Chapter 166: Two Taoist Sects

The atmosphere in the general's mansion was so depressing that it was frightening. The nine kings were the common leader, and the princes were causing chaos in the Shang Dynasty, which made Guo Xiaoding and Su Mu very angry. They wished they could rush back to the Imperial Shang Dynasty and clean up the government.

As the Ji official of Yongzhou, Xu Zhiyuan was more worried about whether the people would have any chance to survive under the barbarian cavalry.

However, if you are not in the position to do so, you should not interfere in the affairs of others.

Compared with Guo Xiaoding, Su Mu and Xu Zhiyuan, Chu Zhongxing could not resonate with their feelings too much. At most, he just complained that the Ninth Prince was stupid for not resolving the external threat first before competing for the Central Plains.

"General Guo, Angel, Xu Jiguan!"

Chu Zhongxing broke the dull atmosphere. He stood up and walked slowly to the outside of the general's mansion: "You guys can chat here. I'll go prepare accommodation and food for Zhang Chengjun and the others."

After Chu Zhongxing left, Guo Xiaoding, Su Mu and Xu Zhiyuan took Zhang Chengjun aside to ask him in detail about what happened inside the Imperial Shang Dynasty. Since they came to the Northern Frontier, they had completely lost contact with the Imperial Shang Dynasty and knew nothing about what was happening inside the Dynasty.

Zhang Chengjun's disciples, sister and servants were standing humbly outside the general's mansion. When they saw Chu Zhongxing coming out, they hurriedly saluted Chu Zhongxing and said, "Greetings, General!"

"Well, you wait here for a while. I will have someone prepare accommodation and food for you."

"Don't worry about your brother. The old general and the angel are just asking about the situation inside the Imperial Shang Dynasty."

Chu Zhongxing nodded slightly and gave them a brief explanation. These people had obviously suffered from the hardships of society. They hurriedly thanked Chu Zhongxing and did not show any arrogance of disciples from aristocratic families.

Of course, it is also possible that the Zhang family was sacrificed. They are all side branches and their status is not high.

Returning to the martial arts arena, they found that out of the seven carriages that Niu Bu and his group had looted, the other six were still parked here intact.

Just now, in order to ask Zhang Chengjun about the current situation of the Imperial Shang Dynasty, Chu Zhongxing immediately took him to the General's Mansion after rewarding the player.

Now that things were almost settled, Chu Zhongxing returned to the martial arts arena to check what was in the other six carriages.

He first came to the carriage full of books and couldn't wait to pick up a book and read it.

"The Tao can be Tao, but it is very Tao. The name can be named, but it is very famous."

Classic, a very classic sentence.

When Chu Zhongxing saw that the preface of this book was the first chapter of "Tao Te Ching", his mind buzzed and he was surrounded by great joy.

Tao Te Ching!
The car was actually filled with Taoist books, and the books were the Taoist compendium "Tao Te Ching"!
"These barbarians can really loot good stuff!"

Chu Zhongxing hurriedly flipped through the "Tao Te Ching". This "Tao Te Ching" did not have many words and the content was obscure and difficult to understand. Since Chu Zhongxing had not read the "Tao Te Ching" on Earth OL in his previous life, he was not quite sure what the difference was between the "Tao Te Ching" on Earth OL and the "Tao Te Ching" in front of him.

Judging from the only content he knew, the beginning of the Tao Te Ching on Earth OL is the same as that of this Tao Te Ching.

The carriage containing the Tao Te Ching is filled with books and content related to Taoism. In addition to the Tao Te Ching, there are also Taoist magical powers, some Taoist essays and insights, as well as Taoist school interpretations.

Putting aside the Taoist magic power, Chu Zhongxing flipped through the interpretations of the Taoist school and gained a preliminary understanding of Taoism in this world. Taoism was originally divided into two schools, namely the Huangdao School that studied Huangdi in Huang-Lao School, and the Lao-Zhuang School that studied Laozi in Huang-Lao School.

The thoughts and beliefs of these two schools are almost the same. The only difference is that the Huangdao School contains Legalist thought, while the Laozi and Zhuangzi School contains Confucian thought.

The Huang-Lao school values ​​masculinity and toughness. They admire the thoughts of Huangdi, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and the sage Laozi. They emphasize worldly practice and tempering their mortal desires in the secular world, but at the same time they are not opposed to entering officialdom.

Although the Huang-Lao school of thought was accepted by the imperial court, they advocated governing by inaction and emulating nature. They hoped that the emperors of the Shang Dynasty would not interfere too much in the people's livelihood and allow them to focus on rest and recuperation.

To the emperors of the Shang Dynasty, this ideology was even more extreme than the idea that human nature is evil. Not a single emperor of the Shang Dynasty adopted the teachings of Huang Lao and advocated governing by inaction.

Not only were they not given important positions in the government, they were also restricted by the court. This went against the idea of ​​the Huang-Lao school of thought, which advocated governing by inaction and imitating nature. As a result, the Taoist Huang-Lao school gradually split into two groups.

One group is the original Huang-Lao school, who still advocate worldly practice, while the other school evolved into the hermit school.

The hermits advocated seclusion from the world and practiced cultivation, and took the idea of ​​governing by inaction to the extreme. The hermits did not participate in officialdom, nor did they persuade the rulers to govern by inaction. They were devoted to studying nature, practicing cultivation, and immersed in their own world.

Most of the hermit sects are hidden in the mountains with abundant spiritual energy. According to the different research directions of each sect, they are divided into many Taoist sects.

For example, they specialized in growing magical rice, and every time there was a good harvest, they would give five dou of rice to the common people, which was called "Five Dou Rice Sect".

There are only two schools of Taoism, but there are many sects. The disciples of each sect have different research directions, ranging from formations, talismans, to alchemy, puppets, magical powers, and spells.

Taoism, the school that claims to be the ancestor of all schools of thought, has almost withdrawn from competing with other schools in the court. Except for the Huang-Lao school that occasionally insists on entering officialdom, the Taoist disciples are no longer seen in the court.

Far away from the court, in the mountains full of spiritual energy, you will hear a lot of news related to Taoism.

"As expected of a Taoist!"

Chu Zhongxing was amazed when he saw the Taoist interpretation. Taoism is worthy of being Taoism. Its philosophy is to rule by inaction. After failing to convince the emperor, they convinced themselves and began to practice in seclusion.

"The Taoists are really open-minded. During the Shang Dynasty, there were hundreds of schools of thought, and the disciples of countless schools all wanted to enter the government and use their own beliefs and ideas to influence the emperor of the Shang Dynasty. But the Taoists are so kind. If you don't listen to me, I won't try to change your mind. I will just live my life in seclusion!"

Chu Zhongxing clicked his tongue twice, put down the book of Taoist interpretation in his hand, and took out another book.

This book records the Taoist techniques.

Taoism is the only school among all the schools of thought that has mastered supernatural powers and also studies magic.

Supernatural powers are completely different from magic. The supernatural powers of the various schools of thought need to be comprehended by the disciples of the various schools of thought on their own. After comprehending the supernatural powers, they need to open up spiritual meridians unique to the "supernatural powers" in their bodies. Only in this way can they use the supernatural powers.

As for the magic, there is no need to open up exclusive spiritual energy meridians in the body. As long as you have spiritual energy and have mastered the magic's hand gestures, you can use the magic by pinching the gestures.

(End of this chapter)