Zhang Yingchen's Fanfiction on the New Taoism
The following pieces were all written by Dao Quanzi (the in-book character: Zhang Yingchen) from the Longkong forum. He is the founder of the concept of Lingaoâs New Taoism.
Excerpts from Zhang Yingchenâs Diary:
The general meeting is about to be held. For several days, I have been visiting the temples in the Lingao area. It is clear that religious activities in Lingao have not yet been properly established. The status of Taoist and Buddhist clergy in the local area is extremely low, and the clergy themselves lack the qualities of a qualified religious professional. Apart from chanting scriptures, they basically lack the skills of formal religious personnel. They are not proficient in either performing the âflaming mouthâ ritual or conducting repentance ceremonies. A large portion of them are also illiterate.
The low quality of the Taoist and Buddhist clergy has given great room for maneuver to Lingaoâs folk religions, and similarly, it has given the Society of Jesus a great future for development.
After meeting with the Lingao Mission and that Director Wu, I am deeply convinced that if the Lingao Church is allowed to develop without any checks and balances, it will eventually achieve the status of a state religion in the transmigratorsâ regime.
However, most of us transmigrators do not seem to realize the significance of a state religion. Yes, our current transmigration group is an elite influenced by atheism, and the Lingao Church, constrained by the Religious Affairs Office, cannot compete with the transmigration group on any level. But, in this 17th century where compulsory education and materialist thought have not yet been popularized, the church will undoubtedly have a broader influence than our education system.
Our transmigration group may not be swayed by their nonsense, but what about our descendants and our subjects? Obviously, we will not use Marxism-Leninism, materialism, or any other theory of an industrialized society to influence the majority of them. In fact, judging by the performance of the vast majority of the âsoy sauce partyâ (passive bystanders) in the âMaid Revolution,â they will not pay attention to this issue either.
It is conceivable that in a few decades, the Lingao Church will become a pivotal force influencing society. And after the transmigrators have grown old, its influence will continue to expand, and may even turn back to bite the transmigrator regime itself.
I think we need a counterweight to the Lingao Church to balance the dominance of this monster we have created with our own hands. Perhaps, this is the mission that heaven has given me.
The Quanzhen and Zhengyi sects that we have seen in modern times are the standard models of divine-immortal Taoism. But if we trace back to the oldest Way of the Celestial Masters and the Way of Great Peace, and pay attention to the âTaiping Jingâ and the âXiangâer Zhu,â we will find that primitive Taoism was not very interested in the various arts of pursuing immortality.
For example, the âXiangâerâ commentary evaluated the Daoist techniques of breathing, gymnastics, and meditation as âfalse arts,â and called those Taoist sects that worshiped ghosts and gods âfalse ways.â The âXiangâer Zhuâ advocated observing the precepts to get closer to the Tao. However, the Way of the Celestial Masters soon merged with the ghost cults of Bashu, incorporating a large amount of content it originally opposed, such as talismans and magic spells. This kind of religious evolution, âwaving a red flag to oppose the red flag,â has similar situations in various medieval sects.
For example, Christianity, influenced by Roman pagan beliefs, began to absorb the gods of various European nations as saints; Islam in South and Central Asia retained the spirit worship of Shamanism; Indian Buddhism, after being introduced to the Central Plains, combined with Taoist thought to give birth to Zen Buddhism, which cursed the Buddha and scolded the patriarchs.
Even our Religious Affairs Officeâs Father Bai and Director Wu have to accommodate the customs of the Ming Dynasty when they spread Christianity.
The heterogenization of doctrine by a different civilization is an inevitable problem in missionary work. Although we, the Lingao multitude, possess knowledge and historical experience far beyond this era, this problem is still unavoidable. However, Lingaoâs ideology is destined to replace the old ideology, and Lingaoâs religion is destined to replace the old religions. Whether it is Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Buddhism, or traditional Taoism, they will all inevitably be replaced by the religion of Lingao. This is a great ideological war, where there is no room for tender feelings, modesty, or courtesy.
Throughout history, general administrative measures cannot eliminate old religions. Only when a nation completely converts to a new religion will it completely break with the old one. That is to say, only religion can eliminate religion.
The task of our Taoist Council is not to completely eliminate the old sects, but to walk among the believers, unite them, and mobilize them, so as to completely isolate all the old abbots, temple masters, Taoist officials, and monk officials. We will completely break the old religious models and systems and establish a new sect that obeys us, the transmigratorsâŚ
â Excerpt from Chairman Zhang Yingchenâs âAbstract of the Speech at the New Yearâs Seminar of the Religious Affairs Officeâ
Father Matteo Ricci always believed that this ancient land held traces of our Lordâs salvation. It is a pity that by the time Father Ălvaro Semedo participated in the excavation and translation of the sacred church stele erected for our Lord Jesus by the emperor of the Tang Empire a thousand years ago (that is, the Xiâan Stele), Father Ricci was no longer able to share in the holy miracle that our Lord Jesus had left in this empire through the hands of his separated brothers.
However, I believe that the almighty God has already given revelations to the ancient Chinese sages in His own way. It is just that the followers of Pythagoras in the Indian region (the Jesuits once believed that Indian Buddhism and Hinduism were offshoots of the Greek Pythagorean esoteric school), with their fallacies and poisonous heretical views, have polluted the Lordâs gospel.
This has caused the Confucian philosophers to gradually lose the lofty ideals of their ancestors, and the damage of Pythagorean views to the other school of inspired philosophers is almost irreparable. It has caused these scholars, who should have resided in the blessed rose garden, to degenerate into Gnostic-like alchemists and idolaters.
When the learned elders of Lingao mention the current state of the old empire, they usually consider the Tartars in the north to be the greatest enemy of civilization and faith. They mention Attila the Hun, the Tartar dynasty that the Venetian Marco Polo served, and their grief over the destruction of the ancient and great imperial civilization by the nomadic peoples.
As a group of descendants of exiled nobles from a former dynasty, the âYuanâ dynasty is unforgivable. But in my eyes, a foreign priest, the Tartarsâ most unforgivable crime is that they used the harmful ideas of the Indian followers of Pythagoras to poison the two paths of salvation that originally belonged to the Chinese people. This turned the wise classics of Confucianism and Taoism, which had received grace and revelation, into the rigid rules of the âMandarinâ group of philosopher-officials and the playthings of Taoist priests who only knew of alchemy and other soul-harming heresies.
However, the salvation of our Lord Christ enabled their best leaders, when the barbarian heretics had almost destroyed the brightest and most glorious side of this country, to lead the best people to find a new Jerusalem, just like the prophet in Exodus. Here, they have preserved our Lordâs salvation, as well as their most glorious morals, traditions, knowledge, and dignity.
They have also preserved their own religion. However, this religion has not been poisoned by the harmful doctrines of India. It contains countless reasonable elements that show that it once contained the path of salvation of the Lord Jesus, and it is also the most fertile soil for the seeds of Jesus Christ to grow, blossom, and bear fruit.
Thirty years after the publication of this monumental work, the famous âRites Controversyâ broke out between the Empire and the Italian Church. The ignorant and conservative feudal leader, the pseudo-Pope Clement XI, went against the tide of history and brazenly declared âThe Great Empire Chronicleâ a forbidden book, placing it on the European Index of Forbidden Books. The historically significant movement of âEastern learning spreading to the Westâ also fell into decline due to his series of reactionary measures. This consequently led to Europe gradually falling behind the great tide of historical development.
â Introduction to the âGreat Empire Chronicleâ section of the âIndex of Forbidden Books of the Pseudo-Roman Curiaâ
Zhang Yingchenâs letter to He Ying before his departure
When He Ying received Zhang Yingchenâs letter, the tall âMongolian doctorâ was already on a boat to the mining area.
Holding this document, which was less a personal letter and more a work plan, He Ying had to admire the courage and drive of this âgod-stickâ (charlatan).
He sat down, unfolded the letter, and slowly read the farewell words of Lingaoâs first Libationer and Chairman of the Taoist Association.
ââŚThe collision between heterogeneous civilizations often results in the advanced eliminating the backward, the civilized eliminating the barbaric. So in this era, the Jesuits easily eliminated the Mayan priests in South America. Three hundred years earlier, Islam and Tibetan Buddhism easily converted two branches of the Mongols. But collision inevitably brings fusion, and for religion, being permeated by the old traditions of new believers is also difficult to avoid.
âComrade Wu Mangshi seems to want to conduct a social experiment in Lingao to change customs, just as the Jesuits in Macau who built chapels to the Virgin Mary that look like Guanyin temples are trying to do. This kind of thing has been tried by Islamic leaders in Central and Southeast Asia, and by Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit monks in South America. But, without exception, they have failed shamefully.
âThe herdsmen of Central Asia still trust their shamans, the Muslims of the Philippines still worship sacred trees, and the goddesses of the Maya and Inca continue to occupy the center of South American churches in the guise of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is foreseeable that in the future work of the Religious Affairs Office, resisting the erosion of the old culture will be a long-term and arduous task.
âTherefore, conversion, changing beliefs, and changing customs can only be preliminary work. As Matteo Ricci said, âThis is just cutting away some branches in a thorny wasteland.â
âOnly by reshaping the soil on which the old society and old culture survive can we truly achieve our goal.
âThe ultimate goal of transforming beliefs is to transform civilization, that is, to transform the medieval agricultural civilization into a modern industrial civilization. I hope that I and my successors will always remember this point, and not foolishly fall into some kind of dogmatic, fetishistic self-seclusion and regression.
âThe medieval, obscurantist religious opium is beneficial to us in the short term, but in the long run, we must break away from the Catholic style and change the short-term investment of âpulling in sheepâs headsâ into a long-term, continuous investment.
âThe church should bear the obligation of teaching. In addition to ideological education instilled through religious forms, basic education is the top priority of our work. The boring debates between late Ming monks, priests, and Confucian scholars over the âtranslation of Godâs name,â âheaven and hell,â and the âsimilarities and differences between Taiyi, Hundun, Taiji, Li, and Godâ were nothing more than a set of European medieval philosophy and a set of Asian medieval philosophy competing for orthodoxy and the right to speak.
âOur job is not to introduce a new set of opium for the convenience of ruling, but to act as a catalyst for the transformation of the old society into a new one. We are not trying to create a new wine in an old bottle, using new gods to replace old gods, but to use the hand of a new god to gradually eat away at the foundation of the existence of divine right. The secularization and simplification of religion is a manifestation of social progress in the 17th century. We must guide this new trend, not add a new set of red tape on the basis of overthrowing the old rituals, and certainly not turn nature fetishism into machine fetishism, which is boring and meaningless.
âIn my lifetime, I am afraid I will have to reconcile with the beliefs of the old world. Various 17th-century cults may be born in the Lingao monastery, and a radical, restorationist âTrue Lordâs Adventâ faction or a Taoist version of the Golden Dawn may appear in the Taoist Council. But we must do a good job in education. Only a thoroughly secularized civilized world can cut off the ghost of the Middle Ages from its roots.
âAt this moment, letâs not be like the official of Jiangzhou, whose blue shirt was soaked with tears, which would be too unsightly. Let us emulate the sage of Wenchuan and shout, âPour me a bowl of wine for the journey!â and embark on the adventure that belongs to me and to you all.
âWish me a fair wind, my old friend.â