What are the forms of Chinese TAOIST Religion in China?
Before the cultural revolution shook that continent there were three primary forms of TAOIST religion in China. The Monastic TAOISM known as the “Lungmen (Dragon Gate) TAOISTS,” the “Chengyi TAOISTS” and the “Changtienssu TAOISTS.” • The Lungmen TAOISTS descend from the TAOIST Hermitage said to have been founded by disciples of LAO TZU at the Lungmen grottoes near Loyang where LAO TZU stopped for a while on his departure from the Chinese Empire. Their teaching is the purest spiritual teaching of LAO TZU. They practiced meditation and existed on a vegetable diet. They never cut their hair which they wore in the style of those ancient days. • The Chengyi TAOIST Church was quite similar to the Lungmen but somewhat more worldly as the monks ate meat, drank wine and sometimes married. They practice spiritism and exorcism, study magic, love lore and ancient herbal medicine. It is the form of TAOISM that supports a pantheistic collection of popular gods around which there is associated much e
