Who are the saints in history?

The general concept of a saint refers to a person who is considered by the public to have special virtue and holiness. In China, wise monarchs and emperors in ancient times and people with lofty morality and profound Confucianism in later generations were all called saints. The definition of saint often appears in books where a hundred schools of thought contend. Some religions dedicate saints through certain ceremonies, but some saints are directly regarded as saints by the public. There are saints in Christianity (including Roman Catholic Church, Holy Catholic Church, Orthodox Church), Hinduism, Islam and Santiago in Cuba. Some people in the new era movement also integrated the concept of saints into their beliefs.

The following are the classifications of saints in different religious cultures.

Confucianists

Based on the original Confucian standpoint of the word "saint", the famous and recognized saints recorded in China's classics mainly include Fuxi, Huangdi, Zhuan Xu, Yao, Shun, Yu, Yi Yin, Shang Tang, Boyi, Zhou Wuwang, Duke Zhou, Confucius and Yanzi. )

Taoism

Due to the influence of Confucianism, some people will call people who return to nature and have no name or surname (unimpeded and not burdened by everything in the world) "saints", but in fact, Laozi advocates "abandoning wisdom" (the sage here refers to the sage respected by Confucianism, but it also shows that the word saint is specifically aimed at Confucianism), so this title violates the original intention of Taoism. The realm of Taoism corresponding to Confucian "sages" is "fairy truth". However, in the practice of Taoism, there is a saying that "sacred fetus is formed", and some Taoist gods are also called "sacred fetus".

Buddhism

Buddhism sometimes calls "Buddha" a saint and is influenced by Confucianism.

folk

After Confucius, there were no recognized saints in China culture. However, there are still many elites in professional fields who are respected as "saints" by later generations, just as people call them "stock gods" today, but these secular saints have nothing to do with the original intention of "saints"

Folk honorific title

Wine saint: Du Kang

Poet and Saint: Du Fu

Doctor: Zhang Zhongjing

Book sage: Wang Xizhi

Painter: Wu Daozi

Cha Sheng: Lu Yu.

Wusheng: Guan Yu

Cao Sheng: Zhang Xu.

Yasheng: Mencius

Ke Sheng: Zhang Heng

Shang Sheng: Fan Li