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Tao Articles

China Dream Trip 2019: Beauty of the South, Power of Flower Mountain

Topic: TaoNews
Author:

Healing Tao USA

Qi Flows Naturally
HealingTaoRetreats.com    •    HealingTaoUsa.com    •    864-419-4502

September 2018

China Dream Trip May 10-28, 2019:

Beauty of the South, Power of Flower Mountain

5-Day Mt. Changbai Option May 28-June 1


I love the adventure and change that travel brings to one’s life. Tao is about change, inner and outer. As a Wandering Taoist, I love to travel. I’ve been to more than 100 countries, and organized over 50 adventure travel trips on 5 continents. My travel philosophy: “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the places and moments that take our breath away“.  — an Enlightened Traveler

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China Dream Trip is for folks who believe life is a spiritual adventure.

It’s for souls that hunger for the riches of ancient wisdom, and off-the-beaten path beauty in faraway lands. It’s not an ordinary tourist or educational tour. It requires the discipline of a simple but powerful daily spiritual practice. It draws people who seek a life-transforming experience.

Dream Trips attract amazingly interesting people from a wide range of backgrounds – one trip had people from nine countries. Afterwards, many say the incredible Dream Tripper community was half the value of the trip, with China being the other half!

There is absolutely no pre-requisite to sign up. Just bring an open heart and willingness to join in daily group practice of an 800-year old lineage Primordial Tai Chi form (12 minutes) from Chang San Feng, a 13the cen. famous inner alchemy adept on Mt. Wudang. Plus a 2500-year old shamanic Big Dipper 7-Star Stepping Qigong form (15 min.) from the lineage of Female Immortals. Beginners will be trained in both easy to learn forms. Advanced students will learn to take them deeper. Everyone gets a free 2-hour Primordial training video immediately after paying your deposit.

Top 3 Highlights — 2019 China Dream Trip

I promise it will be the dreamiest, most amazing trip of your life!

1. Mt. Hua (Hua shan), Flower Mountain. Tao Sacred Mountain of the West


              

L: Flower Mountain is China’s “Taoist Yosimite” with temples perched on the edge of dramatic granite cliffs, with 72 caves. Its major peaks are in the shape of a five-petalled flower. Historical documents claim more Tao immortals achieved themselves here than any other sacred mountain in China. R: Mt. Hua’s famous boardwalk above sheer 3000 ft. cliff is totally optional!

I have a deep 20-year relationship with Mt. Hua. The mountain itself is an awakened Being. I spent a week in a cave with no food or water, and was so filled with Qi I never got hungry. In 2012 I got married atop a sheer 3000 foot cliff – a cosmic lover’s leap. Dream trippers stay in monasteries or caves used by ancient Tao adepts to dream their Way to immortality. This mountain takes us deep into the Metal/Gold Element at the root of individual self-cultivation. It nourishes our alchemical ability to crystallize our personal pearl, the inner earth of our soul.

2. LI River Fantasia Peaks (Guelin & Yangshuo)

Along the Li River and its Yu Long tributary the land looks like it took an LSD trip, and imagined a Fantasia-like realm of earthly beauty. Taoist artists and poets have long sung praises to Nature’s wild and free spirit. That vision is given body in the peaks of Guelin and Yangshuo. When I first saw paintings with these pointy peaks, I wondered at the source of artistic inspiration. It was only after I visited Yangshuo did I realize the paintings were not an artist’s mind run wild. The land itself has an incredible power of imagination that stimulates our own. I felt so much at home in this beautiful Heaven-on-Earth that I wanted to live here, retire here…I’m still open to it!

3. Yunnan’s Mt. Weibao: 22 Amazing Taoist Temples

         

The largest Taoist temple complex in all of China is hidden atop a seldom visited mountain in the southwest province of Yunnan (borders Burma & Tibet). This is where Taoists from other parts of China come to get away from crowds and meditate in the serene stillness of lush forests surrounding ancient temples. Yunnan is my favorite province in all of China – it has deserts, jungles, snow-capped peaks, valleys with thousands of terraces filled with rainbow colored crops. It has 55 ethic tribes with gorgeous costumes and wild folk dances and exotic cuisines. In a remote part of this “beauty province” is tucked Mt. Weibao – a treasure of inner spiritual beauty.

Mt. Changbai +5-Day Option 

Healing Tao USA’s root sacred mountain of One Cloud & White Cloud Wandering Taoist lineage.

Mt. Changbai, Eternally White Mountain, is the “crown chakra”  of China’s sacred mountains. Revered for thousands of years, it embodies the energy of Taoist Water & Fire Alchemy. The deep pure waters of Heavenly Lake rest atop the most active volcano in China. It radiates a phenomenal energy field revered by China’s Emperors for its worldly power and Taoist adepts for its spiritual power. Its ginseng, deer antler, and other wild herbs are famous for being of the highest potency in all China.

This sacred mountain in Manchuria (China’s Siberia) is covered in snow for 9 months of the year – hence its name. The coupling of dynamic Fire Qi below  the stillness of Water Qi in its volcanic lake produces a phenomenal energy field of Original Qi that quickens the Energy Body vibration of anyone who tunes in. We capture this Original Qi with the alchemy embedded in the movement ritual of Primordial Tai Chi. This crater is a portal that opens deep into the root spiritual energy of Mother Earth. This deep primordial water-fire combustion births all life on the planet’s surface. Our visit here is an opportunity to dissolve our Human essence into the larger collective field of Heaven-Earth Qi.

Read my newsletter on Mt. Changbai from my exploratory trip in 2013: It has great photos and recounts my quest to verify the Healing Tao lineage.   https://www.michaelwinn.qlogictechnologies.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=168 


4 Ways to Signup

MAKE A $600. DEPOSIT to reserve a space on the main trip, $1000. for main + changbai option.  Best to act immediately if you feel it is your destiny to go to China. Full refund on main trip until midnight Dec. 1, 2018. Optional trip pricing to be determined, no deposit risk. See Cancellation Policy (at end) before placing deposit. Ask about extended payment

1. LIVE PHONE. Call office manager Zachary Fant at (864) 419-4502

2. ANSWER MACHINE. Safely leave your name and credit card on our answering machine (leave a call back number)

3. EMAIL. Email credit card information to: info.HealingTaoUSA@earthlink.net

4. MAIL CHECK. Call AND email (see above) to leave message with your name and phone number: “Please hold a space – I confirm I have mailed a deposit check on XYZ date“. Mail check to: Healing Tao USA,  290 Enoree Trail, Fountain Inn, S.C. 29644S. Check should be post-marked within 24 hours of message/email to hold that priority date.

CONFIRM your choice BY EMAIL. If you choose phone or mail to pay deposit, please confirm you have paid or left message to pay by ALSO sending an email to info.HealingTaoUSA@earthlink.net. This allows me (Michael) to monitor all signups.

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                                                   China Dream Trip Mission

  Cauldron with Pearl in front of Taoist temple. Pearl is alchemy symbol for the Elixir of Life spontaneously arising as the crystallization of our soul.

“Our group Mission is to experience the spiritual essence of China. The particular mission of the 2019 Dream Trip is to deepen our grounding in the Tao. We’ll do Cosmological Qigong forms like Primordial Tai Chi in China’s most sacred and beautiful landscapes and connect to its ancestral Qi (chi). We’ll meet with spiritually powerful Taoists in their own element. We’ll deeply taste the ancient and modern cultures of China’s people, and feast on local cuisines at sumptuous banquets. We’ll explore its most famous sites (Great Wall, Terra Cotta Warriors) as well as its hidden secrets — before they disappear in China’s mad modern rush to forget its rich ancient history. 

My personal Mission is to create the finest Dream Trip I would give to myself, if I could only visit China once. I hope you receive this journey as a precious gift.

Dream Trip leader Michael Winn

This 2019 trip upholds the Dream Trip’s pioneer status as the only one to offer genuine cave and monastery experience on Huashan. These trips are designed to keep the door open between Western and Chinese Taoists, and to deepen the ground of our personal practice by engaging directly with the sacred Qi radiating from the heart of Flower Mountain. Our ancient lineage tai chi & qigong practices will connect us to the uniquely powerful Qi currents flowing in other sacred sites. If your heart feels drawn to China’s spiritual mystery, I advise you to trust your soul’s guidance. Trust the Tao will supply the time and resources to GO”.       – Michael Winn

Required reading (even if you don’t go to China!):  Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality by two top scholars, Prof. David Palmer (author of highly acclaimed Qigong Fever) and Prof. Elijah Siegler. These Dream Trips – offered over 20 years – have become famous enough to merit a serious and deep examination of their impact. The authors spent 12 years writing this book. It is a masterpiece that requires several readings to fully absorb. It’s a virtual encyclopedia of “lived Taoist lore”, ancient and modern, focused on Mt. Hua, one of the main characters in the book.

Dream Trippers is about how Western and Chinese Taoists on Mt. Hua relate on these trips, and about how we have different cultural approaches to cultivating Tao. The authors came on four Dream Trips and interviewed Chinese Taoists and Dream Trippers to measure their inter-cultural effect. The short summary: Chinese Taoists felt acknowledged and empowered by these trips, even as they recognized Western Wandering Taoists to be on a very different path from Chinese Temple Daoism. For Dream Trippers, it will be valuable before going to China to read my lengthy book review to be published in Sept. 2018 (see newsletter archives: https://www.michaelwinn.qlogictechnologies.com/tao-articles/winn-newsletter-archive/.)

Elijah Siegler wrote a chapter “Daoism Beyond Modernity: The Healing Tao as Post-modern Movement” in David Palmer and Liu Xun’s book  Daoism in the 20th century: Between Eternity and Modernity. His ideas on Healing Tao USA as being “ultra-modern” in applying ancient Tao principles are further elucidated in Dream Trippers.

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Praise from Dream Trippers 

(a short sample; more below)

Unforgettable, Extraordinary Experiences with Crazy Fun Bunch!

“I am still unpacking the chi from my unforgettable experiences doing qigong in China’s sacred mountains. This trip gave me continuous ecstasy, amazing landscapes, superb food and powerful sacred temples and monasteries – all with a crazy fun bunch of warm-hearted western adepts accompanied by a premium group of Tao immortals! Thank you all for such an extraordinary experience!” – Aurelio, Mexico City

                            The Qi in China was Simply Mind-blowing!

“The Qi (chi) I experienced in China was simply mind blowing! I got a transmission from being in those mountains that has totally opened up new levels of my inner vision.” – Mark, Fla.

“Thanks seems extremely insufficient to express my gratitude to you for making this trip to China possible – but, anyway, please accept my sincere gratitude. It was the most powerful experience of my life and continues to have a palpable moment-to-moment effect upon me.” — Very Happy Camper

“I can’t begin to tell you how much we enjoyed the trip and what a profound effect it had on us and our practice” – Couple with minimal previous qigong experience

                             Gateway to what my soul was seeking!

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have been the gateway to what my soul was seeking for. This China trip is a milestone in my life, a profound spiritual development. Each time I think about you and the group my heart beats faster and a big unstoppable smile takes over!

The outer trip was set up perfectly, to make our inner spiritual trip go perfectly! From start of the trip to the end, it was like yin and yang making love… it was so beautiful! Poetic…simply magnificent!” – 2nd generation Chinese man, living in Toronto

Contents:
» 12 Other Good Reasons to take 2019 China Dream Trip
• Great Photos from previous China Dream Trips
» Cost & How to Register for China Dream Trip
 
» 19 Day Schedule – with Photos
• Changbai 5-Day Schedule
» China Dream Trip Guides

» “How did the Dream Trip Change Your Life?
”
» Cancelation Policy

12 More Good Reasons to take 2019 China Dream Trip

1. Best of Beijing:
     

The Temple of Heaven is a 14th century spaceship for launching Energy Bodies. I plan to build a replica in North Carolina for a retreat center! In addition to 3 days of qigong & Primordial Tai Chi training in Temple of Heaven park, we visit Taoist White Cloud Temple, the Old Beijing district with narrow streets (hutongs), the Forbidden City, and Tianamen Square.

2. Great Wall of China — a Dragon Ley Line
                                                                 

We do Primordial Tai Chi on top of the Great Wall to capture its powerful Dragon Qi, the feng shui equivalent in the West of a powerful earth ley line.

3. Best of Xian:

              

Xian was China’s ancient walled capitol for 1500 years. It’s a giant outdoor museum. We visit its Moslem bazaar, Tao 8 Immortals Temple, City Gods Temple, and Jade museum. You’ll have free time to explore other places.

4. Terra Cotta Warriors.

2300 year-old army of individually sculpted soldiers covers 5 football fields – China’s most famous site (more visitors than the Great Wall).

5. Stay in Mt. Hua Caves or Ancient Taoist Monasteries.

             

L: Doorway of one of the granite caves carved out by hand. R: West Peak (with monastery atop) seen from a distance.

Most tourists run up and down Mt. Hua in one day using cable cars. Staying in a temple, monastery and/or a cave on Huashan for four days has been hugely popular and led to many powerful spiritual experiences, including contact with the Tao immortals who still like to visit here as their “earthly home”. The fabulous temple-caves where we co-dream with immortal beings are not open to the general public or tourists. For those who don’t want to “rough it” fasting in a cave, you can sleep and eat in a comfortable monastery and meditate during the day in a very special Kuan Yin Temple-Cave that is open to just to our group and local Taoists..

6. Practice Spiritual Tai Chi in its Root Qi field.

Anyone can learn and practice the gracefully simple 800 year old lineage form, Tai Chi for Enlightened Self-Love, aka Wu Ji Gong and Primordial Qigong. Mantak Chia learned this form on the 2010 Dream Trip, and loved it so much he adopted it into his certification system. Attendees on this trip get certified to teach the form. It’s an amazing form that combines medical qigong, inner alchemy, feng shui, and tai chi.

You get a free DVD of the form in advance, when you put trip deposit down. This form is something that you’ll take home with you from China, a lifetime treasure. Even as we visit the “must-see” cultural highlights of China, we constantly focus on using Qigong & Tai Chi to absorb the Qi of China into our personal Energy Body. So when we get back home, China is deeply rooted in our bones and vital organs. That’s why many people report dreaming  for YEARS after this Dream Trip!

7. The EARTH QI in China is Different.

Those tiny dots are people, not ants, hiking up a Mt. Hua ridge to West Peak monastery.

We practice in China’s most powerful temples, sacred mountains, and caves. The Qi in these power spots has already been cultivated by Taoist adepts for thousands of years. In particular the Earth Qi is special in a Taoist sacred mountain, and it helps us build a strong inner earth in our personal Energy Body. The sacred mountains are “Awake”, i.e. Self-conscious. The Qi we will be “eating” is thus more refined than Qi in other parts of the world, like the cities where most people live. This special Earth Qi will support each of us. When you come home, you will feel super-grounded. Your foundation will be stronger and you’ll feel moe ready to create your deepest Life Path.

8. It’s China Made Easy & Fun.

Travelling on your own in China is a hassle. You have to hire translators, and you’ll only see half as much as I’ve been able to pack into this Cream Trip. Even if you are a “travel snob” like me, who never takes group tours, you will love this one. The people are FUN!

We climb on some of China’s most powerful sacred mountains. We keep the hiking easy, using cable cars to first get to the spectacular walking areas. Yes, there are stretches of steep stairs – but who cares when the view is what really takes your breath away? Our group qigong practice will give you incredible energy to handle those stairs and our packed travel schedule. Walking on sacred mountains evokes the energy of pilgrimmage: each step deepens our holy connection to the earth.

9. Feel Empowered Cultivating Qi in China’s top Power Spots

Dream Tripper in deep trance at Lao Tzu’s Ascension Site in West Louguantai, after doing Wu Ji Gong to capture its amazing etheric energy. (Site could be visited on free day in Xian at end of 2019 trip).

Our group tai chi practice at Taoist “sacred power” sites is very, very empowering. This form feels different in China, even if you’ve been doing it for years. It’s because this form is unique in its ability to gather and concentrate the Qi of the place the ceremony is performed. The Tao Immortals who originally transmitted this form are more likely to show up!

10. Shamanic Big Dipper 7-Star Stepping Qigong

We train in the rare and ancient shamanic Seven Star Big Dipper Qigong Ceremony. This is likely the oldest qigong form I’ve uncovered, transmitted to me from Nu Xian Pai, “Path of the Female Immortals” Wandering Taoist lineage. It functions like an ancient “brain gym”, with different movements of the arms and legs doing an ancient Taoist square dance.

It aligns with Taoist inner alchemy method of absorbing purple Qi from the Pole Star. This shamanic qigong generates a very special and powerful Qi field — used in ancient times to build a protective field around one’s community or before going into battle. Taoists believe the Pole Star & 7 Big Dipper stars control human destiny. Are you ready to take control of your destiny?  

11. Deep Meditation.

  

L: Dream Tripper meditating in 8 Immortals Temple in Xian. You can feel the vibration of 1400 years of meditation by generations of Taoists.  R: Statue of Chen Tuan meditating at base of Mt. Hua. He’s The Sleeping Immortal who dreamed for months at a time.  West Peak of Mt. Hua is visible in the distance – with a monastery where we stay.

Taoist temples allow space for deep tranquil meditation in the midst of 1.6 billion people. We’ll meditate (you choose the method best for you)  in Beijing’s White Cloud Temple and Temple of Heaven;  Xian’s City God Temple; the 8 Immortals Temple (1400 years old!); Huashan’s Jade Spring Temple, White Ruler God Temple, and Goddess of the 9 Heavens Temple, one of many Flower (“Hua”) Mountain temples dedicated to female Immortals. There are many “cave temples” atop Mt. Hua, dedicated to various divine beings – Jade Emperor, Thunder God, Kuan Yin, etc.These temples are all highly charged with deep spiritual energy of the Tao. Plus the 22 temples on Weibaoshan – you’ll have to pick and choose your favorite.

12. Make Fabulous Friends while having the Adventure of a Lifetime!

                                                

                                Dream Trippers sharing a sumptuous dumpling feast in Xian.

Everyone who comes on these Dream Trips feels that the friends they make here are at least half the joy of this journey. Tao encourages everyone to follow their own “Way”, but it sure is nice to have someone to share it with. This China Journey is designed to be a life-changing experience, and group support is part of that richness. Do you want to have some “serious spiritual fun” with a fabulous group of souls? If you seek a shot of fresh energy to unfold your highest destiny, this is the trip for you.

Great Photos from previous China Dream Trips (on Healing Tao USA FB page)

1. Top China Dream Trip photos:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.361777373934405.1073741841.339082189537257&type=3

2. Dream trip to Huashan, Emeishan:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.339517982827011.1073741829.339082189537257&type=3

3. China Dream Trip ’09 (Yunnan, Chengdu):  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.358863650892444.1073741835.339082189537257&type=3

4. China Dream Trip ’08 (Huashan, Laoshan, Taishan):
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.355374684574674.1073741831.339082189537257&type=3in 

Cost & How to Register for China Dream Trip

                                         

Michael Winn does Flying Crane Qigong. South Peak, Mt. Hua’s highest, is on the right. Note the poems carved into the rock. The entire mountain is a meeting place for human & Nature’s imagination.

Money back guarantee: on returning home, you will be a different person!

PRICE FROM LOS ANGELES: Main 19-day trip (May 10 – 28, 2019) is only $6590., includes round trip airfare from/to Los Angeles & Beijing, five flights inside China to its far corners (air fare $2500. if bought separately), all land costs  – hotel, food, bus, all entry fees in itinerary, guides. This low package cost is only available if we fly on group travel dates.

You must be at LAX (Los Angeles airport) late on Friday night, May 10, 2019 (to catch 1:40 am Air China flight early May 11). Low-cost round trip add-on fares to LAX from domestic US cities may be available. Virginia Chan, our group travel agent can assist you.

PRICE FROM BEIJING is $5590. from May 12 lunch through May 28 lunch. Ex-Beijing option is best for folks who arrive early, stay late, or use airline miles to fly to Beijing. Covers all land (hotel, meal, buses, entry fee) costs and five long domestic flights inside China (cost $1500. bought separately). It does NOT include your flight TO or FROM Beijing or your home. You will meet USA group at 8 am on Sunday May 12, 2019 at Tiantan Hotel. We immediately begin qigong training in Tiantan Park. We recommend you stay at 4-star Tiantan Hotel on Sat. May 11 (we’ll arrange group rate and book it for you if you request it).

NOT INCLUDED: visa fee, trip/medical insurance ($175.+ strongly recommended; we help you obtain a reliable policy), fuel surcharges from LAX (unlikely with current low oil prices). There’s a very remote chance of price adjustment due to major currency re-valuation (yuan going up vs. USD) before trip begins. For tips to the dozens of drivers, interpreter-guides, and group porters we simplify by asking everyone in advance to put an additional $100. into a tip pool to cover the entire trip. Then you never have to worry about tipping, unless you engage someone privately. On “free days” or long hiking days scattered about a mountain, lunch may not be included, as per final itinerary. You must pay for alcoholic drinks at meals and private bottled water.

GROUP TRAVEL AGENT IN USA. Contact our travel agent in Los Angeles, Virginia Chan (contact info given once you book). She can also help anyone having problem with visa.

$100. DISCOUNT (max) to 1) Michael’s weekend workshop students or attendee of Healing Tao USA summer retreats within past three years of your deposit date, 2) dues paid Healing Tao  (HTIA) instructors or overseas UHT instructors, 3) returning Dream Trippers get a $100 discount; their maximum (combined with other discounts) is $200.

MAIN TRIP SINGLE ROOM SUPPLEMENT: $795. Book this early; may not be available last minute. Does not include 3 monastery/cave nights on Huashan.

Price Comparison. I work hard to keep this trip affordable, despite high inflation in China and a strong Chinese currency driving up travel costs. The 2019 trip cost is a mere 10% increase over the 2016 trip — only a 3.3% a year increase. Most tour operators in China reduce costs by taking trains. But trains are slow, and can use up 25% of the trip schedule, and reduce the number of places visited.

The Dream Trip flies everywhere it is feasible, and is still priced $2500. below comparable high quality tours, which don’t visit exotic mountains or include Tao training. This trip is a bargain given how much is packed into it – read the daily schedule. When weighing the cost, know that your life-changing experiences of Qigong & Tai Chi in China’s sacred mountains, and travel with a more enlightened group of folks on the very best Taoist trip to China is priceless!

RESERVE YOUR PLACE with $600. USD deposit, subject to our confirmation (in case of over subscription) and terms of cancellation policy posted below. If over subscribed, full deposit will be returned. Credit cards (Visa or MC) accepted for $600. deposit, but checks or bank-wired funds are requested for balance of payments. 4% Surcharge on all American Express card payments, including deposit.

If you absolutely need to finance the trip with credit cards, please call us to arrange. The trip is not priced to include credit card company fees (those airline miles you earn cost me!). Extended payment can be arranged for those who really need it. If you feel you are truly supposed to be on this trip, we will help you find a way to go. But it’s YOU who must first dream that you are going on this Dream Trip.

BALANCE DUE:

1) A second payment of $1500. USD is due by midnight Saturday, Dec. 15, 2019.I need these funds to buy your air tickets.

2) Full Trip fee balance is due by midnight, Friday Jan. 25, 2019 (2.5 months before May 10 departure from LAX). Earlier payment is appreciated – I must pre-pay hotels and other vendors in China.

Mt. Changbai 5-Day Option: May 28 (7 pm) – June 1 brunch. Price will depend on the number of signups. I hope to price it around $1990. USD. Single room cost to be determined. Price will include airfare from Beijing to Changbai and return (expensive – we’re flying to China’s Siberia, only one flight a day!), plus all land (meals, hotel, very long transfers, mountain entry fees, 4-wheel jeep trip to summit, guide, etc.). There are no local guides who speak English, so I have the added expense to fly in my own guide from Xian (Diana from main trip) as well. Deposits for Optional Trip will be fully refunded (or credited to main trip) if final Option pricing is not acceptable to you..

TALK TO US! Don’t let money stop you from following your heart. We’ll help you get to China! Extended payment plans can balance out any budget.

TAX DEDUCTIBLE: As an IRS approved 501c3 non-profit activity, US nationals may claim 40%+ of total trip fee as tax deductible (ask your accountant).  Depending on tax bracket, this may offer up to $700. in tax savings. Profits from the trip go to support Healing Tao University summer retreats, which gave away 20 scholarships last year!

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   Calligraphy is a form of Qi Cultivation; both capture the essence of our feelings.         

             HOW TO MAKE A DEPOSIT FOR CHINA DREAM TRIP:

4 Ways to Signup. Easiest is email REGISTRATION FORM in next section.

1. LIVE PHONE. Call office manager Zachary Fant at (864) 419-4502. (He has NOT been to China – email your questions to Michael)

2. ANSWER MACHINE DEPOSIT. Safely leave your name, credit card info, and call back number on our answering machine.

3. EMAIL. Email Registration Form w/credit card information to: info.HealingTaoUSA@earthlink.net

4. MAIL CHECK. Then call AND email, leave message with your name and phone number: “Please hold a space while I mail a deposit check”. Mail check to: Healing Tao USA, 290 Enoree Trail, Fountain Inn SC 29644. Check should be post-marked within 24 hours of message/email to hold that priority date.

CONFIRM Your Choice by EMAIL. If you choose phone or mail to pay deposit, please confirm you have paid or left message to pay by ALSO sending an email to info.HealingTaoUSA@earthlink.net. This allows me (Michael) to monitor all signups.

DON’T DELAY in making an advance deposit – reserve your space as early as possible. Last minute applications are accepted on space available basis. It may cost a little more if airfare group fare is no longer available.   

                                  19-Day Schedule – with Photos

  Main Journey May 10  – May 28, 2019

This schedule does not include talks on Taoism or daily qigong practice times in it.

Day 1: LOS ANGELES. Travel day to Los Angeles. We meet at LAX on Friday evening May 10, 2019 for check-in after 9 pm. You can either 1) arrive in LA a day early (on Thursday), on Friday relax at the beach until its time to go to the airport.  OR 2) get a Friday evening connection to the Beijing flight (allow 3-4 hours connection). Check in LAX Terminal 2 for “Air China” flight #984, departs at 1:40 am (Saturday morning). Do not confuse with “China Air” (Taiwan) in different terminal.

Day 2: PACIFIC OCEAN – NORTH POLE (aerial view). The plane is kept dark for most of the 12.5 hour flight to aid sleeping. You will receive detailed instructions on how to avoid jet-lag and stay fresh. We lose one day (24 hours) crossing International Date Line, but regain it on way back.

      
Beijing’s spectacular airport is the modern face of China. a pair of giant dragons guarding entry.

Day 3: BEIJING. We arrive Beijing Sunday 5:20 am. Stay at 4 star Tiantan Hotel, near the wonderful Temple of Heaven park. Meet those starting from Beijing after breakfast. We  immediately visit the Taoist Temple of Heaven (Tian Tan), the most sacred place in Beijing. Temple of Heaven park has a colorful potpourri of people: qigong & tai chi players, ballroom dancing, gambling, folk singers, gymnasts & musicians.

     

L: Dancing in the park with silk plumes is a 2000 year old tradition. R: Dream Trippers play Qqong outdoors, with Temple of Heaven peaking in the background.

We start with qigong in the park to erase any travel fatigue. Everyone coming on the trip will already have received a free copy of the Primordial Tai Chi for Enlightened Self-Love DVD. I will give corrections and more in depth understanding of its energetics and cosmology, so that everyone feels totally comfortable with doing it daily for the rest of the trip. This 800-year old lineage form speeds up your self-transformation process and smooths out your life karma. It’s the most balancing and deeply centering form I’ve found, with many medical applications as well.

Temple of Heaven, Beijing’s most powerful Taoist site. Built without a single nail. I love this temple, and plan to build a replica in North Carolina!

The North Temple of Heaven is an extraordinary three tiered circular temple that reflects Tao cosmology of trinities such as Taoist 3 Treasures of Heaven, Earth, & Humankind. It looks like a 14th century spaceship. The Emperor, as Son of Heaven, had to visit here twice a year to receive Celestial instruction.

Afternoon: After a rest, we’ll go to a Chinese acrobat show, famous the world over. Then early to bed. The Qi in Beijing is very powerful due to good feng shui from ring of mountains surrounding it. Many have powerful dreams here. .   Tiantan Hotel (4-star).

Day 4: BEIJING. Early morning, qigong in park. Later morning: visit White Cloud Taoist Temple, national headquarters of Complete Perfection and Dragon Gate sect. This is a powerful place to meditate & practice our forms. They have a fascinating museum of inner alchemy, and a dozen small temples and hidden parks to meditate in.
           

L: locals praying to zodiac god of their birth sign, White Cloud Temple. R: Meditating in Inner Alchemy museum within the temple grounds. Note numeric-cosmic star diagrams on the ceiling.

        

Afternoon: Climb the Great Wall of China. The Wall is very impressive, a wonder of the World, part of a 3000 mile long wall. We’ll hike and do Primordial Tai Chi on the Wall at sunset, when it is deserted, and the Wall magically catches the evening glow of light. Tiantan Hotel (4-star).

Day 5: BEIJING. Morning: Qigong training in Tiantan park. Learn the ancient Shamanic 7-Star Stepping Big Dipper Qigong Ceremony. It is from the Path of the Female Immortals, taught to me by Master Jiang Nan, current lineage holder. This form moves clockwise in squares, like the Big Dipper changing seasons in the sky and pointing to the Pole Star from the 4 cardinal directions. It gathers Heaven Qi from the 28 Lunar Mansions. It is a perfect companion to the counter-clockwise spiraling circles of Primordial Tai Chi, which dances different patterns of the Chinese calendar.

Star-Stepping is a kind of “brain gym” with alternating hand and foot movements while walking a Big Dipper star pattern. It  forces you to stay very centered while invoking different energetic frequencies and simultaneously toning 7 sacred vowels. This may be challenging at first for some. I guarantee that everyone will get it after a few hours practice. When combined with Primordial Tai Chi, the synergy is off the star charts!

        

L: Entry to Forbidden City still honors Mao.  R: The feng shui of the many palaces is laid out to promote power.

Afternoon: tour of Forbidden City, with its ten thousand rooms, elaborate parks and palaces reserved for four centuries of China’s royalty and their concubines and eunuchs.  We’ll also visit the nearby power center of China, Tianmen Square. IF time, a possible visit to National Museum.

Day 6: XIAN – DALI – WEIBAO. Early 4-hour flight to Yunnan Province in southwest China. Half-day free in Dali’s colorful Old Town markets.  Then bus ride to Weishan Ancient Town, at base of Mt. Weibao.

Tower and Yunnan tribal folks in the Ancient Town of Weishan.

Day 7 & 8: MT. WEIBAO TAO TEMPLES.

Dream Trippers play Tai Chi at the entry to Weibao Shan temple complex.

One could spend months exploring all 22 Taoist temples on Mt. Weibao, but two days will still give us time to go deep into our most favorite temples. Most temples have only one monk or nun living in them, so its also a great opportunity to get one-on-one with the local Taoists. For breakfast and in the evening we’ll enjoy the ethic cuisine, and if lucky witness the dances of the Yi and Bai tribes that populate the ancient town of Weishan. It’s hard to find such an amazing ancient place in China that is not mobbed by Chinese tourists, but this town and mountain are exactly that. What a treasure!

Day 9: WEISHAN – KUNMING – GUELIN – YANGSHUO.

This is a full travel day,  two airline flights, moving from one gorgeous part of southern China to another with equally mind-blowing scenery.

Day 10 & 11: YANGSHUO.

A relaxing mix of free time in colorful Yangshuo on the banks of the scenic Li River, and exploration of its many nearby attractions. There are loads of tasty restaurants and massage parlors eager to melt your body. We’ll rent bicycles and cruise through the wonderland of tear drop peaks, float on 2-person bamboo rafts on the Yu Long River with stops at ancient villages little changed over the centuries, and an optional climb up Moon Hill. There is also a  limestone cavern for those who love spelunking (it’s well lit!). This is my favorite “hang out and chiill” town in all of China. Great preparation for the intensity of Mt. Hua to follow!

Day 12: YANGSHUO – XIAN. Morning free to visit Yangshuo markets. Afternoon transfer  to Guilin by bus. Fly  to Xian (2 hours). Xian was China’s ancient walled capital for 1600 years, Han to Ming dynasty (200 b.c. – 1400 c.e.). The city is a giant outdoor museum, with many ancient layers of history still exposed and part of modern Xian. We’ll enter the enormous city walls through its famous gates,

Our hotel in Xian is modeled on a traditional Chinese palace.

Our lovely hotel is in the very center of Xian, convenient to walk everywhere. It has the architecture of a royal palace with curved roof.  Immediately behind it is the ancient Taoist “City God” temple, with a very powerful Qi field. After dinner, you can walk to the nearby lively Moslem Night Bazaar, a maze of alleyways with the best craft bargains found anywhere in China, and delicious local foods. 4-Star Xian Hotel.

Day 13: XIAN – TERRA COTTA WARRIORS – HUASHAN. Visit the 1400 year-old 8 Immortals Temple, still a revered seat of Taoism in China. Its temple dedicated to “Doumu”, the Ancient or Primal Mother, is especially powerful. Time to meditate and do qigong inside the temple compound, or buy paintings by Taoist monks.

Next to the temple is a colorful flea market filled with curiosities, sculptures, jade & Han dynasty antiques dug up by farmers from their fields (another chance to sharpen your bargaining skills!). Xian has the best bargains in China.

We’ll visit a factory where they still make the terra cotta warriors by traditional method. Then visit the impressive vast Terra Cotta Army of Emperor Qin’s tomb (the size of 5 football fields), the #1 tourist attraction in China. It has a 360-degree cinema and one of China’s top museums.

        

L: Can you spot the fake Warrior? R: This figure appears to be meditating. There is an amazing variety of figures with exquisite individual detail.

Afternoon drive to visit the oldest and most famous Taoist sacred mountain in all China, Hua Shan. We may catch the Taoist evening vespers, a chanting and music ceremony, in the Jade Spring temple at the base of Huashan.

               

L: Chen Tuan statue inside Jade Spring temple honoring his Dream Practice, which is actually a form of Taoist internal alchemy. R: Magnificent gate to Jade Spring Monastery at base of Mt. Hua.

Our Huashan hotel is only a hundred yards away from Jade Spring Temple and a giant bronze statue of the Sleeping Giant, Chen Tuan. According to legend, the famous Taoist adept did dream practice continuously for 3 years on Mt. Hua. He is also credited with creating the tai chi symbol. Local town folks often dance in the square next to his statue, and we are welcome to join in.

Day 14: (Mt. Hua Day 1 on top). We take a spectacular cable car ride  – one of the highest in Asia – half way up the 7,000 ft. Mt. Hua. It’s a 2 hour hike up several thousand stairs to a functioning Taoist temple, where we’ll spend the night.  Lunch on your own. Rest of day is free, hiking on the five summit peaks, which form a giant 5-petalled flower. The views are stunning, with many temple shrines (mostly female deities) built in caves along the trail. The stone-carved steps make it impossible to get lost. Despite the scary photos, it is TOTALLY safe with strong guard rails.

The precipitous cliffs have the majesty of California’s Yosemite Park. But Huashan is far more amazing for its feeling of human achievement, the temples perched on its granite rock cliffs since ancient times. The sunsets off its peaks are amongst the most sublime I’ve found on planet earth. Past Dream Trips have reported strange paranormal events here (flying immortals showing up, etc.)

       

L: My favorite meditation tree on Mt. Hua grows out sideways 50 feet over a 3000 foot drop off. R: Dream Trippers watching sunrise over West Peak.

For the more adventurous, there are steep ladders and a “board walk” across the backside of the South Peak cliff. It leads to a cave carved into the sheer side of the cliff (and my favorite tree, above).

Secret Pavilion on Mt. Hua where I got married on a China Dream Trip in 2012. The entire group did Primordial Tai Chi as part of the ceremony. We called in Emerald (our future child), who arrived a year later….he has the rock solid Qi of Mt. Hua in his bones!

We’ll practice Primordial Qigong and Seven Star Big Dipper Qigong in the powerful “secret pavilion” where I got married in 2012, off the trail and hidden from other tourists. One of my top favorite meditation spots in all of China.

Days 15 & 16: (Mt. Hua Day 2 & 3 cave/monastery). The group will take a spectacular hike down to the base of the West Peak massif to a special quiet monastery not open to the public. It’s a perfect base for those who want to meditate in its nearby cave-temple, while sleeping at night in the monastery and sharing delicious hot meals with the Taoist monks and nuns.

                      

L: Dream Trippers outside their shared Sun-Moon Cave condo. R: Michael Winn with Master Stone of Perfection in 2014, the hermit living alone in the Pole Star cave area for the past 18 years.

Cavers with backpacks will take a steep 1.5 hour hike up to the Pole Star cave area and stay in ancient caves hand-carved from granite rock, used by Taoists for 2500 years. This group will have to bring camping gear and will fast for a night or two of intense dream practice and meditation. A Taoist hermit I’ve known for 20 years, “Master Stone of Perfection” (his Tao spiritual name), lives in the cave area. He does its physical upkeep, and spiritual upkeep with Taoist ceremonies. Those sleeping in the more comfortable monastery below may hike up to visit this monk and the caves on a day hike. Read the separate section on Huashan Cave Life below.

             

L: 8 Trigrams (bagua) gateway to monastery we stay at on Mt. Hua.

R: Dream Trippers enjoy hot breakfast in the monastery courtyard with spectacular views   

OPTION to Stay Below: Those who prefer a shorter mountain stay after hiking atop Mt. Hua’s peaks for a day can arrange to descend on foot or by cable car to our Huashan village hotel and spend  the 2 nights below, relaxing and meditating in Jade Spring Temple or visiting nearby important temples.  This option is suitable for people with health concerns or who are uncomfortable with the more primitive conditions (no showers or running water, squat toilets) on Mt. Hua.

Day 17: (Mt. Hua Day 4 – XIAN). Both monastery meditators and cave groups hike to Huashan village. This is a very beautiful 2.5 hour downhill hike, through a river valley with giant boulders and magnificent views of Mt. Hua in the background. We arrange for showers in our Huashan hotel, have lunch and depart by charter bus.

Afternoon: Two hour drive to Xian. We’ll visit Xian’s Jade Museum before checking into our same hotel. Dinner, then free evening. Some options: relax and have a masseuse work your sore feet in your room, visit the Night Bazaar.  Stay in same 4-star Xian Hotel.

Day 18: XIAN Free Day. Group qigong ceremony in the City Gods Temple immediately behind our hotel. Xian free day (lunch on your own). Many options: bike ride atop the city wall, or shop in the dozens of crafts stores with antiques, scroll paintings, other beautiful Chinese crafts and sculptures. The Moslem bazaar has endless treasures buried in its labyrinth. The Shaanxi County Museum is one of China’s finest. Or visit Xian’s many historical sites (e.g. Giant Wild Goose Pagoda) or hire taxi for day trip to Louguantai (1.5 hours) Taoist temple dedicated to Lao Tzu (and his alleged ascension site). Another popular option: see the famous Tang Dynasty Silk Scarves Dancing Theatre. 4-star Xian Hotel.

Day 19: (Tuesday). Free morning. Afternoon fly Xian to Beijing. Connect to Air China 983, departs Beijing 9 pm arrives LAX at 6 pm same day, May 28, 2019.

Those who are staying on for the Mt. Changbai option will fly to Beijing with the main group, then connect to a flight for a new 5 day adventure.

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                                 Cave Life on Mt. Hua: Is it for me?

QUESTION many ask: Shall I stay in a monastery next to a cave, or camp in a cave and fast for two days?

Answer for most people: you’ll be much happier staying in the comfort of the monastery with delicious hot meals cooked by Taoist nuns, and meditating in the nearby cave-temple to Kuan Yin. The cave next to the monastery has beds for dream practice (power naps by day, or 2 people to spend the night). Cave has a door on it that keeps it warmer. With monastery option, you don’t need to schlep a sleeping bag/backpack, but may still need warm clothes for night temperatures on Mt. Hua.

Read this article if you think you want to fast and stay in a more primitive cave. Michael Winn’s experience of living in a Taoist cave on Huashan for a week with no food or water, “Taoist Alchemy & Breatharians” originally published in Qi Journal: https://www.michaelwinn.qlogictechnologies.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=32

For people who have already developed a serious meditation or dream practice, it MAY be suitable to spend two nights fasting in caves on Huashan.

To sleep in the caves requires bringing special camping gear (sleeping bag, pad, extra warm clothes). It is a hassle to schlep this extra stuff across China for just a few nights in the caves. You really have to deeply DESIRE this experience to go through the extra hassle.

It also requires extra 2 hours hiking up a steep mountain opposite Huashan’s West peak. The caves can be cold even when its hot outside. You are not given any food (you can bring your own if you are not comfortable fasting). But basically it is a physical hardship to live in a hard cave.

When you sign up for the trip (pay the $600. deposit), let us know if you feel strongly called to cave life. There are limited cave spaces, you will likely have a “cave-mate”. We have to figure out a complex cave schedule to satisfy everyone. Please notify me if you wish to stay for ONE or TWO NIGHTS in a cave. Those staying one night may be able to share sleeping bag/gear with someone else (you can request we try and match you with someone).

Priority for reserving primitive caves will be given to 1) my Kan & Li alchemy students 2) date when firm deposit is made, 3) general virtue and commitment to meditation or dream practice, 4) willingness to explore bigu (fasting on food while feasting on Qi) in the cave.

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5-Day Mt. Changbai Option

Daily Schedule May 28-June 1, 2019

Changbai means “perpetually white”. It is covered with dry very cold snow blown in from Siberia 9 months of the year.

DAY 1: Fly from Beijing to Changbaishan 7:30 – 10 pm. Bus transfer (1.5 hr) to Erdao Baihe, town at base of Mt. Changbail. Erdao Baihe hotel.

Day 2: Early morning ascend Mt. Changbai via bus to base of North slope. Then special jeep up to top of volcano. Afternoon we’ll descend and explore the stunning waterfalls and Little Heavenly Lake and Emerald Lake where i believe Wanding Taoist One Cloud lived and meditated in the 1930’s. Return by bus (30 min.) to Erdao Baihe hotel.

  

L: North Slope of Changbai is the highest, thus has the most spectacular views. R: Heavenly Lake has an outlet that turns into a gorgeous waterfall flowing through a lush valley that is the opposite of the volcanic barrenness elsewhere on the mountain.

L: Emerlad Lake, also fed by the same volcanic overflow, may have been where the adept One Cloud (Mantak Chia’s teacher) lived in the 1930’s until the Japanese invaded Manchuria. R: The active nature of the volcano is demonstrated by hot springs used to boil eggs. That will be our lunch….:)

Day 3: Free Day for interesting side trips into China’s largest nature preserve which surrounds Mt. Changbai. This area has the most potent ginseng and other Chinese herbs due to rich volcanic soil and undisturbed pristine environment. Visit the excellent local museum, or soak in the famous volcanic hot springs spa. Other options include hiking through a volcano park, a wildlife outdoor preserve with Siberian tigers, and a forest-river walk with many waterfalls. Some may opt to return to the North Slope of the volcano for a second day (weather is variable). Erdao Baihe hotel.

       

L: In this park, a siberian Tiger roams free. as humans cower inside a protective cage. R: Fantastic volcanic sculptures remain from last eruption of Mt. Changbai 1000 years ago. It was estimated to be the largest volcanic explosion on earth in the last 10,000 years.

Day 4. Morning bus 2 hours, then ascend West Slope of Mt. Changbai (1500 very gradual wooden steps). We’ll do final group Qigong ceremonies overlooking Heavenly Lake’s volcanic cauldron on a large level wood platform for viewing the lake.

           

L: “Highway to Heaven” steps up West slope of Mt. Changbai. R: Tao Master Ju Xi

In the afternoon we’ll meet with Taoist Master Ju Xi,  a Taoist adept who lives at the base of Mt. Changbai and who has done deep research into the 2000 year + Changbai Taoist lineage. Ju Xi has written seven books about Taoist cultivation and philosophy and is building a temple and Taoist university. He calls himself a “spiritual scientist”, not a priest in a religious order, an approach very compatible with my own.

A dinner banquet will serve as our group’s Last Supper eating organic, locally grown food in a tiny but top restaurant, one of the best I’ve found in China. Late evening, we’ll fly to Beijing (10:30 pm – midnight). Beijing hotel – 4 star near airport.

Day 5 (Sat. June 1). Leisurely morning breakfast, plenty of time to sleep in. Fly from nearby Beijing airport at 3 pm, arrive at LAX on Air China #987 at noon same day (miracle of International Date Line). This allows plenty of time to connect to other flights.  

Now the fun next phase begins – digesting “all the Chi in China”. Get ready for your life to evolve in wonderful new Ways!

China Dream Trip Guides

                                                   

Michael Winn, hugging a rare Red Panda in China

Michael Winn, Trip Leader
Michael is founder of Healing Tao University, co-author of 7 books with Mantak Chia, past President of National Qigong Association, author of 10 Tao home-study courses on Qigong and Tao Inner Alchemy and prolific writer on Taoism. He’s an experienced traveler to over 100 countries, an ex-war correspondent in Africa & Asia turned spiritual guide. He’s led dozens of adventure & sacred tour groups on five continents over the last 35 years.  This is his 20th trip to China. His leadership assures you will have a safe, fun, and profound experience that few travellers to China enjoy.

   
Diana Liu is native to Xian and knows its people and culture intimately. She has a wonderful loving heart and is committed to serving the Dream Trippers. She was guide for the 2014 and 2016 trip in Xian area and it changed her life. She is now interested in Taoism and has overcome her fears to hiking Huashan’s steep cliffs. She will bring a good friend along as a second backup guide for the three days we are on Mt. Hua (so both cave and monastery groups each will have their own guide).

Diana will also be travelling with us from Xian to Changbaishan, as there are no English speaking guides in that remote part of China. In case you want to see the eyes behind those fabulous sunglasses, I’ve enclosed her guide license photo (hanging around her neck in the first photo). 🙂

                        

                                 Lily on the Great Wall.

Lily Lee in Beijing is a wonderful and knowledgeable guide from previous  Dream Trips. Everyone enjoys her marvellous sense of humor about city life in China and her gift of explaining to westerners what to look for that’s different about Chinese thinking. She will be with the group only in Beijing.

Dream Tripper relaxing atop Mt. Hua’s West Peak, feeling on top of the world.

Trip Co-Stars and Co-Dreamers

\Everyone who comes on this trip is a star! Why are China Dream Trips so special, and very different from typical tourist trips? We attract a fabulous group of spiritual adventurers. Not mere curiosity seekers or jaded tourists, but fascinating folks who are excited about following in the footsteps of Taoist Immortals and doing powerful Qigong ceremonies in China’s highest spiritual energy spots. There is no requirement that you have previous experience with tai chi or qigong. Everyone need bring an open soul and curious mind, and together wewill create FUN!

On every Dream Trip a beautiful heart-feeling engulfs the group. Afterwards I always hear the same refrain: “the incredible people I met on the trip and grew to love were as important as China itself”. This is the kind of trip where you make lifetime friends – or might find your soul mate. One Tripper married one of my guides! Two others have moved to China permanently. We’ve had folks take FOUR Dream Trips! Each one is unique.

More TESTIMONIALS from earlier CHINA DREAM TRIPS

Thanks for showing the Way to capture the deep chi from China!

I have the most beautiful memories from China….so many great moments, what an incredible trip.   I’ve been reading The Power of Now. I can say that if I’ve ever have been in the NOW,  in peace, in deep connection with nature,  it was the magical Chi of China that got me there.  Those moments and memories makes all my daily hassles worth it. Thank you for showing the Way to capture this deep chi from China! Thank you for bringing me there … Love you Michael. You’ve created with God ‘s and Lao Tzu’s help a great life which I was so fortunate  to share for a few weeks. Know that you are in my living room at least couple of days a week…. at least on your inspiring qigong videos!  – P.V., Florida

I Stripped Naked atop Mt. Hua…felt clouds mystically rise and Dragons Breathing on me!

I spent three days at the group’s “secret spot” atop Mt. Hua. During Primordial Chi Gung I saw  the clouds mystically rise like angels and dragons and daggers. I could sense the clouds as the dragons breath. I stripped naked once, and laid down on the rocks, My spine aligned with the spine of the granite mountain. Now that I am home, I am feeling my spine aligning with the mountains. I rode a cloud dragon up a spiral towards heaven, taming my wild mind as the wind washed through me, playful & euphoric. I thought: THE IMMORTALS ARE THE MOUNTAINS. I saw them through the eyes of the dragon, a bat, and a butterfly. I feel altered forever. I still ride the dragon now that I am home.

                 I loved the everyday authentic encounters on the Dream Trip!

“This was my 2nd Dream Trip. I didn’t want to leave China (maybe next time I won’t). The rhythm of travel and the energy of China, the succession of encounters that keeps us on our toes, reminds me that it’s fun, that life is play, I don’t need to take myself so seriously. I feel acutely in the present moment as the road unfolds the energies of the earth and its sacred places.

Sometimes it’s going by so fast we don’t have time to realize how “amazing” it is. Later, after falling into the routine of home, things come back that make me stop and appreciate it all over again, but with a new perspective. Or as Proust says, that this returning memory is the experience coming to its  full maturity and really felt for the first time; it becomes more real when you remember it. There seems to be a lot more packed into that Dream Trip than I could comprehend as it whizzed by each new day.

Our experiences reverberate into our subsequent lives. My qigong and meditation practice has gained  traction and substance. Something is happening and I feel changed. My orbit is deeper and more solid-feeling. I fall into qi-pulsations spontaneously at unexpected times, like standing in the grocery checkout line, or on the subway.

I think “shopping qi” is a legitimate thing. I’m glad you pointed it out to us as a powerful spiritual practice to circulate energy between our cultures. As with internal alchemy, a strong center is recommended. I think I learned to become more free with myself by practicing “money-flow gongfu”. Even going on the trip was already a first step in that training.

I really love the everyday authentic encounters on the trip, the moments that are not scripted. Just the    pulse of life happening and the wonder of it is the air to be enjoyed, the delight of change, feeling welcomed into that flow of Chinese life.

There was something pretty great about our dinner with guides-in-training in Kunming, exchanging cross-cultural views about hot broth and weather. The girls were adorable, they gave us name cards with special notes written for the occasion: “I love you.” “I miss you.” “Have happy life.” And then, some of them really broke down with sobbing goodbyes. One was gripping my shirt, weeping, not wanting me to leave. It was a shock. I felt unprepared, unsure how to respond, and also moved by the intensity and openness of this feeling in them. Java also cried saying goodbye at the end of her guiding us. Maybe it’s surprising because I don’t expect Chinese people to be emotionally expressive.

Similarly, in Dali, at a bistro, there was a gorgeous young woman who’d decided to get up and dance with herself. There was music, soft lighting, her dancing was very slow, and as sensuous as I’ve seen anyone anywhere dance. Mesmerizing undulating hips. She’ll have no problem opening qi flow in the orbit. This was erotic and not vulgar. And this was a young woman in China, in public! Quite the surprise, and even to this day I think of her from time to time. Feeling the magic of her movements, and the self-possessed power in her eyes.”
-Brian B., NYC

                        Your China Dream Trip & Mt. Weibao taught me to HAVE FUN!

“I arrived in China, but my soul was still asleep. I woke up in Weibaoshan’s Jade Emperor temple! The  Journey became a blissful, incredible, moment-to-moment experience of great love and compassion.

I actually met the Jade Emperor when I prayed to him alone, and gave myself up completely. It was the first time I ever prayed in a Taoist temple. I became transparent and was not afraid to let God, or Original Spirit or whatever people call it see me… all my good, all my bad. In total openness I truly saw my self…

But then some crazy stirrings happened in the lower tan tian. Rumbling, earthquake… explosion in my head. Feeling pressure.. mouth open wide, eyes shut tight, indescribable feelings in whole body… then boom!! It expressed through me as great laughter, I laughed like never before, my whole body was shaking in laughter, my lungs gasping for breath, my eyes tearing like crazy from laughter… Then crying…like never before crying and crying.. Then dancing and spinning like never before..

I was being guided by some very strong invisible force. Chi? Spirits? I’m not sure what but I felt it hold me in key points on my body as it moved me effortlessly. I was just there watching my body dance in wonder! Then the strong force made me run outside and dance and sing before everyone I met. I loved everyone and everything!!! Life felt incredible! so fun!!! so amazing!!!!!

I was flying, jumping, doing flips, spinning, and running all over Weibanshan mountain expressing my joy, love and compassion to all! I believe I was taken over by my own spirit. There was nothing that could make it unhappy, I could be slapped in the face, or beat up and I would still be in love and happy!

I was drunk with life! I remember running, hugging and kissing everyone from the group. Some were happy and touched, and some thought I went crazy! Some thought I was possessed – but to me it didn’t matter! I saw and felt so much love and beauty in everyone, I loved everyone so much and wanted to be one with all.

When I got back home, I did primordial chi kung with the intention to connect all the power spots in China, to help bring change, inspiration and new life to Toronto. It was very very gray, dark, lifeless. During the form, the sun broke through the clouds and shined a bit. When I finished the whole sky was blue with beautiful white clouds, birds were flying and chirping, insects were buzzing, and life seemed to have arrived.. It was just such a wonderful feeling and reponse from nature…

Your China Dream Trip taught me to HAVE FUN in life! Enjoy, relax, be with the flow, be open.. be in the middle.. between and beyond yin and yang…

Also, I really miss the food in China…you picked great restaurants! The food back here is so tasteless and lifeless! I might have to move to China just because the food there was so great, so rich in life and flavour! The food, the people, the group, and the experiences in the China trip has made me feel and be   younger, more loving and compassionate.. So many incredible positive things have resulted, the list is endless. Thank you so much!
– Teddy C, Toronto (Chinese nationality)

               How did the China Trip change your life?

I asked Dream Trippers the question: How did the China Trip change your life? Note that two Dream Trip members moved to China as a result of the trip! Another one married one of my best guides. (There is still another very pretty one looking for a husband…). As you can tell from these letters, this trip is not for simple tourists. It’s for people open to accelerated transformation – my definition of inner alchemy.   – Michael Winn

    I got a much stronger Chi field, Meditation grew much deeper

How did China change me? That is too difficult a question,  My practices, I seem to have acquired a much stronger Chi field. Meditations have a lot more depth and in some meditations what were just words or thoughts are now strong physical/energetic/spiritual feelings, experiences. I have a much deeper understanding/connection with my subtle  bodies.

Same with Qigong my arms are moving through a much denser chi field. I find myself experiencing a much deeper experience of Tai Chi. I find it easier and easier to connect with the energies of the cave and various monasteries. I have had some great experiences connecting with Lao Tzu’s ascension site then taking it into the cave.

I have been working on converting my garage to a practice place. My father pointed out that I was sawing timber in straight lines and hammering nails without bending them (and without hitting my thumb) This Is most unusual and my father noticed right away. Was it worth it? Absolutely undeniably yes. A great group of people. I look forward to the next trip.

Your China Dream trip changed my life….. I filed for divorce

Your China Dream trip changed my life. One experience in particular comes to mind. On our first day on Mt. Huashan, I crawled out on a rock ledge and sat there drinking in the beauty of the incredible vista before my eyes. I was looking down on the tops of clouds. I didn’t have anything particular in mind, just a little rest and a few moments of solitude to drink in the beauty before me.

I easily settled into meditating and immediately began to feel so light. Quite spontaneously, fears, the    existence of which I had never fully acknowledged, surfaced and were released down into the emptiness in front of me along with more than a few tears. In that moment, on that ledge up above the clouds, I knew I was no longer able to settle for less than living my life fully. ..

Days after returning from China, I filed for divorce, something I had been trying to do for years. It was  a peaceful parting. Thank you so very much for all you did to make that trip an incredible experience for everyone involved. You did a fabulous job!

The places you chose were powerful and spectacular!

Just writing to thank you for organizing the trip to China. I had an amazing time! I met a lot of fun and interesting people, ate a lot of great food, and the places you chose were powerful and spectacular. Thanks to you my entire life is about to undergo a huge change. I will be moving to Chengdu in Sichuan province in January, and living in China for at least a year to learn the language at Sichuan University. After that, who knows, the possibilities are endless! Thank you Michael, I hope to meet you again. I hope your life has changed for the better as radically as mine. (Note: this young Australian did move back to China and married my Chinese tour guide!)

   China was extraordinary…still swirling in the Richness

China was an extraordinary trip for me! I am still swirling in the experience and richness of it all! My world feels much bigger and at the same time, the exquisite sameness of all people is resonating throughout my being. I will try to get some words down to describe some of it before too long, but meanwhile wanted to thank you!

    Everyone on the trip was an inspiration for me

I do think about the group often. I don’t take it lightly. Our time together was important to me. Being a novice at these practices. I wish I had consulted with you more on your experience. Our time together was short but intense. There wasn’t a person on the trip that wasn’t an inspiration for me. But I do feel lucky with my roommate, as he was my greatest inspiration. Nothing bothered this guy, and I found myself doing meditation on that. What kind of attitude would a person need to have this positive way of looking at things, events, life? Thanks!

   My shaman says I am “more myself”

Here are my life changes after China:

immediately after the trip I began to realize that the JUDGMENTS I have are just my judgments. I can now feel the separation they create. And now know that its not the way things and people really are.
my main Tango dancing partner told me I was DANCING better because I am softer and more relaxed!
several friends are saying that my VOICE on the phone has become softer, slower, somehow changed.
My shaman says I am “more myself” – whatever she means by this. I can feel what these feedbacks are referring to and I’m happy about it.
    I Met God Atop Mt. Huashan

After successfully reaching the Peaks of Mt Huashan, I felt re-empowered, that Life was not over for me at my age….. that I could still do more with my life. The connections I felt during primordial qigong allowed me to feel my goal of connection to God (within) is possible. Primordial is extremely powerful… not just arm waving. I made new friends, and plan to visit them. I have really come to appreciate the Chinese people and their lifestyle. I love Temple of Heaven park and all the people there, just hanging out.

Most Special was bonding with others…I’m a loner at heart

The most special part of the trip was bonding with others and sharing laughs in our group. Christina and I bonded immediately as if we had known each other our whole lives. We stayed awake each night sharing our experiences of the day and talking about everybody. We giggled like little school girls and wondered how Michael paired us up so perfectly…???

I am a loner at heart, but I so enjoyed my time with everyone. I grew to love many of you. Memories spent together still pop into my head out of nowhere, and I and miss everyone. Michael, I told you that Huashan was difficult for me, but I knew one day I would be grateful. When I returned, I had lost 10 pounds and got my high school wash-board belly back!

       My Friends sense a profound change in me…. I’m positive an Immortal is present

Things were definitely rocky the first couple weeks after the trip. I was physically in Los Angeles, but I was mentally and spiritually back in China. I still float off to the caves, the various peaks at Huashan and other places whenever time and situations allow. My wife will often ask me where I am if I’m being quiet, and the reply is always the same – China.

All my computer desktop pictures are China pics. Amazingly, I find little pieces of everyone I met in China here at home, reflections of you all. One of the people I train with could be Russell’s little brother, another reminds me of our lovely guide Cherry. I try to bring Teddy’s excitement on Weibaoshan to all the Tai Chi classes that I teach.

The few lessons I received from the monks have served me well and my own Tai Chi is really rocking lately. Like many I think I’m still digesting it all and lessons I didn’t understand or even realize were happening now surface when I least expect it. The spiritual awakening I experienced  doing tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka was really kicked into overdrive in China.

I came back from China a much calmer, more well balanced person. Situations that might have resulted in arguments or just general negativity now bring on compassion. And if I am brought to the darkness of anger I’m immediately embarrassed and sorry.

I’ve had a couple moments where I’m positive an immortal is present. Words of encouragement from people I’ve never met from out of the blue or just a simple look in the eyes of a passing stranger. I know, that sounds nuts. But the overwhelming rush of emotion in these situations and the sense of peace that consumes me after it’s passed are very powerful.

My friends have sensed profound change in me as well but I realize I’m very much a work in progress. I’m already on the list for the next China trip as is another Tai Chi student from my school. I’m still getting used to the new me, but I like the changes so far.

Cancelation Policy

                 China Trip Cancelation Policy – Please Read Before Making Deposit

                                              
Note: Low cost travel insurance is made available to all trip members to cover cancellation costs. Last trip it cost average $150.- 200. depending on your age & trip length, dollar amount of coverage you request. You are strongly urged to obtain it. If you do NOT obtain it, you must sign a legal waiver.

If trip is cancelled for reasons beyond your control (epidemic, war, etc.), you will receive 100% refund.

Fees for cancellation initiated by trip member are as follows:

1. if cancellation notice is received before midnight Dec. 31, 2015: $400.  cancel fee.

2. If cancel BETWEEN Jan. 1, 2016 and midnite Friday Feb. 12, 2016: $600. is forfeited (entire deposit). This is the date a second payment of $1000. USD is due.

3. If cancel BETWEEN Friday, Feb. 12, 2016 and midnite Thursday May 12, 2016: HALF of the full trip cost is owed and forfeited.

4. If cancel AFTER May 12, 2016 (date full payment balance is due): the FULL trip cost is owed and forfeited.(NO REFUND on land or air, regardless of reason. Which is why it is essential you get trip insurance).

5. NO refunds for termination of travel AFTER trip begins. Even if a member must involuntarily cancel for physical health reasons AFTER the trip within China has begun, and does not use a portion of their already pre-paid services, no refunds will be made. It is simply too difficult to get refunds in China, and not worth the trouble. No refunds are made for unused excursions, entry fees, or unused special program activities.

6. If Healing Tao USA is forced to cancel the trip BEFORE it begins for any reason, its liability is limited to return 100% of all deposits paid toward the trip. Once the trip begins, Healing Tao USA cannot take responsability for acts of God, terrorism, war, health emergency, etc (full legal disclaimer to this effect must be signed by all trip members).

7. We will supply you with a reliable and inexpensive travel insurance option (or you can choose your own). Check the terms and conditions of the issuer of your travel insurance policy as they are defined in the policy’s cancellation clause, which outlines your coverage, its limitations and exclusions. Usually written medical excuse from doctor or proven death in family are accepted.

I hope to hear from you soon – that you’re committed, and don’t subconsciously plan to ever cancel. You want to go on and complete this spiritual adventure of a lifetime!

                                             

                                                           

Healing Tao USA  •  Asheville, NC 28803  •  Tel. 888.999.0555  •  www.healingdaousa.com

 

Souls of China by Ian Johnson ( book review)

Topic: Daoist Scholars
Author: Michael Winn

 

The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao
by Ian Johnson (Pantheon, 455 pp).
Book review by Michael Winn,
published in Chi Flows Naturally newsletter, Sept. 2017
Abstract: This fabulous new book takes you inside the experience of ordinary Chinese folk as they seek to re-grow their spirituality after the challenges of communist suppression. The battle between traditional spiritual beliefs and modern economic-scientific belief is a universal theme that Westerners also face. Here it is lived through Chinese eyes by perhaps the most astute China watcher today – who is himself a practicing Taoist and qigong lover.

 

 

 

People often ask me, “What is the best book on Taoism I should read?”

Mostly I tell them NOT to read books. Tao is hard to put into words. Time is better spent practicing movement qigong and inner alchemy sitting meditation, starting with the simple Inner Smile. That if they don’t have a teacher, read my free ebook on my homepage (Way of the Inner Smile: Tao Path to Peace and Self-Acceptance). In short, I tell them Tao is about “reading” your own inner nature, by attuning to the Qi flow that underies all biology, psychology, and spiritual awakening.

Of course, there are a few excellent books “about” Taoism that offer insights. Daoist Body Cultivation by Livia Kohn (Ed., with a chapter on sexual energy cultivation by me). The Taoist Body by Kristofer Schipper describes ritual alchemy principles beautifully. Installments of my forthcoming 5-part online training, Primordial Tai Chi: Way of Enlightened Self-Love will soon start coming out. They will clarify Tao Cosmological Qigong and help Westerners grasp how Qi = Love. Both “divine love” and “Original Breath/Yuan Qi” are highest cultural values.

Meanwhile, I tell folks to read my website FAQs, peruse old Chi Flows Naturally newsletters, and my Articles Page for information that is not in any books.

But now it’s 2017.  Awareness of Taoism/Daoism has grown in the West, both among adepts and scholars. And 2017 looks to be like a bumper crop with TWO truly “must read” books that raise the bar of excellence in different ways. One is coming out in November 2017: Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality, by David Palmer and Elijah Siegler (U. Chicago Press).

It uses my China Dream Trips (which the authors attended numerous times) as a springboard to compare views of Western Taoists with Chinese Daoists in religious garb/temples, as well as hidden Wandering Taoists. I’ve read an advance copy.  The authors are brilliant – and ruthless – in exposing the reality and superficialities of a wide range of modern seekers of the Way, East and West. To be reviewed later this year.

The Souls of China – Book Review

There are many reasons The Souls of China is a “must read” for serious seekers of the Way. It fills a major gap in in the knowledge base of most Western Taoists: what is the attitude about religion in China amongst the ordinary folk, including those who practice Dao /Tao today? (Note: I use Dao, favored by scholars and mainland Chinese, and Tao, favored by the Western public, interchangeably in this review. They are pronounced the same).

The majority of Western seekers of eastern religion will never make it to China. Even if they do, they still must read this book. I’ve been to China 20 times, read hundreds of books and articles on Taoism, and was amazed at how much I learned. Ian Johnson speaks fluent Chinese and spent the better part of a decade roaming the countryside and living amongst different religious groups. He relentlessly unearths and brings to life the spark of deep spiritual fervor that never died, despite the communists concerted attempt to suppress religion as the “opiate of the masses’ (Karl Marx’s famous phrase). By now, they realize the best they can do is manage this deep impulse to explore the divine so that it doesn’t derail the Party, and in some cases profit from it.

Johnson has the unique ability to gracefully “embed” himself in local life and report on the most intimate details of what is going on behind the “face” of the Chinese. Instead of a fly on the wall, Johnson is a fly on the inside of the inscrutable Chinese mask. What are their true feelings, their core spiritual values? This is not something a casual traveller to China can easily discover.

Souls is also unique in the wide scope of culture and history of China that is woven into the gripping personal narratives. It is so skillfully done you don’t even realize you just got a Masters Degree in the evolution of multiple religions under “scientific” communism. It not only covers Taoism, China’s indigenous religion, but the foreign Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam as well. As a practicing Taoist, this rounded out my viewpoint as to the commonalities and differences between Taoism and other religions.

I saw more clearly how the Chinese are playing out their version of a global drama over changing paradigms. Spiritual views across the planet are being challenged by the on(slaught of science’s “empirical materialism”. The issue is not communism vs. capitalism; it’s about spiritual belief vs. scientific belief. It’s a cosmological battle to capture the hearts (ineffable soul) and minds (sensory, survival-driven self) of ordinary citizens.

In China, the difference is that the main Taoist actor in this play and concepts like Qi has been deeply embedded in Chinese culture for millennia. Daoists in China have traditionally had a dispassionate neutral-scientific-eye that naturally observed the flow of Qi in nature. They also had an openness to accepting and incorporating change rather than battling it. That’s why there have been no religious wars in China, due to the Tao of Openness.

The vast breadth of China’s unfolding cosmological drama is combined in Souls with a flow of powerful detail that is magnificently poetic. He evokes a feeling of really “being in China”, being in their bedrooms, temples, caves, house churches, graveyards. One of my favorite characters is known by locals as the “Yin-Yang Man”,  a rural fengshui and Taoist burial ceremony expert who carries on his family tradition going back many generations. He has a troupe of singers who know all the traditional Taoist ritual songs to calm the living and assist the dead. An eerie midnight scene of re-burying an ancestor in a different corner of a family plot reminds us that feng shui was originally a graveyard art. The change of burial direction brings in a different element (quality of Qi) to improve the destiny of the living.

2009 Tao Confernce inside the Communist Holy of Great Holy Halls. Rachel Sun, my translator, in foreground.

I first met Ian Johnson at an international conference of over 1000 Taoists in Beijing’s Peoples Great Hall (where the Communist Party holds its congress) in 2009. We quickly became friends. I presented a paper that overlaps one theme of his book: Daoist Qi Science vs. Western Science: Which is More Real? (https://www.michaelwinn.qlogictechnologies.com/articles/daoist-qi-science-vswestern-science/)

In the 1990s Johnson helped run a charity to rebuild Daoist temples. In 2001 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the suppression of Falun Gong, a movement combining simple Daoist qigong movements and an unorthodox Buddhist fundamentalism. Johnson has reported from China for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and is considered by many to be the most saavy Western reporter in China today. (I list links to a couple of his interesting aricles on Taoism in China in a section below on his favorite books on Tao).

The Souls of China is his major lifetime work, and in its genre is unlikely to be surpassed by anyone. Souls is very different from an academic exploration of the multiple religions trying to rebirth themselves in the modern age of science and communism. It’s really about the soul of China itself, struggling to re-discover its moral compass after a half century+ of being bombarded by slogans and materialistic propaganda.

Anyone who has done business in China knows that this crisis in ethics is very real. It’s OK to screw people and get ahead. The result of China’s current spiritual struggle will shape its national identity. Like attracts like; a nation of corrupt screw-thy-neighbors will end up getting screwed. Anti-corruption campaigns have begun, but the jury is still out. The outcome of China’s quest for spiritual integrity will ultimately determine its destiny as a rising superpower.

                      My Interview with Ian Johnson in Asheville

Ian Johnson passed through my hometown Asheville, N.C. this summer, and we had lunch to discuss what is clearly his magnum opus. I asked him to which religion he felt closest, of the five covered in Souls.

“My natural affinity is with Daoists”, Ian replied. He shared more detail to his description in Souls of a inner alchemy seminar he attended with Wang Li Ping. “Wang.clearly has high achievement. But he is terribly disorganized as a teacher, which was challenging. The two students of Wang who wrote his famous biography, “Opening the Dragon’s Gate”, were at the seminar. They told me they plan to re-write the book, to make it less magical, more about spiritual science. They regretted making Dao cultivation seem overly mystical. That it’s really more about systematic practice.”

Souls has a very lovely description of one of Wang Li Ping’s Daoist meditations to expand one’s Third Eye to embrace the space beyond the body, one layer at a time. It is detailed enough that someone with experience in meditation could practice it from this book. But this is just one of many jewels strewn casually throughout The Souls of China. Daoism gets the most coverage in this book, which is appropriate, as it is the only religion indigenous to China.

It is the tapestry of the daily lives of ordinary Chinese folk (laobaixing) seeking deeper meaning, woven together with the broad strokes of Chinese history and culture that makes Souls so unusual. Most seekers of Taoist wisdom form their impressions of China from ancient texts like the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching. It is difficult to connect these classics to the reality of modern Chinese spiritual life. This creates a lot of armchair spiritual-romantic Tao philosophers with little ground in the realities of China.

The Souls of China brings to life the spiritual threads of local life that have survived the brutal suppression and limitations placed upon religion in the last 65 years of communist rule. The stories are filled with small joys and tragedies. He quotes local poems and proverbs that have been part of the backbone of the common will to endure hardship for millennia.

Ian Johnson’s Souls of China vs. Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth

In a way Souls is an interesting bookend to The Good Earth, a classic novel on peasant life in the 1920’s written by Pearl Buck, the daughter of a Christian missionary. This book was my introduction to China at age 12. Some historians feel it was influential in getting the US to back China with an airlift in the 1040’s. A family struggles in the novel to hold onto their land in the face of devastating floods of Mother Nature. 100 years later, the struggle is to hold onto the “earth” of China’s very soul, amidst a flood of political and scientific change coming from Human Nature. The same humble and deep spiritual will to endure hardship is present in both.

Johnson spends extra time sharing Chinese religious beliefs through three families he lived with. The Ni family in Beijing makes an annual pilgrimage to a Buddhist temple of Our Lady of the Azure Clouds. The Li family in Shanxi practices a form of folk-based Daoism, led by the Yin-Yang Man. A group of Protestant Christians in a house church in Chengdu is led by a charismatic preacher willing to openly confront the secret police and government.

He also shows that even communist leaders have a spiritual side. Souls reveals the fascinating details of how the current President Xi of China, as a young cadre working in a remote area, helped a Buddhist temple get government support to re-build. As the temple grew, the economy of the entire town flourished around it. Did Xi secretly study Buddhism? Not exactly. But he developed a lifelong friendship with the head abbot, and had deep conversations with him.

Ian Johnson has an unusual skill set. He is part poetic wordsmith, part historian, part cultural interpreter, part adventurer who loves off-the-beaten path, and is part just spiritually curious for his own advancement. These are melded into a vibrant unity by a story-teller and ethnographer with the persistence to dig deep beneath the surface to get to the true essence of the lives of ordinary spiritual seekers in China. The depth of respect he shows for every person portrayed in Souls is a humbling spiritual accomplishment in itself.

Get Ian Johnson’s amazingly rich immersion in China’s modern spiritual life for a mere $15. (hardcover, half-price on Amazon) – it is truly a bargain. Reading The Souls of China is an experience, not mere information “about” China. It offers invaluable new ground for any serious seeker of the Way.

To order from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=souls+of+china

Ian Johnson’s Top Taoism Book List & article links

My Healing Tao USA forum just had its huge archives activated on my new website. These were posted by the 20 million+ visitors in the last 20 years.

FORUM: https://www.michaelwinn.qlogictechnologies.com/forum-home/

I mention this because it was so easy to type in “Ian Johnson” and get all the posts about him pulled up instantly. Here are my top choices:

————————–

Nov. 10, 2010

note: The NYT author Ian Johnson gives a reasonably good list of books. I would have included Daoist Body Cultivation and Internal Alchemy (both edited by Livia Kohn), and a few others, but that’s me. – Michael

Where to Begin: Five Best Books about Daoism

November 8, 2010 in Books, Where to Begin by The China Beat

By Ian Johnson

With all the attention to Confucius and Confucianism, it is easy to forget how important other philosophical and religious traditions have been in shaping China’s past and influencing its present. Ian Johnson helps rectify this imbalance of coverage with “The Rise of the Tao,” a long essay in the latest issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine that highlights the significance of the Daoist revival and introduces readers to an abbess who is part of this resurgence of belief. As the very first journalist China Beat ever interviewed for the site (and someone who took part in a China Beat-sponsored dialogue at UC Irvine on covering the PRC and Germany during a tour to promote his latest book, A Mosque in Munich), we turn to him now for suggestions of five things he’s read—by academic or non-academic authors—that have helped him think about Daoism:

There’s been an explosion of Daoist studies in recent years as we realize how China’s only (if you exclude Confucianism) indigenous religion underpins so much of the culture and politics of the past 2,000 years.

The problem in this field, as in many others, is there’s been the usual deep specialization but not too many efforts to synthesize and make the fruits of academic research available to a wide public. This is compounded by the fact that many academics use different terminology for the same phenomena—if they can’t agree on the terms, how can outsiders understand it? Thus people talk about “popular religion,” “folk religion” or “common religion” for the broad swath of beliefs that form the Massif Central of Chinese religion, out of which Daoism, Buddhism and other systems arose. But which term is better? No one can agree. Maybe this is normal for a still-young field but it’s sometimes frustrating.

But don’t be discouraged, arguments are the spice of (academic) life and the field has produced many interesting books. Before I offer them, let me dispense with two really obvious kinds of books: the key philosophical works and the one-volume intros.

Everyone knows about the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, so I’ll let you explore which version of these texts you prefer. Burton Watson does a great version of each and Red Pine (more on him below) does a super version of the DDJ. If you want more on the basic philosophy, the slam dunk must-read is Disputers of the Tao by A.C. Graham, one of the finest works on ancient Chinese philosophy.

I’m also going to get this list down to five books by forgoing one-volume intros. These are invaluable but are a bit too easy to include. The two best ones here are Daoism and Chinese Culture by Livia Kohn, the grande dame of Daoist studies, and James Miller’s Daoism: A Beginner’s Guide (aka Daoism: A Short Introduction). Both books give reliable overviews from early philosophy to the development of organized religion and modern practices.

Finally, a note on spelling. In my New York Times article, the copy editors insisted on using “Taoist,” figuring it is a loan word that has already been anglicized. And in fact many of the books listed below use “Taoist” or “Taoism” because publishers think that most readers still recognize this. But an increasing number of people use the more pinyin-conform “Daoist.” I’ve decided personally to go with “Daoist” but use whichever you like best.

With these fiddly comments out of the way, here’s my list:

1) Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter, aka Red Pine. This funny and lively book by the eminent translator is an eye-opener because he finds real hermits living in China’s mountains and also conveys the ideas that inspires them. Some of the hermits are Buddhists but this is a bonus because we learn how close the two religions are when practiced by real masters.

2) Taoism and the Arts of China by Stephen Little. This accompanied a path-breaking exhibition on Daoist art curated by Professor Little, which makes clear the huge influence Daoism has on the arts. The book is beautifully illustrated and really one-of-a-kind. Unfortunately it is out of print and rather pricey but most libraries should have it.

3) Taoism: The Enduring Tradition by Russell Kirkland. This slim volume by a veteran historian of Daoism grapples with many key questions that ordinary readers or students of Chinese religions will have, such as if it’s valid to speak of a difference between “religious Daoism” and “philosophical Daoism.” At times he delves perhaps a bit too deeply into the historiographical battles in the field but like Paul Cohen’s Discovering History in China, Kirkland provides an engaging and illuminating discussion of the field and its arguments.

4) Seven Taoist Masters: A Folk Novel of China by Eva Wong. My academic friends will rip me for including a book published by Shambhala and this has the publisher’s usual disregard for basic sourcing (like which version of the novel is Wong using?) but it’s a really good read and gives a lot of basic information on how one of Daoism’s two main sects, Quanzhen, was formed in the Yuan dynasty.

4a) I said I’d get this down to five and I will by including this novel as a (more serious) alternative: The Story of Han Xiangzi: The Alchemical Adventures of a Daoist Immortal by Yang Erzeng, translated by Philip Clart. This is the story of one of the Eight Immortals, Han Xiangzhi, a historical figure who became deified. Unlike Wong’s book, it’s state of the art and has a very useful introduction. The novel is longer and not as catchy as Seven Taoist Masters but is much truer to the original, containing poems, digressions, multiple narrator viewpoints and so on. It also serves another function by showing how many Ming-era novels have not been translated into English.

5) The Taoist Body by Kristofer Schipper. An ordained priest and patriarch of modern Daoist studies, Schipper’s book reflects his fieldwork in 1970s Taiwan and shows how Daoism is intertwined with local society, with priests performing rituals to help people through good and bad times. His description of a ritual—creating a space in heaven in front of the temple, summoning the gods—is excellent. This book is probably guilty of overgeneralizing about one form of Daoism but if you want to understand the religion at its grassroots level, it’s great.

Finally, as my final cop-out, let me relegate this to a post-script: For fun, I’d suggest borrowing from the library The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang, edited by Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen. This is a three-volume set that gives a short synopsis of each of the 1,500 texts that make up the Daoist Canon, or Daozang, a Ming-era compendium of Daoist texts. It is a towering work of academic achievement, taking 30 years to complete and involving dozens of scholars in numerous countries. It makes it possible for the first time to get a sense of just how rich Daoist religious practice really is. The book is also a real pleasure to flip through, illustrated with fascinating prints and drawings. You’ll find all kinds of works, from alchemy and meditation, to medicine and ritual, all clearly explained by leading scholars. Obviously this is meant as a reference tool but like the OED, it’s easy to lose oneself in this rich, esoteric landscape.

————————

Ian Johnson on the Rise of the Tao in China (an inside glimpse of temple building crazy atop Mao Shan, famous Taoist mountain in eastern China:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/magazine/07religion-t.html?ref=magazine

————————

Moment of Empty Stillness In a Taoist Temple

                                             

 

Blessings on the Way of Re-discovering Our Soul,

Michael Winn

“Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes change — is a
Sage.” — Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters

“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
— Taoist Sage Mo Tzu, 200 B.C.

Quanzhen Daoism and Dragon Gate: History of Monasteries, Lineages, and Ordinations

Topic: Daoist Scholars
Author: Yue Wang

  ON QUANZHEN DAOISM AND THE LONGMEN LINEAGE: AN INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF MONASTERIES, LINEAGES, AND ORDINATIONS

A Thesis Submitted to the Department Linguistics and Religious Studies University of Saskatchewan

By

YUE WANG

i. Copyright Yue Wang, June, 2017. Shared under non-profit statute.

ii. ABSTRACT
This thesis examines Quanzhen Daoism, and the Longmen lineage in particular, during the

Qing dynasty in China from an institutional perspective. By critically analyzing monasteries, lineages, and texts, this study sheds light on why the notion of lineage is crucial for understanding Qing Daoism. Furthermore, this study challenges the existing understanding of Quanzhen Daoism as a fixed entity that was disconnected from the Chinese society by demonstrating that Quanzhen Daoism was a hybrid tradition that actively interacted with other traditions as well as the imperial state, reinventing itself, and constantly in search of prosperity and posterity.

iii.  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to first express my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor and also my guiren

貴人, Dr. George A. Keyworth III, who has assisted me enormously to pursue my own academic

path, yet never forgotten to remind me of how to grow to be a serious scholar and a good person. I offer my gratitude to all my committee members who carefully and patiently examine my

thesis drafts. I am also indebted to the following professors for their help with my research in many ways: Professor Liu Yi at Capital Normal University, Professor Wang Zongyu at Peking University, and Professor Yin Zhihua at the Chinese Daoist Association have kindly walked me through all the local sources related to my research in Beijing; Professor Chen Jinhua at University of British Columbia and Professor Barend ter Haar at Oxford University have given me invaluable insights and feedbacks regarding how to methodologically approach Daoist study. Their guidance has made this thesis far better.

iv. DEDICATION   To my parents and grandparents

v.  AUTHORS NOTE

Instances where I have provided Chinese characters for select proper nouns the characters used are in traditional form. The Romanization of Chinese names and terms has been rendered using the Pinyin system. I have provided verbatim the spellings and Romanizations from sources that are directly quoted.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PERMISSION OF USE……………………………………………………………………………i ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………iii

DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………………………………iv

AUTHOR’S NOTES………………………………………………………………………………v

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1

  1. 1.1  The Case of An Shilin…………………………………………………………………………1
  2. 1.2  Main Objectives……………………………………………………………………………….31.2.1 First Objective……………………………………………………………………………3 1.2.2
  3. Lineage and Transmission Narratives……………………………………………………4 1.2.3
  4. Second Objective…………………………………………………………………………8
  5. 1.3  The Role of the Chinese State in Regulating Religion…………………………………………9
  6. 1.4  Terminology Matters…………………………………………………………………………11
  7. 1.5  Overview of Daoist Studies Today……………………………………………………………13
  8. 1.6  Quanzhen Daoism and Its Longmen Sub-lineage……………………………………………161.6.1 Scholarships on Quanzhen Daoism During the Qing Period…………………………18

    1.6.2 Rethinking Quanzhen…………………………………………………………………23

  9. 1.7  Overview of Chapters…………………………………………………………………………25
  10. 1.8  A Note on Confucianism……………………………………………………………………..29

CHAPTER TWO: Baiyun guan, the “Chief Public Monastery Under Heaven”: History, Lineage, and Ordination……………………………………………………………………………………32 2.1

The Historical Background of Baiyun guan………………………………………………….34

2.1.1 Baiyun guan under the Tang Dynasty (618-907): A Family Temple…………………34 2.1.2

Baiyun guan in the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115-1234): The Turning Point……………36 2.1.3

Baiyun guan in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368): The Glorious Time of a

Quanzhen Monastery……………………………………………………………………………..39 2.1.4

Baiyun guan during the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644): Taken over by the

Zhengyi Tradition? ………………………………………………………………………………41 2.2

Life at Baiyun guan…………………………………………………………………………..43 2.2.1

Visualizing the Material Baiyun guan…………………………………………………43

2.2.2 Practices at Baiyun guan………………………………………………………………46 2.2.3

The Abbots of Baiyun guan……………………………………………………………49 2.2.4

The Ordination Process at Baiyun guan………………………………………………50

2.3 Concluding Remarks………………………………………………………………………….55 vi

CHAPTER THREE: The Myth of the Longmen “Orthodox” Lineage in Qing China…………57 3.1

The Inconsistencies in the Biographies of First Patriarch Zhao Daojian……………………59 3.1.1

Zhao Daojian in the Jin’gai xindeng (early nineteenth century)……………………..59

3.1.2 Zhao Daojian according to the Baiyun Xianbiao (late nineteenth century)…………..61 3.1.3

Zhao Daojian according to the Yuan dynasty Quanzhen Hagiographers…………….62 3.1.4

What Are We to Make of the Contradicting Sources?…………………………………………..63

3.2 The Seventh Patriarch Wang Changyue and the Daoist first Public Ordinations……………66 3.2.1

The Revival of Longmen at the Beginning of Qing…………………………………..66 3.2.2

The Three Stages of Precepts…………………………………………………………68

3.3 The Longmen Lineage in the South………………………………………………………….73 3.3.1 T

he Longmen Branch at Mount Jin’gai………………………………………………74 3.3.2

Connecting Baiyun guan to the South…………………………………………………75 3.3.3

Doctrines of Longmen Branch of Mt. Jin’gai…………………………………………78

CHAPTER FOUR: What is Daoism? The Quanzhen Affiliation to Buddhism………………….83 4.1

Daoist Allusions to Buddhist Precepts………………………………………………….84 4.2

Daoist Allusions to Buddhist “Pure Rules” ……………………………………………86 4.3

A Daoist “Lamp” History and Min Yide……………………………………………….91

4.3.1 Historical Precedent 1: Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce…………………………94

4.3.2 Historical Precedent 2: Xiuzhen shishu………………………………………….97 4.4

Concluding Remarks…………………………………………………………………..100

CHAPTER FIVE: Understanding the Daoist Canon and Local Extra-Canonical Daoist Texts..103 5.1

The Daoist Canon: History and Categorization…………………………………………….105 5.1.1

Overview of the Daoist Canon………………………………………………………105

5.1.2 The Only Surviving Copy of the Daoist Canon at Baiyun guan…………………….106 5.1.3

The Three Caverns and the Four Supplements………………………………………112 5.1.4

The Twelve Categories and the Thirty-Six Divisions……………………………….115

5.2 Extra-Canonical Daoist Texts: Where do they fit? …………………………………………116 5.2.1

Jin’gai xin deng………………………………………………………………………117 5.2.2

Lüzu sanni yishi shuoshu…………………………………………………………….118 5.2.3

Longmen xinfa……………………………………………………………………….118 5.2.4

Baiyun xianbiao………………………………………………………………………120 5.2.5

An Alternative Explanation………………………………………………………….121

CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………124 6.1

Understanding Quanzhen Daoism Through Institutions and State Sponsorship……………124 6.2

The Present………………………………………………………………………………….129 6.3

Future Research……………………………………………………………………………..131

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………133

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1.1 The Case of An Shilin

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

On November 11, 1946 (Minguo 民國 35), An Shilin 安世霖 (1903-1946), the abbot of a Daoist temple named Baiyun guan 白雲觀 (White Cloud Abbey) in Beijing, was burned alive.1 The people who were responsible for his murder consisted of a group of Daoists who lived within various local Daoist temples in Beijing. Thirty-six of these Daoists—eighteen of them were eventually sentenced to prison—quoted a particular text to explain their actions, Taishang qinggui 太上清規 (The Most High Pure Rules) of Baiyun guan,2 and accused An Shilin of having tampered with monastic regulations, selling monastic property for his own benefit, having eaten meat, drunk alcohol and taken drugs, and even keeping mistresses in subsidiary temples.3

The narrative of An Shilin’s murder and the crimes he was accused of seems straightforward because An Shilin almost certainly committed these misbehaviors. However, the religious perspective of this tragic affair indicates a much more complex scenario. As early as

1 For a brief description of An’s murder, see, Vincent Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, 1800-1949: A Social History of Urban Clerics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007), 177-181.
2 This set of monastic rules is now lost, but it was likely enacted by An himself. See, Goossaert, Taoists of Peking, 179.
3 The full list of the condemnation act can be found in Beijing Municipal Archives, file No. J181-29-506.

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1940, the Daoist Association (Daojiaohui 道教會), which had been established by the Bureau of Social Affairs (Shehui ju 社會局), issued a decree against An Shilin and named a replacement abbot. In 1941, condemnation of Daoists from other monasteries and the Bureau of Social Affairs followed suit by dismissing An and convening a committee to examine the monastery’s property. In reality, neither the replacement abbot nor the committee ever managed to physically enter Baiyun guan because of the close political connections An Shilin enjoyed with the local police. Under the leadership of An’s trusted aide Bai Quanyi 白全一 (1918-1946), who submitted a report praising An’s management in 1944, An’s supporters soon set up their own committee. From then on, the conflict between the Daoist Association and expelled Daoists, on the one hand, and An Shilin and his supporters in Baiyun guan, on the other, turned public and violent. Specifically, An claimed that the association had been plotting to turn Baiyun guan, a Quanzhen 全真 (Complete Perfection) Daoist monastery, over to Daoists from a rival lineage, Zhengyi 正一 (Orthodox Unity). Indeed, the leader of the Daoist association, Tian Cunxu 田存 緒 (1898-1943), was a Zhengyi Daoist who often publicly accused the Daoists at Baiyun guan of refusing supervision by the association between 1929 and 1943, and other Zhengyi clerics

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from the nearby port city of Tianjin 天津 continued to support his claims after he passed away in 1943.4
1.2 Main Objectives
1.2.1 First Objective

The conflict between An Shilin and his opponents raises several significant and interconnected issues about this history of institutional Daoism regarding monasteries, lineages, texts, state regulations and patronage, and the overall role Daoism played within Chinese culture and society. While a thorough study of these issues is certainly beyond the scope of this short thesis, my first objective here is to pay attention to the Longmen lineage, which was strongly associated with Baiyun guan during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). The reason why the above narrative in the early twentieth-century is related to this study is because it contextualizes the significance of the Longmen lineage to Daoists by showing comparatively recent competition among different Daoist groups at Baiyun guan. While some Daoists from local monasteries might not necessarily have had a clear sectarian awareness, for most larger Daoist monasteries

4 Zhang Xiuhua 張修華, “Wo he Tianhou gong” 我和天后宮. Tianjin wenshi ziliao xuanji 天津文史資料選輯 19, 158-207, 196-201.

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(e.g., Baiyun guan), which Daoist lineage is in charge matters. Not only it is considered to be a great achievement, but also it determines who gets to receive state patronage and, consequently, establishes its own legitimacy. This study, therefore, seeks to examine why the notion of lineage competition (or construction) appears to have been especially relevant to the history of Quanzhen Daoism, both past—as early as the Yuan (1271-1386), and Ming Dynasties (1368-1644)—and more recently emphasized during the Qing dynasty to the present, which eventually shows why lineage is still a vital issue for Daoists in China today.

1.2.2 Lineage and Transmission Narratives

To fully understand the rationale behind the first objective, it is necessary to address the significance of the term “lineage” in a Daoist context. In Daoism a lineage refers to a line of transmission of teachings that were theoretically revealed—or produced—by someone who holds the “truth of Dao”. The general idea is to pass down authentic teachings generation by generation so that the Dao will never be lost. Thus, lineages are fundamental to the institutional life of Daoism and for the identify of Daoists. During the Qing dynasty, all Daoist clerics were identified first and foremost by their lineages, which determined their ordination names (faming 法名 or daohao 道號). This name consisted of a character in common with all members of the

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same generation in the lineage and another that was specific for each cleric. The generation characters were taken from a lineage poem (paishi 派詩). A cleric entered a lineage by being accepted as a novice by his first master (dushi 度師). In the case of Quanzhen Daoism, this step was preceded by an ordination (chuanjie 傳戒) process, which did not affect lineage affiliation and one’s ordination name. Some Daoists later entered other lineages (and were sometimes given additional ordination names) by receiving the teachings of other masters. Lineage affiliation had to be properly recorded, since it granted rights and duties, notably concerning inheritance of rights and property. In principle, a lineage does not produce texts other than genealogies; therefore, a lineage should not be misconceived as a “school” in English. Religious masters devoted much effort to compiling and occasionally publishing genealogies, or lineage charts, for both ritual and practical uses.5

For Quanzhen Daoists, in theory, joining a lineage implied adopting a celibate life. Just as with Chinese Buddhists, those who entered the lineage line were known as having “left the family” (chujia 出家); a more accurate description would be that they had decided to change their families. In fact, the term “family” characterizes all relationships within the lineage.

5 Susan Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 53-54. 5

Quanzhen Daoists sometimes designated their lineage as a “root family” (benjia 本家), and the abbot of a monastery, or temple manager, or sometimes a patriarch, as the person in charge of managing household affairs (dangjia 當家). This is not a case of mere linguistic convenience: The Codes of Ming and Qing dynasties strictly equate Daoist master-disciple relationships with those of parent and child and impose upon disciples the same obligations toward their master as those of children toward their parents.6

The lineage system can also be quite adaptive. There is no limit to the number of recognized lineages. Existing lineages can split, and new ones can appear, founded by a venerated master (e.g., Qiu Chuji 丘處機 (1148-1227)) or in some cases, through a revelation (e.g., Wang Chongyang 王重陽 (1113-1170)).7 One of the major function of this lineage system is to separate lay people from Daoists as hereditary specialists. It did not exclude select lay adepts from obtaining access to teachings and initiations; throughout the late Qing period one can find many cases of lay disciples of both Buddhist and Daoist masters obtaining a place in a particular lineage. Some late imperial Quanzhen movements tried to incorporate large numbers of lay

6 Da Qing huidian shili 大清會典事例 [Examples of the Record of Laws and Systems of the Qing Dynasty] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1908), j. 747.
7 I will further elaborate on these two figues in section 1.6.

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adepts among initiates.8 We know that Buddhists, for example, conferred precepts through ordination (the Bodhisattva precepts, pusa jie 菩薩戒) to lay people. But, by and large, there remained boundaries between Buddhists and Daoists, on the one hand, and the laity on the other. Moreover, precepts, ordination, and this lineage system contributed to justifying the delegation of largely ritual relations with the sacred to specialists.

Because lineage transmission is central to the Longmen Lineage, the secret of “Natural Spontaneous [experience of] Pure Emptiness” (qingxu ziran 清虛自然) is said to have been transmitted from one patriarch to the next, only to be finally revealed by the seventh Longmen patriarch in form of the “Most Ultimate Preceptor Treasure of Pure Tranquility” (Taishang qingjing lübao 太上清靜律寶).9 Each Longmen patriarch was, moreover, required to transmit to each successor through a process known as “transmitting the precepts using oral formulae” (jiefa koujue 戒法口訣) to ensure an unbroken transmission line from the Most Ultimate Lord Lao. The date of each transmission by a patriarch and the time lapse from the previous

8 Vincent Gossaert, “Quanzhen Clergy, 1700-1950”. In John Lagerwey, ed., Religion and Chinese Society: The Transformation of a Field (Paris: Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient; and Hongkong: Chinese University Press, 2004), 741-47.
9 Yin Zhihua 尹志華, “Beijing Baiyun guan cang Longmen chuanjie puxi chutan 北京白雲觀藏龍門傳戒譜系初 探”, Shijie zongjiao yanjiu 世界宗教研究, 2009, 72-82.

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transmission are both recorded with great precision: the first patriarch performed the transmission to his successor on the fifteenth day 望日 of the tenth lunar month of 1312, precisely thirty-three years after Qiu Chuji’s first transmission at Baiyun guan had taken place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of 1280. In turn, the second patriarch transmitted the secrets to the third on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of 1367 after fifty-six years, and the entire transmission narrative culminates on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of 1656 with the public transmission of precepts at Baiyun guan by the seventh patriarch, Wang Changyue 王常月 (1522-1680).10

In practice, what has been passed on from generation to generation through the lineage transmission was the abbotship or, to simply put, the right to run the monastery. In other words, what lineages actually produced were ordained, celibate Daoists who controlled access to Daoist monasteries, ritual ceremonies, and texts.
1.2.3 Second Objective

My second objective is to examine the complexities of Daoism during the Qing dynasty from a more nuanced perspective by considering Daoism as a constantly changing tradition.

10 Rujie yaogui 入戒要規 [Important Instructions on Ordination], 38a-46b, in Chuzhen jielü 初真戒律. 8

More specifically, a significant portion of this study is devoted to understanding how, why, and to what extent institutional Daoism11 responded and adjusted to the late imperial Chinese state as well as other institutional religious traditions in China.12
1.3 The Role of the Chinese State in Regulating Religion

Because institutional Daoism has always been intertwined with political connections and patronage by the imperial clan(s), it is necessary to address the relationship between the state and religion in China. Even though most regimes in China were established through martial prowess and violence, the legitimacy of rulers in imperial China (ca. 202 BCE-1911) was almost solely based upon their self-proclaimed “mandate of heaven” (tianming 天命), and the title of all Chinese emperors was, consequently, always the “son of heaven” (tianzi 天子). To many rulers, Chinese religions, and especially Daoism, were often seen as curious, double-edged swords with

11 Here I use the term “institutional Daoism” to refer to a type of Daoism that is primarily based on its monasteries (miao 廟, guan 觀, gong 宮, and so on), which were recognized and sponsored by the imperial state on par with Buddhist temples (the most common term is si 寺). They should not be confused with other less confined Daoist clerical organizations, such as hui 會 (literally means assembly or community), for these organizations might also recruit lay adepts.

12 In use of the term “religious traditions”, I follow Adam Yuet Chau’s suggestion to interpret a religious tradition as always in the process of being made and remade by the society in response to local changes. See Adam Yuet Chau, ed., Religion in Contemporary China: Revitalization and Innovation (New York: Routledge Press, 2011), 2-3.

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which to explore and bolster the imperial role of managing harmony between heaven, earth, and human beings. In some cases, religion could serve as a means to consolidate political legitimacy. For example, during the infamous Tang (618-907) dynasty, Empress Wu Zhao 武瞾 (Wu Zetian 武則天, r. 690-705) successfully manipulated various religious traditions to legitimate her extraordinary rule over China, even though in later periods her reign was seen by nearly all civil servants as one of the most shameful times because she was the sole female Chinese emperor.13 Yet religion could also exert an opposite effect. A Daoist uprising called the Yellow Turbans (huangjin jun 黃巾軍), for example, occurred during the Eastern Han 東漢 (25 BCE-220 CE) dynasty, claiming that the emperor had already lost his mandate of heaven. Arguably, the dynasty that suffered the most rebellions is the Qing, ranging from Ming loyalists to the opposition of Manchurian (manren 滿人) rulers by the majority Chinese society, and from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Taiping tianguo 太平天國) movement beginning in the 1850s— whose leader, Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全 (1814-1864), claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ and thus challenged the legitimacy of the son of Heaven—to the Boxer rebellion in 1900.

13 See the recent study by Timothy Hugh Barrett, The Woman Who Discovered Printing (New Haven, Conn. And London: Yale University Press, 2008).

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Not surprisingly, the Qing imperial court exerted considerable control over Chinese religions. As the great indigenous institutional Chinese religion with a long history of challenging imperial authority, Daoism was no exception.
1.4 Terminology Matters

Before I address the current state of scholarship in the sub-field of Daoist studies, I need to clarify what I mean by the term “Daoism” and why this thesis proposes a novel way to approach the study of the history of Daoism in China. First, I do not think that Daoism is or ever was a coherent entity: Daoism never had the continuity that we might be able to ascribe to the Christian church, in which religious beliefs and practices are always centered around a sacred origin.14 If we were to attempt to find a unifying sacred origin within the history of Chinese Daoism, this would produce a teleological fallacy that would, in turn, lead to defining Daoism as something that complements and/or bonds to notions of religion we in the west are comfortable with discussing primarily in European languages. Laozi, for example, is often depicted as the founder of Daoism simply because the “earliest” record of Daoism, namely the Daode jing 道德經 (The

14 See for example, Mircea Eliade, Symbolism, the Sacred, and the Ars, edited by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona (New York: NY Crossroad Publishing Company, 1988).

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Classic of the Way and Its Power), was attributed to him, whereas Laozi in classical Chinese (i.e., 老子) might just mean “an old man”. Second, I do not think that we know enough about Daoism to define Daoism in any consistent or specific way. Unlike Buddhism, Islam, or Christianity, for example, because Daoism is an indigenous Chinese religion, it was not produced by the deliberate efforts of any single community—or interconnected communities—to practice the teachings of any one so-called great figure. Therefore, it is my contention that Daoism can only be defined according to how Daoists in China have understood and used the term, Daoism. In other words, when defining the term “Daoism” one should always begin by asking this question: Who is a Daoist? This is not to suggest that we should necessarily define Daoism by seeking out actual Daoists and subjectively asking them to guide us toward a learned understanding of Daoism. Instead, we should pay specific attention to what Daoists care about and what kinds of identities Daoists have presented and articulated. Only by situating these data within a range of historical contexts can one obtain a more nuanced, working understanding of the term “Daoism” or “Daoisms”15 in a specific time and location. Religious discourse, as

15 Robert Ford Campany. “On the Very Idea of Religions (In the Modern West and in Early Medieval China)”, History of Religions 42.4 (2003), 287-319.

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Robert Campany suggests, has been and remains predominantly “a linguistic affair”.16Therefore, the primary focus of this thesis it about what Daoists do, rather than what they think.

Despite the fact that scholars often address different Daoist traditions and refer to these as “sects”, “orders” or “schools”, such as the Lingbao 靈寶 (Numinous Treasure), Shangqing 上 清 (Supreme Clarity), Quanzhen, or Zhengyi sects, orders, schools, and so forth, throughout this thesis I regard each of these terms as convenient expressions of groups of individuals whose identities were determined by a particular scriptural corpus classified within the Daoist Canon (Daozang 道藏), and not necessarily representative of actual groups of Daoists. In the case of Quanzhen Daoism, the Daoist canon also falls short on guiding us to seeing lineage construction because the identity of a Daoist of a certain lineage (e.g., the Longmen lineage) was almost entirely based on genealogical transmissions. Therefore, I choose to use the term lineage to refer to groups of Daoists who speak on behalf of affiliated Daoist traditions; the identity of these Daoists’ is defined, propagated, and assured by their own historical heritage.
1.5 Overview of Daoist Studies Today

16 Ibid, 288.

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Contemporary scholarship on Daoist studies pays considerable attention to two areas of inquiry. One began right after the publication of the Hanfen lou 涵芬樓 edition of the Daoist Canon by the Shanghai Commercial Press (Shanghai shangwu yinshu guan 上海商務印書館) during the 1920s.17 The previously mysterious Daoist canon was accessible by the public, as opposed to being restricted to clergy and their scholar associate, for the first time. Because very few Daoists and very few scholars could have had access to the canon before the 1920s, and the only surviving Daoist canon today was kept at Baiyun guan,18 one might ask if the Daoist canon, as a general collection of “Daoist texts”, was in fact embraced by Daoists over the centuries as a valid representation of their own values, beliefs, or practices? My research shows that other, apparently extra-canonical texts constitute authoritative transmission of texts—not the canon— for Quanzhen Daoists, much as is the case for Chan Buddhism (chanzong 禪宗, Zen, in

17 For studies on the Daoist canon, see Chen Guofu 陳國符, Daozang yuanliu kao 道藏源流考 [The Study of the Origin and Transmission of the Daoist Canon] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2014); Boltz, Judith M. “Taoism: Taoist Literature.” In Mircea Eliade, ed., The Encyclopedia of Religion, first edition, 14: 317-29; Lindsay Jones, ed., second edition, 4: 2202-12 (New York and London: Macmillan, 1987 and 2005); Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004); Zhu Yueli 朱越利, Daojing zonglun 道經總論 (Shenyang: Liaoning Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1992).

18 For a short introduction to the Daoist canon at Baiyun guan, see Kubo Noritada 窪德忠, “Pekin Hakuunkan no genjō ni tsuite 2 北京白雲觀の現狀について [The Current Situation of Baiyun guan in Peking, Part 2]”, Shina Bukkyō Shigaku 支那佛教史學 7, no. 2 (1943): 32-36.

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Japanese). The other focus for a significant portion of Daoist studies research in recent decades was stimulated by the discovery of a cache of manuscripts in Cave No. 17—the so-called the Library Cave found at the Mogao caves 莫高石窟, near Dunhuang 敦煌, in 1900.19 Although Daoist manuscripts found at Dunhuang were almost certainly discarded documents due to Buddhist predominance in Chinese central Asia, they are nevertheless invaluable to scholars who study the history of medieval Daoism in China. For example, Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen managed to use these manuscripts to define the liturgical system of Daoist ordinations and hierarchy during the Tang dynasty, and suggested that the Daoist canon was compiled according to an associated hierarchical categorization.20 Since most of the Daoist scriptures found at Dunhuang are associated with revelations—a theme that appears repeatedly in many Dunhuang Daoist scriptures in which the Dao may appear under the guise of deities or immortals

19 For some examples on Daoist studies of Dunhuang, see Yoshioka Yoshitoyo 吉岡義豐, Dōkyō no kenkyū 道教 の研究 [Research on Daoism]. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1952; Liu Yi 刘屹, “Lun 20 shiji Dunhuang daojiao wenxian yanjiu 论 20 世纪敦煌道教文献研究 [A Survey of Dunhuang Textual Studies on Daoism in the Twentieth Century]”, Dunhuang tulufan yanjiu 敦煌吐鲁番研究, 7 卷, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2004); Lai Chi-tim, “Daoism and Political Rebellion during the Eastern Jin Dynasty”, in Politics and Religion in Ancient and Medieval Europe and China (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1999); James Robson, “Brushes with Some “Dirty Truths”: Handwritten Manuscripts and Religion in China,” History of Religions 51, no. 4 (2012): 324-26;

20 See Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 5-40.
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and can be further transmitted to adepts—Daoism is increasingly deemed by many scholars to be primarily a ritual tradition that may or may not depend upon transmission of rituals and ritual texts by codified clergy. Yet my research shows that Quanzhen Daoism21, which is the focus of this study, is about neither the canon nor scriptural revelations therein; it was, and still is, primarily a monastic tradition, which depended upon institutions controlled—or ruled—by clergy.

1.6 Quanzhen Daoism and Its Longmen Sub-lineage

Quanzhen Daoism, founded by Wang Zhe 王嚞 (also known as Wang Chongyang) in North China during the Jurchen (Nüzhen 女真) Jin 金 dynasty (1115-1234), quickly rose to prominence during the Mongol Yuan dynasty. The person who this rapid spread of Quanzhen Daoism is attributed to is one of Wang Zhe’s seven disciples, Qiu Chuji, who established his own sub-lineage of Quanzhen Daoism called the Longmen pai 龍門派 (Dragon gate lineage),22 with Qiu Chuji as the head patriarch. In 1223, the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227)

21 For the new interpretation of this term, see Vincent Goossaert and Paul R. Katz, “Special Issue: New Perspectives on Quanzhen Taoism. The Formation of Religious Identity”, Journal of Chinese Religions, 2001, Vol 29, 91., and Fabrizio Pregadio, ed., The Encyclopedia of Taoism. London: Routledge, 2007, 814.
22 The name Longmen derives from the name of the place in Shaanxi where Qiu Chuji spent seven years there practicing self-cultivation.

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summoned Qiu for an audience and granted him extensive privileges and a leading role in supervising Daoist affairs in North China. Qiu Chuji was thereafter celebrated for his successful plea to the terrifying Mongol emperor to “stop the alleged slaughter of millions of Chinese”23 living in Mongol controlled lands; Qiu’s disciples were also hailed for “attenuating the impact of the Mongol invasion and safeguarding Chinese culture during the traumatic decades of the Mongol conquest of North China in the early thirteenth century”.24 Under the leadership of Qiu Chuji and his successors, Quanzhen Daoism built up a large network composed of major monasteries that served as training centers and thousands of smaller temples throughout the region. Yet we see no evidence of an actual history of these Daoists at a separate network of temples that resembles Quanzhen Daoism during the Qing era.

During the Ming dynasty, Quanzhen institutions suffered grave setbacks because of the native Chinese court’s political biases against so-called alien regimes and containment policy toward steppe “barbarians”, and most Quanzhen Daoist temples were largely under supervision of other Daoist traditions, chief among these were the Zhengyi Daoists, a tradition active in south

23 Xun Liu and Vincent Goossaert (ed.), Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture, 1500-2010 (Berkeley, CA: Institude of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley), 2.
24 Ibid, 2.

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China. Or, it may be that Quanzhen Daoism was not as powerful as later Quanzhen Daoists needed it to be have been during earlier periods. At the beginning of the Manchurian Qing dynasty, the Quanzhen school once again underwent a process of revival with special attention to the Longmen lineage, which became the primary Daoist school during the Qing.25 Yet the reason for this revival is still not fully understood today. Perhaps this revival was no revival at all. Instead, following John R. McRae on the history of Chan Buddhism, in which he argues that the so-called “golden age” of Chan Buddhism began with the creation of the “golden age” narrative itself through a constructed patriarchal system,26 the revival of the Longmen lineage might just be another narrative of legitimacy for a late imperial Daoist tradition.

1.6.1 Scholarship on Quanzhen Daoism During the Qing

The history of Quanzhen Daoism remains poorly understood for a variety of reasons. First, Daoism has been considered by many Chinese intellectuals and an earlier generation of western historians (until the 1980s in English, for example) to be a hodgepodge of meaningless

25 For a more comprehensive description of the history of Quanzhen Daoism, see Qing Xitai 卿希泰 et al., eds. Zhongguo daojiao 中國道教 [Daoism in China] (Shanghai: Zhishi chubanshe, 1994), 100-103, 126-127, 151-153. 26 John R. McRae, Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

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superstition. Historically, that reputation had two main sources. One was the devaluation of Daoism by so-called Confucian-trained scholars (or civil servants) and Buddhist intellectuals, many of whom were monastics who clashed with lay and monastic Daoists at various times over the centuries. Another source is disparagement by early western observers who responded to Chinese religion with a presumption of cultural and religious superiority. It is evident that most early Christian missionaries to all parts of the globe belittled native beliefs and practices as superstition or idolatry. But in China, such sentiments were reinforced by the prejudices of a native intelligentsia and of a political agenda which had long feared the subversive potential of religious movements—or “cults”, in English.27 Such cults, which could be heavily based on Daoist or Buddhist teachings, were often labeled as either “heterodoxy” (xiejiao 邪教) or “lascivious temples” (yinci 淫祠), serving as political means to subjugate popular religious practices.

27 Barend ter Haar. The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992; paperback edition: Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), contends that many Chinese religious groups were rendered as either dangerous or superstitious in imperial China, and such accusations were often associated with political discourses rather than facts.

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Second, the obscurity of Quanzhen Daoist studies can be explained by more than just mere historical misinterpretations: this area of research suffers from insufficient scholarly attention. Part of the reason is that, unlike in the case of investigating Buddhists in China, for example, most living Quanzhen masters have seldom been anxious to divulge anything about their religion to outsiders. They have rarely come forth to participate in academic conferences that can serve as intellectual bridges by promoting a more full and accurate appreciation of their own religious tradition. Yet one more reason may be that many scholars see Quanzhen Daoism as a separate entity, and therefore fail to realize that the study of Quanzhen Daoism is important not only for Daoist studies, but also for the study of Chinese culture and society in general. Of those who can recognize this problem, none of them, unfortunately, has yet turned their focused attention to Quanzhen Daoism.28

Among the specialists who have written in any European language about Quanzhen Daoism, Vincent Goossaert’s pioneering monograph, The Taoists of Peking, 1800-1949: A Social History of Urban Clerics, presents findings that challenge several conventional views of Quanzhen

28 For works on how Daoism responses to other religions, see Kristofer Schipper, “Purity and Strangers: Shifting Boundaries in Medieval Taoism,” T’oung-pao, 80, 1994: 61-81; Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China, 11.

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Daoists and the history of Daoism. He demonstrates that while Quanzhen Daoist clerics had a clear and distinct sense of self-identity based upon their rites of initiation and monasticism, and were a fairly clearly defined clerical minority in the eyes of the imperial state, the general lay community or public appears to have held a much looser and imprecise sense of their identity, which is primarily based upon their appearance in public, social status, sexual abstinence (celibacy), and apparent adherence to a defined set of self-denying precepts.29 In an earlier work, Goossaert also points out that Quanzhen Daoism was more of a religious movement consisting of multiple independent lineages than any singular or unified religious group.30 These are two foundational notions of Quanzhen Daoism for my research.

The theme of textual production as a means to define the identity of Daoists is well defined in Mori Yuria’s 森由利亞 works on the Daozang jiyao 道藏輯要 (Essentials of the Daoist Canon), in which he explores how Quanzhen Daoist clerics and their lay associates reshaped and expanded the Daozang jiyao by actively preserving and integrating several major local Daoist religious texts in the republished canon in 1906. The extra-canonical texts I explore in this study

  1. 29  Vincent Goossaert. The Taoists of Peking, 1800-1949: A Social History of Urban Clerics.
  2. 30  Vincent Goossaert, “The Invention of an Order: Collective Identity in Thirteenth- Century Quanzhen Taoism,”

Journal of Chinese Religions 29 (2001): 111- 138.

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bolster Mori’s approach. What emerges in Mori’s study is a fascinating portrayal of how Quanzhen Daoist clerics at the famed Erxian Cloister 二仙庵 in Sichuan province 四川省 attempted to reinvigorate their Quanzhen Daoist legacy by incorporating an earlier Lingbao Daoist liturgical tradition and other ritual texts from this region of southwest China. Mori’s study shows that the Erxian Cloister clerics’ editorial inclusion of local scriptures not only fundamentally reshaped the textual configuration and ideological orientations of early nineteenth-century Daoist compendia, but also demonstrates how important continuous integration of local traditions was for the reproduction and transmission of Quanzhen Daoist identity across history.31

Monica Esposito, on the other hand, challenged these claims of fundamental continuity throughout Quanzhen history. She argued that the presumption of any established notions of continuity conceals discontinuities and ruptures, which are equally important features of the history of Quanzhen Daoism. She argued that post-Ming era (fourteenth-seventeenth century) developments within Quanzhen Daoism represent a fundamental reinvention that she considered

31 Mori Yuria 森由利亞. “Beijing Local through Ritual: Quanzhen Appropriation of Zhengyi Liturgy in the Chongkan Daozang jiyao”, in Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture, 1500-2010, 171-207.

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were so extensive and different from earlier Quanzhen Daoism that it created a new religious movement altogether.32 Esposito’s approach guides my view that texts to transmit the Longmen lineage almost certainly invented a new Daoist tradition, following the core of Chinese Chan Buddhism discussed by McRae during the Song and Wu Jiang during the Ming.

1.6.2 Rethinking Quanzhen: A New Methodological Approach

Taking these studies of Quanzhen Daoism into consideration, it seems to me that the core of most scholarly debates about Quanzhen Daoism focuses on the question of whether we can speak of any continuity within the history of the Quanzhen lineage from the Jin-Yuan period to the modern era (twelfth – twentieth centuries). Bearing in mind that this is a primary concern within the field of Daoist studies of the Quanzhen tradition, as well as consistent and evolving interactions between Chinese society, the state, and Quanzhen Daoists, this project takes another look at Quanzhen Daoism to rethink Quanzhen Daoism within its historical and practical contexts. Both Quanzhen Daoists and scholars of Daoism have tended to focus on normative

32 Monica Esposito, “The Longmen School and Its Controversial History during the Qing Dynasty,” in John Lagerwey, ed., Religion and Chinese Society, vol 2: Taoism and Local Religion in Modern China, 633, 640, and 660.

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sources to produce definitions which quite clearly distinguish between Quanzhen and non- Quanzhen Daoism.

The methodological approach I propose subjects to criticism pre-established definitions of what Quanzhen Daoism is and who Quanzhen Daoists are, to instead approach Daoism during the Qing dynasty carefully and without confining it within any pre-existing frameworks. More specifically, first, it is important to be aware of what scholars label as Daoist and Quanzhen. Then, one must identify whatever self-described clerics do or propose in the texts they write, bearing in mind that the Daoists in question may not necessarily describe themselves using these terms. It is also possible that there are people and institutions (such as public, ten-directions [shifang 十方] monasteries) that explicitly seek to transmit Quanzhen Daoism and articulate Quanzhen identity. There is a corpus of texts that expounds a single Quanzhen ideology with a specific version—and vision—of Daoism which is grounded in disciplinary purity and self- cultivation. Interestingly, some of these ideological texts were produced by lay spirit-writing (fuji 扶乩) groups whose members were not necessarily ordained in any Quanzhen lineage or even connected to a Quanzhen institution. While some Daoists may put forward adherence to the Longmen (lineage) as a key identity marker, others might not. Nevertheless, the authoritative

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status of the Longmen lineage produced by extra-canonical texts at least demonstrates how this group of Daoists came to flourish in Qing China and challenges the traditional approach to Quanzhen Daoism using canonical or normative texts. Individuals, institutions, and texts are, therefore, the three main elements of this study. They are, I argue, where we might best find the clues to uncover where the nature of Quanzhen Daoism lies.

1.7 Overview of Chapters

Chapter Two presents a comprehensive overview of the history of Baiyun guan with strong ties to the Longmen lineage, a sub-lineage of Quanzhen Daoism. Then I introduce the transmission narratives presented at Baiyun guan, followed by a description of the life of Daoists at this important monastery in Beijing. The history of the monastery and the life of the Daoists together dramatically shaped the institutional history of Quanzhen Daoism during the Qing period. What I hope to demonstrate is that there is a recurring theme of non-Han Chinese (or so- called barbarian) state support for Quanzhen Daoism. While the much earlier Tang dynasty imperial court seems to have condoned virtually every type of religious tradition, the one Tang emperors and members of the royal clan formed the most intimate relationships with was Daoism, especially during the Emperor Xuanzong’s 玄宗 reign (712-756). It is often suggested

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that the main reason why Tang royal patronage for Daoism was so ambitious is because the Tang imperial family claimed descent from the legendary figure of Laozi 老子 (Lord Lao). During the Mongol Yuan and Manchurian Qing dynasties, the last two dynasties when China was ruled by foreigners—which were perceived by Chinese people as periods of infamy—Quanzhen Daoism was also well-known for receiving imperial patronage. It is also noteworthy that although the institutional history of Quanzhen Daoism shares many similar features with Chan Buddhism, and many terms used in this chapter seem Buddhist (i.e. Sanskrit), I do not intend to suggest that these two religious traditions developed in parallel with one another; physically, the central role of Baiyun guan was always the Longmen patriarchs, not the Buddha or any Buddhist deities. Daoists incorporated Sanskrit—or pseudo-Sanskrit—terms not to highlight any sense of Indic origins, but instead to simply utilize these fashionable terms to meet their own agenda.33

Following a key truism from McRae’s “Rules of Zen studies,” that “lineage assertions are as wrong as they are strong”,34 chapter three examines three inconsistencies about the lineage

33 Michel Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine. Bernard Faure, ed (Standford, CA: Standford University Press, 1996), 236-241.
34 McRae, Seeing Through Zen, xix; see also Bernard Faure, The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism, trans. Phyllis Brooks (Stanford, CA.: Stanford University Press, 1997).

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assertions of the Longmen lineage. First, different biographies of Zhao Daojian 趙道堅 (1163- 1221), the first Longmen patriarch—following the founding patriarch Qiu Chuji—indicate that there were two possible Zhaos. Second, the procedures for the ordination of precepts that were supposedly used to further continue the Longmen lineage predate the history of Quanzhen Daoism. Third, the genealogy of the Northern Longmen Quanzhen lineage that we know of today was, in reality, elaborated among Southern lineage groups. Because of a strong emphasis upon ordinations and lineages, from the Qing onward, Daoists in China were largely divided into two groups: Quanzhen Daoists who mandated a celibate life and ordination (chujia 出家) and those who lived a secular life (zaijia 在家). The role of Daoists greatly changed because of Quanzhen Daoism.

Daoism cannot be fully apprehended without taking into consideration other religious traditions in China, especially Chinese Buddhism. Chapter Four first shows possible Buddhist affiliation between the “great ordination precepts of Triple altar” (santan dajie 三壇大戒) performed by Wang Changyue, followed by a brief discussion of the Daoist monastic rules, which were first widely adopted in large, public Buddhist monasteries during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). Next, I analyze the emergence of a Chan Buddhist genre, denglu 燈錄,

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(“lamp”, or “flame” histories), as a new Daoist genre to further trace the historical precedents of Daoist textual borrowing from [Chan] Buddhism during the Ming period to demonstrate that Quanzhen Daoist borrowings and connections with Chinese Buddhism cannot be restricted to only the Qing dynasty. I also investigate if the idea that state support for Quanzhen Daoism discontinued during the Ming period—the Ming was ruled by Chinese and Quanzhen was notoriously tied with alien regimes—might be essentially a myth. While clearly mirroring—and not copying—Buddhist genres (and terms), the relationship between Quanzhen Daoism and Chinese [Chan] Buddhism during the Ming and Qing periods was, therefore, definitely not one of socio-political competition. Rather, it appears that these traditions thrived in different socio- cultural realms.

Chapter Five shows that the only surviving copy of the Daoist canon at Baiyun guan was never actually complete. By showing that the received way of categorizing the canon is merely a scholarly construct, this chapter closely examines the historical sources—especially the extra- canonical texts— that are cited in previous chapters. This critical analysis is designed to show that, even though the Daoist canon—and Baiyun guan, which kept the only surviving copy—was highly praised, extra-canonical sources are also fundamental for understanding institutional

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Daoism or Daoists. This is yet one more reason why Quanzhen Daoism, though in many ways similar, should not be seen as anything like a copy of Chan Buddhism, for which nearly all texts are canonical.
1.8 A Note On Confucianism

In the last section I claimed that Daoism simply cannot be fully apprehended without taking into consideration other religious traditions in China. It is, therefore, important to address another tradition in China besides Chinese Buddhism: Confucianism. I choose not to describe Confucianism as a “religious” tradition because there is a hotly debated question about whether Confucianism can be seen as a religion or “an elite phenomenon that is very different in the Chinese past”35 from the misconceptions of today. The latter seems more plausible because many so-called “Daoists” in this study, such as Qiu Chuji, Wang Changyue, An Shilin, and especially Min Yide 閔一得 (1758-1836)—who was the main compiler and advocate of the genealogy of the Longmen lineage and who served as a government official at Yunnan province before he became a Daoist—can all be classified as “Confucians”. If we assume that reading

35 Barend J. ter Haar. Workshop on Asian Studies and Religion “The Invention of Confucianism in the Nineteeth Century”, on 22 September, 2014, Leiden.

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Confucian texts and learning Confucian values are determining factors for who can be called a “Confucian”, then we ought to consider the general education curriculum and the history of imperial examinations (keju 科舉).

The figure who created the list of Confucian readings during the Ming and Qing periods is, of course, Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200). Zhu claimed to inherit a “transmission of the Way” (daotong 道統) that originated with Confucius (551-479 BCE) and Mencius (ca. 372-289 BCE) and then jumped over a millennium to the eleventh-century teacher Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033- 1107), and then, of course, to Zhu himself. As a matter of fact, the notion of correct transmission was already widely accepted by Chinese intellectuals since the fourteenth century. The ideologues of the “Cheng Zhu school” essentially gained political control of the mechanisms for expression of ideas in late imperial China, and, from their hostility toward all other religious, intellectual, and cultural systems, it is easy to gain the false impression that Daoism should be understood through Confucianism. However, if there was anything that Daoists of imperial times feared, it was not “Confucianism”, or even Buddhism. Rather, Daoists of several periods feared—often with good reason—that the rulers of their day would perceive their activities as disreputable “cults”, which had little appeal to rulers or to aristocrats. For this reason, I do not

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refer to Confucianism as a religious tradition which interacted with Daoism in the same way as Chinese Buddhism did. While Confucianism might still exist in the imperial China as a social- political factor, exerting its influence among the Chinese intellectual groups, the history of Daoism in China can be properly researched only by placing it within a more confined framework of the organization of Chinese religion. The socio-political aspect of the Chinese society—especially in the case of the so-called “Confucian state” pivoting on imperial examinations—mingles with all religious traditions in China and does not stand alone.36 The role of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism within Chinese religion, then, was not to exist as separate institutions providing their members with an exclusive way to salvation, as the nineteenth-century Western concept of religion would imply, but to transmit their tradition of practice and make it available to all, either as individual spiritual techniques or in our case, as liturgical services for families or whole communities.

36 Several scholars have shown that civil servants in the imperial China sometimes served as powerful arbitrators of instituinal control over various religious traditions. See for example, Ben Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000); Frederick W. Mote, Imperial China, 900-1800 (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1999); John W. Dardess, Conquerors and Confucians: Aspects Political Change in Late Yuan China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973).

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Chapter Two: Baiyun guan, the “Chief Public Monastery Under Heaven”: History, Lineage, and Ordination

Compared to other Daoist traditions in China, such as Shangqing, Lingbao, or Tianshi 天師 (alt. Zhengyi), which can be traced back to as early as the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), it is probably not an exaggeration to say that Quanzhen Daoism was never considered ancient. Contemporary Daoists in China, regardless of their possible historical affiliations to other Daoist traditions, all claim that they belong to the Longmen lineage. The figure who founded this tradition was only a late medieval Daoist named Wang Zhe (1113-1170), who was mostly active during the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), and his works were revealed by his disciples even later. Yet the Longmen lineage (Longmen pai)—a sub-lineage of Quanzhen Daoism established by Wang’s disciple, Qiu Chuji (1148-1227), during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)—began to spread rapidly from the beginning of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and has remained by far the most dominant Daoist lineage in China today.37

To many who study Chinese history and religion, the fact that a Jin, Yuan or Qing tradition supersedes other ancient traditions seems counterintuitive, if not outright bizarre. This

37 See Esposito, Qing Daoism, 55-56; Esposito, Creative Daoism, 2. 32

counterintuitive sense is reinforced by the fact that the Jin, Yuan and the Qing dynasties are all notorious periods when China were conquered by foreigners or “barbarians (huren 胡人)”; specifically, the Jin conquest is attributed to the Jurchens, the Yuan the Mongols (Menggu 蒙 古), and Qing the Manchurians (Jurchens who used another name, Man 滿). In other words, in principle, these three periods are not only considered by many Chinese people as chaotic, but also perhaps even humiliating. Mote explains that the appearance of these alien regimes in China fosters a sense of “Chineseness” shared among all the “Han” Chinese, which “transcended the many local and regional variations.”38 How do we, therefore, justify the prominence of the Longmen lineage, which rose to fame precisely during these three periods of foreign rule? What are we to make, furthermore, of Baiyun guan, where the orthodox Longmen lineage (Longmen zhengzong 龍門正宗) was established during the early Qing, as one of the most important Daoist temples in China today, which is indicated by its entrance plague: Chief Public Monastery Under Heaven 天下第一叢林39?

  1. 38  Mote, Imperial China, 266.
  2. 39  The date and author of this plague are unclear to me. It was first recorded by Yoshioka Yoshitoyo, who visited

Baiyun guan in 1941. See Yoshioka Yoshitoyo, Dōkyō no kenkyū, 216.

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In this chapter I first introduce the historical background of Baiyun guan, with attention to its close association with Qiu Chuji, the founder of the Longmen lineage. Next, I examine the transmission narratives of the Longmen lineage portrayed at Baiyun guan to explain why the notion of lineage is so important for us to be able to understand Quanzhen Daoism during the Qing dynasty. To further demonstrate the significance of Baiyun guan to the rise of Longmen lineage, I end this chapter by discussing the life of monastic Daoists and the ordination rituals performed at Baiyun guan.
2.1 The Historical Background of Baiyun guan

2.1.1 Baiyun guan under the Tang Dynasty (618-907): A Family Temple

The history of Baiyun guan reaches back to the eighth century, when Liu Jiuxiao 劉九霄, an Deputy Surveillance Judiciary to the Military Commissioner (jiedu yutui 節度御推), founded a small temple there in order to commemorate Zhang Yunshen 張允伸, who was appointed Military Commissioner (jiedu shi 節度使) in 85040. The name of this temple was Tianchang

40 The biography of Zhang Yunshen can be founded in Jiu Tangshu 舊唐書: benji 本紀 19/Yi zong 懿宗李漼, 655-679. On official titles, see Charles Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985), nos. 772 and 777.

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guan 天長觀 (Heavenly Longevity Abbey), as recorded in a stele inscription Stele of

Reconstruction of Tianchang guan by Liu Jiuxiao of the Tang (Tang Liu Jiuxiao zaixiu

Tianchang guan bei 唐劉九霄再修天長觀碑).41 It states:

[Since] Kaiyuan Emperor of Sagely Culture, the Divine Prowess and the Ultimate Dao fasted his mind and respected the Dao, Tianchang guan [is built] to venerate the Great Sagely Ancestor of the Mysterious Origin.42
天長觀, 開元聖文神武至道皇帝齋心敬道, 以奉玄元大聖祖。

The inscription basically tells us about two main activities attributed to Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756). First, Emperor Xuanzong was enshrined as the Great Sagely Ancestor of Mysterious Origin. It is almost certain that here the “Ancestor” refers to Lord Lao or Laozi, who was regarded as the progenitor of the Tang imperial Li family. Because Li Yuan 李淵 (566-635), who founded the Tang dynasty owing to the secret transmission of the Heavenly Mandate from Li Er 李耳—Laozi’s real name—became the emperor, Laozi was formally given the title

41 According to Yu Minzhong 于敏中, Qinding Rixia jiuwenkao 钦定日下舊聞攷, 1785 (Beijing: Beijing guji chubanshe, 1985), 94, 1581, it was allegedly copied by a Daoist named Li Zhiren 李知仁 in 866 and later cited in the the Yuan yitong zhi 元一統志 (Comprehensive Gazetteer of the Yuan Dynasty). However, both the 866 and Yuan accounts are lost.

42 Xin Tang shu 新唐書: benji 本紀 5/Xuanzong huangdi Li Longji 李隆基, 143, indicates that the title of “Great Sagely Ancestor of the Mysterious Origin” was bestowed on Lord Lao (Laozi) in 743.

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“Sagely Ancestor” (shengzu 聖祖).43 To bolster the legitimacy of this claim, Xuanzong issued an edict in 737 to establish a temple dedicated to Lord Lao in all major cities, and the name of the temple was the Imperial Temple to honor Mysterious Origin (Xuanyuan huangdi miao 玄元 皇帝廟). Second, although not directly stated, one can interpret from the title “Tianchang” (Heavenly Longevity) that Tianchang guan was not a unique name during the Tang. We know this because in 739, Xuanzong ordered all the state temples to celebrate his birthday—also known as the “Festival of a Thousand Autumns” (qianqiu jie 千秋節). In 748, possibly to conform to the title of Xuanzong’s birthday, the titles of all state temples in the capital Chang’an 長安 were changed to Tianchang, and the name of the festival for celebrating Xuanzong’s birthday was also changed from Qianqiu to Tianchang.44 Perhaps there was no Tang history of Baiyun guan because it was in a far Northern site.

2.1.2 Baiyun guan in the Jurchen Jin Dynasty: The Turning Point

43 Livia Kohn and Russel Kirkland, “Daoism in the Tang (618-907)”, in Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn. Leiden: Brill, 2000, 340-341.
44 See Wang Mingqing 王明清, Huichen lu 揮塵錄, c.13th century (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1934), 1, 106; Wang Pu 王溥, Tang huiyao 唐會要, c. 10th century (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1963), 50, 879; Charles Benn, “Taoism as Ideology in the Reign of Emperor Hsuan-Tsung (712-755)” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1977), 97-106.

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Because Tianchang guan in present-day Beijing was located on the geographical periphery far to the northeast of the Tang capitals in Chang’an, Luoyang 洛陽, or the Song capital in Kaifeng 開封, it is not surprising to observe that there are few records about this temple during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1126). It is also possible that the temple was constructed during the Zhenglong 正隆 era (1156-1161) of the Jin dynasty,45 even though the last recorded damage to the temple dates all the way back to the An Lushan 安祿山 Rebellion of 755-763.46 It appears that the temple served as an archives for several years, and was then destroyed by a fire. In 1174, Tianchang guan finally received funding from the Jin imperial court and was rebuilt using only the most precious materials and the most auspicious color of vermilion. Emperor Shizong 世宗 (1161-1118) attended the opening ceremonies at the Daoist ritual platform (Daochang 道場), which lasted for three days.47 This shows that ordination was either

45 Zhongdu shifang da Tianchang guan chongxiu bei 中都十方大天長觀重修碑 [Stele of the Restoration of the Great Tianchang guan of the Ten Directions in the Central Capital], in Chen Yuan 陳垣, ed., Daojia jinsh lüe 道家 金石略 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988), 1024-1025.
46 See Denis Twitchett, ed., Sui and T’ang China, 589-906 Part I, vol. 3 of The Cambridge History of China (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 474-486.

47 Ibid.

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a cornerstone of the early Quanzhen ritual corpus or it needed to have been so for later authors discussed in this thesis.

In 1190, when Emperor Zhangzong’s 章宗 (r. 1188-1208) mother was sick, the Great Offering of Universal Heaven (putian dajiao 普天大醮) was performed at Tianchang guan.48 Yet within a short time, in 1202, Tianchang guan was again burnt down. Emperor Zhangzong ordered that it be rebuilt with the name changed to Taiji gong 太極宮, the Palace of Supreme Ultimate, to honor a blessing for his mother’s health.49 Arguably the most important event in the history of Baiyun guan prior to the Mongol Yuan dynasty occurred at the very end of the Jin dynasty when Qiu Chuji, the founder of the Longmen lineage, moved to Taiji gong. After Mongol armies invaded the Jin capital, which resulted in a move south to Kaifeng, Qiu’s reputation as a living immortal quickly spread even to Genghis Khan. As a result, Qiu was summoned to meet Genghis Khan at Bailuwan 八魯灣 in Central Asia (in today’s Afghanistan)

48 Shifang da Tianchang guan putian dajiao ruiying ji 十方天長觀普天大醮瑞應記 [Record of the Auspicious Manifestation of the Great Offering of the Universal Heaven at the Great Tianchang guan of the Ten Directions], in

Chen Yuan, Daojia jinshi lüe, 1042-1043.
49 Chongxiu Tianchang guan beaming 重修天長觀碑銘 [Stele of Restoration of Tianchang guan], in Rixia jiuwen kao, 94, 1581.

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in 1219.50 After an arduous and dangerous journey, at the cost of a disciple who died on the road,51 Qiu finally met the great Mongol Khan, and impressed him with his wisdom and honesty. Because of this meeting, Qiu was appointed to oversee all religious affairs in north China and Quanzhen monasteries were consequently exempted from paying taxes. In the first month of 1224, Qiu returned to Taiji gong, which had already been renamed Changchun gong 長春宮 to honor Qiu, whose alternative name was Changchun.52 This legendary connection to Genghis Khan speaks volume about the socio-political narrative of this Daoist tradition.

2.1.3 Baiyun guan in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty: The Glorious Time of a Quanzhen Monastery

50 It is noteworthy that Qiu was also once summoned by Emperor Zhangzong in 1188 and imperial gifts as well as privileges were bestowed to him. See Zhongnan shan Chongyang zushi xianji ji 終南山重陽祖師仙跡集 [Record of Immortal Traces of the Patriarch Chongyang in Mount Zhongnan], in Daojia jinshi lüe, 460-461.

  1. 51  I will further address this disciple, Zhao Daojian 趙道堅, in Chapter Two.
  2. 52  Li Zhichang 李志常. Changchun zhenren xiyou ji 長春真人西遊記 [Record of the Perfected Changchun’s

Journey to the West] (DZ 1429). DZ here refers to the Zhengtong daozang, edited in 1445, reimpression in Shanghai in 1923-1926. Numbered here according to Kristofer Schipper, ed., Concordance du Tao-tsang: Titres des ouvrages (Paris: Publications de EFEO, 1975), in Fabrizio Pregadio, e.d., Index of Zhengtong Daozang (Mountain View, CA: Golden Elixir Press, 2008). For an English translation, see also Arther Waley, trans., The Travels of an ALcemist: The Journey of the Taoist Ch’ang-Ch’un from China to the Hindu Kush at the Summons of Chingiz Khan (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1931). Note the biography of Qiu Chuji is very like to be a legendary story, rather than a historical fact, for he was later venerated by many different Daoist traditions. Nevertheless, his biography, or rather hagiography, ensures the prosperity of Quanzhen Daoism at Baiyun guan.

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Qiu Chuji passed away in the same year he returned to Beijing. His body was buried at Baiyun guan, which at the time was only a small Daoist memorial shrine built next to Changchun gong.53 Now Baiyun guan had a relic to venerate to allow it to become a pilgrimage center. Due to Qiu’s great achievements and fame, Quanzhen Daoism, along with Qiu’s Longmen lineage, quickly flourished. While Changchun gong assumed the role of a center for Qiu’s teachings, Baiyun guan gradually became the headquarters of Quanzhen Daoism.

Changchun gong and Baiyun guan were also consistently patronized by the Mongol imperial court throughout the Yuan period. Many Daoist rituals, which might not otherwise have been performed elsewhere due to the extremely high costs, were commonly observed at Changchun gong. For example, in 1244, 1246, and 1248, the Offering of Universal Heaven 普天 大醮 was carried out repeatedly by Qiu’s disciples.54 Under Emperor Shizu’s 世祖 (r. 1260- 1294) order, the Pure Offering of the Canopy Heaven 羅天清醮 occurred in 1260; and the Offering of the Golden Register of Complete Celestial 金錄周天醮 was carried out in both

53 Yanjing Baiyun guan Chushun tang huizang ji 燕京白雲觀處順堂會髒記 [Record of Burial at Hall of Chushun in Baiyun guan, Yanjing], in Daojia jinshi lüe, 458-459.
54 See Xuanmen zhangjiao dazongshi Zhenchang zhenren daoxing bei 玄門掌教大宗師真常真人道行碑 [Stele of Meritorious Acts of the Leader of Mysterious Gate and the Great Ancestral Master, Perfected Zhenchang ], in Daojiao jinshi lüe, 578-580.

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1262 and 1268. Towards the end of Yuan period, the Offering of Universal Heaven was performed again in 1332.55

2.1.4 Baiyun guan during the Chinese Ming Dynasty: Taken over by the Zhengyi Tradition?

Unfortunately, only Baiyun guan seems to have survived the Ming dynasty. Changchun gong apparently received sufficiently less patronage and fell into an apparently sudden decline. Meanwhile, Daoists at Baiyun guan undertook great changes after the Mongols were gone and China was again ruled by a native imperial clan. Possibly due to affiliation with the Mongol court, Baiyun guan now fell under the supervision of the Celestial Masters of the Zhengyi Daoist tradition. Zhengyi Daoists actively rebuilt Baiyun guan at the beginning of the Ming dynasty. However, it appears that Baiyun guan survived independently of its original Quanzhen affiliation. This might suggest that the relationship between Quanzhen and Zhengyi was not necessarily one of sectarian competition, or the perhaps the distinction was not as definitive as we think it ought to have been.56

55 Yuan shi 元史: benji 本紀 35/Wenzong Tutie Muer 文宗圖帖睦爾, 780.
56 Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds., The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 32-39; Goossaert, Taoist of Peking, 28-32.

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Following Ming Emperor Taizu’s 太祖 (1328-1398) visit to Qiu’s grave on the occasion of Qiu’s birthday, Baiyun guan was restored under the supervision of Zhengyi masters.57 After completion, yet Baiyun guan became or remained the training and ordination center of Daoism. Under a Zhengyi-supervised reorganization, Liu Yuanran 劉淵然 (1351-1432), who was a Clarified Tenuity (Qingwei 清微) master and patriarch of the Jingming zhognxiao Daoism 淨明 忠孝道, received the Daoist name of Changchun in honor of Qiu Chuji,58 thus propagating the connection to ordination, and a patriarchal lineage with Baiyun guan at the center. These Daoist traditions can be traced to the late Northern Song dynasty, when Song Emperor Huizong 徽宗 (r. 1101-1125) sponsored the Divine Empyrean (Shenxiao 神霄) tradition as specified in the sixty-one fascicle Duren jing 度人經 (Book of Salvation) dated to 1112.59 Older texts from the Tang-era were supplemented with newer revelations as in the case of the Clarified Tenuity

57 Baiyun guan chongxiu ji 白雲觀重修記 [Record of the Restoration of Baiyun guan], in Oyanagi Shigeta 小柳 司気太, Hakuunkan shi 白雲觀志 (Tokyo: Tōhō bunka gakuin Tokyo kenkyūjo, 1934) (abbreviated as BYGZ hereafter), 124-28.

  1. 58  Esposito, Qing Daoism, 11.
  2. 59  Michel Strickmann, “The Longest Taoist Scripture,” History of Religions 17, no. 3-4 (1978): 335. This text is the

Tai shangdongxuan Lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miao jing 太上洞玄靈寶無量度人上品妙經 [Wondrous Book of the Transcendent Treasure, Supreme Stanza on Limitless Salvation], DZ 1, 1-13 ce 冊, Dongzhen bu 洞真 部 benwen lei 本文類, in sixty-one fascicles.

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movement, which amalgamated earlier Taoist liturgical techniques with the Thunder Rites and Tantric rituals.60 It may seem paradoxical that the Quanzhen monastic tradition at Baiyun guan was at that time rehabilitated owing to Zhengyi masters. Or, perhaps, the Quanzhen ordination lineage at Baiyun guan had socio-political or religious significance that earlier Daoist lineages did not.

2.2 Life at Baiyun guan
2.2.1 Visualizing the Material Baiyun guan

Physically, Baiyun guan was one of the largest religious institutions in Beijing, and is still one of the best preserved today. Its layout follows the same general organization of many Buddhist and Daoist monasteries. The main north-south axis contains the largest halls, which are

60 Peter N. Gregory and Patricia Buckley Ebrey, “The Religious and Historical Landscape” in Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China, ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 27; Judith M. Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries, China Research Monographs, no. 32 (Berkeley, Calif.: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies, 1987). See also Michel Strickmann, “The Thunder Rites of the Sung: Notes on the Shen-hsiao Order and the Southern School of Taoism,” Tōhō shūkyō 東方宗教 46 (1975); Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine, Bibliothéque des sciences humaines (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 118-26; Lowell Skar, “Administering Thunder: A Thirteenth Century Memorial deliberating the Thunder Rites,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 9 (1997); Strickmann, “The Thunder Rites of the Sung: Notes on the Shen-hsiao Order and the Southern School of Taoism,”; Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine, 118-26; Skar, “Administering Thunder: A Thirteenth Century Memorial deliberating the Thunder Rites.”

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devoted to the Quanzhen saints and patriarchs and the pure unborn Before Heaven (xiantian 先 天) deities. Advancing northward from the gate were once the Wang Lingguan 王靈官 hall, for the monastery’s guardian deity, and the Jade Emperor (yuhuang 玉皇) hall. Once also saw the Hall of Laolü 老律堂, which enshrined the Quanzhen patriarchs. There was a Qiu Changchun hall. And, finally, a two-story building enshrining the Four Emperors (siyu 四御) downstairs and the Three Purities (sanqing 三清) upstairs. Lateral halls on both sides of this main axis, and other halls on the two lateral axes, which total about twenty altogether, were devoted to many saints. Several of these halls were sponsored by lay ordinations who used them as the venue for their yearly celebrations, and some were built by members of imperial clans. For example, the burial reliquary (muta 墓塔)—another relic at Baiyun guan—of Lord Luo the Perfected was built to honor him by Qing Emperor Yongzheng 雍正 (1678-1735) in 1727. Also, the Yuanchen 元宸 Hall dates from 1190, when Emperor Zhangzong of the Jin dynasty decided to build it inside Baiyun guan to worship the deity of the year in which his mother was born; this hall is also known as Ruisheng 瑞聖 hall61.

61 Goossaert, Taoist of Peking, 77.

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The geospatial layout of Baiyun guan clearly expressed one of its fundamental features: it combined two institutions, an ecumenical monastery and a large urban temple housing various cults sponsored by guilds and ordinations. Baiyun guan, therefore, serves even today as a powerful institution “controlling land, charity programs, and donor associations entrenched in Beijing society”62 Consequently, Baiyun guan had to maintain monastic isolation and purity while playing host to vibrant cults or local religious groups devoted to particular deities. For example, although an inscription says that the garden built in 1890 at the rear of the temple was intended for teaching and rituals only, the layout of this temple did not strictly separate monastic and lay activities, which were often coextensive63.

Daoists in residence were consequently both members of a self-contained monastic organization, which transmitted its own soteriological doctrines and practices, and clerics at the service of multiple powerful socio-economic lay communities in the capital Beijing. Baiyun guan thus was open on most days and the largest part of the compound was occupied by halls devoted to popular saints, which is rarely seen in other ecumenical Buddhist monasteries and

  1. 62  Ibid, 63.
  2. 63  BYGZ, 49-51.

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other rural Quanzhen ones. Another physical indicator of the uniqueness of Baiyun guan is that the monastery clearly owned lands. Its lands were located in the various counties within the larger Beijing region and ranged from about 58 qing 頃 to 175 (1 qing = approx. 6 ha or 15-16 acre; 100 mu 畝). These lands were awarded throughout late imperial times by rich individuals or by ordinations, or were bought by the monastery. By contrast, very few temples had lands during the late nineteenth century. The ideal of land endowment as the best resource to maintain the monastery was not shared by all Daoist leaders. It was recorded that Wang Changyue, for example, once turned down an offer of lands from the Kangxi emperor, saying that “poverty nourishes the Dao” (pin ke yangdao 貧可養道)64. At Baiyun guan we can see a strange endeavor of acquiring full control of its own resources and not depending upon external funding; most monasteries, such as the Dongyue miao 東嶽廟 in Beijing, were entirely dependent upon support from local communities and the state65.

2.2.2 Practices at Baiyun guan

  1. 64  Goossaert, Taoist of Peking, 164.
  2. 65  BYGZ, 15.

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The material aspect of Baiyun guan has clearly showed that Baiyun guan was fundamentally different from other local Daoist monasteries in Beijing. Next, I shall show that there were also unique practices—though were likely influenced by Chan Buddhism— at Baiyun guan.

One prominent feature of Baiyun guan is that Daoists here only practice meditation (zuochan 坐禪) on an individual basis. Quanzhen Daoists had developed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a practice of collective meditation called zuobo 坐缽, inspired by the Chan institution but featuring a uniquely Daoist instrument, a double bowl made into a clepsydra, which was used both for measuring time when meditating and for promoting a rich Inner Alchemical symbolism. By late Qing times, however, even though texts still maintained an occasional allusion to zuobo, the practice seems to have largely disappeared, and sources do not speak of the existence of any building for common meditation at Baiyun guan or other Quanzhen monasteries. Another ancient Quanzhen meditation practice is still observed today: an enclosed meditation for a long period (zuohuan 坐圜) in a fixed enclosure called a huandu 環堵. Highly

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dedicated Daoists could lock themselves up in these cells for prolonged periods of time for self- cultivation66.

Ascetic practitioners, especially those who locked themselves up in the huantang, were only a minority among the clergy at Baiyun guan, but a paradoxically visible elite that drew much interest from outsiders and seem to have contributed to buttressing the monastery’s image as a strange, otherworldly place where some people became immortals. This is the reason why we see that temple dignitaries took great pains to co-opt ascetic and unconventional monks of the “holy fool” type67. Even though such figures were reluctant to follow collective disciplinary rules, in the Baiyun xianbiao 白雲仙表, a hagiographical collection of biographies of the Baiyun guan transcendents, published in 1847, prominently features many ascetic saints. For example, one of them was apparently expelled because of his fondness for tobacco, but he was later revealed as an immortal. “Zhang the sleeping immortal 張睡仙 claimed he did not eat at all. He was expelled from the monastery for bragging, but he came back, and enclosed himself so that the monastics could see that indeed he could remain in a cataleptic state for long periods of

  1. 66  Goossaert, Taoist of Peking, 209.
  2. 67  Ibid, 210.

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time.”68 This immortal, along with many others such as the Goodness of the Replicated Bodies (fenshen niangniang 分身娘娘)—to promote a cult of relics—are still presented in paintings today at Baiyun guan69.

2.2.3 The Abbots of Baiyun guan

Two terms were used interchangeably for abbot as Baiyun guan during the late imperial period: fangzhang 方丈 and zhuchi 主持. The former literally means “ten feet square”; this describes the dimensions of a prototypical abbot’s quarters in Chan Buddhism and Quanzhen Daoism. Zhuchi means something like the manager of all worldly affairs, and is also the modern Mandarin Chinese word for abbot. Many abbots, though certainly not all, led ordination ceremonies and conferred precepts, and were also called lüshi 律師. As in most monastic communities in China by the Ming dynasty, an ancestral hall (citang 祠堂) kept the tablets of past masters to be worshipped at scheduled times during the ritual calendar. These tablets at Baiyun guan were arranged by generation in the Longmen lineage,70 with honor paid to those

  1. 68  BYGZ, 198.
  2. 69  Ibid, 29.
  3. 70  Note at Baiyun guan, monastic records do not serialize the succession of abbots. For example, a “tenth generation

abbot” does not mean the actual tenth abbot; rather, it indicates an abbot member of the Longmen lineage in the tenth generation.

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who had been lüshi. The abbot was sometimes invited from another Quanzhen monastery to fill this position at Baiyun guan, although he would almost certainly have resided at Baiyun guan when fulfilling this role; conversely, a lüshi could be selected among resident monastic Daoists.

2.2.4 The Ordination Process at Baiyun guan

One of the most important functions of Baiyun guan was to perform ordination ceremonies and celebrate this paramount ritual procedure. Baiyun guan was the only ecumenical monastery and thus the only place that provided Quanzhen ordination in Beijing. Between 1800 and 1927, 31 ordination ceremonies were performed at Baiyun guan; that is about one ordination ceremony every four years, with a total of 5465 ordained Daoists or an average of 176 Daoists ordained at each ceremony. The ordination ceremonies did not occur at fixed intervals, however, but only when monastic leaders could accumulate the necessary finances: ordination ceremonies are quite expensive. Expenditures were usually covered by donations from wealthy, lay patrons—either officials or merchants—who, in return, enjoyed seats of honor to witness the public sections of the ordination ritual71.

71 Goossaert, Taoist of Peking, 286.

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The procedure is outlined in a liturgical manual called Xuandu Lütan weiyi jieke quanbu 玄 都律壇威儀戒科全部 (The Complete Collection of the Ceremony of the Mysterious Metropolis at Precept Altar). The text I have examined was copied in 1874 from older sources72. First, prior to the ordination ceremony, the organizing monastery sent announcements to all temples in the area to invite several eminent monks to preside over the ceremony as required by the monastic codes. Besides the Lüshi, an ordination required at least eight other masters, each with a specific title and role, but the number of masters could be only as high as twenty or thirty when certain roles were duplicated. These masters tutored and watched over various aspects of the candidates’ behavior and training73.

On the fixed date, all interested candidates would arrive at the monastery and register. Candidates were examined by several auxiliary masters who would check their credentials, like the guadan 掛單 procedure74; they provided a detailed document similar to a curriculum vitae, which would then be used to compile the ordination register (deng zhenshi 登真師). Once

  1. 72  Ibid, 147.
  2. 73  BYGZ, 93-94.
  3. 74  Ordained Daoists are expected to travel to other Daoist monasteries across China as part of the training process.

By showing the ordination certificate, ordained Daoists, in theory, can stay in any major Quanzhen monasteries freely. This practice is called guadan.

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accepted, candidates (xinjie 新戒) were given a bowl and an ordination robe (yibo 衣缽) and settle in the common dormitory.

During the training period, the daily regimen for candidates was quite strict and forced on instilling a strict disciplined regimen. The ordination was an intense rite of passage that qualified candidates legitimate Daoists. This entailed ascetic practices; it is recorded that mediation in the courtyard during freezing winter nights sometimes resulted in the death of some candidates75. On the more life-affirming side, candidates would also have the chance to learn skills. For example, they rehearsed the final ordination ritual, notably the use of the gui 規, a rectangular piece of cloth to sit and kneel on, and the use of the audience tablet (jian 簡), as well as the proper uses of the robe and bowl. Complex group choreography involving hundreds of clerics, which had to be executed in perfect order, was a new challenge for Daoists who were probably used to performing in small troupes.

During the training phase occasions for clerics to master “authentic” Quanzhen music arose. But, as Goossaert sharply noted, the liturgy performed by Quanzhen clerics was always mixed with local music, and large monasteries that practiced ordinations saw it as their duty to transmit

75 BYGZ, 211.

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“pure” monastic Quanzhen liturgy and music. As a result, a music manual, Quanzhen zhengyun 全真正韻 (Orthodox Tones [of the] Complete Perfection [Tradition]), was compiled at an unknown point during the Qing76. Towards the end of training period, an examination called kaojie 考偈—literally an examination of ritualized poetry—was conducted. The auxiliary masters ranked all candidates according to the quality of their poems, and they were listed in the ordination register according to rank and number following the characters of the Qianziwen 千 字文 (Thousand Character Classic)77.

The whole ritual process ended with conferring three sets of precepts—outlining disciplinary rules to follow—for all candidates: Chuzhenjie 初真戒 (Initial Pure Precepts), Zhongjijie 中極戒 (Intermedia Precepts), and Tianxian dajie 天仙大戒 (Precepts for Celestial Immortality), collectively known as Santan dajie (Great Precepts of Triple Platform). All three precepts were not necessarily considered sacred, but all candidates had to prove they knew them well. The three sets were originally designed to be conferred separately at different stages.

  1. 76  Goossaert, Taoists of Peking, 149.
  2. 77  A classical Chinese poem typically used to teach children how to write, arranged in 250 lines with 4 different

characters each; it was also used to function like page number in large collections of texts.

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However, by late imperial times, all three sets were conferred together, one after the other. The process is described in detail by Goossaert:

The conferral ritual began at night with a litany whereby the candidates repented from past sins; each presented a confession (zuidan 罪單) and requested instruction in the precepts (shenjie 審戒). Then the ordination master entered, gave a sermon on the precepts, and conferred them in three stages. At each stage, the ordination master wore specific ritual vestments, chanted hymns, burnt an announcement to Qiu Changchun, recited on by one the precepts, and asked all candidates “Can you observe this precept?” to which they answered “Yes!” Finally, all candidates thanked the ordination master and the various auxiliary masters and received their ordination certificate (jiedie 戒牒)78.

Goossaert also points out that, although the ordination ritual specifically targeted only legitimate candidates, it was also partly a public ritual attended by all kinds of people in Beijing79. Notably the last ordination ceremony held in pre-Communist China was in 1927, and not again until 1989. However, the contemporary status of the ordination ritual is beyond the scope of this thesis. This ritual practice was finally resumed under the leadership of the Chinese Daoist Association80. The revised version of the three sets of precepts, according to Li Yangzheng, is Chuzhen jielü 初真戒律 (Initial Pure Precepts Rules), Zhongji sanbai dajie 中極三百大戒

78 Li Yangzheng 李養正, Xinbian Beijing Baiyun guan zhi 新編北京白雲觀志 (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2003), 155-156.

  1. 79  Goossaert, Taoists of Peking, 142.
  2. 80  BYGZ, 155-156.

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(Intermediate Three-Hundred Great Precepts), and Tianxian dajie 天仙大戒 (Great Precepts for Celestial Immortality). Without further examination of the content, the titles and structures appear to be very similar to the old version81.

2.3 Concluding Remarks

The history of Baiyun guan was marked by a persistent pattern of legendary and historical imperial patronage that spans from the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty, except for the Ming, yet the status of Baiyun guan remains uncertain. For many reasons, given the upheavals during this long millennium, we cannot but remark that a persistent pattern emerges that appears to be the result of deliberate acts by the ordained clergy Daoists at Baiyun guan. If we consider the Tang dynasty as a possible non-Han state since the imperial family of Li might have used the revelation story of Laozi to legitimate native Chinese identity, then we can further conclude that Baiyun guan seems to have been particularly favored by alien regimes, which I suggested in Chapter One or following note.

The transmission narratives of Daoism, and the Longmen lineage, together with the material representation of Baiyun guan, may demonstrate that the most important figures at Baiyun guan

81 BYGZ, 94.

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were not Laozi—whom we may expect—or any gods or deities; instead, the figures that were primarily promoted at Baiyun guan are the Longmen patriarchs. This conclusion is further reinforced by the practices designated for individual practitioners observed at Baiyun guan for future patriarchs.

What really distinguishes Quanzhen Daoism from other Daoist traditions is the ordination process. Although this process establishes a hierarchy among Quanzhen Daoists, since ordained Daoists could enjoy many privileges including guadan, the presence of non-Daoists—of which most were government officials or civil servants—at the ordination ceremony seems to suggest that the primary audience of this most honorable process for Quanzhen Daoists, is, ironically, the imperial court, aristocrats, the imperial clan, and scholar officials. Lineages, therefore, seem to be much more important for Quanzhen Daoism than are otherworldly deities.

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Chapter Three: The Myth of The Longmen “Orthodox” Lineage in Qing China

In Chapter Two I argued that clergy at Baiyun guan, one of the major Daoist monasteries in north China during the Qing dynasty, paid foremost attention to the transmission of the Longmen lineage through ordination ceremonies. Two important, interrelated questions are: How did the Longmen lineage become affiliated with Baiyun guan and can the origin of the Longmen lineage be traced back to a Northern tradition (beizong 北宗) of Quanzhen Daoism—located in North China where we see few other examples of religion in China?82 Even though the Longmen lineage was certainly a pivotal school Daoist school during the Qing, scholarship on this topic can be described as fragmentary, at best. It appears that consideration of a Northern tradition of the Longmen sub-lineage has been subverted by well-documented and widely accepted official versions of the history of the Longmen lineage. The orthodox story establishes a succinct narrative about how Qiu Chuji (1148-1227) acquired his prestigious position during the beginning of the Yuan dynasty and transmitted his teachings to the later Longmen patriarchs at

82 For studies on the Northern tradition of Quanzhen Daoism, see for example, Qing Xitai 卿希泰, ed., Zhongguo Daojiao shi 中國道教史 [A History of Daoism in China] (Chongdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1988-1995), 360; for studies on religions in the Northern China, see for example, Duara Prasenjit, Culture, Power, and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991.

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Baiyun guan in North China.83 Since Baiyun guan was built or rebuilt as a memorial shrine during the Yuan-Ming transition to Qiu, who is seen as the founding patriarch of the Longmen lineage,84 it seems odd that the official historical narrative of the Longmen lineage has received little scrutiny or attention. A close investigation of the historical sources reveals far more discontinuity than continuity. In fact, as I argue, it is difficult to pinpoint precisely when the Longmen lineage arose as a distinctive sub-lineage (pai, as opposed to a tradition of school, zong), and Qiu’s earlier participation within local religious movements cannot necessarily be

83 The presentation of the first seven generations of patriarchs that are recognized as representatives of the Longmen orthodox lineage at Baiyun guan and its affiliated monasteries is reproduced in many sources. See for example Qing Xitai 卿希泰 (ed.), Zhongguo daojiao shi 中國道教史 [A History of Daoism in China] (Chengdu: Chengdu Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1988-1995), vol. 4, 77-181; Lu Yongming 陸永銘, Longmen zhengzong Jueyun beizhi daotong xinchuan 龍門正宗覺雲本支道統薪傳 [Transmission of the Orthodox Teaching in the Main Lineage of the Longmen Jueyun Branch], 1927, in Zangwai daoshu 藏外道書 [Collections of Extra-Canonical Daoist Books] (Chengdu: Bashu shushe 巴蜀書社, 1994) (abbreviated as ZWDS hereafter), vol. 31, 427-446; Xuandu lütan weiyi jieke quanbu 玄都律壇威儀戒科全部, 1874 ,in Wang Ka 王卡 & Wang Guiping 汪桂平, eds, Sandong shiyi 三 洞拾遺 [Supplemental Collections of Three Caverns] (Hefei: Huangshan shushe 黃山書社, 2005), 11; Daotong yuanliu zhi 道統源流志 [Gazetteer on the Origins and Development of Daoist Orthodoxy) (Wuxi: Zhonghua yinshuju 中華印書局, 1922). It is also interesting to note that besides Chinese sources, Japanese sources also adopted similar themes. See for example BYGZ and Igarashi Kenryū 五十嵐賢隆, Daojiao conglin taiqinggong zhi 道教叢林太清宮志 (Jinan: Qilu shushe, 2015). Translated by Guo Xiaofeng and Wang Jing.

84 Headquarters of new religious traditions are often erected on the gravesite of their founders in East Asia. In Japan, the gravesite of Hōnen 法然 (1133-1212) at Chion-in 知恩院 in Kyoto became the center of the Jōdoshū 淨土宗. See William Bodiford, “Remembering Dōgen: Eiheiji and Dōgen Hagiography,” Journal of Japanese Studies, 2006, 1-21.

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connected with the Quanzhen school. What seems to have inspired and perhaps even created iconic status for Qiu Chuji is his legendary role in the re-establishment of an “authentic” path within Daoism.

In this chapter, I first present three different biographical or hagiographical accounts of Zhao Daojian (1163-1221), the first Longmen patriarch—following Qiu Chuji—to demonstrate how problematical the genealogy of the Longmen patriarchs is. Next, I examine the triple- platform Quanzhen ordination ceremony, which is understood to have first been performed by the seventh patriarch, Wang Changyue, at Baiyun guan to show that the precepts of this ordination procedure can be linked to certain Daoist traditions which were established much earlier. Finally, I demonstrate that a genealogy of the Northern Longmen Quanzhen lineage, which, until quite recently, established the official pedigree for Longmen-lineage abbots at Baiyun guan, was elaborated among Southern lineage groups who do not appear to have practiced—or perhaps knows about—Wang Changyue’s teachings.
3.1 The Inconsistencies in the Biographies of First Patriarch Zhao Daojian

3.1.1 Zhao Daojian in the Jin’gai xindeng (early nineteenth century)

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According to Min Yide’s (1758-1836) Jin’gai xindeng 金蓋心燈 (The Transmission of the Mind-Lamp (or Flame) from Mt. Jin’gai, hereafter abbreviated as JGXD), the Longmen orthodox lineage (Longmen zhengzong 龍門正宗) was first established during the thirteenth century with the transmission of a “mind-lamp” (xindeng 心燈) from Qiu Chuji to his disciple Zhao Daojian (hence the title of the text). Zhao Daojian, a native of [Northern] Henan province 河南省, is described as endowed with a nature so sincere and so pure that his fellow townsmen referred to him as a “man from antiquity” (guren 古人), which means he was old and hence an immortal. He visited Qiu and was immediately recognized as the heir to the precepts procedures (jiefa 戒法). In order to spread the teachings of his teacher, Zhao followed Qiu to Yan 燕 (i.e., Beijing). According to the Yilin 逸林 (A Collection of Anecdotes) commentary, Zhao remained on Mount Longmen in [Northern] Shanxi province 陝西省 for seventeen years. There he persuaded more than two thousand ethnic Chinese (Han 漢) refugees to peacefully submit to China’s new Mongolian rulers. After his return to Yan, Zhao is said to have been Qiu Chuji’s attendant at Baiyun guan, and he reportedly received the Initial Perfect Precepts (chuzhen jie) and the Intermediate Precepts (zhongji jie) mentioned in Chapter One in 1280. Finally, he directly obtained from Qiu the final investiture: the “mind-seal” (xinyin), along with the robe and

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bowl (yibo). Through this process, Zhao obtained the last and highest set of precepts, the Celestial Immortal Precepts (tianxian jie) mentioned in Chapter One, along with a famous poem in twenty characters confirming him as the first “Precepts” patriarch (lüshi) of the Longmen lineage.85 Whereas the Jin’gai xindeng does not contain much information about Zhao’s identity, the genealogical chart Daopu yuanliu tu 道譜源流圖 (The Figure of the Source and Course of Daoist Genealogy) identifies him as the first of eighteen disciples who accompanied Qiu on his travels to the west.

3.1.2 Zhao Daojian according to the Baiyun Xianbiao (late nineteenth century)

While the renowned Quanzhen biographer Li Daoqian 李道謙 (1219-1296) had designated his biography “Zhao jiugu 趙九古” (Nine Old Zhao) using Zhao Daojian’s taboo name (hui 諱 ), in the Baiyun xianbiao 白雲仙表 (Chart of Immortals at Baiyun guan) Meng Yongcai 孟永 才 (d. 1881) and Wanyan Chongshi 完顏崇實 (1820-1876) compiled their biography under the title Baoyun Zhao zongshi 抱元趙宗師 (Master of Baoyuan Zhao), which is referred to in the Jin’gai xindeng. In contrast to the biography in Jin’gai xindeng, the Baiyun xianbiao reproduces

85 Lüshi may also have been understood by Longmen lineage Daoists as Vinaya master, a term used by Chinese Buddhists that refers to something like rector or scholar of monastic codes.

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Li Daoqian’s biography of Zhao jiugu. Both biographies, therefore, record that Zhao was born in 1163 in Tanzhou 檀州, in the modern district of Miyun 密雲 in Beijing, and not Nanyang 南陽 in Henan province.86 Zhao converted to in 1177 Daoism under the guidance of Cui Yangtou 崔 羊頭, who later sent him to Ma Danyang 馬丹陽 (1123-1184) in Huating 華亭 (contemporary Gansu province 甘肅省, in western China). In 1180, Ma ordered Zhao to seek out instruction from and follow Qiu Chuji. Thus, we see a litany of Northern Chinese sites.

3.1.3 Zhao Daojian according to the Yuan dynasty Quanzhen Hagiographers

According to the record of Qiu Chuji’s journey to the west by Li Daoqian, Zhao Daojian was born in Tanzhou and died on the fifth day of the eleventh lunar month of 1221 in Sailan 塞 藍 (contemporary Xinjiang Autonomous Region 新疆自治區).87 Although Zhao was exhausted by the journey to north western China, he still tried his best to recall Qiu Chuji’s teachings every day as follows: “What comes alone must be faced. For me it is time to depart. I

86 Wang Zhizhong 王志忠, Ming-Qing Quanzhen daojiao lungao 明清全真道教論稿 (Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 2000), 70, note 1, argues that because Zhao in the Jin’gai xindeng received a new birthplace, it is also possible that

there were two Zhaos, who at some point had been conflated into one.
87 Li Daoqian, Zhongnan shan Zuitng xianzhen neizhuan 終南山祖庭仙真內傳 (Inner Biographies of the Immortals and Perfected of the Ancestral Hall at Mount Zhongnan), in Schipper and Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon, vol. 2, 1141-42, 955, fasc. 604. This version is also confirmed by Li Zhichang 李志常, Changchun zhenren xiyou ji 長春真人西遊記, in Schipper and Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon, vol. 2, 1141-42.

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hope the rest of you will serve the Father [Qiu] and Master with all your might.”88 Following a request by Qiu, when Zhao dies he was buried in the plain to the east of the town of Sailan.

These thirteenth-century portrayals raise several questions about how they were used by hagiographers who lived over six centuries later. For example, is it possible that the first patriarch of the Longmen orthodox lineage had already died before Qiu Chuji, the founder figure of the Longmen lineage? Does it make sense that Qiu would have entrusted a dead disciple to have guaranteed the transmission of the orthodox Longmen lineage? Why was Zhao buried in Chinese Central Asia instead of being laid to rest in a place more appropriate for a distinguished patriarch? Both the Jin’gai xindeng and the Baiyun xianbiao do not address these questions. Min Yide simply attributes a new date for the of death to Zhao in his Jin’gai xindeng, and Meng and Wanyan appear to have erased the date of Zhao’s death along with related passages from Li Zhichang’s biography.

3.1.4 What Are We to Make of the Contradicting Sources?

88 Translation by Emil Bretschneider, “Si Yu Ki: Travels to the West of K’iu Ch’ang Ch’un,” Medieval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co Ltd, 1888; reprinted by Routledge, 2000), vol. 1, 74.

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Based upon available sources, it seems somewhat fruitless attempt to produce a more historically accurate narrative of the life of Zhao Daojian using sources written during the Mongol Yuan dynasty in the thirteenth century. There are simply too many inconsistencies about Zhao Daojian in books written during the nineteenth-century, when Qing authors claimed to have corrected the history of such an important figure. Relying on one Yuan dynasty source appears to be a more nuanced approach in view of the efforts Li Daoqian seems to have devoted to building a “true history” of Quanzhen Daoism. In fact, Li’s chronicles are often praised today for closely matching information that is also preserved on many of stone inscriptions.89

One question that strikes me as particularly important is why are there such considerable inconsistencies between the nineteenth- and thirteenth-century sources? Qiu Chuji’s journey to the west was almost certainly quite well-known; yet all references given in the Jin’gai xindeng show that nineteenth-century hagiographers postdated this event to the later reign of Kublai Khan 忽必烈 (r. 1260-1294). Dates familiar to earlier Quanzhen chroniclers such as the first month of the gengchen year 庚辰正月 (1220)—when Qiu allegedly selected his eighteenth

89 See Ding Peiren 丁培仁, “Jin’gai xindeng juan yi zhiyi 金蓋心燈卷一質疑” [Questions on the First Volume of the Jin’gai xindeng], Daojia wenhua yanjiu, vol. 23, 411-29.

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disciples and began his journey from Laizhou 萊州 (contemporary Shandong province 山東省) to Yan (Beijing)—were postdated in Jin’gai xindeng to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the gengchen year of the Zhiyuan era 至元庚辰正月望日 (1280), which is precisely when Zhao is said to have received the Longmen precepts at Baiyun guan. According to other Quanzhen chronicles, it seems clear that Qiu arrived in Yan during the second month of 1220; he transmitted the precepts only two months later at Tianchang guan, the future site of Baiyun guan. Furthermore, it may very well be significant that 1280 is the date assigned to when Kublai Khan ordered Qi Zhicheng 祁志誠 (1219-1293) to burn the entire Daoist canon—excluding, of course, the Daode jing?90 The date of 1280 becomes even more problematical if we consider that if we follow the chronology in the Jin’gai xinding, the crucial first transmission from Qiu Chuji to Zhao Daojian becomes a posthumous event: Qiu had died already in 1227; his purported successor Zhao had passed away in 1221.

Regardless of these historical inconsistencies, from the perspective of hagiographers who wrote about the Longmen lineage during the Qing dynasty, including Min Yide, Meng and Wanyan, Zhao Daojian was a figure of memory, chosen to establish an orthodox Longmen

90 Yuanshi, juan 11. In this context, Li’s work should be read as a transparent attempt to preserve Quanzhen history. 65

lineage. Amending history to serve their own sectarian agendas, Zhao became the only disciple in a group of eighteen who was closely associated with the Longmen sub-lineage. This apparently fictitious yet productive association appears to have become an important reason why during the Qing period we learn of not one, but two Zhaos.

3.2 The Seventh Patriarch Wang Changyue and the Daoist first Public Ordinations
3.2.1 The Revival of Longmen at the Beginning of the Qing dynasty
The theme of a revival of Daoism at the beginning of the Qing dynasty after the chaotic end

of the glorious Ming dynasty is repeatedly mentioned in many Qing-era Daoist texts, but especially in the Jin’gai xindeng. As seventh patriarch of the Longmen sub-lineage and foundational abbot of Baiyun guan, Wang Changyue is the key figure who is credited with instigating a “Longmen revival” (Longmen zhongxing 龍門中興). He is awarded credit for establishing the precepts-altar (jietan) at Baiyun guan and performing the first public ordination ceremony for Daoist novices there in 1656. The content of these ordination procedures was established by Wang in a work entitled Chuzhen jielü (Code of Precepts of Initial Perfection,

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comp. 1656),91as well as in a later compilation by Wang’s disciples known as the Biyuan tanjing 碧苑壇經 (Platform Scripture from the Jade Garden). The title may very well be an allusion to the famous Chan Buddhist Platform Sūtra (Liuzutan jing) of the Sixth Chan Patriarch Huineng 慧能 (638-713).92 The Biyuan tanjing consists of speeches by Wang Changyue held during an ordination ceremony in 1663 at Biyuan abbey in Nanyang 南陽 (Nanjing 南京, in contemporary Jiangsu province 江蘇省).93 The purpose of the ceremony seems to have been to

inculcate a strong desire to achieve realization (liaowu 了悟)

among novices. This is said to

91 This text is found in the Chongkan Daozang Jiyao 重刊道藏輯要 (hereafter abbreviated as DZJY) vol.24 (zhangji 張集 7:25a-61b). See also Livia Kohn, “Monastic Rules in Quanzhen Daoism: As Collected by Heinrich Hackmann,” Monumenta Serica, 2003, 367-97. In the introduction, Kohn states that the three precepts/texts “were first compiled by Wang Changyue in 1656.”
92 This text is found in the first volume of Min Yide 閔一得, Gu Shuyinlou cangshu 古書隱樓藏書, Wuxing: Jin’gai Chunyang gong cangban, 1904 (hereafter abbreviated as YLCS). Another version of this text is also known under the title Longmen xinfa 龍門心法. It shows some differences with the Biyuan tanjing that would be worthy of further study. For the influence of the Platform Sūtra of Chan’s Sixth Patriarch Huineng from different perspectives see Morten Schlütter, How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song- dynasty China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008).
93 Note this is a different place than Zhao Daojian’s hometown Nanyang, which is now in Henan province.

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have been achievable through the progressive path of the so-called “great ordination with three stages”.94

As I briefly described above, the Three stages of precepts include: the Initial Precepts of Perfection (chuzhen jie), the Intermediate Precepts (zhongji jie), and the Precepts of the Celestial Immortals (tianxian jie). These three precepts were conferred in order and include specific disciplinary precepts to be observed by all postulants. The initial precepts had to be observed for 100 days before conferral of the intermediate precepts could take place. These intermediate precepts, in turn, had be observed for three years before conferral of the ultimate precepts.

3.2.2 The Three Stages of Precepts

The Chuzhen jielü mentions different sets of precepts that came to be linked to the three stages in the following manner:

Those who have received the ten Precepts of Initial Perfection, the Three Precepts, the Five, the Eight, and the Extraordinary Precepts of Nine Perfected, wear the Devotion Robe of Initial Perfection. The robe has two hundred and forty patches, three layers of cloth, and ten pleats. It is tied with a cloud-belt with two ends, a pure kerchief, and one wears straw sandals. If one does one thousand and two hundred good deeds and recites

94 This term refers in the Buddhist context to an ordination conferred in three stages or acts: 10 the novice ordination; 20 the complete ordination; 3) the Bodhisattva ordination. See Monica Esposito, Creative Daoism, Part Two).

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the Qingjing jing, Daotong jing, and Donggu jing, they will attain the fruits of the Precepts of the Perfected. 領受初真十戒、三戒、五戒、八戒、九真妙戒者、身著初真信衣、計二百四十 條、三台十褶、雲帶二拽、淨巾、芒鞋。行千二百善、持清淨經、大通經、洞古 經、得真人戒果。

The Dandong zhongjie wen 三洞眾戒文 (Precept Writings for the Devotees of the Three Caverns) includes the Sanguijie 三歸戒 (Triple Refuge Precepts), in addition to Three, Five, and Eight precepts.95 These sets of precepts appear to have been administered during the Tang dynasty for the conferral of ranks by Zhengyi Daoists (lusheng dizi 籙生弟子).96 In addition, the Extraordinary Precepts of the Nine Perfected may refer to a Lingbao text that probably can be traced to the Tang period: the Taishang jiuzhen mioajie jinlu duming bazui miaojing 太上九真 妙戒金籙度命拔罪妙經 (Scripture of the Golden Register for the Redemption of Sins and for Salvation, [including] the Nine True and Marvelous Precepts; DZ 137).97 Furthermore, not surprisingly, the Daoist canon contains several sets of nine precepts that are associated with Lingbao texts. The Duren jing [discussed before] (The Scripture of Salvation), for example, also

  1. 95  See Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 178.
  2. 96  See Kristofer Schipper, “Taoist Ordination Ranks in the Tunhuang Manuscripts,” Religion and Philosophie in

Ostasien, eds., Gert Naudorf, Karl-Heinz Pohl and Hans-Hermann Schmidt (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumannn, 1985), 120-130.
97 See Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 181.

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known as the first and longest scripture in the Daoist canon, also mentions a Lingbao jiujie 靈寶 九戒 after the Extraordinary Precepts of Nine Perfected:98

If one observes all previous precepts, one will receive the Pure Precepts of the Medium Ultimate, also called the Precepts for Maintaining the Body, the Precepts of Wisdom, the Precepts for Observing the Self, or the Precepts of the Marvelous Forest. One wears the Pure Robe of Light Dust, which is made of simple light blue cotton or pure three-layered silk, a cloud-belt, a pure kerchief, and straw sandals. If one does two thousand and four hundred good deeds and performs the great ritual of the Jade Emperor, they will attain the fruits of the Precepts of Earthly Immortals. 行持具足、受中極淨戒、或持身戒、或智慧戒、或觀身戒、或妙林戒、俱著青塵 淨衣、或用淺藍單布為之、或用純帛為之、亦三台、雲帶、淨巾、芒鞋。行二千 四百善、持玉帝大法、得地仙戒果.

We can find in the Daoist canon Shijie shisi chishen jie 十戒十四持身戒 (Ten Precepts and Fourteen Precepts of Self-Control), which are followed by the note: “ Those who receive these precepts have the title of ‘Disciples of Laozi’s Green Thread and Gold Button’ (shoucheng Laozi qingsi jiniu dizi, 受稱老子青絲金鈕弟子)”.99 This set of precepts is discussed in Dongxuan lingbao tianzun shuo shijie jing 洞玄靈寶天尊說十戒經 (Scripture of Ten Precepts of the Cavern of Mystery in Accordance with the Sayings of the Heavenly Lord of the Numinous

98 For a detailed study on the Duren jing, see Michel Strickmann, “The Longest Taoist Scriputre”, History of Religions, 1979, 331-354.
99 See Livia Kohn, Cosmos and Community: The Ethical Dimension of Daoism (Cambridge, Mass: Three Pines Press, 2004), 184-186.

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Treasure; DZ 459).100 Furthermore, the Precepts of Wisdom might refer to the Zhihui shangpin dajie 智慧上品大戒 in Taishang dongxuan lingbao zhihui shangpin dajie jing 太上洞玄靈寶 智慧上品大戒經 (Scripture on the Great Precepts of the Upper Chapters on Wisdom of Transgression from Numinous Treasure of the Great High Cavern Mystery; DZ 177), which were conferred for the middle stage of the Lingbao pact 靈寶中盟 (Lingbao zhongmeng)101. Perhaps even more interesting are the “Precepts of Wisdom” and the “Precepts for Observing the Self”, which might both refer to the Shangqing dongzhen zhihui guanshen dajie wen 上清洞真智慧觀 身大戒文 (Great Precetps of Wisdom and Self-Observation of the Cavern of Perfection of Highest Clarity; DZ 1364 ):102

If one observes all the above-mentioned precepts, one will receive the Extraordinary Precepts of the Great Virtue of the Celestial Immortals, after which they must put in practice the One hundred and eighty Esoteric Precepts to be Meticulously Observed or the Three Hundred Great Precepts. If one performs three thousand and six hundred good deeds and venerates (or recites) the Daode zhenjing, they can wear the Mist-Robe of the Celestial Immortality, which features a straight, open collar, and sleeves of disconnected seams, a mist girdle with cloudlike borders, the Crown of the Perfect Form of the Five Peaks, and the Light Shoes of the Five Clouds. If one observes all these precepts, they will attain the fruits of the Precepts of the Celestial Immortals.

  1. 100  See Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 459.
  2. 101  See Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 177; For Lingbao alliance, Schipper, “Taoist Ordination Ranks in

the Tunhuang Manuscripts,” 130.
102 See Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 1364.

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    行持具足、當受天仙大德妙戒、行一百八十細行密戒、或三百大戒。行三千六百
    善、恭道德真經、身著天仙霞衣、領用直開、袖不合縫、霞帶雲邊、戴五岳真形
    冠、著五雲青履。行持具足、得天仙戒果。

Apart from the Biyuan tanjing, the only text that mentions the Precepts of the Celestial Immortals, according to Esposito, is the Yuquan 玉詮 (Jade Annotation; ZWDS 91), which is a collection spirit writing compiled during the Qing dynasty and included in the old Daozang jiyao 道藏輯要(Digest of the Daoist Canon.103
We can gather from these passages that there are different sets of precepts for the three stages of precepts. It is beyond the scope of this study to ascertain which sets are referred to. In general, however, it appears that those for the initial stage were already part of ordination rituals or ceremonies (duren yi 度人儀) for Daoist novices during the Tang dynasty. Regarding the middle stage precepts, the text refers to progressive sets of precepts, which are probably related to the conferral of Lingbao ranks or the later, highest ranks within the earlier Shangqing tradition. It seems clear that the precepts mentioned in these three stages replicate earlier ordination systems that follow the gist of seventh-century Lingbao program (Lingbao Qianzhen ke 靈寶千真科): “People who leave their family can observe the three, five, nine, and ten

103 Esposito, Creative Daoism, 111, note 206.

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precepts up to the three hundred great precepts 出家之人、能持三戒、五戒、九戒、十戒、 乃至三百大戒.”104
3.3 The Longmen Lineage in the South

Various Longmen branches were established after Wang Changyue’s time. Most of these branches can only be traced to Southern China [Jiangnan 江南] instead of the North. While some of these branches were affiliated with temples associated with famous Daoist traditions, including the Shangqing, Jingming 淨明, and Lingbao, others flourished at less well-known sites. In contrast to the north, where Baiyun guan in Beijing became a famous abbey that served as the center for the ordination of all Daoists, including both Quanzhen and Celestial masters, there was no central religious authority or central institution for Daoism in the south. This does not mean that Daoism in the south was less well organized than in the north. Both “north” and “south” are crude delineations; Goossaert’s work shows that even the sub-temples of Baiyun guan were diverse and defy such simplistic labels.105 Yet Quanzhen monastic histories have only recently begun to reveal to scholars information about the grand events in north China such as

  1. 104  Dongxuan lingbao qianzhen ke 洞玄靈寶千真科, in Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 576.
  2. 105  Goossaert, Taoists of Peking, 123-125, 328.

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public ordinations, imperial patronage and local celebrations. One conclusion could be that there was a revival of institutional Daoism in north China during the early Qing period. I offer another perspective in this section that shows how a southern Longmen branch at Mt. Jin’gai 金蓋山

Daoism to the north and Baiyun guan.

3.3.1 The Longmen Branch at Mount Jin’gai

According to Min Yide’s Jin’gai xindeng, Mt. Jin’gai (Huzhou 湖州, Zhejiang province 浙江省) was only connected with the Longmen lineage toward the end of the Ming dynasty via two figures: Tao Jing’an 陶靖蓭 (d. 1673) and Huang Chiyang 黃赤陽 (1595-1673).106 Tao and Huang are said to have been direct disciples of the seventh Longmen patriarch, Wang Changyue. Tao allegedly visited Baiyun guan in 1658, where he apparently met Wang. Wang promptly recognized Tao as a Longmen heir, and transmitted the precepts to him with the ordination name of Shouzhen 守貞. Through this investiture by ordination, Tao inherited the orthodox Longmen patriarchal lineage and came to be recognized as the founding patriarch of the Longmen tradition from Mt. Jin’gai. In order to add legitimacy to this event, the Jin’gai

106 See respectively the biographies of Zhao Xujing and Wang Changyue in Jin’gai xindeng. 74

and its most influential figure—the author of the

Jin’gai xindeng, Min Yide—tied Southern

xindeng tells us that in 1658, Wang had transmitted to Tao Jing’an the Daoist regalia and a manuscript called Jinhua zongzhi 金華宗旨 (The Essential Points of the Golden Flower), thus enabling him to celebrate proper abbot’s services at his local temple on Mt. Jin’gai.107 Bolstered by the apparent prestige resulting from transmission of the objector, one year later (1659), Tao brought fellow Daoist Huang Chiyang to Baiyun guan so that he could also enjoy the privilege of meeting Wang. Huang directly obtained from Wang the precepts and received a new ordination name.108 Huang was thereby recognized as a founding figure within the Longmen lineage at Hangzhou’s 杭州 Dade guan 大德觀. As for Huang’s lineage, the transmission of regalia suitable for an abbot was only conferred via Tao. On his deathbed, Tao allegedly ordered the transferal of the regalia inherited from Wang Changyue to Huang’s disciple, Zhou Mingyang 周 明陽 (1628-1711), the future founding patriarch of Jingu dong 金鼓洞 in Hangzhou.109

3.3.2 Connecting Baiyun guan to the South

  1. 107  Jin’gai xindeng j.2, 21b, in ZWDS 31:195.
  2. 108  Jin’gai xindeng j.2, 23a-26a, in ZWDS 31. 196.
  3. 109  Jin’gai xindeng j2, 18b-19a in ZWDS 31:194.
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By recording several meetings at Baiyun guan concerning the legendary transmission of regalia to Tao, Min Yide’s Jin’gai xindeng creates not only a direct connection between Mt. Jin’gai and Baiyun guan in the form of a link between Wang and the two Longmen patriarchs of Mt. Jin’gai, but the narrative also establishes Mt. Jin’gai as the center for the orthodox dissemination of Longmen ordination in the south.

Paralleling the myth of investiture via ordination at Baiyun guan through two local, southern figures, Tao and Huang are also presented in the Jin’gai xindeng as two managers of Mt. Jin’gai’s Patriarchal-Ordination altar 呂祖宗壇, which had allegedly been established toward the end of the Song dynasty (960-1279) to honor Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓. Because this site is associated with revelations described in Lü’s texts about spirit writing in the Jiangnan region, this altar is central to the scriptural tradition of Mt. Jin’gai. In their role as managers of Lü Dongbin’s altar, Tao and Huang are said to have met Wang Changyue one more time. This encounter allegedly took place at Zongyang gong 宗陽宮 in Hangzhou, where the Precepts Patriarch Wang recognized Tao and Huang as orthodox recipients of the “quintessential doctrines” (zongzhi) revealed by Lü Dongbin in the form of the Golden Flower. In this legendary encounter with Tao Jing’an and Huang Chiyang, Patriarch Wang is viewed as a witness to

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substantiate the claim that this foundational scripture which is associated with Lü Dongbin, known as the Golden Flower, follows direct transmission from Highest Lord Lao for saving the world. At the end of this passage, Tao Taiding 陶太定 (? -1692), the successor to Tao and Huang at Mt. Jin’gai’s altar, is presented as having commemorated this event on the occasion of the printing of the Golden Flower for the benefit of future generations. Because this is clearly a legendary event, rather than an historical one, one can easily understand why it had to have occurred in 1688. In fact, all three protagonists of this legendary encounter—Patriarch Wang and his two Longmen heirs at Mt. Jin’gai, Tao and Huang—had already died by then. Rather than a macabre encounter with the living dead, this fabricated meeting commemorates the date of the revelation of Golden Flower at Patriarch Lü’s altar on Mt. Jin’gai, and creates a legendary moment of legitimization by Wang Changyue, the legendary promoter of Longmen orthodoxy. Through this idealized act of legitimization by Wang Changyue, the site of the Patriarchal- Ordination altar on Mount Jin’gai can be recognized as a site where orthodox Quanzhen Daoist mind-to-mind transmission in the Jiangnan region took place. Closely associated with Lü Dongbin’s cult and its lore, the local tradition surrounding Mt. Jin’gai was integrated within a

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more broadly conceived, universal orthodoxy symbolically engendered as the Longmen Ordination tradition of Baiyun guan.

3.3.3 Doctrines of Longmen Branch of Mt. Jin’gai

Based upon this contrived strategy of affiliation with an orthodox Longmen lineage in southern China, one might expect the Longmen branch of Mt. Jin’gai to closely follow Wang Changyue’s teachings. However, instead of the threefold precepts as previously described, the branch on Mt. Jin’gai instead produced a specific doctrine to become a future Celestial Immortal, which goes by the name of the “doctrine of the Three Sages who heal the worlds” (sanni yishi 三尼醫世). This teaching lies at the core of the Longmen tradition on Mount Jin’gai. We can find the first use of this procedure in Zhenyin xianjing 真陰仙經 (Secret of the Golden Flower and the Immortal’s Scripture of the Perfect Yin; ZWDS 381). This teaching appears in a more fully developed corpus of texts also allegedly transmitted by Patriarch Lü Dongbin through spirit writing. These texts feature the expression “sanni yishi” in their titles. Sanni yishi refers to the Three Sages (sanni 三尼)—Heaven by Confucius (Zhongni 仲尼), Laozi (Qingni 青尼), and

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Shakyamuni Buddha (Moni 牟尼)—who revealed these teachings to Patriarch Lü.110 Lü Dongbin descended to the altar of Mt. Jin’gai to transmit these healing rituals to Longmen masters using spirit writing.111

In his 1828 preface to Lü zushi sanni yishi shuoshu 呂祖師三尼醫世說述 (Explanations of the Three Sages’ Doctrine of Healing the World by Patriarch Lü), Min Yide tells us that his master, Gao Dongli 高東籬 (? -1768), understood that the tenth Longmen patriarch discovered a text in a bamboo casket owned by the famous Ming-era Neo-Confucian philosopher, Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472-1529). This text presents a soteriological doctrine that had apparently been originally transmitted by Fu Xi 伏羲 to the Yellow Emperor 黃帝.112 By highlighting transmission through Wang Yangming, this text demonstrates how famous Wang Yangming

110 The term “ni 尼” is a Sanscrit term referring to Buddhist monks, often used inerchagably with the Chinese term “seng 僧”. It was latter accepted by some local religious traditions in China.

111 Preface by Tao Taiding to the Lü zushi sanni yishi shuoshu 呂祖師三尼醫世說述, in Min Yide, ed., Daozang xubian 道藏續編 (Continuous Compilation of the Daoist Canon) (Beijing: Haiyang chubanshe 海洋出版社, 1989) (abbreviated as DZXB hereafter), 2:1b.

112 The discovery of this text evokes that of the revelation of the apocryphal scrolls that were sealed in jade caskets; see Anna Seidel, “Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments: Taoist Roots in Apocrypha”, in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R.A. Stein, ed.by Michel Strikmann (Bruxelles: Institut Belge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1982), 216-318.

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must have become to be included within the purported transmission narrative of this doctrine. Furthermore, the evocation of legendary, archaic figures like Fuxi and the Yellow Emperor establishes not only a transmission from great antiquity—and perhaps even “Chinese” orthodoxy—for this teaching, but also an even more seamless continuity in terms of the lineage of masters and disciples. This facilitates a possible return to a “golden age of antiquity,” which in China corresponds to the ahistorical period starting with Fu Xi and Huangdi, and traditionally ends with the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). It appears that this chronology may have been designed to compete with the legendary transmission narratives of Buddhist lineages in China, and in particular the lineage of twenty-eight Indian patriarchs of the Chan tradition back to the seven buddhas of the past.113

The Longmen branch of Mt. Jin’gai seems to have been in possession of these crucial texts that describe the healing doctrine of the Sanni. The main scripture is the Lü zushi sanni yishi shuoshu. Other texts seem to have been primarily transmitted with the help of extraordinary—or legendary—figures, including Li Niwan 李泥丸 and Min Yide’s own master, Shen Yibing 沈

113 See John R. McRae, Seeing through Zen.

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一炳 (1708-1786).114 Tianxian xinchuan 天仙心傳 (Mind Transmission of Celestial Immortality), for example, is a kind of final investiture for Celestial Immortals, which also includes a specific liturgical text (Xuanke 玄科) that ends with advice and admonitions by two Longmen masters, Taixushi 太虛氏 and Li Pengtou 李蓬頭. According to Tianxian xinchuan, realization of Celestial Immortality was the primary goal for those on the Golden Elixir (jindan 金丹) path, which follows Wang Changyue’s teachings about strict ethical discipline through ordination procedures. This is illustrated in two supplementary texts now preserved in the Daozang xubian (comp. Min Yide, ca. 1834): Tianxian dao jieji xuzhi 天仙道戒忌須知 (Required Knowledge on Precepts and Prohibitions for the Path to Celestial Immortality) and the Tianxian daocheng baoze 天仙道程寶則 (Precious Principles for the Path to Celestial Immortality). If this kind of “Celestial Immortality program,” which consists of moral and practical precepts, clearly demonstrates a connection between the Longmen branch of Mt. Jin’gai and the “official” or orthodox Longmen school (which is the product of a standardized ordination system and pure rules for the Longmen school), then members of the Jin’gai branch must have also added their own interpretations to it. Min Yide’s soteriological texts attest to the survival of

114 JGXD 10:8, 48a-49b.

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individual salvation practices through alchemical training, a goal which lies beyond the notion of universal salvation guaranteed by Longmen Ordination Masters (Lüshi) who are seen to convey supreme ordination precepts—the tianxian jie.

It is interesting to observe that self-cultivation practices remained popular at Mount. Jin’gai in Southern China, even though the ordination ceremony ought to render these practices trivial. It appears that there existed another kind of network, often in the form of spirit-writing groups or redemptive societies, that focused largely on transmitting Daoist self-cultivation techniques rather than the “orthodox” ordination ceremony. While one might argue that the ordination ceremony was rarely performed due to its financial and political restrictions, the popularity of self-cultivation practices in the South nevertheless suggests to us that Daoism is a highly diverse religious tradition.

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Chapter Four: What is Daoism? The Quanzhen Affiliation to Buddhism

One of the main purposes of this thesis is to provide a more nuanced way to understand the complexities of the later history of Daoism in China. Despite that fact that it very well may be inevitable to adopt terms like “Daoism” or “Buddhism” to conveniently convey a clear sense of separate religious traditions in English, using these terms is essentially misleading because they connote the idea of separate religious traditions. Yet using these terms will hopefully lead readers—especially those who presuppose that Chinese religions have a similar structure to the Western notion of religious sectarianism (i.e. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc.)—to realize that Daoism also includes separate entities, and, therefore, can be distinguished unambiguously from other religious traditions in China. Whereas Daoism certainly has unique characteristics as an indigenous Chinese religion Daoism simply cannot be fully comprehended without taking into consideration other religious traditions in China, especially Chinese Buddhism—and local Chinese religious groups.

In this chapter I first show the possible Buddhist affiliation with the “great ordination with three stages” (santan dajie) performed by Wang Changyue (1522-1680), followed by a brief discussion of the Daoist monastic rules, which were first widely adopted in large, public

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Buddhist monasteries during the Northern Song dynasty. Next, I analyze the emergence of a Chan (or Zen) Buddhist genre, denglu, “flame” or “lamp” histories, as a new Daoist genre that appears to have emerged during the Qing dynasty with particular focus on an extra-canonical text: Min Yide’s Jin’gai xindeng. Then I examine two other texts, Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce 天皇至道太清玉冊 (The Jade Fascicles of Taiqing on the Ultimate Dao of the Celestial Sovereign) and Xiuzhen shishu 修真十書 (Ten Compilations on the Cultivation of Perfection, CT 263), to further trace the historical precedents of Daoist textual borrowing from [Chan] Buddhism during the Ming period, to demonstrate that Quanzhen Daoist borrowings and connections with Chinese Buddhism cannot be restricted only to the Qing dynasty.

4.1 Daoist Allusions to Buddhist Precepts

According to a nineteenth-century work of Longmen historiography spearheaded by Min Yide (1748-1836), Wang Changyue was recognized by the Qing court as the reformer of so- called strict Quanzhen discipline and moral rules. Leaving aside the historicity of this claim, the ordination program “re-established” by Wang Changyue under the Longmen label is understood

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to have consisted of the so-called “great ordination with three stages”115, a term that by Wang’s

time had been widely used to refer to [Chan] Buddhist ordinations for centuries. It refers to an

ordination in three stages:

1. novice (śramaṇera or postulant) ordination (shami jiefa 沙彌戒法)
2. complete (bhikṣu or full ordained-monk) ordination (biqiu jiefa 比丘戒法) 3. conferral of Bodhisattva precepts via ordination (pusa jiefa 菩薩戒法).

It is difficult to know precisely when this type of ordination ceremony was first performed in one session in China; there are traces of the combined application of ten novice precepts, complete ordination, and Bodhisattva precepts by Chan Buddhist reformers during the late-Ming and early-Qing period who emigrated to Japan (e.g., Ōbakushū 黃檗宗 Zen masters like Yinyuan Longqi 隱元隆琦, 1592-1673).116 Called sandan kaie 三壇戒會 (Triple-Platform

115 For a detailed description of Santan dajie, see Monica Esposito, Creative Daoism, Wil/Paris: UniversityMedia, 2013, Part Two; Wang explains his teaching in a way similar to the yulu 語錄, a well-known Buddhist genre: see also Vincent Goossaert, “Yulu Recorded Sayings,” The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. By Fabrizio Pregadio, vol.2 (London: Routledge, 2008), 1200-1202.

116 There is a rich literature even in English on the subject of ordination procedures in Chinese Buddhism: see, for example, Yifa, The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China : an Annotated Translation and Study of the Chanyuan qinggui, Classics in East Asian Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002); William M. Bodiford and Stanley Weinstein, eds., Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya, Essays presented in Honor of Professor Stanley Weinstein (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005). On the Bodhisattva precepts and their development especially in the Japanese Tendai tradition 天台宗, see Paul Groner, “The Fan-wang ching and Monastic Discipline in Japanese Tendai: A Study of Annen’s Futsū jubosatsukai kōshaku” in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. (Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai’i, 1990). On Buddhist the history of

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Ordination Ceremony) in Japan, it was during the late sixteenth-century when this ceremony was certainly performed on the continent117.
4.2 Daoist Allusions to Buddhist “Pure Rules”

Buddhist ordination procedures, see Akira Hirakawa and Paul Groner, A History of Indian Buddhism: from Sakyamuni to early Mahayana, Asian studies at Hawaii ; no. 36 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990). I must also acknowledge that Gregory Schopen has significantly changed the way scholars who focus on nearly all aspects of the history of Buddhism think about monastics’ lives and the codes they live by; see Gregory Schopen, “Redeeming Bugs, Birds, and Really Bad Sinners in Some Medieval Mahāyāna Sūtras and Dhāraṇīs” in Sins and Sinners: Perspectives from Asian Religions, ed. Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012); “The Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal Factors in the Redactional History of Two Vinayas,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 17, no. 2 (1994); “The Lay Ownership of Monasteries and the Role of the Monk in Muulasarvaastivaadin Monasticism,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 19, no. 1 (1996); “The Good Monk and his Money in a Buddhist Monasticism of “The Mahāyāna Period”,” The Eastern Buddhist n.s. 32, no. 1 (2000); “Burial Ad Sanctos and the Physical Presence of the Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism: A Study in the Archeology of Religions,” Religion 17 (1987); “Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism” in Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997).
On Ōbakushū monastic regulations, see Wu Jiang, Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan & the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015); Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-century China (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
117 For how the Chan revival during the seventeenth-century reshaped Chinese Buddhism, if not the entire Chinese Religion, see Wu Jiang, “Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Sevnteenth-Century China” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

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When the Chanyuan qinggui 禪院清規 (Pure rules for Chan Monasteries)—probably first compiled in the second year of the Chongning 崇寧 era (1103) by Changlu Zongze 長蘆宗赜 (1107?), abbot of Hongji yuan 洪濟禪院 (Hongji Chan Cloister )—was first published in 1103, Buddhism had already been a vital presence in Chinese culture for about a millennium.118 Scholarly consensus tells us that by the early eighth-century, not only had there had been many and sundry efforts to translate Indian monastic codes (Vinaya: lü 律) texts, but also to interpret and adapt them for use in China. Following eminent monks like Daoxuan 道宣 (596-667), ninth-, tenth-, and eleventh-century Chinese Buddhist monastics worked to supplement Indic Vinaya-related rules by “developing new architectural arrangements, bureaucratic structures, and ritual procedures that came to be sanctioned by custom, but had no clear precedent in the received teachings of Indian Buddhism”119. A few eminent prelates, such as Daoan 道安 (312- 385) and Zhiyi 智顗 (538-597), for example, became famous enough that “the rules and

118 See T. Griffith Foulk, “”Rules of Purity” in Japanese Zen” in Zen Classics: Formative Texts in the History of Zen Buddhism, ed. Steven Heine and Dale Stuart Wright (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); “Chanyuan Qinggui and Other ‘Rules of Purity’ in Chinese Buddhism” in The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts, ed. Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004) and Albert Welter, The Linji lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan’s Records of Sayings Literature (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 90-121. See also Schlütter, How Zen became Zen .

119 Foulk, “Chanyuan Qinggui and Other ‘Rules of Purity’ in Chinese Buddhism”, 276. 87

regulations they wrote entered into the historical record and collective consciousness of the Buddhist saṃgha (assembly), and exerted considerable influence on subsequent generations of Buddhist leaders”.120 However, prior to the compilation of various editions of Chuanyuan qinggui, “no set of indigenous Chinese monastic rules ever came close to matching the universal acceptance and unquestioned authority of the Indian monastic codes (i.e., Vinaya)”.121 By contrast, because the concept of Vinaya—or an obsession with Indic origins—did not apply to Daoism, Daoist monastic pure rules varied greatly in different monasteries. Yet the drive to unify Quanzhen disciplinary and body techniques appears to have been primarily expressed in manuals that outline Quanzhen monastic life.

The earliest example, Quanzhen qinggui 全真清規 (Pure Rules of Quanzhen; DZ 1235), almost certainly compiled during the thirteenth century, synthesizes various texts that provide models of rules and descriptions of clerical life. A well-known ritual manual called Qinggui

120 Ibid, 277. For example, the “Standards for Monks and Nuns” (sengni guifan 僧尼規範) attributed to Daoan when he was unable to obtain a complete Vinayapiṭaka (in Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳 [Biographies of Eminent Monks], T. 50, no. 2059: 353b-c; T 54-241a.); and the “Rules in Ten Clauses” (lizhifa shitiao 立制法十條) written by Zhiyi in 595 for his monastery on Mount Tiantai and recorded in the “One Hundred Records of Guoqing Monatery” (Guoqing bailu 國清百錄), compiled by his disciple Guanding 灌頂 (T. 46, no. 1934:793b-794a).

121 Ibid, 277.

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xunmiao 清規玄妙 (Abstruse and Marvelous Pure Rules) was compiled in the early nineteenth century by an eminent Daoist, Min Yide, on the basis of earlier and now mostly lost material. Another normative text on Quanzhen discipline in use at Baiyun guan, the Xuedao xuzhi 學道須 知 (Notice about How to Learn the Dao), also targets laypeople, but the author of this book remains unknown. None of these texts was ever published in Beijing; yet these texts were clearly studied and edited there. Perhaps as proof of conferral of transmission, it appears that texts were copied as part of manuscript collections, including one collection of instructions given by a Daoist in Beijing to his disciples122.

Michal Strickmann observed that the higher someone is in the spiritual hierarchy of Daoist cosmology, the more numerous and constraining the precepts one is expected to observe123. This perhaps explains why the clerical hierarchy is as enduring as the discourse on discipline is in Quanzhen Daoist teachings. For this reason, a simplified version of the three sets of precepts received considerable opposition in late imperial times. Rules (gui) were thus introduced as an alternative to the precepts, which were then linked to ordination ceremonies,

  1. 122  BYGZ, 35.
  2. 123  Strickmann, “Saitly Fools and Chinese Masters (Holy Fools).” Asian Major, vol. 3, 1994, 35-57.

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and constitute a contract between practitioners of communal, monastic life. Rules, as such, are contractual arrangements between humans and do not involve gods; whereas precepts only entail undefined punishment by gods, rules carry detailed punishments executed by the community. Goossaert lists some examples:

Offences ranged from lack of respect toward masters and scriptures to failure to follow the communal schedule and hierarchical order, to breach of purity rules (sex, food, vestments, and general deportment). Minor offences were met with kneeling in prayer the time an incense stick takes to burn (guixiang 跪香), but punishments also included being fined (fa 罰), being publicly scolded (gongze 公責), being demoted in the monastery’s seniority order (juandan 卷單), canning (zhang 杖) …being burned on a pyre (fenxing 焚形). The death penalty…was…also included124.

What rules were used or applied at Baiyun guan? Goossaert argues that in most Quanzhen monasteries, rules did not at all have the “inviolable character of precepts, and they were changed occasionally, mostly when a new abbot enacted new rules as a way to make his mark on the community and express his will for a new start after a period of perceived decline”.125 But a new board was written and implemented during the late twentieth century that concerned “deportment” (weiyi 威儀), that is, “body techniques that ensure purity, proper to Daoists”126.

  1. 124  Goossaert, Taoists of Peking, 151.
  2. 125  Ibid, 119.
  3. 126  Strickmann, 1994, 40.

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These texts describe the many actions that Quanzhen Daoists should take—how to sleep, sit, stand, walk, dress, speak, eat, urinate, and so on. In this regard, during both late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries, few changes were implemented with respect to Quanzhen discipline. A culture of bodily techniques and ritual purity, whereby Daoists were made conscious of their distinct role within the universe that also differentiated them from laypeople, can be seen with Daoists of both periods.

4.3 A Daoist “Lamp” History and Min Yide

The primary source for the early history of Longmen lineage of Daoism is the Bojian 缽鑑 (Examination of the Bowl), a now lost or possibly fictitious work, which is attributed to Wang Changyue127. It is interesting to note that the contents of Bojian, which can be regarded as “the foundation stone of the Longmen lineage” (bojian literally means something like “reflection in an alms bowl”), is only known through a few quotations in the Jin’gai xindeng. This text,

127 I have not been able to locate the Bojian though this text has been mentioned by many scholars. See, for example, Mori Yuria, “Zenshinkyō ryūmonha keifu kō” 全真龍門派系譜考, in Dōkyō bunka kenkyūkai ed., Dōkyō bunka e no tenbō 道教文化のへ展望 [Perspectives on Daoist Culture] (Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1994), p.189; Qing Xitai 卿希泰 (ed.), Zhongguo daojiao shi 中國道教史 (Chengdu: Sichuan remin, 1996), vol. 4, p.81. According to Professor Yin Zhihua 尹志華, who now serves at the Daoist Association in China, this Bojian is reserved at Baiyun guan in Beijing, but I have not managed to see it.

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compiled by the eleventh-generation Longmen master Min Yide, who was formally a literati serving as a Departmental Vice Magistrate (Zhou Sima 州司馬) in Yunnan128, contains detailed biographies of Longmen masters from South China. It was published for the first time in 1821 at the library of the Ancient Hidden Pavilion of Books (Gushu Yinlou zangshu 古書隱樓藏書) in Yunchao 雲巢 temple on Mt. Jin’gai. Because the original printing blocks were destroyed in a fire, it was reprinted with newly-carved printing blocks in 1876. A copy of the 1876 edition is owned today by the library of the Collège de France, in Paris.

According to Monica Esposito, Min Yide withdrew to Mt. Jin’gai to write the Jin’gai xindeng because the site had a legendary connection to the Returning Immortal (Huixian, 回仙) Lü Dongbin (b. 796?)129. Chan Buddhist lamp histories that trace the “mind to mind transmission” (yixin chuanxin 以心傳心) from seven buddhas of the past to Śākyamuni Buddha through a succession of Chinese patriarchs had enjoyed a smashing success in China for centuries, and were instrumental in catapulting a relatively small movement of southern Chinese Buddhist monastics to a dominant institutional position within Chinese Buddhism by the

  1. 128  For a detailed biography of Min Yide, see Esposito, Qing Daoism, 160-161.
  2. 129  Esposito, Qing Daoism, 249-252.

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eleventh-century. Taking this approach as his apparent model, Min, in his own Mind-Lamp text, presents the origins and development of the Longmen lineage explicitly in genealogical terms by mapping out a chronological Daoist “family tree” (daopu 道譜)130. Tracing the Longmen tradition back to the Ancestor of the Dao (Daozu 道祖, i.e., Lord Lao) and to its lineage Master (Daozong 道宗, i.e., Lü Dongbin), this genealogy was designed to equip the Longmen lineage with an unsurpassable Daoist pedigree and identity, which is exactly how it still functions today within Chinese Daoist communities.

Analogous to Chan Buddhist models, such as the famous Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 (Jingde-era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, ca. 1004, Taishō no. 2076), Jin’gai xindeng also includes an intricate genealogical chart, the Longmen zhengzong liuchuan zhipai tu 龍門正 宗流傳支派圖 (Genealogical Chart of the Orthodox Longmen Branches). This chart records the uninterrupted transmission of the orthodox Longmen tradition from its first seven—an essential number in Chinese transmission narratives—patriarchs to the diffusion of the tradition in the

130 See the “Daopu yuanliu tu” 道譜源流圖 in Jin’gai xindeng, 1.1a-7b. 93

Jiangnan region after Wang Changyue131. Although Min’s effort to use a lamp history text modeled on Chan Buddhism seems unique, and we might just as easily dismiss it as an apocryphal Daoist text because it borrows so heavily from Chan Buddhism and the author was primarily a Confucian-trained scholar, there are many intriguing historical precedents of Daoist texts referencing Buddhist texts, which can be dated to the early Ming period, or earlier. As a result, in the following sections I discuss two texts compiled during the Ming period.

4.3.1 Historical Precedent 1: Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce 天皇至道太清玉冊 During the Ming dynasty, smaller and more general encyclopedic references to Daoist

traditions began to appear in print. One such text is Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce (Supreme Clarity Jade Book of the Higher Dao of the Celestial Sovereign). This modest compilation proves to be an indispensable compendium about the beliefs and practices of the early Ming court as seen through the eyes of a member of the imperial clan. The editor of the work identifies himself merely by the sobriquet Quxian 臞仙. This is the pseudonym adopted by Zhu Quan 朱 權 (1378-1448), the sixteenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 (1328-1398), the founder of the

131 This lineage is also recognized by two Japanese sources, namely Oyanagi Shikita’s 小柳司氣太 Haakuunkan shi 白雲觀志 and Igarashi Kenryū’s 五十嵐賢隆 Taiseikyū shi 太清宮志. Guo Xiaofeng 郭曉峰 & Wang Jing 王晶, trans. (Jinan, Shandong: Qilu shushe, 2015).

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Ming dynasty. Zhu Quan not only compiled anthologies of qu 曲 (arias), but is also said to have authored twelve comedic-dramas (zaju 雜劇).

Zhu Quan’s preface to Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce is dated the ninth day of the first lunar month of 1444. Had it been completed earlier, his text would presumably have been included in the new edition of the Daoist canon begun initially under the auspices of his older brother, Ming Chengzu 明成祖 (c. 1403-1424). Today, it is preserved instead within the Xu Daozang 續道藏 (Continued Daoist canon) of 1607. According to Zhu Quan, Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce ought to be viewed as the product of several decades of mature reflections. He vividly recalls the day when, for example, he was approached at the age of eleven by an old woman dressed in blue who cautioned him never to forget the past. After some sixty years had passed, Zhu confides, he found himself ready—literally—to open his mouth. With this text, he seeks to convey a sense of [Daoist] history in terms of what he calls the Tianhuang zhidadao 天 皇之大道 (Great Dao of the Celestial Sovereign) or, more simply, the Tiandao 天道 (Way of Heaven). While he acknowledges the contributions of both Laozi and Confucius in articulating the principles behind tiandao, Zhu ultimately traces the origins of these teachings back to Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, whom he calls Daozu.

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The eight chapters of this text are subdivided into a series of nineteenth sections. Chapter Two provides an inventory of sacred texts and ordination registers, supplemented by accounts of the infamous book burning during the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Zhu also inserts repeated reminders that the people of China must revere the teachings of the Chinese (as opposed to foreigners like the Tibetans or Mongolians). Chapter Four includes various behavioral codes. For example, it includes rules that cover how to offer the seat of honor to Buddhist monks who visit Daoist temples, and in turn, to Daoist masters who visit Buddhist temples. Zhu reiterates that rivalry should be outlawed, and counsels that the people of China should uphold the teachings of the Chinese and not turn their backs on their own country to follow alien teachings. Chapter five is most remarkable because it lists a set of instructions about a Quanzhen meditation rite called zuobo (sitting with an alms bowl)132. Regulations governing this contemplative exercise, which are scheduled for three ninety-day periods each year, invite rather obvious comparisons with the Chan Buddhist practice of zuochan (seated meditation). Thus, even though the Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce is not as obvious as Jin’gai xindeng is in terms of apparently adopting a Buddhist

132 See Quanzhen qinggui 全真清規 (DZ. 1325) and Vincent Goossaert, “The Invention of an Order: Collective Identity in 13th Century Quanzhen.” Journal of Chinese Religion 29 (2001): 111-138.

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genre, it still demonstrates that, at least during the early Ming period, Buddhist practices were incorporated within Daoist texts.
4.3.2 Historical Precedent 2: Xiuzhen shishu 修真十書

Both Jin’gai xindeng and Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce are extra-canonical texts, and they are quite instructive in terms of how they show traces of textual syncretism between Buddhism and Daoism. Yet, this is not to suggest that the affiliation between these two religions can only be found outside the official Daoist canon. The anonymous compiler of the Xiuzhen shishu (Ten Books for Cultivating Perfection) appears to have been particularly interested in observing many points of common ground between Chan Buddhist instruction and the legacy of Zhang Boduan 張伯端 (d.1082), who became the second of the Five Southern Patriarchs in the separate Southern Daoist lineage (nanzong 南宗)133.

133 Nanzong consists of a series of five masters whose works describe forms of neidan closely related to one another (in addition to displaying similar formal features, such as the use of poetry). After Zhang Boduan, the lineage continues with Shi Tai 石泰 (?-1158), Xue Daoguang 薛道光 (1078?-1191), Chen Nan 陳楠 (?-1213) and Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾 (1194-1229?). It is now understood that the Southern Lineage had, in its beginnings, no conventionally recognized form or structure, and was formally established as a lineage only later, possibly by Bai Yuchan himself. The nomination of its five masters as the Five Patriarchs (wuzu 五祖) was inspired by the identical designation used within the Northern Lineage better known as Quanzhen.

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The most outstanding collection of materials in the entire text is, by far, to be found in chapter thirty. This chapter, which is intended to serve as a sort of précis of Zhang’s text, Wuzhen pian 悟真篇 (Folios on Awakening to Perfection), is exclusively devoted to Chan teachings. According to an unsigned introductory statement, the teachings of Zhang’s corpus are threefold. First, to induce the cultivation of transmutation by means of the techniques ordained by Divine Transcendents (xianyi shenxian mingshu youqi xiulian 先以神仙命術誘其修煉). Next, to expand upon communication with the divine by means of the wondrous applications of the myriad buddhas (ciyi zhufo miaoyong guangqi shentong 次以諸佛妙用廣其神通). And, finally, to banish illusion by means of an absolute awakening, thereby resulting in a return to the primal wellsprings of ultimate emptiness (zhongyi zhenru juexingqian qi huanwang er guiyu jiujing kongji zhiben yuanyi 終以真如覺性遣其幻妄而歸於究竟空寂之本源矣).134

Outside of an essay on the Sanxue 三學, or Three Studies, entitled “Jie Ding Hui Jie” 戒定 慧解 (An Explanation of Śila, Samādhi, and Prajñā, or morality, concentration, and wisdom in Sanskrit), the texts that follow are all verses, ranging from short quatrains to lengthy songs (ge

134 For a complete translation and description of the Wuzhen pian, see Fabrizio Pregadio, Taoist Internal Alchemy and the Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian) (Golden Elixir Press, 2009).

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歌). Included is a tribute to Chan master Xuedou Chongxian 雪竇重顯 (980-1052), composed after reading a copy of his famous gong’an 公案 (public case) collection, Biyan lu 碧巖錄 (Blue Grotto Records, Taishō no. 2003). Those with any insight, the unnamed author of a postface concludes, will find that by examining Wuzhen pian one benefits from the highest level of instruction, namely, the six patriarchs of Chan from Bodhidharma to Huineng (638-713). With this remarkable declaration, the subdivision of the Xiuzhen shishu labeled Wuzhen pian ends.

Among the latest collections of writings preserved in this text is the Jindan dacheng ji 金丹 大成集 (Anthology on the Great Completion of the Golden Elixir [of Xiao Tingzhi 蕭廷芝, b. 1260]), a second-generation disciple of Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾. Xiao’s writings seem to be modeled on the sequences of verses found in Wuzhen pian. The text opens with several diagrams and illustrations of the principles of the Golden Elixir. The “Jindan Wenda” 金丹問答 (Questions and Answers Concerning the Golden Elixir) recorded thereafter is based largely upon the sayings of five generations of Southern Lineage patriarchs, from Zhang to Bai.

While Xiao compiled a joint roster of Southern Lineage and Quanzhen Daoist masters, there is no apparent evidence to suggest that he drew inspiration from the latter. It is of some significance, therefore, to find that one text linked to the Quanzhen legacy is included in the

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Xiuzhen shishu: the Panshan yulu 盤山語錄 (Records sayings of Panshan). This record of Wang Zhijin’s 王志瑾 (1178-1263) teachings is printed separately in the Daoist canon, with a preface dated 1247 by a disciple named Lun Zhihuan 論志煥. No clues concerning the provenance of the abridged version are given in the Xiuzhen shishu. It immediately precedes the final corpus of texts preserved therein, with a full chapter focused on the venerable Huangting jing 黃庭經 (Yellow Court Scripture; DZ 331 & 332). The fact that editions of this early scripture, so prominent in the much earlier Shangqing revelatory tradition, attests to its importance as a resource for the codification of inner alchemy (neidan 內丹) techniques within later Chinese Daoism. The compilers of this eclectic anthology clearly disclose an extraordinarily broad perception of the textual history of inner alchemy. This, at least, seems to imply that there is a mystery behind the admission of Quanzhen and Southern Lineage teachings under the same title, but also behind the forthright presentation of Chan Buddhist writings, a synthesis apparently without precedent in the Daoist Canon.
4.4 Concluding Remarks

It does not seem plausible within the confines of this study to fully contextualize my research within the vast volumes of Ming-Qing Daoist texts that are intimately associated with

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Buddhist literature. While Wang Changyue’s precepts have shown mere “allusion” to Buddhist precepts, and Quanzhen qinggui—the only canonical source discussed here—is almost compulsory for establishing institutional Daoism, the three extra-canonical texts discussed above are much blunter. These three texts, namely Jin’gai xindeng, Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce and Xiuzhen shishu, provide evidences of Daoist texts apparently associated with the Chan Buddhist genres of “lamp” histories, meditation self-cultivation, as well as discourse records, respectively. Taken together, the similar attitudes with respect to Chan Buddhism within these texts shows the modest approach of Daoist texts towards Buddhism, with Chan Buddhism in particular.

Of course, it is not my intention to suggest that Buddhism and Daoism, during the Ming and Qing periods, synthesized to become one religious tradition. Furthermore, many of the hagiographical writings about the lives of sacred individuals, as presented in the aforementioned three texts, were much later incorporated into what is now known as the Daoist Canon, or never. These texts were originally understood as hagiographical accounts, historical rather than canonical works, because they were not considered to be revelation texts that are direct divine discourse “transcribed” by human hands, nor are these texts with a primary purpose to instruct postulants in the fundamentals of a religious or moral teaching meant for readers who were

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already religious “insiders”. As a result, these explicitly pro-Daoist and pro-Buddhist works were, in fact, written to be read by religious outsiders, and perhaps also by some targeted insiders; they are polemical, apologetic texts intended to persuade readers that their respective tradition’s teachings are genuine and authoritative. Yet, although they were never considered scripture or jingdian 經典, they still deal with the spirit world. The genre’s liminal position, betwixt and between ideological persuasions and religious traditions, dealing with the spirit world, but from the point of view of ordinary life and in texts deemed non-canonical, as Robert Company argues, is one of the main reasons for us to rethink our rigid definition of Daoism and of religious “orthodoxy”135.

135 Robert Ford Campany. Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China (Kuroda Institute Series in East Asian Buddhism, University of Hawaii Press, 2012), 30.

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Chapter FIVE: Understanding the Daoist Canon and Local Extra-Canonical Daoist Texts

One of the most difficult issues one encounters in almost any effort to understand Qing dynasty Daoism involves how we understand separate Daoist texts. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that Daoism is largely an esoteric tradition, and, therefore, many Daoist books are not meant to be read or understood by outsiders. On the other hand, even for insiders, the textual history of the Daoist canon—one would expect them to carefully read and follow—is also problematical. Ever since the mid-Tang (730), because defining the Daoist canon, supervising its compilation, and selection of the institutions to be granted a copy were imperial privileges, as was also the case for the Buddhist canon, very few monasteries possessed a copy of the Daoist canon. As a result, Baiyun guan, being the place where the only surviving copy of the Daoist canon could be found has become the single most important Daoist monastery in China, and is even called “Chief Public Monastery of Quanzhen Daoism (Daojiao Quanzhen diyi conglin 道教 全真第一叢林, in which the term conglin is used in Chan Buddhism to refer to public monastery).” In the first part of this chapter, I challenge this traditional view by showing that the Daoist canon preserved at Baiyun guan was never actually complete, despite the apparent shared obsession with a complete canon at Baiyun guan between both insiders and outsiders.

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Another problem is the uncertainty of how to determine the legitimacy of a Daoist text. Buddhist texts, for example, were categorized long ago by monastic bibliographers as either authentic or apocryphal (yijing 疑經 or weijing 偽經). By the Kaiyuan (712-756) era of the Tang dynasty, what quickly came to be considered as an authoritative catalogue, the Kaiyuan shijiao lu 開元釋教錄 (Catalogue of Buddhist Scriptures made during the Kaiyuan-era, Taishō no. 2154), had synthesized seven previous catalogues to present what medieval Buddhists in China maintained were authentic Buddhist texts that should be included in the Buddhist canon. Chief among the criteria used to establish authenticity by the Buddhists was the existence of an Indian original (i.e. Sanskrit manuscripts); when no original text in any Indic language could be found, scriptures were deemed apocryphal, either weijing or yijing. The former refers to texts that are not consistent with teachings of the Buddha, while the latter term is less disparaging, because it indicates only a suspicion about whether the attributed author or translator indeed played a role in the writing of the text.136 Many Daoist texts are apparently extra- or non-

136 See Tokuno, Kyoko, “The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical Catalogues.” In Chinese Buddhist apocrypha, edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. (Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press, 1990), 31-74 and Tanya Storch, The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography: Censorship and Transformation of the Tripiṭaka (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2014).

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canonical, and just as we can find with Buddhist scriptures almost certainly composed much earlier in China, non-canonical scriptures became very popular among various Daoist communities during the Qing period. Consequently, the answer to the question of how should we understand Daoist texts varies according to precisely how we want to categorize Daoist scriptures or texts. In the second part of this chapter, because they are the most convenient sources available, I first discuss how scholars traditionally categorized canonical Daoist texts. I then focus on the categorization of the four non-canonical Daoist texts that we have examined in previous chapters, namely the Jin’gai xindeng, Lüzu sanni yishi shuoshu, Longmen xinfa, and Baiyun xianbiao, to demonstrate why I chose these four texts, and more importantly, why these texts are crucial for any well-informed understanding of Quanzhen Daoism during the Qing.

5.1 The Daoist Canon: History and Categorization
5.1.1 Overview of the Daoist Canon
The first catalogs of Daoist texts were compiled after revelations that occurred during the

fourth and fifth centuries, for the purpose of defining a list of authentic scriptures produced by and during these revelations. An expanded catalog was produced during the seventh century,

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which included all the so-called “orthodox Daoist texts” within a hierarchical system sanctioned by Tang state support for an official Daoist church. From then on, different versions of Daoist canons were compiled and distributed during the Tang, Song, Jin, and Ming dynasties, always under the authority of the Son of Heaven himself (i.e., the emperor). The last one was published in 1445, during the Ming Zhengtong 正統 reign period, and is, therefore, known as the Zhengtong Daozang, which literally means the Orthodox Daoist canon. According to Goossaert, Qing emperors decided not to compile a new canon, possibly because “they did not feel the need for the Daoist legitimization of the dynasty that such an act entailed”.137 Therefore, the Ming Daoist canon became the last official version.

5.1.2 The Only Surviving Copy of the Daoist Canon at Baiyun guan

The Ming Zhengtong emperor gave a copy of the last canon, the 1445 Daozang, to Baiyun guan in 1448. The monastery also received a supplementary collection shortly after, in 1607.138 It constituted one of the most cherished treasures of the monastery, and it became a potent tool

  1. 137  Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, Appendix B.
  2. 138  Chen Guofu 陳國符, Daozang yuanliu kao 道藏源流考. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1963), 174.

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for the legitimization of Baiyun guan’s top status among other Quanzhen monasteries.139 During the late Qing, there were allegedly two other (partial) copies that were kept at Yuqing guan 玉清 觀, a subsidiary of Baiyun guan, and Renwei guan 仁威觀.140 Yet another copy was once kept within the imperial palace. This contrasts the seemingly massive number of Buddhist canons—in multiple languages—in Beijing at the time.141 Of the many copies distributed throughout China since 1445, very few were still extant and complete during the late Qing.142 The original woodblocks were kept in the Da Guangming Hall 大光明殿, the center of court Daoism—as a reminder that canons were the preserve of the state and not independent religious institutions. Unfortunately, these woodblocks, too, were lost when it burned to the ground during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.143

139 At least two other Daoist monasteries in Beijing also received an imperial gift of the canon shortly after the publication in 1445, but neither survived today.
140 Shoujie bichi, 12a. Renwei guan, also known as Lüzu ci 呂祖祠, was located in the outer city of Beijing. An inscription, authored by Meng Yongcai, a Daoist at Baiyun guan, claims that Renwei guan copy of the Daoist canon was acquired thanks to an imperial prince.

141 Naquin, Peking, 95, contends that by the late Ming there were 36 Buddhist canons and three Daoist canons in Beijing. There is no accurate estimation of the status of the Qing canons that I am aware of, but the proportion should remain roughly the same.
142 Chen, Daoang yuanliu kao, 190-203, lists several dozen references to canons given to Daoist monasteries all over China during the Ming.

143 Ibid, 181.

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Since the Qing Manchurian imperial court kept the woodblocks of the canon, it could easily make and grant new copies as a favor. The archives of the Zhangyi si 掌儀司, the office of religious affairs of the Imperial Household Department (Neiwu fu 內務府), provides evidence of grants of copies of the Qing dynasty Dragon edition of the Buddhist canon (Longzang jing 龍藏 經), completed at court in 1738; presumably the procedure was the same for the Daoist canon. The monks made a request through the Senglu si 僧錄司, the office of Buddhist Affairs, which then forwarded it to the Zhangyi si, who then memorialized the throne. Upon receiving approval, the monks went to the temple where the Longzang jing woodblocks were kept, made copies with paper, ink and labor they provided themselves, and were then issued a “passport” (luyin 路引) to carry the copy back to their monastery.144

New copies of the Daoist canon copied from the original woodblocks kept in Da Guangming Hall were made only rarely during the Qing.145 At least two copies were conferred to Quanzhen monasteries: one for the Xuanmiao guan 玄妙觀 in Nanyang in 1867, and another

  1. 144  Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, Appendix B.
  2. 145  Chen, Daozang yuanliu kao, 197, 198, and 202.

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for Baiyun guan in Shanghai, in 1888.146 Copies of the whole canon were usually kept at libraries inside the monasteries, but not at Baiyun guan (in Beijing). Copies were certainly not easily accessible to a wide array of readers. Monastic leaders limited access to the canon because of the symbolic and physical value of a complete and pristine copy of the canon, and because most books often used or read by Daoists also existed in handier editions. Two monastic leaders of Baiyun guan, Meng Yongcai 孟永才 (d. 1881) and Zheng Yongxiang 鄭永祥 (d. 1873), even complained that many texts had been lost or damaged because supplemental printed editions of Daoist texts frequently consulted texts borrowed from the Daoist canon on site. Whether this was a true or fabricated accusation, nonetheless, Meng and Zheng decided to restrict access to the canon. They also set about retrieving missing volumes, borrowed copies from other institutions, and restored their own original copy of the canon.147 It is not clear if the missing parts were copied by hand or printed. At any rate, this project of reconstructing the 1445 Daozang, financed by a lay devotee named Wang Tingbi 王廷弼 (fl. 1845),148 was essentially

146 Note this Baiyun guan in Shanghai is not the same as the one in Beijing, which I discuss extensively in chapter one.

  1. 147  “Baiyun guan chongxiu Daozang ji” 白雲觀重修道藏記, in Daozang jinghua lu, 24089-90.
  2. 148  According to Luo Dekun 羅德昆. (Daoguang) Shinanfu zhi (道光) 施南府志 (Enshi: Enshi diqu bowuguan,

1982), vol. 7, 136, the only figure that matched the name Wang Tingshi in Beijing during the nineteenth century was

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complete in 1845. It appears to have been immediately useful, because during the next twenty years, two other monasteries, the Taiqing gong 太清宮 in Shenyang and Renwei guan in Beijing, requested copies in turn made from the now-complete Baiyun guan set, in order to complete their own canons. Why Meng and Zheng did not request a partial copy at Da Guanming Hall is still not clear to me; it seems possible that the Da Guangming Hall woodblocks were also incomplete at that time.

The obsession of having a complete Daoist canon was also shared by the Qing imperial court. In 1893, a government official by the name of Wen Tingshi 文廷式 (1856-1904) went to visit Da Guangming Hall and observed that the Daozang woodblocks were stored on shelves in corridors. A Daoist showed him a checklist of the missing volumes. This list had been

a eunuch, who was the chief manager of the Jingshi fang 敬事房, the office of eunuch affairs of the Imperial Household Department; for information on the close relationship between eunuchs and religious institutions during the Qing, see Evely Rawski. The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, 162-66. This observation is also supported by the records in Wu Changyuan 吳長元, Chenyuan shilüe 宸垣識略, 1788. (Beijing: Beijing gujichubanshe, 1983), 72, that the Da Guangming Hall was largely managed by eunuch-Daoists. As Naquin, Peking, 180-86, has suggested, eunuchs have consistently displayed an exceptional capacity for organization and collective action. A eunuch subscribed to an association throughout his career could after retirement live in the association’s temples until he died, when he would be buried in the cemetery and enjoy in perpetuity the sacrifices offered there by the resident cleric. This may explain why Wang funded the project.

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commissioned by emperor Xianfeng 咸豐 (1831-1861) in 1855, and shows that a significant number of the woodblocks were missing even then.149 This, in turn, makes one wonder whether the copies obtained by Xuanmiao guan and Shanghai Baiyun guan were also incomplete, or were later patched up with the now-restored Beijing Baiyun guan’s copy? Whatever the intricate details of this textual history may be, the operation of restoring the Daoist canon, without which some parts of the canon would have been lost forever, enhanced Baiyun guan’s reputation as the guardian of the Daoist canon, and thereby of the Daoist religion.

One striking matter is that ordinary Daoists do not appear to have used the Daoist canon very much or at all; it seems to have been used even less by lay scholars, who encountered significant difficulties even accessing it, even though many were clearly interested in Daozang editions of rare ancient texts. During the late eighteenth century, the texts that were widely circulated were from the Siku quanshu 四庫全書 (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) compiled under Qing Emperor Qianlong 乾隆 (1735-1795), supposedly a complete collection of all Qing texts. The “Four Treasuries” refer to the four traditional categories of Chinese literature, namely the Classics (Jing 經), the Histories, (Shi 史), the Philosophies (Zi 子) and

149 Chunchang zi zhiyu 純常子枝語. Wen Tingshi 文廷式 (Nanjing: Jiangsu guangling keyinshe), 1990. 111

Anthologies (Ji 集). The editors of Siku quanshu availed themselves of the Daozang edition for several titles.150 It is said that during the annual ceremony of airing the books (liangjing 晾經 )—held in all major Daoist monasteries on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month—some scholars were permitted to see the physical copy of the Daoist canon, but their viewing was limited to just a glance.151 Texts in the canon were difficult to see with one’s own eyes until the 1920s, when the project to publish the Daozang using the Photo Lithographic process was carried out with the financial and institutional support from the Chinese Republican-era government. In this sense, even though the Daoist canon certainly contains invaluable sources, it still seems more than a bit ironic that modern scholars try to understand the Daoist textual tradition from a collection of books that most people—both insiders and outsiders—could hardly have had access to in the past.

5.1.3 The Three Caverns and the Four Supplements

The project to restore the Daoist canon was stimulated by both the Daoists and the imperial court’s steadfast commitment to achieve a complete collection, and served not only to preserve

  1. 150  Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, Appendix B.
  2. 151  Li Yangzheng, Xinbian Baiyun guan zhi, 516-17.

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the religious or even textual inheritance of Daoism, but also primarily to define and sanction the place that Daoism occupied within the context of Chinese civilization. That western scholars refer to the Daozang with the term canon is, therefore, well justified. While this term might catch the general gist of the Buddhist canon, in which the Chinese term Yiqiejing 一切經 literally means “all the sūtras”, the Chinese term (i.e., Zang or Cang 藏) of the Daoist canon might simply mean “treasury” or “storehouse.” In light of the story of restoring the Daoist canon at Baiyun guan above, it seems that the process to complete the Daoist canon primarily concerned the matter of availability or scarcity of Daoist texts, rather than sorting them according to certain pre-determined categories. Consequently, any attempt to categorize Daoist texts inside the canon is presumably a scholarly construction, rather than any historical practice.

The most thorough study of the Daoist canon to date is The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion the the Daozang, edited by Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen. According to their study, the initial categorization of the Daoist canon had only three divisions (not coincidentally following the Buddhists’ “three baskets” or Tripiṭaka (sanzang 三藏): Dongzhen 洞真 (the Cavern of Perfection), Dongxuan (the Cavern of Mystery), and Dongshen (the Cavern of Divinity). At the request of the emperor to whom he presented a list of “genuine” Daoist

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scriptures, this method of categorizing Daoist texts was first adopted by a Daoist master named Lu Xiujing 陸修靜 (420-479).152 These categories, however convenient, are more than just simple tags. It turns out that “each of the primordial caverns is associated with the revelation not just of cosmic writings but of a particular groups of texts. Each of these groups, moreover, had not only, as we have seen, its particular history, but also its own characteristics.”153 Specifically, Dongzhen is associated with Shangqing 上清 texts, which include a considerable amount of information about immortality techniques; Dongzhen is associated with Lingbao 靈寶 texts, which mainly include liturgies and ritual manuals; and Dongshen, being the lowest one in the hierarchy, contains exorcism writings related to a book called Sanhuang wen 三皇文 (The writing of the Three Sovereigns). As the collection of Daoist works continued to expand, especially after Zhengyi 正一 Daoism started to flourish in South China during the early Tang, a subsequent category of “four supplements” (sifu 四輔), namely the Taixuan bu 太玄部 (the Division of the Supreme Mystery), the Taiping bu (the Division of the Supreme Peace), the

152 Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 14.
153 Ibid, 15.

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Taiqing bu 太清部 (the Division of the Supreme Tranquility),154 and the seventh division of the Zhengyi bu 正一部 (the Division of the Orthodox and One), was added to the three caverns to form a new system called the “Seven Parts”. The general gist of the new four supplements seems to have been to incorporate any qualified texts that were left out by previous collections.

5.1.4 The Twelve Categories and the Thirty-Six Divisions

In order to further differentiate the voluminous Daoist books in the canon, a much more

elaborate categorization of the twelve categories (shier bu 十二部) was produced. This system,

almost certainly inspired by the twelve divisions of Buddhist Tripiṭaka, results in a total of thirty-

six subdivisions (sanshiliu fenbu 三十六分部) when applied to each of the Three Caverns.155

According to Schipper and Verellen, this system was then used persistently for all later canons,

ranging from the Tang-era Sandong qionggang 三洞瓊綱 (The Exquisite Compendium of the

Three Caverns) to the last Zhengtong Daozang preserved at Baiyun guan. 156 Table 1. Categories of Buddhist and Daoist Scriptures

154 It is noteworthy that in the four supplements, the Taiqing bu—which presumably should contain similar kind of texts to Dongzhen—is now ranked as the third, not the first.

  1. 155  See Table 1.
  2. 156  Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 25-39.

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Divisions of Buddhist Tripiṭaka

Divisions of Texts in the Daoist Canon

1

Sūtra

Main texts (Benwen) 本文類

2

geya (yingsong 應頌)

Talismans (Shenfu) 神符類

3

vyākaraṇa (shouji 授記)

Commentaries (Yujüe) 玉訣類

4

gāthā (jiatuo 迦陀)

Diagrams and illustrations (Lingtu) 靈 圖類

5

udāna (zishuo 自說)

Histories and genealogies (Pulu) 譜錄 類

6

nidāna (yinyuan 因緣)

Precepts (Jielü) 戒律類

7

avadāna (piyu 譬喻)

Ceremonies (Weiyi) 威儀類

8

itivṛttaka (benshi 本事)

Rituals (Fangfa) 方法類

9

jātaka (bensheng 本生)

Practices (Zhongshu) 象術類

10

vaipulya (fangdeng 方 等)

Biographies (i) 記傳類

11

adbhuta-dharma (weiceng youfa 未曾有 法)

Hymns (Zansong) 讚頌類

12

upadeśa (lunyi 論議)

Memorials (Biaozou) 表奏類

5.2 Extra-Canonical Daoist Texts: Where do they fit?

Textual history of the Daoist canon shows that the compilation of the Daoist canon was not necessarily to produce an exclusive catalogue by claiming authenticity while silencing non- canonical texts. However, the importance of the Daoist canon demonstrated by Meng and Wanyan’s efforts in retrieving the missing canonical texts was also clearly established. What are

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we to make, therefore, of the non-canonical texts related to Baiyun guan that were much influential than the canonical ones during the Qing?

5.2.1 Jin’gai xin deng

Before dedicating himself to compiling Jin’gai xindeng, Min Yide (1758-1836) left his official charge as a Departmental Vice Magistrate (zhou sima 州司馬) after his father’s death and peregrinated to multiple sites. Having finally withdrawn to Mt. Jingai in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, Min is said to have published his Jin’gai xindeng in eight fascicles (juan) for the first time in 1821 on Mt. Jin’gai. Because the woodblocks were later lost, Shen Bingcheng 沈秉成 (1823-1895), a second-generation disciple of Min, reprinted Min’s work in 1873.157

In his work, Min presents a list of biographies which include commentaries by the well- known scholars Bao Tingbo 鮑廷博 (1728-1814) and Bao Kun 鮑琨 (fl. 1814), both donated a significant number of rare texts to the Siku quanshu project, paying particular attention to the history of Longmen patriarchs and the Longmen lineage. In addition to the biographies of masters from Jiangnan (South China), Jin’gai xindeng is also the best source to examine the first seven generations of patriarchs who are recognized as representatives of the Longmen orthodox

157 See Esposito, Qing Daoism, 265-8.

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lineage at Baiyun guan, at its affiliated monasteries, and in subsequent Longmen branches and sub-branches. Similar to so-called lamp or flame histories (dengshi 燈史) in the Chinese Chan Buddhist tradition, Jin’gai xindeng is a text that plays the vital role of conveying an official genealogy.

5.2.2 Lüzu sanni yishi shuoshu

Lüzu sanni yishi shuoshu was compiled by Huang Chiyang (1595-1673), and later edited by Tao Shi’an (? -1692). Min Yide also extensively commented on this text in his work, Du Lü zushi sanni yishi shuoshu guankui 讀呂祖師三尼醫世說述管窺 (A Personal Reading of the Explanations of the Three Sages’ Doctrine of Healing the World by Patriarch Lü).158 The alchemical practice described in this text is divided into six stages and explained through the use of diagrams (shier xiaoxi 十二消息). This text presents, therefore, a combination of diagrams (lingtu 靈圖類) as well as charts for practice (xiangshu 象術類).

5.2.3 Longmen xinfa

Longmen xinfa was derived from another text called the Biyuan tanjing (Platform Scripture from the Jade Garden), a work clearly influenced by the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch

158 Preface to Lüzu sanni yishi shuoshu, DZXB 2:1a.
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(Liuzu tanjing 六祖壇經), Huineng (638-713). Our Platform Scripture consists of discourses given by Wang Changyue during an ordination ceremony held at Biyuan guan 碧苑觀 in Nanjing. Longmen xinfa and Biyuan tanjing are almost identical in content and attributed to Wang, with the exception that the names of disciples who were responsible for the record are added in Longmen xinfa. The preface to Longmen xinfa indicates that it was edited by Zhan Tailin 詹太林 (1625-1712), whereas Biyuan taijing was compiled by Shi Shouping 施守平 (?) and revised by Min.159 However, the original copy of these two versions is a manuscript written by Wang as part of his teachings and bears the title Xinfa zhengyan 心法正言 (Core Teachings and Upright Sayings). Nevertheless, the purpose of this text seems to be to inculcate a strong desire to realize enlightenment. Here, enlightenment can be achieved through the progressive path of the so-called “great ordination precepts of Triple altar” (santan dajie). According to Wang, “ Secular and religious teachings both are of the same spirit.”160 Furthermore, “the saints who wanted to transcend the secular teachings purified the mind according to them,” and “the path for transcending the world (Daoism as religious path) becomes the royal path

  1. 159  ZWDS, Vol 6, 729-85.
  2. 160  Here I rely on Monica Esposito’s translation; Esposito, Facets of Qing Daoism, 154.

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(Confucianism as secular path) for those who have the will.”161 Wang’s teachings may thus be regarded as a deliberate attempt to unite the dominated so-called Confucian “orthodoxy” of his time with his Longmen doctrine. Such promotion of lay ethics was designed to receive support from the ruling class, which wanted both lay people and religious devotees to follow social rules. Looking carefully, we can clearly see that these texts were intended for both lay and monastic believers and tailored by Wang to meet the needs of the ruling class.

5.2.4 Baiyun xianbiao

Baiyun xianbiao first presents a preface by Wanyan Chongshi 完顏崇實 (1820-1876), dated 1847, which is preceded by a preface dated 1848.162 This text’s woodblocks were originally stored at Baiyun guan. Its authors—the Baiyun guan prior Meng Yongcai and the Manchu official Wanyan Chongshi—considered it necessary to compile a hagiography of the Baiyun guan immortals. Noticeably, unlike the term xian (immortal) suggests, these figures were not otherworldly deities, rather they were very much alive inside the temple. One of them, for example, Transcendent Luo 羅真人 (d. 1727), was a trickster-fool figure who apparently

  1. 161  Ibid, 154-155.
  2. 162  Ibid, 373-45.

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performed ascetic tricks in the streets of Beijing; he then went to Baiyun guan just before his death to sequester himself and passed away in meditation. Luo was honored with a funerary pagoda erected in a courtyard of the monastery, a site where visitors could devotion in contrast to the secluded abbots’ cemetery.163

5.2.5 An Alternative Explanation

The above four texts that I have briefly introduced all fall within the category of non- canonical Daoist texts. All of them, furthermore, were compiled during the Qing and, therefore, can be dated much later than the compilation of the Zhengtong Daoist canon. It might be perfectly logical for both monastics or lay devotees who might want to compile a legitimate collection of Daoist texts to closely follow an authoritative list of orthodox texts that would fit nicely with the categories set by the canon. Had Daoists had done this, the collection would naturally produce or engender a sense of legitimacy. However, the four texts discussed above demonstrate that no such effort was undertaken to promote them within what scholars often assume is the process by which religious texts are produced. Take, for example, the Jin’gai xindeng, which I also discussed in Chapter Three. It appears to have rather liberally borrowed a

163 Ibid, 54a-b.

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literary genre from Chan Buddhism; as for Lüzu sanni yishi shuoshu, it is not common to see a canonical Daoist text that features more than two of the canonical categories. No canonical Daoist texts within the Daoist canon can be of the literary genre of shuoshu or inner alchemy. The Longmen xinfa is the closest one to the precepts category (jielü wen 戒律文) in the Daoist canon, but it also contains a detailed description of an ordination ceremony, which suggests that this one belongs to the category of ceremonies (weiyi). Although the Baiyun xianbiao certainly belongs to an eminent genre of biao, or memorials, these do not appear elsewhere within the Daoist canon.

Can we simply dismiss those non-canonical texts which do not seem to fit in the Daoist canon? At the first glance, this conclusion might seem reasonable. But, even if we look at those canonical texts that fit perfectly with the twelve categories, as Schipper and Verellen suggest we ought to, the organization of the Ming canon is still “so confused” and filled with its own retrospective views and biases.164 The fact that both canonical and non-canonical Daoist texts do not justify the organization of the Ming canon, at the very least, challenges many pre-existing

164 Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 35.
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ideas about what a proper canon should look like and urges us to reexamine the nature of Daoist texts.

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Chapter Six: Conclusion
6.1 Understanding Quanzhen Daoism Through Institutions and State Sponsorship

Let us return to the story about the murder of An Shilin, the abbot of Baiyun guan in Beijing in 1935. Based on this study, it seems plausible to argue that this story is not an isolated case in the history of Daoism, but reflects fierce competition among different Daoist groups (or lineages) at Baiyun guan. The dynamic behind the complex lives of Daoists in Beijing is an important religious movement that has shaped and reshaped contemporary Daoism in late imperial China— that is, Quanzhen Daoism. Contrary to many contemporary studies of Daoism, which tend to focus on Daoist beliefs, ritual practices, the Daoist canon, or scriptural revelations, this study has demonstrated that Quanzhen Daoism, and its Longmen sub-lineage were primarily centered upon institutions where this lineage could be propagated during the Qing dynasty. For this reason, Baiyun guan—and the legitimacy awarded to leading the monastery—was of vital importance for An Shilin and the Daoists who burnt him alive. However, contrary to the traditional views that An Shilin’s death had been a hall mark representing the “decline” of Daoism on the eve of

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the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949,165 this study has shown that institutional Daoism has been much more resilient.

In the introductory chapter of this study, I outlined two main objectives for this study. The first is to examine why the notion of lineage competition or construction is particularly important for the history of Daoism in China. As I demonstrated in Chapter Two following Mote’s note, the history of Quanzhen Daoism at Baiyun guan was marked by a recurring theme of non-Han Chinese patronage, such as the Jin, Yuan, and the Qing dynasties (possibly the Tang). Although it is still unclear why Quanzhen Daoism at Baiyun guan was favored by these alien regimes, we can be almost certain to say that Quanzhen Daoism was different than other Daoist traditions in many ways. First, the transmission narratives of Daoism, and the Longmen lineage in particular, together with the material representation of Baiyun guan, have demonstrated that unlike traditional Daoist temples in which the most conspicuous figures were always deities or local gods (e.g., Lord Lao), the most central figures at Baiyun guan were Longmen patriarchs, who were living people at Baiyun guan. Second, the most distinguishing feature of Quanzhen Daoism

165 See for example, Yoshioka Yoshitoyo Dōkyō no kenkyū, who lived within Baiyun guan from 1940-1946, returned to Japan and learned of the muder of his friend, An Shilin.

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is the ordination ceremony performed at Baiyun guan. The general purpose of this grand ritual ceremony was to establish a hierarchy among Quanzhen Daoists since ordained Daoists would automatically enjoy many privileges such as guadan, but the real purpose was to showcase a well-organized Daoist community to the imperial court, thereby possibly receiving imperial patronage.

Furthermore, the new methodological approach of this study aims to shed additional light on our current understanding of what Quanzhen Daoism is and who Quanzhen Daoists are. While the latter is largely covered by the first objective, the former, which is also the second main objective of this study, entails my contention that Quanzhen Daoism can only be understood as a reaction and adjustment to other religious traditions in China—especially Chan Buddhism, and more importantly, the imperial state. Indeed, this study has demonstrated that Quanzhen Daoism—though the term entails a sense of exclusion—was not a fixed entity. Rather, it was a hybrid tradition that actively interacted with other traditions, reinventing itself, and constantly in search of prosperity and posterity. By examining individuals, monasteries, lineages, texts, state regulations and patters of patronage, and the overall role Daoism played within Chinese culture and society in late imperial Chinese history, Chapter Three has shown that

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Quanzhen Daoism—traditionally viewed as Northern tradition (beizong) of Daoism during the Qing—was constructed upon a rich and complicated network that consisted of multiple Daoist groups in both the north and the south. Whereas it may seem bizarre to learn that Southern lineage groups of the Longmen lineage deliberately set up a transmission line affiliated to the North, where the so-called “barbarians” or alien regimes who ruled China once resided and hence Chinese cultural orthodoxy could not, it is hoped that this thesis has demonstrated that the primary goal of Quanzhen Daoists in the south (and the north, too) was again, to establish connections with the imperial court.

This study also presents Quanzhen Daoism as the other great religious tradition, alongside—but not necessarily in opposition to—the notoriously-known and well-studied case of Chinese Chan Buddhism, in imperial China based on its strong assertions about the centrality of monasteries, lineages, and ordinations. While Quanzhen Daoism strongly displayed many distinctive features that have fundamentally shaped and reshaped contemporary Daoism, its interactions with other religious traditions in China should also be taken seriously. For example, in Chapter Four, I have demonstrated that Wang Changyue’s precepts and Quanzhen qinggui (the Quanzhen Pure Rules)—note a different version of Pure Rules was still referenced by the

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local Daoists in the An Shilin’s case—have shown mere “allusions” to their Buddhist counterparts. The three more obvious examples, namely Jin’gai xindeng, Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce and Xiuzhen shishu, provided evidences of Daoist texts apparently associated with the Chan Buddhist genres of “lamp” histories, meditation or self-cultivation, and discourse records, respectively. I have also demonstrated that these texts were likely written to be read by religious outsiders, and perhaps also by some targeted insiders; they are polemical, apologetic texts intended to persuade readers that their respective tradition’s teachings are genuine and authoritative. As such, Quanzhen Daoism was almost certainly not in competition with Chinese Buddhism. In other words, the most urgent task in understanding Quanzhen Daoism is not to see it as a” Daoist” tradition, but to carefully examine it as a complicated body that consists of various religious traditions in China. While it stands to reason that the Longmen lineage has heavily mirrored on Chan Buddhism, the most successfully institutionalized religious tradition in China, the interactions between the Longmen lineage and popular religion—which seemed to flourish exactly right at the time when the Longmen lineage advocated for its institutionalized identity during the Qing—still needs further research.

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In order to further explore new approaches to the study of Quanzhen Daoism, in Chapter Five, I have also chosen to highlight extra-canonical sources to examine the historical context of Quanzhen Daoism. These sources, though they may not have attracted much scholarly attention, show a much more comprehensive picture of Quanzhen Daoism in the Qing period than canonical sources (i.e., the Ming Daoist canon) could otherwise provide. The fruitful outcomes produced by reading these extra-canonical sources further suggest that in the case of interpreting Daoist texts, the paradigms of canonical versus extra-canonical (or non-canonical), or authentic and apocryphal, are merely modern scholarly inventions.
6.2 The Present

Today Daoists who live in a Daoist monastery, which is very likely assured by his (or her) lineage affiliation—with proof of an ordination certificate, is still prestigious for most Daoists in China. Daoist monasteries have, of course, had to adapt to the many social, political, and economic changes that have taken place since 1949, but also since 1978. In terms of the organization of labour as the core of the new social organizational system, the Daoist monastery is not itself a “work-unit”, mainly because it does not deal with work contracts or salaries and is not involved in overseeing family planning among its members. However, the Daoist

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Association (currently at Baiyun guan) serves as a “work-unit” by representing its members and enabling state involvement in monastic affairs. Daoists receive an allowance for their personal needs and medical. They must complete the residence registration formalities required of everyone in China, where the strict control of population movement has only recently been relaxed. When they first establish their home in a monastery (that is, when they receive the Daoist robe) they usually change their “residence registration” (hukou 戶口) from the address of their family home to that of the temple. Because the residence registration stems from the state’s desire to control migration within the country, until recently it was difficult to change one’s residence card but some categories of people have always been exempt, including Buddhist monks and Daoists. When Daoists move, they don’t have to change their residence registration. They form a special kind of network that is like a family, and this allows them to be hosted in any Daoist monasteries in the country just as if they had relatives in each town. However, a Daoist has to carry a “Daoist master’s certificate” (daoshi zheng 道士証). Once he has obtained this certificate from his home monastery, he does not need to obtain a new card at each monastery he visits, except for a few major shifang (ten-directions) monasteries (e.g., Baiyun

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guan) where an ordination certificate is a must, even if he must leave a trail of his passage by filling out a form at each monastery visited.166
6.3 Future Research

One question that remains unaddressed by this study is why was Baiyun guan generously patronized by alien regimes? While it may be accurate to say that Quanzhen Daoism received great state support because of Qiu Chuji at the beginning of the Mongol Yuan period, one of the central themes of religious culture in China shortly after Qiu’s death is marked by a series of debates held at the imperial court in Beijing between Buddhists and Daoists. The subject of these debates chiefly focused on the authenticity of an infamous Daoist text, the Laozi huahu jing 老 子化胡經 (Scripture of Laozi’s Conversion of the Barbarians), in which Laozi is depicted as the founder of Daoism who travelled west to India and instructed—or even became—the Buddha. Tibetan Buddhists allegedly won these debates and consequently all Daoist books, with exception of the Daode jing (Book of the Way and Its Power), were officially banned and destroyed. Due to a perceived paucity of surviving textual evidence for the study of Daoism,

166 For further readings on Daoism in contemporary China, especially non-institutionalized Daoism, see Ian Johnson, The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017).

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contemporary scholars are either deterred from pursuing research on the topic of the history of Daoism during the Yuan period or turn their attention to other more readily available sources, such as stele inscriptions (bei 碑), epitaphs (muzhi 墓誌), and miscellaneous literary writings. Although the last and only surviving Daoist canon can only be dated back as early as the early Ming dynasty (1445), there are still many valuable, yet neglected Yuan period manuscripts that are readily accessible in Japan—where local officials (Kentōshi 遣唐使) and Buddhist monks curiously learned about and studied Chinese civilization from the seventh century onward. One related future research project about Quanzhen Daoism could pay more attention to the Yuan— the period when the Longmen lineage purposely claims to have been founded—and extra- canonical sources that are available in China, Japan, and beyond.

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(ed.), Dōkyō bunka e no tenbō 道教文化のへ展望. Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1994. William, Bodiford. “Remembering Dōgen: Eiheiji and Dōgen Hagiography,” Journal of

Japanese Studies, 2006, 1-21.
Wu, Jiang. Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-century

China. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
———, Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan & the Authenticity Crisis in

Early Modern East Asia Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Yifa. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China : an Annotated Translation and Study of

the Chanyuan qinggui. Classics in East Asian Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii

Press, 2002.
Yin Zhihua 尹志華. “Beijing Baiyun guan cang Longmen chuanjie puxi chutan 北京白雲觀藏

龍門傳戒譜系初探” [A Preliminary Study on the Ordination Lineage of the Longmen at

Baiyun guan in Beijing], Shijie zongjiao yanjiu 世界宗教研究, 2009, 72-82. Yoshioka Yoshitoyo 吉岡義豐. Dōkyō no kenkyū 道教の研究. Kyoto: Hozokan, 1952. Yu Minzhong 于敏中, Qinding Rixia jiuwenkao 钦定日下舊聞考, 1785, reprint. Beijing:

Beijing guji chubanshe, 1985.
Yuan yitong zhi 元一統志. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2004.
Zhang Xiuhua 張修華. “Wo he Tianhou gong” 我和天后宮. Tianjin wenshi ziliao xuanji 天津

138

文史資料選輯 19, 158-207.
Zhu Yueli 朱越利. Daojing zonglun 道經總論. Shenyang: Liaoning Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1992.

139

History of Quanzhen (Complete Perfection Order)

Topic: Daoist Scholars
Author: Encyclopedia of Taoism

History of Quanzhen

全真

Completion of Authenticity; Complete Reality; Complete Perfection

Entry in Encyclopedia of Taoism, written by  Vincent GOOSSAERT (gen. editor Fabrizio Pregadio, Routledge 2006). Also appears on Pregadio’s site, GoldenElixir.com.

Quanzhen is today the main o cial branch of Taoism in continental China. This status is not primarily due to its doctrines, for Quanzhen tenets do not radically di er from those of other Taoist schools, but rather to its celibate and communal mode of life. At least since the Tang, the Chinese state wanted Tao- ists to conform to Buddhist standards, but although Buddhist-style monasteries had existed since the fth century, regulations imposing celibacy on Taoists had largely remained unheeded. The appearance around 1170 of Quanzhen, the rst Taoist monastic order, whose members could more easily be regis- tered and wore distinctive garments, apparently t the state’s religious policy of segregation between the lay and religious. Although its fortunes were not as good under the Ming dynasty as they were in the Yuan and Qing periods, Quanzhen has consistently enjoyed o cial protection since 1197. In this position, Quanzhen has played a major role in transmitting Taoist texts and practices, especially through the persecutions of the twentieth century.

Early history: 1170 to 1368. Quanzhen was founded by a charismatic preacher, *Wang Zhe, a *neidan practitioner who lived as a hermit in the Zhongnan mountains (Zhongnan shan 終南山, Shaanxi) and reportedly was guided by the popular immortals *Zhongli Quan, *Lü Dongbin, and *Liu Haichan. In 1167, Wang moved to Shandong and converted adepts, seven of whom were selected by later hagiography as the rst generation of Quanzhen masters, the Seven Real Men (qizhen 七真): *Ma Yu, *Sun Bu’er, *Tan Chuduan, *Liu Chuxuan, *Qiu Chuji, *Wang Chuyi, and *Hao Datong (see table 17). Although Wang had already started to teach and attract disciples in Shaanxi, the formal foundation of Quanzhen is traditionally associated with the setting up of ve lay associations (hui 會) that were later to support the movement. Wang then took his four favorite disciples (Ma, Tan, Liu, and Qiu) back to the west, and died on the way. The four disciples carried his coffin back to the Zhongnan mountains, where they founded a community and then dispersed to practice asceticism and proselytize in various areas of northern China. Later Quanzhen hagiography relates that the four main disciples became patriarchs (zongshi 宗師) in turn after the death of the founder. Actually, the patriarchy was not created before the 1220s.

Quanzhen 815

Table 17

FIRST VERSION

Five Patriarchs

1 Donghua dijun 東華帝君

2 Zhongli Quan 鍾離權
3 Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓
4 Liu Haichan 劉海蟾

5 Wang Zhe 王嚞 (1113–70)

SECOND VERSION

1 Laozi 老 子
2 Donghua dijun

3 Zhongli Quan

4 Lü Dongbin
5 Liu Haichan


1 Wang Zhe
2 Ma Yu
3 Tan Chuduan

4 Liu Chuxuan

5 Qiu Chuji
6 Wang Chuyi

7 Hao Datong


Seven Real Men

1 Ma Yu 馬鈺 (1123–84)
2 Tan Chuduan 譚處端 (1123–85)

3 Liu Chuxuan 劉處玄 (1147–1203)

4 Qiu Chuji 邱處機 (1148–1227)
5 Wang Chuyi 王處一 (1142–1217)

6 Hao Datong 郝大通 (1140–1213)

7 Sun Bu’er 孫不二 (1119–83) (female)

The Five Patriarchs (wuzu 五祖) and the Seven Real Men (or Seven Perfected, qizhen 七真) of Quanzhen.

During its first decades, Quanzhen had no official existence. The teachings halls (tang 堂) and hermitages (an 庵 or 菴) founded then were not recognized by the state and many masters were not ordained Taoists. As the Quanzhen teachings quickly became popular, adepts were often invited into guan 觀, the usually family-run o cial headquarters for Taoist communities. Quanzhen adepts, however, seem to have felt that they did not really belong to such hereditary institutions, and usually founded new institutions as open teaching centers supported by lay groups. The situation deteriorated when these foundations were forbidden by the state. Quanzhen was banned in 1190 and its main center, the community built around Wang Zhe’s grave in Shaanxi, was closed in 1195.

Under the management of Qiu Chuji, however, Quanzhen had built its own network and in 1197 managed to buy official recognition on favorable terms from an already depleted Jin state. Quanzhen’s autonomy grew even more during the troubled times of the early thirteenth century, and when the Mongol emperor Chinggis khan (Taizu, r. 1206–27) summoned Qiu, it was in his capacity as a leader of a movement exercising influence over the whole country. In the most famous episode of Quanzhen’s history, Qiu travelled to see the khan in 1222 and came back with decrees conferring on him a host of scal and political privileges (see under *Changchun zhenren xiyou ji).

Historians have long debated the precise extent of those privileges and whether the order abused them. What seems clear is that Quanzhen became the official form of Taoism, and that most of the independent guan converted to it. When the Mongols conquered the remnants of the Jin empire in 1234, Quanzhen leaders, who were on good terms with the local Chinese and foreign chiefs, secured the conversion of the important centers in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan. This rapid development was backed by an autonomous organization, at the head of which was the powerful patriarch who nominated a religious administration answering only to him. This autonomy allowed Quanzhen to thrive during a time of chaos, and to raise funds on a nation- wide scale for projects of both a social nature (famine relief, ransoms, and so forth) and a religious nature, the most spectacular of which is the compila- tion of the largest-ever Taoist Canon between 1237 and 1244 (see *Xuandu baozang).

Controversy arose quickly, however, and some influential Buddhist hierarchs accused Quanzhen of appropriating Buddhist temples. What probably happened is that Quanzhen masters repaired and managed many abandoned religious sites, usually with the approval of local leaders. Even the Confucian school in Beijing was run by Quanzhen masters for several decades. This disruption of the religious status quo was considered dangerous, and when a doctrinal controversy arose around the old huahu 化胡 (“conversions of the barbarians”; see *Huahu jing) theme, the Buddhists secured in 1255, and again in 1258, a formal disavowal in court of the Quanzhen leaders. In a largely unrelated event, the aging emperor Khubilai (Shizu, r. 1260–1294) reacted angrily to some religious brawls in Beijing, as well as to several military defeats, and condemned the Quanzhen-compiled Taoist Canon to be burned in 1281. Quanzhen activities also were curtailed for a time.

The debates did not have the devastating effects on Quanzhen that some historians have assumed. The best measure of the order’s vitality, a chart of the numbers of Quanzhen stelae erected per year (with a total of over 500 for the 1170–1368 period), shows that its peak was indeed reached in the 1260s and slightly declined after that but remained at a high level until the 1340s. The rapid development of the order was limited when most of the earlier Taoist centers had already been converted to it, and when the pace of establishing new centers had naturally slowed. The Buddhist reaction was probably no more than one of several limiting factors. It is estimated that around the year 1300, Quanzhen had some 4,000 monasteries in northern China. Its inroads into southern China after 1276 were quantitatively more modest, probably because the social conditions were different and the southern religious scene had been already transformed by other renewal movements.

In the fourteenth century, many Taoist schools—including the newly introduced *Xuanjiao—were competing for support at court, although they also collaborated with each other. Favors went to each of them in turn, and Quan-zhen had another a glorious day in 1310, when a new canonization bestowed titles on its ancestors and past patriarchs even grander than those granted in an earlier 1269 decree. These court politics, however, meant little for the vigorous Quanzhen institutions in the provinces. The earlier independence and power of the patriarchs had mostly gone, but at the local level, Quanzhen monasteries continued until 1368 to enjoy the legal and administrative independence characteristic of the Yuan religious policy.

Six centuries of Quanzhen presence.

During the Ming period, Quanzhen exerted far less influence than it had under the Mongols, chiefly due to the end of its state-declared autonomy. The Quanzhen clergy and institutions were integrated into the religious bureaucracy whose head was the Celestial Master (*tianshi) of the *Zhengyi order. Some of its main formation centers, such as the *Baiyun guan (Abbey of the White Clouds) in Beijing, were also directed by Zhengyi dignitaries. At the same time, Quanzhen ascetic training drew admiration from Taoists of all obediences: its status was acknowledged in such Zhengyi texts as the *Daomen shigui and the *Tianhuang zhidao Taiqing yuce. These methods were taught in the small Quanzhen communities (*daoyuan) that were attached to most major Taoist centers, regardless of their affiliation.

This lack of institutional control, however, impeded Quanzhen’s vitality, and the centralizing brotherhood of the Yuan dynasty (when almost all monks and nuns, whatever their generation, had shared a few common characters in their religious names) gave way during the Ming to more and more branches or lineages (pai 派). At the very end of the Ming, the *Longmen lineage (the most prestigious, although apparently not a very ancient one) began to restore Quanzhen’s former independence. Its actual founder, *Wang Changyue (?–1680), benefited from Manchu’s support and changed the monastic ordination system, which since then was controlled by Longmen masters. In the wake of this renewal movement, coupled with political change, Longmen gained control of many monasteries and convents throughout the country. During the late Qing, most eminent Quanzhen writers came from southern China, such as *Min Yide (1758–1836) and *Chen Minggui (1824–81), and some gazetteers of Quanzhen institutions were compiled in the Jiangnan 江南 area. Archival data, however, suggest that in the mid-eighteenth century most of the 25,000 or so officially recognized Quanzhen Taoists (according to the Taoist Association, there were 20,000 in 2002) lived in northern China, and that therefore their geographical distribution had not changed much since the Yuan.

The historical signficance of Quanzhen can be assessed from several points of view. Its role in the political and social history of the Yuan period can hardly be overestimated. Quanzhen is not a transitory phenomenon linked to the Mongol invasion, however, but needs to be explained on the basis of long-term trends. One of these is the closure of Taoist institutions that had become hereditary, each cleric adopting a disciple from his kin. The need to open Taoism to all with true vocations prompted the appearance during the twelfth century of several movements, including the *Taiyi and the *Zhen dadao, which expanded quickly by offering instruction to all. These movements rejected or modified the traditional ordination procedures, which usually limited the number of disciples of each master to one. Quanzhen amplified this renewal with the founding of lay associations for the practice of neidan, and by admitting novices of all ages and social classes. One should also mention the important role played by women, who accounted for about one third of the Quanzhen clergy during the Yuan dynasty. In later times, Quanzhen did not play as large a role in channelling religious vocations, but managed to remain open to outsiders. Entry into the novitiate was limited to small “private” temples (zisun 子孫), while ordination was monopolized by the large “public” monasteries (shifang 十方). In both instances, all applicants were considered, and the selection—necessitated by the economic limitations of Quanzhen institutions—was based not on financial contributions but on individual will and endurance. This entailed very harsh trials. In addition, lay Quanzhen groups developed in the early nineteenth century in the Jiangnan and Guangdong areas. These groups ran spirit-writing shrines devoted to Lü Dongbin, who received lay disciples as Quanzhen practitioners (see under *fuji).

Original institutions for a Taoist renewal. Most of Quanzhen’s institutions can be explained as an opening of the Taoist tradition to society at large. The early urge to proselytism gave way to a more restrained style of predication. Yet Quanzhen’s literary production of all periods is characterized by both its conservative nature (it does not attempt to reinterpret or add to previous revelations) and its self-avowed function to spread Taoist values and practices to the laity (Quanzhen texts are pedagogical rather that doctrinal). It seems, moreover, that only a small number of Quanzhen texts were added to the edition of the Canon published in 1244. The present Canon contains a large number of Quanzhen texts only because its editors compensated for the irretrievable losses suffered in 1281 with newer Song, Jin and Yuan works.

It is important to consider that these texts are not canonical at all. With the possible exception of a few forged “scriptures”—especially the Taigu jing 太 古經 (Scripture of Great Antiquity) and the Chiwen don u jing 赤文洞古經 (Scripture of Cavernous Antiquity in Red Script)—Quanzhen did not avail itself of any written revelation. The Canon contains sixty Quanzhen works, not including those by Taoists claiming a Quanzhen descent but mainly belonging to the Southern Lineage (*Nanzong) of neidan. Besides these, one can retrieve from various sources eighty-one titles of lost Quanzhen works of the Yuan period, apparently confirming a similar pattern: mainly poetry, gathered either in individual or collective anthologies (the *Minghe yuyin being the most famous), as well as hagiographies, commentaries and didactic works (such as rules and methods).

All these texts were in general circulation and entirely exoteric. Moreover, Quanzhen produced neither ritual nor neidan works during the Yuan period. Modern Quanzhen ritual, with the exception of the daily morning and evening services in temples, and the monastic ordination, does not differ much from non-Quanzhen ritual. The major departure is the Quanzhen musical style, which emphasizes Buddhist-influenced choral recitations (see *songjing). This does not mean that Quanzhen masters were not interested in such topics: they were actually very active in ritual activities, and their liturgical titles show that they recited all major liturgies current during the Yuan. The same holds for neidan: the masters read and commented on the classical works in this genre and did not deem it necessary to create new texts. They rather chose to condense their message and make it available to all, with no changes, through their poetry. Its prevalent themes are conversion and the wonders of inner transmutation through neidan.

Whereas most believers simply took part in the rituals, the cult to the immortals, and perhaps meditation classes, others chose to join the order. An adept who converted to Quanzhen took up celibate life. After a novitiate ( fixed at three years in late imperial times, but probably of variable length in the Yuan period), he or she was ordained and took the monastic precepts (chuzhen jie 初 真戒 or “initial precepts for perfection”). A Quanzhen ordination certficate dating from 1244 found at the *Yongle gong shows that Quanzhen actually used the Tang text of these precepts without substantial changes. Only the Longmen school later slightly modfied it. If one stayed in a monastery, one also had to abide by the rules (see *monastic code), but these changed from place to place and in general were not different from those of other Taoists. Quanzhen education was standard in some respects, although emphasis on practical skills (medicine, carpentry, management, and so forth) seems to have been important, especially in Yuan times. Liturgical skills were acquired on an individual basis.

The most prestigious part of Quanzhen pedagogy, and the main reason that many Taoists of other schools came to spend time in Quanzhen communities, is self-cultivation. Quanzhen disciples were given alchemical poems to meditate on, rather in the fashion of a question to be mulled over (niantou 念 頭) until enlightenment arose. The reading and discussion of neidan treatises does not seem to have played an important role during the Yuan, but it did so from the Ming onward, when the scriptures of the more speculative Southern Lineage were adopted within Quanzhen as the ultimate reference. Quanzhen education also developed specfic techniques to help its adepts concentrate on self-cultivation. One was the *huandu, which involved enclosed meditation in a cell for a long period of time, helping adepts to sever links with the mundane world. Quanzhen also developed a communal practice of alchemical meditation (see under *zuobo).

Vincent GOOSSAERT

 Boltz J. M. 1987a, 64–68 and 123–28; Chen Yuan 1962, 1–80; Goossaert 1997; Goossaert 2001; Goossaert 2004; Hachiya Kunio 1998; Kohn 2003c; Kubo Noritada 1967; Marsone 2001a; Marsone 2001b; Qing Xitai 1988–95, 3: passim and 4: 280–329; Qing Xitai 1994, 1: 170–82; Yao Tao-chung 1980; Yao Tad 2000

※ yulu; Longmen; monastic code; monasticism; taoist lay associations; for other related entries see the Synoptic Table of Contents, sec. III.8 (“Quan- zhen”)

Tao of Self-Love & 5 Amazing Retreats

Topic: TaoNews
Author: by Michael Winn

Healing Tao USA

Chi Flows Naturally

HealingTaoRetreats.com / 888-750-1773
•    HealingTaoUsa.com / 888-999-0555

May 21, 2018

                                        

There are many levels and kinds of love in this world: personal, divine, platonic, romantic, parental, conditional, unconditional, etc. Self-Love is the jewel hidden in the center of life’s labyrinth, the LOVE behind all the different forms of love.

Qi cultivation can assist in tracking one’s core loving essence to its root. That is possible because Qi = Love arising from the heart of the Cosmos. Qi is the loving Gift of the Life Force that sustains all crreation. In the Taoist view, the very presence of Nature as a playground for life and human love is an act of cosmic love.

Michael Winn’s SUMMER 2018 RETREAT SCHEDULE

Summer Retreats 2018 will be at Michael Winn’s mountain home or in a geodesic dome on new land adjacent to his home. Book your own housing (BnB, list of hotels on website). Geo-locater: 19 Merrills Ridge, Asheville NC 28803. Our private shuttle available if you don’t have a car. 12 minutes from downtown Asheville.

All retreats begin Friday eve 7 pm, end Wed. noon. Sat-Tues: 9:30 am – 6 pm.

Week 1: June 22 – 27: Medical & Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1 – 4. (Option to attend Weekend only, Fundamentals 1&2, if space is available)

Week 2: June 29 – July 4: Healing Love: Tao Sexology – with Jem Minor (my wife)

Week 3: July 6 – July 11: Inner Sexual Alchemy: Lesser Kan & Li

Week 4: July 13 – 18:
Sun-Moon-Earth Alchemy: Healing Ancestral Bloodlines. Greater Kan & Li.

Week 5: July 20 – 25:
Star Alchemy: Seal 5 Shen & Awaken 12 Over Souls Causal Power

More details below. or visit http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com

FEEL FREE TO HIT REPLY – I LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Lovers of Self-love and Those Who Cannot Find It,

It’s hard enough to locate the nature of our “self” in the immensity of this cosmos, much less “love” it. Yet my conclusion, after 40 years of serious spiritual exploration: when we cultivate deep Self-love, it is our highest achievement.

What is “self”? What is “love”? Can we even get beyond these words or concepts to directly perceive the Great or Cosmic Self loving its tiny cell as a human self? If our human self is part of Nature, why does it need to actively love itself? Does the situation reflect a needy Creator that births insecure humans to mirror it’s own neurotic split into spirit and matter? Or is there a more complex story here that is being hidden from us, to keep us innocent, so as to not influence our Free Will choices this lifetime – a mystery revealed at death?

“Love Thyself” is increasingly common spiritual advice, perhaps because the Christian “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself” has proven to be historically too difficult ot follow. It seems a lot of folks hate themself, perhaps subsconsciously, and dump that hate on the neighbor. Or they take it out on blind rampages against society, hence all the mass shootings. So loving your “self” sounds worthwhile, but in reality is an ambiguous, if not a downright confusing task with many layers to it.

The water is further muddied by the growing popularity of Buddhism in the West. Most sects believe there is no intrinsic self, and that any belief in a self causes suffering. Other organized religions are based on some variant of salvation, redemption, or reuniting the physical self with some spiritual essence in heaven. This implicitly burdens the lowly physical “self” with guilt or blame or bad karma for not being connected to Source in the first place. Feels like these accusations are very unfair, that we arrive as innocent infants in the middle of some ancient battlefield between Heaven and Earth.

The Taoist viewpoint on self in China varies, depending on the sect and how they interpret the Taoist cosmology (some have mixed in Buddhist and Confucian ideals). The fundamental Taoist view is that a human being is a microcosm of the macro-cosmos, and that every human “self” or Little Cosmos is spontaneously arising up out of wuji, a mysterious portal of unfathomable Mystery. Wuji is often translated as Nothingness, but this is not accurate. It literally means the Un-knowable. So I prefer to translate wuji as the space of Pure Openness, from which completely fresh and unprogrammed creative impulses express.

The “bible” of Taoism is the Tao Te Ching, literally the “Scripture on the Way and its Natural Integrity”. Lao-Tzu set the standard that every mini-self is inherently good, that it has been given “te” by the Great Tao. This “te” (pronounced “de”), the te in Tao Te Ching, is commonly translated as “virtue” or “integrity” or “spiritual power” . It implies there IS an essence we can call our Authentic self. It is our mission and the power to accomplish it that is given to us by the Tao.

Te/de is where we derive our creative Free Will that allows us to choose our own destiny. Without a self to take responsiblity for our actions, life becomes a mere human puppet play, with higher forces pulling the strings. So when we talk about Self-love, we are really talking about loving our gift of Free Will to create a self, an individual destiny that flows through Time and Space.

But the Taoist self is a PROCESS, a continuum in which the body-personality or heart-mind (xin) and soul (ling) and great spirit or oversoul (da shen) all take part. This is a continuum of lesser self to greater Self. This  process implies that the Tao and Cosmos love themselves — and that humans should also love themselves as a reflection of the larger cosmic Self-process.

This notion of a “processual self” eliminates in one brilliant stroke all the dualistic name-calling, self-denial, guilt-burdening and blaming found in many religious doctrines about who is karmically responsible for suffering. In Taoist cosmology the responsibility for suffering is evenly shared by a multi-dimensional self, which co-creates everything with the Qi field as its playmate and dance partner. Our physical human mini-self process reflects this Cosmic Self-Process. If the Tao loves its creation, this Cosmos, we humans needs to love our self, the life we create.

Tao goes even further, giving our human suffering meaning and value. Suffering is a necessary polarity to joy, part of the human creative process, in the way that an oyster needs an irritating grain of sand to grow a lovely luminescent pearl. Our very ability to feel suffering is a virtue and part of our spiritual integrity as mini-Creator beings with the power to make loving free will choices. When we love ourselves, our suffering transmutes into its opposite polaritiy, JOY.

The Practical Question: How to Best Love Your Self?

Out of this notion of a processual self grew a body of Taoist techniques to speed up the evolution and experience of beauty and joy in the everyday world of suffering. The best of those techniques (in my humble experience) are found in Taoist qigong combined withthe meditative process of inner alchemy, starting with the Inner Smile.

NOTE: Did YOU download my free ebook on the Way of the Inner Smile that comes with this newsletter subscription? If not, go to my homepage and re-subscribe, you’ll get an instant download. http://www.HealingTaoUSA.com

To a Taoist, cultivating the universal medium of Qi is the most DIRECT way of loving yourself. That’s because Qi or Chi is the building block of the Processual Self. As our Chi flows, so our Self goes. That’s why I’ve titled this newsletter “Chi Flows Naturally”. You cannot stop the Self from flowing and changing – it’s totally natural. But you can help it along. That is what it means to “love yourself” more deeply.

I have spent my last 38 years distilling out the best out of thousands of Taoist methods, to help make self-cultivation simple enough for Westerners to easily practice and make progress in deepening self-love. This is why I titled my work in progress Primordial Tai Chi: The Way of Enlightedned Self-Love. Publication has been delayed while I write extra chapters on the cause of evil Qi, and on the Tao of Death: Do Hell and Reincarnation Exist?”

When you love yourself, it spontaneously overflows into the lives of people around you. Since 1995 Healing Tao USA has held a community space in which Taoist kindred spirits could colectively cultivate. This is Healing Tao University’s Summer Retreat program, now in its 23rd year.

Love Yourself by Gifting Yourself a Tao Retreat

These retreats are my practical offering to the planetary process of growing human Self-love. The tuition price of $550 has barely budged in the last 15 years, and is subsidized by my non-profit 501c3. That eans students can write off about 40% of thier costs as tax-deductible. Additional scholarships and discounts (multiple retreat, junior, senior, foreigner, instructor) are available as well, along with extended payment programs at no interest.

I believe these are the most affordable, highest quality energy cultivation retreats you’ll find anywhere. It’s a great way to LOVE YOURSELF in this super creative and dynamic period of planetary change. I urge you to make the leap forward in your self-love and in quickening your life’s higheset destiny.

Check out the list of retreats below starting June 22 and ending July 25. You’ll love being supported by the community of fun-loving, open-minded free spirits that are attracted to this self-cultivation process. This year is a transition year to a new space and so the faculty is taking a sabbatical until the summer of 2019. I will be teaching a single track of five retreats.

First get your questions answered at http://www.healingtaoretreats.com. You can sign up by phone or online, only $150. to hold your spot.

Contact Jan (office manager and registrar) at 888- 999-0555 or 828-505-1444, or email summersupport@earthlink.net.

May the Blessings of Self-Love grace Your Way,

Michael Winn

Contents:
» Summer Retreats Schedule 2018 – NEW LOCATION
» Entering into the Loving Heart of the Tao

Summer Retreats Schedule 2018 – NEW LOCATION

Summer Retreats 2018

PLEASE NOTE: Retreats will be at a NEW LOCATION in Asheville area.

Retreats will be held in my spacious mountain cabin at 19 Merrills Ridge, Asheville, 28803

OR

On raw land adjacent to my property, in a geodesic dome.

Jan Gillespie (Healing Tao USA Office Manager) will be the registrar. She can be reached at: summersupport@earthlink.net. or phone 828 505 1444.

Retreats website cart is accepting $150. deposit reservations only. Complete the registratin with Jan, who will make sure you get the right discounts.

Week-long Retreats with Michael Winn. ALL DATES ARE FIRM.

  • Week 1: June 22 – 27, 2018 (Fri-Wed)
    Medical & Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals Levels 1 – 4.
  • Week 2: June 29 – July 4, 2018 (Fri-Wed)
    Healing Love: Tao Sexology – with Jem Minor (my wife)
  • Week 3: July 6 – July 11, 2018 (Fri-Wed)
    Inner Sexual Alchemy: Lesser Kan & Li
  • Week 4: July 13- 18, 2018 (Fri-Wed)
    Sun-Moon-Earth Alchemy: Healing Ancestral Bloodlines. Greater Kan & Li.
  • Week 5: July 20-25, 2018 (Fri-Wed)
    Star Alchemy: Seal 5 Shen & Awaken 12 Over Souls Causal Power

Please go to the website for retreat descriptions. Some have pre-requisites.

I’m very close to closing on the funding  to buy a new retreat center in Asheville, N.C.  The site I want is raw land. I hope to build The Temples of Heaven and Earth on it, and cultivate it – with YOUR help – into a powerful inter-dimensional portal for all who choose to study or retreat there.

Other than my wife Jem Minor co-teaching Taoist Sexology with me, there will be no retreats with other teachers this year due to lack of teaching space while we are in transition. Please stay tuned to come study with your favorite teachers in 2019 summer.

The website prices from 2017 still apply in 2018. NO COMMUTER FEES.

WE CAN ARRANGE SHUTTLE TO RETREAT SPACE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A CAR.

$550. for one week tuition, with numerous discouints available.

We will arrange for lunch on site (for a fee). Breakfast and dinner on your own.

Entering into the Loving Heart of the Tao

 

 

 

May Your Way Guide You on the Path of Self-Love,

Michael Winn

“Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Integrity as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes Change — is a
Sage.” — Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters

“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
— Taoist Sage, 200 B.C

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