Kou Qianzhi寇谦之

Style & Daoist names

Fuzhen

Period

Northern Wei

Dates

365 — 448

School

Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao)

Role

Reformer of the Northern Celestial MastersImperial Preceptor

Birthplace

Changping, Shanggu (present-day Changping, Beijing); resided in Wannian, Fengyi

Places of activity

Mount Song (Songshan), Mount Hua (Huashan)

Life

Kou Qianzhi, styled Fuzhen, was a Daoist priest of the Northern Wei and the reformer of the Northern Celestial Masters. According to the "Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism" in the Book of Wei, in his youth he was devoted to the way of immortality and practiced the methods of Zhang Lu, and later followed Chenggong Xing to cultivate the Dao on Mount Hua and Mount Song for seven years. In the second year of the Shenrui era (415) he proclaimed that the Supreme Venerable Sovereign (Laojun) had descended to Mount Song and bestowed on him the rank of "Celestial Master" together with the twenty-juan New Code of Precepts Chanted in the Clouds, ordering him to "purify and reorder Daoism, doing away with the false methods of the Three Zhangs, the rice-and-cash taxes, and the technique of the union of male and female energies," placing ritual propriety foremost and supplementing it with the ingestion of substances and breath-refinement practices; in the eighth year of the Taichang era (423) he further claimed that Li Puwen, a descendant of Laojun, bestowed on him the more than sixty-juan Perfected Scripture of the Register Chart. In the first year of the Shiguang era (424) he went to Pingcheng to present his texts, gaining the support of the Minister of Education Cui Hao; Emperor Taiwu revered him as Celestial Master and built a Celestial Masters ritual center at Pingcheng; in the third year of the Taiping Zhenjun era (442) Emperor Taiwu personally went to the ritual altar to receive talismans and registers, after which it became established practice for Northern Wei emperors to receive registers upon accession. Kou Qianzhi's reforms steered the Celestial Masters tradition toward an emphasis on ritual, precepts, and zhai-jiao rites, and for the first time won it the status of a state religion; he was also involved in Emperor Taiwu's suppression of Buddhism. He died in the ninth year of the Taiping Zhenjun era (448).

Contributions & Influence

• Reformed the Celestial Masters tradition under the banner of "purifying and reordering Daoism," abolishing the rice-and-cash taxes and the technique of the union of male and female energies
• Established new codes of precepts and zhai-jiao ritual norms, promoting the ritualization of Daoism
• Made Daoism the state religion of the Northern Wei, inaugurating the practice of emperors receiving registers

Works

• Yunzhong Yinsong Xinke zhi Jie (New Chanted Code of Precepts from within the Clouds; partially preserved as the Scripture of Precepts Chanted by Lord Lao)
• Lutu Zhenjing (True Scripture of the Chart Register, lost)

Legends

Legend holds that the Supreme Venerable Sovereign descended to Mount Song twice to bestow scriptures on him, and that Chenggong Xing was an immortal who descended to become his teacher.