Ji Zhizhen姬志真

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Taixuan, sobriquet Zhichangzi, Perfected Zhichang

Period

Yuan

Dates

1193 — 1268

School

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism

Role

Eminent Quanzhen DaoistMan of Letters

Birthplace

Lintong (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi)

Places of activity

Zhongnan Mountains, Chongyang Palace (Ancestral Temple of Quanzhen)

Life

Ji Zhizhen, a native of Lintong in Shaanxi, was a Yuan-dynasty Quanzhen priest who came from a Confucian family and was broadly learned in the classics and histories; he left home to become a priest in middle age, studying under the Perfected Qinghe, Yin Zhiping, and was later held in high regard by Qi Zhicheng and others, presiding over the affairs of the Chongyang Palace on Mount Zhongnan and of the Guanzhong region for a long time. He was renowned for his poetry and prose, and wrote the eight-scroll Collected Works of Cloud Mountains (Yunshan ji), which contains poems, song lyrics, rhapsodies, prefaces, records and other genres, largely concerning Quanzhen doctrine and temple construction, and is an important source for studying Quanzhen activity in Guanzhong during the Yuan. Ji Zhizhen held that Confucianism and Daoism were mutually connected, and took the sobriquet "Zhichang" (Knowing the Constant), drawing on the phrase "to know the constant is called illumination" from the Daodejing. He died in 1268. The records in his collected works of the construction of the Chongyang Palace, the distribution of Daoist temples in Guanzhong, and his exchanges with local officials provide direct material for studying the social basis of Quanzhen Daoism in Shaanxi during the Yuan.

Contributions & Influence

• Presided over the Chongyang Palace, advancing Quanzhen affairs in Guanzhong
• Preserved Yuan-dynasty Quanzhen historical material in the Collected Works of Cloud Mountains
• Entered the Daoist order as a Confucian scholar, reflecting the trend of Quanzhen Daoism absorbing literati

Works

• Anthology of Yunshan