The current situation of Taoist Zhu Shiping of Maoshan

A few days ago, the Jurong City Culture and Tourism Bureau announced the list of the second batch of representative inheritors of Jurong City’s intangible cultural heritage. Maoshan Taoist Temple currently has four Taoist priests who have won the title of Jurong Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheriters.

Among the four Taoist priests, Taoist priests Zhu Shiping and He Yuhong are the representative inheritors of Maoshan Taoist music, the intangible cultural heritage of Jurong City. The representative inheritor of the material cultural heritage Maoshan Talisman.

Maoshan Taoist music has a long history. It flourished in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and was favored by the court in the Song and Yuan dynasties. It is rich in literary and historical materials. Today's Maoshan Taoist music maintains the charm of Maoshan Taoist music in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and has the characteristics of local music. It absorbs the essence of court music and the Zhengyi music of the Quanzhen school, plus Maoshan's own characteristics, forming Maoshan Pai's unique Taoist music system is very obviously different from Taoist music in other areas of southern Jiangsu. In 2014, Maoshan Taoist music was included in the expanded list of national intangible cultural heritage representative items.

The talisman is also called "talisman", "ink urn", "alchemy book", etc. in Maoshan Taoism. Fu Lu is the collective name of Fu and Lu. The talisman refers to a graphic symbol or figure written on yellow rice paper or silk; the urn refers to the secret text of the names and taboos of gods recorded between the talismans, usually also written on yellow paper or silk.

It is also understood that at the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Culture announced the fifth batch of recommended inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects, and He Chunsheng, the representative inheritor of Maoshan Taoist music, was shortlisted.