Kublai Khan忽必烈

Style & Daoist names

Emperor Shizu of Yuan, Sechen Khan

Period

Yuan

Dates

1215 — 1294

Role

Daoism-Venerating EmperorsReligious Policy Maker

Birthplace

Mongolia

Places of activity

Mount Longhu (Dragon and Tiger Mountain), White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan), Beijing

Life

Kublai Khan, Emperor Shizu of Yuan, adopted a dual-track policy toward Daoism of suppressing Quanzhen while supporting Zhengyi, profoundly reshaping the Daoist landscape of the Yuan dynasty. In the eighth year of the Xianzong era (1258), under imperial order he presided over a great Buddhist–Daoist debate at Kaiping, its focus the authenticity of the Laozi Huahu Jing and the Laozi Bashiyi Hua Tu published by the Quanzhen school; the Quanzhen side, represented by Fan Zhiying and seventeen others, lost the debate and was ordered to shave their heads and become Buddhist monks and to return the Buddhist temples they had occupied. In the eighteenth year of the Zhiyuan era (1281), Kublai Khan decreed that, apart from the Daodejing, all spurious scriptures in the Daoist Canon together with their printing blocks be burned — the most severe official destruction of texts in the history of Daoist scripture, through which the Yuan-dynasty Xuandu Baozang was largely lost, and to which much of the loss of known Song- and Jin-dynasty Quanzhen literature can be traced. On the other hand, he actively supported Zhengyi Daoism in Jiangnan: after pacifying the south in the thirteenth year of the Zhiyuan era (1276), he received in audience the thirty-sixth Celestial Master Zhang Zongyan, granting him the title 'Perfected Man Who Practices the Dao and Responds Numinously, Serene and Harmonious,' commanding him to oversee Daoism throughout Jiangnan, and bestowing a silver seal; thereafter successive Celestial Masters received hereditary court appointment, and Zhengyi Daoism became the governing authority of Daoism in the south. He also kept Zhang Liusun in attendance at court, and in the middle years of the Zhiyuan era specially established the Xuanjiao (Mysterious Teaching) as a distinct school, with Zhang Liusun as its Patriarch — forming the Xuanjiao system unique to the Yuan dynasty. Kublai Khan himself chiefly venerated Tibetan Buddhism (honoring Phagpa as Imperial Preceptor), and his Daoist policy proceeded from considerations of political control and the balance of power.

Contributions & Influence

• Presided over the Buddhist–Daoist debate of 1258, ruling the Laozi Huahu Jing spurious and suppressing Quanzhen power
• Decreed in 1281 the burning of spurious scriptures and printing blocks of the Daoist Canon, causing a major loss of Daoist texts
• Received Zhang Zongyan in audience in 1276 and commissioned him to oversee Daoism in Jiangnan, establishing Zhengyi Daoism's governing authority
• Established the Xuanjiao as a distinct school, with Zhang Liusun as its Patriarch, forming a Daoist administrative system unique to the Yuan dynasty