Gazetteer of the White Cloud Monastery白云观志
- Also known as
- Origins and Development of Changchun Daoism (related)
- Author / transmission
- Koyanagi Shigeta (1870–1940)
- Period
- Modern Era · Compiled by the Japanese scholar Koyanagi Shikita, the Baiyunguan zhi was published in 1934 by the Tokyo Research Institute of the Institute for Oriental Culture; his companion work Changchun daojiao yuanliu (1934) is a related study. There is now also Li Yangzheng's Xinbian Beijing Baiyunguan Zhi (2003).
- Canon division
- Modern work
- Collected in
- Modern scholarly work.
- Category
- Mountain Gazetteers
- Fascicles
- 1 volume (with plates)
Synopsis
Baiyun Guan in Beijing, the ancestral court of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen Daoism and the seat of the Chinese Taoist Association, had its predecessors in the Tang-dynasty Tianchang Guan and the Jin-dynasty Taiji Palace; Qiu Chuji resided there after returning from the Western Regions, and in the Yuan it was renamed Changchun Palace, receiving the name Baiyun Guan in the Zhengtong reign of the Ming. In the early Qing, Wang Changyue opened an ordination platform there, establishing it as the model for the public-monastery system. The Japanese scholar Koyanagi Shikita traveled to Beiping for on-site investigation in the 1930s and compiled the Baiyunguan zhi, recording in detail the layout of the temple's halls, stele inscriptions, the roster of resident priests, monastic rules and liturgy, the ordination system, and daily life, with numerous accompanying photographs and plates. This work is a pioneering study that used modern field-survey methods to document a Chinese Daoist temple, preserving the complete appearance of Baiyun Guan before 1949; many of the steles and artifacts it records no longer survive or have since been altered, making it a source of extremely high historical value. On the Chinese side, the Xinbian Beijing Baiyunguan Zhi (2003), edited by Li Yangzheng, builds on this foundation with a continuation of contemporary material, and the two works may be read alongside each other.
Key Ideas
- A complete record of the ancestral court of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage
- Layout of halls, steles, and roster of resident priests
- Wang Changyue's ordination and the public-monastery system
- A pioneering work of modern field-survey documentation of a Daoist temple
- Preserves the pre-1949 appearance, with plates
Structure
Divided into chapters on history, buildings, steles, biographies, monastic rules, and liturgy, with plates.
Editions
- 1934 edition, Tokyo Institute for Oriental Culture
- Chinese translation and related studies
- Li Yangzheng, Xinbian Beijing Baiyunguan Zhi (Religious Culture Publishing House, 2003)
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Heart Methods of the Dragon Gate Lineage, Pure Rules of Complete Perfection, Precepts of Initial PerfectionRelated figures
Qiu Chuji, Wang Changyue, Li Yangzheng, Min Zhiting- 小柳司気太《白雲観志》東方文化学院東京研究所，1934
- 李养正主编《新编北京白云观志》，2003
- Vincent Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, 1800–1949 (2007)
- 维基百科「白云观」条