direction for the study of Taoism in China at present. Li Gang's papers such as "Characteristics of Taoist Philosophy of Life", "Ge Hong and His Philosophy of Life", and "Commentary on Cheng Xuanying's Philosophy of Life" have conducted comprehensive and specific discussions on the Taoist philosophy of life. The Characteristics of Taoist Philosophy of Life believes that Taoist philosophy of life has three major characteristics: subjectivity, positivity and transcendence, of which subjectivity explores the awakening and formation of Taoist self-consciousness. "Ge Hong and His Philosophy of Life" discusses Ge Hong's philosophy of life and philosophy of life from the perspective of Confucianism, ethics and politics, etc. In terms of Confucianism, Ge Hong believes that the Tao is the end of Confucianism, but Confucianism cannot be abandoned; in the bioethical view, it is believed that the accumulation of goodness and the cultivation of immortals are not contradictory, and the two are mutually superficial; in the concept of life and politics, it advocates the rule of the body and the rule of the country. "Commentary on Cheng Xuanying's Philosophy of Life" mainly discusses Cheng Xuanying's philosophy of life from the three aspects of participating in life and death, mental transcendence, and Daoben Confucianism, and talks about Cheng Xuanying's life concepts such as "the flesh is not real, the human body is invisible, I have no body", "with the change of any change, with the transformation of the way, death and life are resigned to nature", "life and death are one life and death, life and death are not two".
Li Dahua's "Existence of Life and Transcendence of Realm" mainly explores the ontology and methods of Taoist philosophy of life from the perspectives of life ontology and cultivation theory. In the previous part, "Ontology of Life", he divided the ontology of Taoist philosophy of life into natural ontology and life ontology, of which natural ontology mainly includes Dao ontology and qi ontology, and life ontology includes Daoqi and life, and also reveals the characteristics of Taoist life philosophy, believing that Taoist life philosophy has the characteristics of ontology, that is, phenomena, spiritual life and physical life, existence and non-existence, rationality and irrationality, and the integration of individual life and cosmic life. In the next part, "Cultivation Theory", the theory of life structure and life perception are mainly discussed, highlighting the importance attached to "enlightenment" in the process of Taoist cultivation.
Yang Yuhui's "Taoist Anthropology Research" is the first monograph on the systematic study of Taoist anthropology in China. The book mainly discusses the system of Taoist anthropology from twelve aspects: the essential structure of man, the internal organs of the human body, the meridians of the human body, the course of human life, the hierarchy of the world and the ultimate destination of man, the characteristics of human existence, the meaning of monasticism, the values and qualities of monastic needs, the basic principles of monasticism, the methods of monasticism, Neidan, the comparison of The Taoist anthropological view with the Confucian and Buddhist anthropological views, the characteristics of Taoist anthropology, the internal contradictions and their modern significance. In terms of the characteristics of human existence, the views of the eternity of birth difficulties, physical stagnation, pain and pain, and impermanence of misfortunes and blessings are put forward. When discussing the characteristics of Taoist anthropology, the characteristics of individuality, comprehensiveness, systematicness and scientificity are discussed. In general, the book "Taoist Anthropology Research" makes a more systematic and specific exposition of Taoist knowledge about people, but it is also a summary and discussion of the macroscopic "people" and capital "people", and the microscopic analysis of the "self" problem can be further discussed.
Chen Changwen's book "The Social Form of Taoist Personality" mainly studies Taoist personality from four aspects: Taoist personality and its history, environmental relations, case analysis and extension and development, religion and daily philosophy. In the first part, the historical changes of Taoist personality, historical models, and historical models of pan-Taoist personality are discussed. In the section "Environmental Relations", the role of politics, imperial attitudes, personality characteristics, population and other factors in shaping the Taoist personality is discussed. The third part, "Case Analysis", mainly analyzes Ge Hong's unique personality. On the whole, focusing more on the social and cultural aspects to examine the personality of Taoists is a reference dimension for us to understand the Taoist self-view.
Taoist psychology is a face of our understanding of the "self" as a capitalized "person", and the main works in this regard are Zhang Guangbao's "Jin YuanQuanZhen Dao Neidan Mental Nature", "The Fundamental Taoist Theory of Taoism and the Taoist Psychology of Mind", the author points out that "the concept of the heart is the core of all the study of the mind, whether it is Zen Buddhism or the Taoist study of the mind, its concept of the mind has two meanings: one is the mind as the subject, and the other is the mind as the true body", pointing out" One of the most important features of the Middle and Tang Dynasty Taoist theory of mind that is different from Zen Buddhism and later the theory of mind is the advocacy of the dual cultivation of form and god", which can be said to capture the core of the Taoist theory of mentality.
My doctoral dissertation , "Taming the Self-I- A Study of Wang Changyue's Monastic Thought" focuses on case studies, borrowing from Freud's concepts and theories of "original self", "self" and "superego", cutting into the monastic thought of Wang Changyue, the seventh generation lawyer of the Dragon Gate Sect of the True Dao in the early Qing Dynasty, and tending to the perspective of philosophy and psychoanalysis to reveal the self-conflict and self-taming experienced by Daoists in the process of seeking the Tao, entering the Tao, cultivating and preaching, which can only be said to be a case study. It has not yet been possible to grasp the problems related to the Taoist view of self as a whole.
Liu Heng's "The Order of Spiritual Clarity of the Mind- A Study of the Thought of the Early Quanzhen Dao Lust Theory" sorts out the early Quanzhen Dao lust theory from four aspects: the foundation of the Taoist theory of lust, the overview of the quanzhen dao lust theory, the transcendence of the quanzhen dao on basic physiological desires, and the characteristics of the quanzhen dao lust theory, and believes that the early quanzhen dao of theory of lust has its own unique religious pursuit and mental structure, and realizes the path of refining oneself to the truth by transcending lust, reflecting from one side the self-control technique carried out by the early quanzhen Daoist people to attain the Tao.
In addition, the form of God, body and mind and other issues are closely related to the human self, Li Gang believes that the so-called "form" of Taoism and the body referred to in Western philosophy and religion are not completely equal, compared with its richer connotation, not only refers to the human body, but also refers to the form of the gods. In the article "A Preliminary Study of the Taoist View of the Body", Li Gang also pointed out that in the minds of the world, early Taoism was known for "practicing form", and later met with sharp criticism from Confucianism and Buddhism, and Taoism gradually focused its attention on "refining gods". Kong Linghong's "Taoist and Taoist Concepts of "Form" and "God" discusses the "Shape God View" of Taoism from the perspective of the successive form of God, the master and subordinate of form gods, the separation of form gods, the shape of Gods and Qi, the shape of Gods and Gods, the theory of shape gods and Taoist spells, and believes that the shape of God is the premise and theoretical guide of Taoist religious practice, and Taoist philosophy has greatly enriched and developed the Taoist concept of form and god. Cai Linbo's "Form and Truth: An Explanation of Taoist "Form" Theory of Thought" combs and excavates the historical flow of the concept of "true form", and points out its core position in the Taoist philosophy of life and practice system, further promoting the study of the Taoist concept of "form and god". He believes that the Taoist view of "true form" has undergone three leaps of development from empiricism to ontology, from ontology to mentality, and from theory to ritualization, which is different from those religions that have eliminated "form" and pursued pure and immortal "gods", Taoism is a unique religion that uses "form" to dominate "God", takes "form without extinction" as the ultimate goal of pursuit and deduces "form".
5. Conclusion
In summary, the current research on self-view in the academic community has achieved good research results, which are embodied in the following points: First, the multidisciplinary interdisciplinary research vision makes the problem of self-view not only stay under the philosophical and religious horizons, especially under the intervention of psychology, providing us with more cutting-edge medical means and empirical means for understanding the self. Second, the comparative vision of Chinese and Western cultures allows us to stand on a broader platform to examine the self and personality characteristics of Chinese under the influence of Confucian and Taoist culture, providing different frames of reference for the construction of healthy self-awareness. The third is the nuanced conceptual analysis, which provides a research paradigm for us to promote the understanding of Taoist concepts such as "I", "self", "self", "I", etc., and is also an important theoretical basis for us to deeply understand the Taoist self-concept.
Of course, compared with the Taoist self-view and other research, on the issue of Taoist self-view, the academic community currently pays more attention to the construction of the macro level such as philosophy, psychology, and sociology, has more discussions about the capitalized "people" and their self-discussions, lacks more detailed examination of the basic "I", "self", "self" and "I", and lacks excavation and research on the development history, classical documents and case studies of the Taoist self-view, especially in self-composition, self-identification, self-realization, There is still room for further in-depth research on issues such as self-awareness, and the exploration of the relevant cultivation knowledge and practices of the ancient Taoism on health, optimism, harmony and freedom of the self will have many benefits for sub-healthy people in modern society. In addition, at present, the academic community focuses on cosmology, ontology, mentality and other aspects in the study of Taoist philosophy, and does not discuss the fundamental status of "I think" and "I", which is also a topic worth further excavation in the field of Taoist philosophy research.
![When He Yan was relieved of disasters, he added sand to the porridge, but Qianlong praised him unceasingly, and was later affirmed by the world[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)