Chen Liansheng陈莲笙

Style & Daoist names

Daoist name Liansheng

Period

Republican Era–Present

Dates

1917 — 2008

School

Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism

Role

Zhengyi Daoist MasterPresident of the Shanghai Taoist AssociationVice President of the Chinese Taoist Association

Birthplace

Shanghai

Places of activity

Shanghai City God Temple

Life

Chen Liansheng, a native of Shanghai and a Zhengyi Daoist priest born into a Daoist family, who studied liturgical chanting and ritual from childhood and was already a well-known Daoist priest in Shanghai by the 1930s. After 1949 he engaged in Daoist organizational work, taking part in 1956 in preparations for the Chinese Taoist Association. After the Cultural Revolution he presided over the restoration of Daoism in Shanghai, serving as president of the Shanghai Taoist Association, abbot of the Shanghai City God Temple, and vice-president of the Chinese Taoist Association. He founded the Shanghai Daoist College and the journal Shanghai Daoism, and in 1995 presided in Shanghai over the first public conferral of registers in the Zhengyi tradition, making him a central figure in the transmission of Zhengyi ritual and the restoration of its institutions in the contemporary era. His writings include Collected Essays on Daoist Practice and Collected Works of Chen Liansheng, and he served as chief editor of A History of Shanghai Daoism, among other works. He died in Shanghai in 2008.

Contributions & Influence

• Presided over the restoration of Daoism in Shanghai and founded the Shanghai Daoist College
• Promoted the restoration of the conferral of registers in the Zhengyi tradition
• Compiled and organized the ritual traditions of Shanghai Zhengyi Daoism

Works

• Collected Essays on the Way (Daofeng ji)
• Collected Writings of Chen Liansheng
• History of Daoism in Shanghai (editor)