Pre-Ming Period During the
Period of Division, officials were divided into nine different ranks; the lower the Grade, the higher status they were. Taoist priests were given Grade Five status and above, and were permitted to participate in formal rituals () since they were educated in internal cultivation (). Taoist priests not trained in were relegated to Grade Six status or lower, and bore the title of "Three-Five Surveyor of Merit” (.
Ming (1368–1644) Classification and Outside View During the
Ming Dynasty, Taoism and Buddhism were state-sponsored religions, with all others banned. Taoist priests were often classified by two categories, priests live in designated temples, while priests drifted around with no fixed residence. During the period, Taoist priests were largely viewed positively by the public, though some were skeptical about the credibility of their
alchemy,
fortune-telling, and
divination. Taoist priests organized themselves into different categories, and assigned themselves different jobs based on their rankings. Both Taoist priests and priestesses performed rituals. Their rankings were included when Taoist priests signed records for rituals which would be burned for certain rituals, such as the Yellow Register Zhai () rituals, or burial rituals, and Golden Register Jiao (), or temple renewal-type rituals. Some scholars tasked themselves with copying down the manuscripts before they were burned in the ritual. The Taoist belief system was also seen as legitimate by many during the middle Ming period when, with the growth of commerce in the state, it became a trend for different industries to worship their own Taoist patron gods. For example, ink makers would worship , ironsmiths would worship , and prostitutes and thieves would worship and , in many ways to prove the legitimacy of their occupations. These restrictions, however, changed over time, as in 1419 laws stated that only those above 14 and below 20 years old, and whose parents both approved, would be allowed to study Taoist classics in temples and sit for the examination after five years, resulting in priests being younger than was previously required. Those who passed would be given the , while the others would have to secularize. Teenagers whose parents or grandparents did not have other offspring to depend on were not allowed to become monks or priests. Those older than 30 or younger than 40 years old, who were once monks or priests but later secularized, were not allowed to become priests again. In 1380, the government also restricted the number of priests by imposing regional quotas for both Buddhist and Taoist priests, 40 for each prefecture , 30 for each independent department , and 20 for each county . Taoist dress during the Ming Dynasty was said to not have changed much from that of previous dynasties. In a book written by the Prince of Ning , he states that the clothing of Taoist priests in Ming was not too different from the “ancient” style of the
Northern and Southern dynasties (420-589 AD). Taoist priests also participated in death rituals. However, some wealthy families objected to hiring Taoist priests for their funerals due to their Confucian beliefs that argued against the lavish musical performances of Taoist funerals. Taoist priests also chose whether to marry or not; to continue the hereditary title, the
Celestial Master had to be married to pass the title to an eligible male heir. Such rituals were performed near or at temples and other pure areas away from the public eye, and if the homeowners allowed it, the priests were able to enter their homes and erect a sacred space to perform the ritual. It is believed that the shortage of such texts from earlier periods were due to the high standards of the officials that approved them and the biased beliefs that these rituals were related to
shamanistic ideas and rituals. == Clothing ==