What is Substantive Virtuein Taoism? 什么是实德
Paul PengWhat is Substantive Virtuein Taoism?
It refers to the practice of religious ethics and morality such as loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, humility, patience under insult, and self‑sacrifice for the benefit of others.
During the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the doctrines of Quanzhen Dao were influenced by Confucian Neo‑Confucianism. They emphasized moral cultivation, and held that performing good deeds, accumulating virtue, and saving the world were the foundation of verifying The Dao and seeking immortality.
What is Substantive Virtuein Taoism?Tan Chuduan, Shuiyun Ji:
“To be upright and pure in office is the same as cultivating the Dao;
Loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and kindness are better than leaving home.
When you complete this path of merit and virtue,
You will surely return and walk among the clouds and rosy rays.”
Ji Zhizhen, Yunshan Ji, contains poems praising “Genuine Virtue”:
“Once one virtue arises, ghosts and spirits know it;
The original, inherent good conscience must not be deceived.
Benefiting beings and helping life, forgetting gain and loss,
Yielding to others, humbling oneself, acting with reverence and humility.
Selfishness, perversity and prejudice are always cast aside;
Loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and kindness pervade high and low.
Respectful, sincere, without flattery or crookedness,
Where can one not be fit among humans and heaven?”
Its essence lies in eliminating selfishness, and taking humility, benevolence and kindness as the foundation for cultivating the Dao and establishing one’s life.
See also the entry “Genuine Practice”.
