Chapter 82 About the Setting
Sanren created a new system, and some readers said they didn't understand it. Well, okay, Sanren himself didn't explain it clearly. The following is an explanation of some of the terms in the book.
Five major schools
If you think this is Sanren's nonsense, then you are wrong. In order to make it clearer for everyone, Sanren will first introduce the five major schools in reality to everyone.
1. Jishan School.
The monks of the Jishan School pay attention to: spreading good deeds and benevolence, accumulating merits and virtues. With the power of boundless merits and virtues, they achieve the mutual feeling between heaven and man, and cultivate the way of heavenly immortals. They are called heavenly immortals, but in fact they are only half-gods. After the merits and virtues of the monks of the Jishan School are complete, they achieve the position of gods with merits and virtues, and avoid the priesthood at the same time. They get the incense of the position of gods, but they are not entangled in official duties, and they are as free and easy as immortals.
The Jishan School takes accumulating merits and virtues, benefiting things and helping others, sacrificing oneself to treat others, sacrificing oneself for others, pitying others' evil, enjoying others' goodness, helping others in need, and relieving others' dangers as the first priority of cultivation.
The monks of the Jishan School should practice the good books such as "Taishang Ganying Pian", "Gongguo Ge", and "Yinzhi Wen". They must know: "If you want to cultivate heavenly immortals, you must do three thousand good deeds; if you want to cultivate earthly immortals, you must do three hundred good deeds."
2. Classic School.
The Taoist sects characterized by believing in a certain classic are collectively called Classic Taoism. The monks of the Classic School study and verify the classics, and respectfully practice the manifestation of human gods. Generally speaking, most of the monks of the Classic School practice Shintoism. According to the pantheon of their own sect, they feel the heart of heaven and practice for a lifetime, just to leave their names in the pen of the gods and get Shinto incense.
Most of the Classic Schools also belong to the Fulu School. The Classic School and the Fulu School are the most religious schools in Taoism.
3. Fulu School.
The monks of the Fulu School are good at drawing talismans to exorcise ghosts and using talisman water to cure diseases. At the same time, they are best at fasting and offering rituals. In the upper part, one can communicate with the heavens and command the gods; in the lower part, one can communicate with the underworld and command the ghosts; in the lower part, one can communicate with the gods and humans, and the immortal path can be expected. The talisman school is undoubtedly the school with the strongest combat effectiveness.
From the earliest "Five Dou Rice" to the famous Maoshan School, and the Shenxiao School famous for thunder magic, they all belong to the talisman school. In the eyes of the world, the talisman school almost represents Taoism.
4. The divination school.
A Taoist school that mainly teaches divination and numerology. The divination school monks take elixirs internally and cultivate merits externally. They are best at borrowing luck. Once they get the response of gods and humans and see the loopholes of the way of heaven, they will cleverly establish the fruit of Taoism and become immortals. Therefore, the divination school monks are closest to the secular people.
Most of the divination school monks are smart people, who are best at divination, Qimen Dunjia, and layout and formation.
The talismans are good at fighting, and the divination is good at calculation. The practice of the divination school is very mentally exhausting, and only those who are smart can enter the door. It is precisely because of this that there are very few true descendants of the divination school. Most of the monks of the talisman school practice this way, but they do not study it deeply, but most schools will not touch the way of divination.
5. Danding School.
Danding School, a school that almost transformed Taoism from a religion into a practice. It can be said that the decline of Taoism is largely due to the Danding School.
The Danding School emphasizes the dual cultivation of sex and life, using oneself as a furnace, essence as lead, and consciousness as mercury to achieve the golden elixir.
The monks of the Danding School do not practice the way of divination, do not learn the art of talismans, but only practice the merits of sex and life. What they pursue is immortality, which is the true way of immortality.
The Danding School emphasizes retreat and practice, self-sufficiency, not doing evil to others, and never doing good to others. They only seek to transcend themselves, and don't care about the sentient beings in the world. Although the Danding Sect cultivators only cultivate the golden elixir and do not practice talismans, it does not mean that they are weak. On the contrary, they can be said to be the cultivators closest to the Heavenly Dao among the five major schools!
There are naturally differences between reality and fiction. Rather than saying it is the five major schools, it is better to say it is five schools. Sanren does not take it (the world scope is narrowed, and it is difficult for schools such as Wu Gu Dao and Zhen Dao to join later), so it is fictionalized.
After reading the description, everyone must have seen that the five major schools are not clearly divided. As Sanren said in the book, the five major schools have some intersections, learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses, but the core remains unchanged.
Danding Sect: It is divided into inner alchemy and outer alchemy. The fundamental difference between the two is whether the golden elixir is refined internally or externally, in layman's terms, it is internal or external. The division of the cultivation realm of inner alchemy and outer alchemy is the same. Realm division (taking the Yiqi Sect as an example, each sect will be different due to the difference in the fundamental law): Refining Qi (generating qi, gathering qi, absorbing qi, condensing qi, changing qi, transforming qi, quenching qi, nourishing qi, nurturing qi), building foundation, golden elixir, Yuanying, Dongtian, if you understand a trace of the origin of the Dongtian, you will be a half-immortal. The situation of the Burning Emperor is different. It is not an ordinary half-immortal, which will be mentioned below.
Talisman Sect: Refining Qi, building foundation, spiritual talisman (golden elixir + Yuanying), Dongtian. This way is quite similar to the ancient demon clan practicing the big elixir. The whole body is in the spiritual talisman, and there is no change of turning into a baby.
Jishan Sect: The level is measured by the number of accumulated merits. The cultivation level is generally based on the coverage of the merit golden light on the top. Generally speaking, the golden light is less than 30 miles below the golden elixir, and it breaks through 30 miles after the golden elixir, 300 miles for the Yuanying, and 3,000 miles for the Dongtian. However, this number varies greatly due to the different species of the realm.
Divination School: Spiritual (Qi Refining + Foundation Building, can calculate the changes of spiritual energy), Mysterious (Golden Pill, can predict the rise and fall of Taoism), Youyou (Nascent Soul, can peek into the netherworld and attract the dead), Bright (Dongtian, can calculate the fate of a region).
Classic School: Generally see which grade of gods it can summon.
Finally, there is the Contemplation School added by Sanren himself: Soul Containment (Qi Refining + Foundation Building), External God (Golden Pill + Nascent Soul), Internal God (Dongtian).
In Sanren's setting, the several major schools are just different paths chosen by cultivators before becoming immortals. They all comprehend the Taoism and cultivate the Great Dao. Once they become immortals, all methods return to one. As for why there are so many schools below the immortals, Sanren will introduce it to the end of the second calamity of the background of the prehistoric flow.
Division of Immortals: Divided by Dao Fruit, Taichu Dao Fruit (to comprehend the origin), Taiyi Dao Fruit (to comprehend the Dao of time and space), Daluo Dao Fruit (to comprehend the Dao of destiny), Hunyuan Dao Fruit (to comprehend the Dao of reality and illusion), each Dao Fruit is divided into Tianxian, Xuanxian, and Jinxian. The saint is Hunyuan Jinxian. The one who died with the Burning Emperor was a Taichu Jinxian, and the Burning Emperor comprehended a trace of the Dao of destiny at the last moment.
This is just the division of the immortal way. In Sanren's setting, during the three disasters (Honghuang novels call it the disaster of conferring gods, Sanren prefers to call it the internal struggle of the Taoist sect), the divine way and the human way were separated from the immortal way, and the divine way and the human way formed their own system. In order to reduce everyone's burden, I will not say more here.