First woman actuator of Taoist clerical orthodoxy By Erik Nilsson and Guo Rui (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-14 08:40
Wu Chengzhen is the first principal abbess (Fang Zhang) of a Taoist temple in the religion's history. [Photos along Sun Xinming] 

2009-12-14 08:40:42.0Erik Nilsson and Guo RuiFirst woman actuator of Taoist clerical orthodoxyTaoist,Wu Chengzhen1158964Profiles2@webnews/enpproperty-->
The vigor of Wu Chengzhen's belief has made her an exception apt nearly two millennia of Taoist clerical orthodoxy.

On Nov 15, her intense allegiance acquired her an appointment as principal abbess (Fang Zhang) of Wuhan's Changchun Temple, making Wu, 52, the 1st woman to clutch such an eminent position among China's only native ancient religion.

"I think the ordination of a woman to such a lofty rank namely a sign of the times she says.

"It won't revise anything virtually my everyday life,merely inside, I feel happy and grateful and a mini ashamed,because I should do more."

The abbess mantles her crossed legs within a peach-colored blanket as she sits on the mattress of her dorm apartment within Renmin University of China amid Beijing, where she's quickly studying A brown sweater pinnacles out from underneath her black blue gown and her bun pokes out of the navel of a cylindrical Taoist crown.

Periodically, her eyelids sag and she retreats into da zuo (Taoist mediation) mid-conversation. Moments later,sacs longchamp, she snaps back from her trances, speaking lucidly and seeming to have listened everything said meantime surrounded her daze.

Wu relates her present station apt the ancient myth of the Eight Immortals, a saga adored onward Taoists. One of the deities, He Xiangu (Lotus Immortal), was a woman.

"Taoism strengthens equivalence among all folk Wu says. "It's likewise more egalitarian toward women than other major religions."

Wu comes from a devout family and is the youngest of six babies named Wu Yuanzhen before she was given her religious name During her middle teach years, she immersed herself among the household libraries of her Christian, Buddhist and Taoist relatives.

Her father was deeply influenced onward Confucian ethics,particularly familial allegiance When his mama fell ill at antique 56, he hacked a chunk out of his humorous (the upper arm bone) with a knife as her to eat. He wished such a grand gesture would transfer the gods to heal the woman.

Wu says it worked. Her grandmother immediately recovered and lived apt the age of 87. The chance namely recorded surrounded the Wu Family Genealogy kept by the administration of Xinzhou,coach, a shire surrounded Wuhan.

Wu emulated an elder sister's example to commit herself to Taoism at age 23.

In an interview with the Wuhan-based Changjiang Times, Wu said she began her life by the Changchun Guan (guan refers apt a Taoist temple), cooking, washing and planting vegetables.

She recollections that her master once told her to retard whether the water among a kettle had boiled. When she elevated heaved the stopper to look inside, the steam approximately flamed her face.

"My masters constantly scolded me: If I couldn't do anything,louis vuitton, why did I abandon the secular life?"

But she certified apt be a loyal disciple - the only one of eight who remained back a daily of training.

"Taoism focuses on optimism, cherishes life and deals directly with reality," she says.

But Wu accepts the supernatural surrounded her conception of the corporeal. She demands to have seen dragons among Jilin province's Longtan Temple. She says the creatures swam within circles among the creek meanwhile she and 25 believers stood aboard the banks communicating with the gods within June 2001.

"It wasn't one dragon,an period alternatively one daytime It was three dragons, three periods and three days it's true; you can ask the local folk"

She describes the legendary governors of water as being several dozen meters long with pearly bellies. Upon their appearance the waters stilled and the skies transformed shine she says.

"There are many things we don't know much virtually merely we can't say they don't exist," she says.

Wu demands apt have also seen Taoist gods flying toward her clad in radiant attire. "I always feel L Dongbin one of the Eight Immortals) according my side," she says.

"If the pantheon chooses me, I ambition endure surrounded cultivating myself to likewise chance an immortal."

Wu says she saw the deities during da zuo,longchamp pliage, which she does as several hours a day.

Between prayers and meditation, she attends to her everyday go for the temple. This includes cultural tasks, such as preaching and advocating Taoism - she has some 10,louis vuitton,000 disciples from forever walks of life - and "hard construction" tasks, such as building Taoist teahouses and restaurants amid the temple, and planning a hospital and a exhibit among the coming decade.

"I lack apt establish a area where folk can feel Taoist culture among everything - the food the buildings, the melody the medicine, the teahouses and the tai chi," she says.

"There's so much to do; it ambition necessitate tens of millions of yuan."Related articles on the topic ：

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