Huang Shunshen黄舜申

Style & Daoist names

personal name Yingyan, courtesy name Huibo, sobriquet Leiyuan, Perfected Leiyuan

Period

Late Southern Song–early Yuan

Dates

1224 — ? (according to one account, after c. 1286)

School

Qingwei (Pure Tenuity) School

Role

Patriarch of the Qingwei SchoolMaster of Daoist Ritual Methods

Birthplace

Jianning (present-day Jian'ou, Fujian)

Places of activity

Lesser Grotto 16: Mount Wuyi

Life

Huang Shunshen, personal name Yingyan, a native of Jianning, Fujian, was the actual synthesizer of the Qingwei School and is honored as its tenth-generation patriarch. As a child he accompanied his father, who held office in Guangxi, where he encountered Nan Bidao and received the Qingwei thunder methods. He brought together the methods of the Shangqing, Lingbao, Daode and Zhengyi traditions, "returning them all to Qingwei," organized the school's teachings and scriptures, and established the guiding principle that "Qingwei takes internal refinement as its basis and thunder methods as its means of aiding beings," raising Qingwei from a local ritual tradition to one of the most influential Daoist schools of Jiangnan in the Yuan dynasty. Under Emperor Lizong of Song he was once summoned to court, and under Kublai Khan of Yuan he was granted the title "Perfected Man of Thunder Abyss, Broad Blessings and Universal Transformation." He had many disciples, divided into the northern and southern lines of Xiong Daohui and Zhao Yizhen; Zhang Shouqing of Wudang in the Yuan and Zhao Yizhen of the Ming were both later followers of his line. The Qingwei canonical texts Retreat Rites of the Qingwei Tradition, Elixir Instructions of Qingwei and Great Rites of the Descent of the Qingwei Origin mostly derive from his line.

Contributions & Influence

• Integrated the talismanic methods of the various traditions, establishing the system of the Qingwei School
• Advocated the "unity of Dao and method," taking internal alchemy as the basis of thunder methods
• Trained disciples who spread the Qingwei School widely across north and south

Works

• Retreat Rites of the Qingwei Tradition (attributed)
• Alchemical Instructions of Qingwei (attributed)
• Great Rites of the Primordial Descent of Qingwei (compiled by later disciples)