Talismans, incantations, mudras, ritual registers, thunder rites, exorcistic healing and spirit-writing placed in their textual, lineage and historical contexts.
民间求财拜财神，道教内部则有一套经典与科仪系统支撑：《正统道藏》所收《道法会元》卷二三二至二四〇的「正一玄坛赵元帅秘法」是财神职能的道藏源头，其中「公平买卖，求财利宜和合，但有至公至正之事，可以对神言者，祷之无不如意」一句，为道教财神立下了「至公至正」的伦理前提；近世宫观课诵的《玄坛宝诰》称赵公明「受命玉帝，管理财源」「玄化财神天尊」；台…
今天家家供奉的「正财神」赵公明，最初的文献形象令人意外：晋代《搜神记》里他是「督数鬼下取人」的冥神，注文直称「瘟鬼」；陶弘景《真诰》中他是主管冢墓的土下五方神之一。此后两千年，这位瘟部鬼帅完成了中国神谱中罕见的彻底转型——宋元雷法文献《道法会元》把他纳入正一雷部，号「正一玄坛赵元帅」，位列马赵温关四大元帅；元刊《新编连相搜神广记》首次明确…
The Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning stands first among the Three Pure Ones. Lingbao scriptures present him as the supreme deity who opens cosmic eras, proclaims …
During the Yuan dynasty and in the late Yuan–early Ming transition, the 268-juan Daofa huiyuan (Corpus of Daoist Ritual) was compiled, gathering the thunder rites and tal…
Mount Longhu (Zhengyi), Maoshan (Shangqing), and Mount Gezao (Lingbao) each transmitted their own register methods with court recognition; by the late Northern Song they …
In 1991, the Mansion of the Celestial Masters at Longhushan held the first Zhengyi conferral of ordination registers (shoulu) since 1949, granted to overseas Daoist commu…
Huang Shunshen brought the Qingwei thunder rites to culmination, tracing his lineage to a Yuanjun (Primordial Sovereign), and integrated the methods of Shangqing, Lingbao…
Wang Wenqing claimed to have received the Five Thunder Rites (wulei fa) from Master Wang the Fire Master; Lin Lingsu, meanwhile, gained influence with Emperor Huizong of …
In the eighth year of the Dade era, Emperor Chengzong of Yuan granted the thirty-eighth-generation Celestial Master Zhang Yucai the title 'Lord of the Zhengyi Teaching, i…
Bai Yuchan, originally surnamed Ge, given name Changgeng, whose ancestral home was Minqing, Fujian, was born in Qiongzhou. Renowned as a child prodigy, he later abandoned…
Bo He, courtesy name Zhongli, was a fangshi active between the end of the Han and the Wei–Jin period. The Biographies of Divine Immortals records that he studied under Do…
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 we…
Chen Nan, styled Nanmu, with the sobriquet Cuixu, popularly known as "Chen Niwan" (Chen of the Mud Pellets), was the fourth patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal …
Cui Hao, courtesy name Boyuan, of the Cui clan of Qinghe, was the leading strategist and counselor at the court of Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, rising to the office of …
Deng Yougong was a Southern Song Daoist priest from Jiangxi, credited as the compiler of the five-fascicle Correct Rites of the Celestial Heart of Shangqing (Shangqing ti…
Emperor Hongwu (Zhu Yuanzhang), founder of the Ming dynasty, established the basic institutions for the administration of Daoism, his guiding principle being "to make use…
Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Ji, reigned from 1100 to 1126, and was one of the most devoutly Daoist emperors in Chinese history. After his accession he trusted and emplo…
Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Tuoba Tao (r. 423–452), was the first emperor in Chinese history to make Daoism the state religion. In the first year of the Shiguang era (…
Emperor Wuzong of Tang, personal name Li Yan, reigned 840–846. From the moment of his accession he was a devoted believer in Daoism: he summoned eighty-one Daoist priests…
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, personal name Li Longji, reigned 712–756 and was the Tang emperor most devoted to Daoism; under his rule Daoism reached its high point of the dy…
Ge Hong, style name Zhichuan, self-styled Baopuzi (Master Who Embraces Simplicity), was a native of Jurong in Danyang under the Eastern Jin, and a grand-nephew of Ge Xuan…
Ge Xuan, courtesy name Xiaoxian, was a native of Jurong in Danyang under the Wu of the Three Kingdoms, a great-uncle of Ge Hong, and known to the world as "Immortal Elder…
He Zhengong, a Daoist priest at the Yulong Wanshou Palace on Mount Xi in the early Southern Song and a forerunner of Jingming Daoism, personal name and dates of birth and…
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…
Isabelle Robinet, a French sinologist and professor at the University of Provence, was a central member of the French school of Daoist studies. A student of Max Kaltenmar…
Jin Yunzhong, a Southern Song Lingbao School Daoist priest, dates of birth and death unknown, active roughly in the early thirteenth century (his own preface to his book …
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"…
Lei Shizhong, courtesy name Kequan, sobriquet Mo'an, a native of Wuchang, Hubei, was a ritual master of the late Southern Song and early Yuan. In his youth he studied Con…
Li Babai is an immortal of Sichuanese legend, so named because people called him eight hundred years old; one account gives his name as Li Tuo. The Biographies of Divine …
Li Kuan, a figure of the Three Kingdoms period, is recorded in both the Shenxian Zhuan and Ge Hong's Baopuzi Inner Chapters, chapter 'Daoyi.' According to Ge Hong's accou…
Li Yuanguo is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Culture, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, and a senior scholar of Daoist studies in Sichuan. His mai…
Lin Lingsu, originally named Ling'e, was a Daoist priest under Emperor Huizong of Song, a native of Wenzhou, and the actual founder of the Shenxiao School. In his youth h…
Lin Lingzhen, personal name Weifu, courtesy name Junzhao, sobriquet Lingzhen, was a native of Pingyang in Wenzhou. In his youth he studied for the civil examinations, but…
Lin Zhao'en, courtesy name Maoxun, styled Longjiang, was a native of Putian, Fujian, and the founder of the Sanyi (Three-in-One) Teaching, also known as the Xia Teaching …
Liu Deren, a native of Le Ling in Cangzhou, was the founder of Zhen Dadao (originally named Dadao jiao, "the Teaching of the Great Way") in the Jin dynasty. According to …
Liu Hunkang, styled Zhitong, was the twenty-fifth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing school of Mount Mao in the Northern Song. He entered the Daoist order in his youth…
Liu Tailin, a priest of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen in the late Ming, is venerated by the Daoist clergy of Wudang Mountains as the founding patriarch of the Wudang Lo…
Liu Yuanchang, styled Changyuan, sobriquet Ziyuan, a native of Fujian, was a disciple of Bai Yuchan. During the Jiading era he traveled and studied with Bai Yuchan, who w…
Liu Yuanran, a native of Ganxian, Jiangxi, was a disciple of Zhao Yizhen and one of the most important Daoist priests of the early Ming. In the twenty-sixth year of the H…
Liu Zhongyu is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at East China Normal University, and a leading scholar of Daoist studies in Shanghai. H…
Lu Shizhong, courtesy name Dangke, an important transmitter of the Tianxin Zhengfa system in the late Northern and early Southern Song, dates of birth and death unknown, …
Michel Strickmann, an American sinologist, studied early in his career in Paris under Max Kaltenmark and Kristofer Schipper, and later became a professor at the Universit…
Ning Quanzhen, personal name Benli, courtesy name Daoli, a native of Kaifeng, Henan, was the actual founder of the Southern Song Lingbao Donghua School. As a youth he fle…
Pan Shizheng, style name Zizhen, was the eleventh patriarch of the Tang-dynasty Maoshan Shangqing School. Orphaned of his father in youth, he entered the Daoist order in …
Peng Si, styled Jiyi, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian, was an inner-chamber disciple of Bai Yuchan. According to the Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian Xubian, he was widely learne…
Rao Dongtian was a Daoist priest of the early Northern Song, a native of Linchuan, Fuzhou, and the founder of the Correct Method of the Celestial Heart (Tianxin Zhengfa).…
Sa Shoujian, sobriquet 'Guest of Fenyang,' was a renowned Daoist priest of the Song dynasty, later venerated as 'Perfected Man Sa' or 'Patriarch Sa,' and is counted toget…
Shao Yuanjie, a native of Guixi, Jiangxi, was a Daoist priest of the Shangqing Palace at Mount Longhu, who studied under Fan Wentai, Li Bofang, and others, learning the Q…
Sima Chengzhen, style name Ziwei, Dharma name Daoyin, sobriquet Baiyunzi, was the twelfth patriarch of the Tang-dynasty Maoshan Shangqing School, a descendant of Sima Kui…
Sun Xuanqing, a native of Shouguang, Shandong, was a Ming-dynasty Quanzhen Daoist priest of Mount Lao, of the fourth (some sources say fifth) generation of the Longmen li…
Tan Zixiao was a Daoist priest active in the Min kingdom and the Southern Tang during the Five Dynasties. He became a Daoist priest in his youth, and King Wang Chang of M…
Tao Zhongwen, a native of Huanggang, Hubei, originally served as a county clerk and practiced the use of talisman water; he was recommended to the capital by Shao Yuanjie…
Vincent Goossaert, a French historian, is a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) and formerly director of its Section of Religious Studies; he is a le…
Wang Chongyang, founder of Quanzhen Daoism. Born into a wealthy family in Guanzhong, he sat for both the civil and military examinations in his early years but failed to …
Wang Laozhi, a fangshi (master of methods) during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, was a native of Linquan in Puzhou. Originally a minor clerk in the transport commi…
Wang Qizhen, a Southern Song Lingbao Donghua School Daoist priest and disciple of Ning Quanzhen, dates of birth and death unknown, active roughly from the late twelfth to…
Wang Wenqing, styled Yudao (also given as Shudao), sobriquet Chonghezi, was the great master of Shenxiao Thunder Rites in the late Northern and early Southern Song, known…
Xiao Baozhen, a native of Weizhou in Henan, was the founder of Taiyi Daoism in the Jin dynasty. According to stele biographies, during the Tianjuan era (1138–1140) he cla…
Xu Xun, style name Jingzhi, was a native of Nanchang in Yuzhang under the Western Jin, the founding patriarch venerated by Jingming Loyalty and Filial Piety Daoism, known…
Ye Fashan, courtesy name Daoyuan, was a celebrated Daoist priest of the Tang, a native of Kuocang in Kuozhou, born into a family that had practised Daoist arts for four g…
Ye Jingneng, a Daoist priest of the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, a native of Kuozhou, granduncle (some say uncle) of Ye Fashan. He won the favor of Zhongzong and E…
Yu Ji (also written Gan Ji), a master of esoteric arts of the late Eastern Han, was a native of Langye. The "Biography of Xiang Kai" in the Book of the Later Han records …
Yuan Miaozong was a Daoist priest active at the court of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song, known for compiling the ten-fascicle Secret Essentials of the Assembled Per…
Zhang Ling, courtesy name Fuhan, known to later generations as Zhang Daoling, was a native of Feng in the state of Pei in the Eastern Han, and the founder of the Way of t…
Zhang Daozhen, a Taiwan native, claims to be a grandson of Zhang Enpu and has acted in the capacity of the 64th-generation Celestial Master; after Zhang Yuanxian's death …
Zhang Enpu, the sixty-third-generation Celestial Master of Longhushan, succeeded to the office in 1924. Although Zhengyi Daoism had already lost its official status durin…
Zhang Guoxiang, the fiftieth-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, headed the order during the Longqing and Wanli eras. In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli (1607), b…
Zhang Jixian, styled Jiawen (also styled Daozheng), sobriquet Xiaoranzi, was the thirtieth Celestial Master of Longhushan and one of the most famous Celestial Masters in …
Zhang Shouqing, personal name Dongyuan, courtesy name Shouqing, was a native of Yidu in Xiazhou, Hubei, and the central figure of Wudang Daoism under the Yuan. He served …
Zhang Wanfu, a Daoist priest of the Taiqing Temple in Chang'an during the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, a "Master of the Three Caverns," dates of birth and dea…
Zhang Yanyu, the forty-eighth-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office in the seventeenth year of Hongzhi (1504). He lived through the Hongzhi…
Zhang Yuanxian, a native of Guixi in Jiangxi and a cousin's son of Zhang Enpu, went to Taiwan with the army in 1949. After Zhang Enpu's death in 1969, he was put forward …
Zhang Yucai, the thirty-eighth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, was the second son of Zhang Zongyan. He succeeded his elder brother Zhang Yudi as head of the order in 12…
Zhang Zhengchang, the forty-second-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office during the Zhizheng era of the Yuan. When Emperor Hongwu of Ming r…
Zhang Zongyan was the thirty-sixth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu. He succeeded to the office at the end of the Southern Song, and in the thirteenth year of the Zhiyuan…
Zhao Yizhen, courtesy name Yuanyang, was a native of Anfu, Jiangxi, and an eminent Daoist of the late Yuan and early Ming who inherited the transmission of three traditio…
Zheng Yin, style name Siyuan, was a Daoist priest of the Western Jin, a disciple of Ge Xuan and the teacher of Ge Hong. According to the 'Xialan' chapter of the Baopuzi: …
A local Zhengyi organization headquartered at the Mansion of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Fu), it resumed the conferral of registers on Zhengyi priests from China and a…
In 1949, Zhang Enpu brought the Zhengyi Celestial Master lineage to Taiwan and established the Celestial Master's Mansion there, overseeing register conferral and ordinat…
Founded in April 1957 in Beijing, headquartered at the White Cloud Temple, Beijing, with Yue Chongdai as its first president. It is the national organization for Daoism i…
After the sixty-third Celestial Master Zhang Enpu went to Taiwan in 1949, he re-established the Taiwan Provincial Taoist Association in 1950; it was expanded into the Tao…
Entering the twenty-first century, Daoism on the Chinese mainland has continued to develop under institutionalized management. The Chinese Taoist Association has been led…
During the wars and upheavals of the Five Dynasties, Daoism continued to be honored under the various regional regimes (Du Guangting under the Former Shu, and under South…
Ming Daoism, under state administration, continued the twofold "Zhengyi–Quanzhen" configuration, with Zhengyi more heavily relied upon by the court for its expertise in l…
The Northern and Southern Dynasties were an era of "reform, consolidation, and official recognition" for Daoism, with distinct developments in north and south. In the nor…
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Daoism underwent reorganization amid land reform and shifting religious policy: temple lands were confiscated or red…
The 1911 Revolution abolished the hereditary title of Celestial Master, and Daoism lost the institutional support it had enjoyed under the imperial system; it struggled t…
After the Jingkang Incident, China was divided into a northern and a southern regime, and Daoism developed along two distinct northern and southern paths. Under the rule …
A museum devoted to Daoism located in the Mount Longhu scenic area in Yingtan, Jiangxi (site of the Mansion of the Celestial Masters), displaying the lineage of the Zheng…
The Bo Family Way (Bojia Dao) was a Daoist tradition popular in the Jiangnan region during the Wei–Jin period, named for its patriarch Bo He. Bo He, styled Zhongli, was a…
Bixia Yuanjun, popularly known as the Lady of Mount Tai or the Old Grandmother of Mount Tai, is the female deity with the greatest popular influence within the Daoist pan…
The Cult of Wenchang Dijun is the worship, within Daoism, of the deity who presides over civil office and emolument, formed by the merging of two strands: one is the loca…
Daoism in Southeast Asia arrived with waves of Chinese emigration from Fujian, Guangdong, Chaozhou, Hakka, and Hainan communities from the nineteenth century onward, taki…
Daoism in Taiwan is composed mainly of the system of married (huoju) Zhengyi Daoist priests brought by Hokkien and Cantonese emigrants during the Ming and Qing, and Taiwa…
The spread of Daoism in Europe and the Americas may be traced along two threads: the Daoism of Chinese immigrants and an indigenized Western Daoism. From the mid-nineteen…
The Donghua School is a Daoist tradition that split off from the Lingbao school during the Southern Song, with Ning Quanzhen as its effective founder. Its self-narrated g…
Folk Daoist Ritual Traditions (Minjian Daofa, also called Fajiao or Shijiao in scholarship) is a collective term for the many ritual-master (fashi) systems that formed fr…
The Golden Elixir tradition, or Danding (Elixir and Tripod) School, is a Daoist tradition whose principal path of cultivation is the compounding of external elixirs (waid…
The Gezao Lineage is the sectarian institution that the Lingbao School developed after the Tang and Song, centered on Mount Gezao in Jiangxi as its center of transmission…
The Hunyuan Lineage was a ritual tradition founded by Lei Shizhong at the end of the Southern Song and the beginning of the Yuan, a branch of the Correct Method of the Ce…
Jingming Daoism (Pure and Bright Daoism) is a Daoist order formed during the Song and Yuan at Xishan, Nanchang, Jiangxi, taking Xu Xun of the Eastern Jin as its patriarch…
The Jinshan Lineage is a branch that split off from the Quanzhen Longmen lineage in the Ming, centered on Mount Lao (Laoshan), named for its founding patriarch Sun Xuanqi…
The Li Family Way (Lijia Dao) was a popular Daoist tradition that originated in Shu during the Three Kingdoms and Jin periods and spread widely in the Jiangdong region. A…
The Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School is a Daoist scriptural tradition that arose at the end of the Eastern Jin, based on the Lingbao scriptures. The transmission of the…
Louguan Daoism was a Daoist tradition centered on the Louguan (Tower Belvedere) on Mount Zhongnan, active from the Northern and Southern Dynasties through the Sui and Tan…
The Lü Dongbin cult refers to the worship and ritual tradition centered on Lü Dongbin (given name Yan, courtesy name Dongbin, style Chunyangzi), the most widely dissemina…
The Lüshan (Mount Lü) Ritual Tradition is a popular tradition of Daoist ritual practice current in Fujian and the surrounding regions, in Taiwan, and among Fujianese comm…
The Maoshan Lineage is the sectarian institution that the Shangqing School developed after the Southern Dynasties, centered on Mount Mao (Maoshan) as its ancestral court;…
Mazu worship is the most important cult of a seafarers' protective deity around the China seas; its relationship to Daoism is close but not fully coextensive, and this si…
The Meishan Ritual Tradition is a folk Daoist ritual tradition that originated in the ancient Meishan region of central Hunan (roughly today's Xinhua and Anhua), practice…
The Northern Celestial Masters is the school that took shape after the Daoist priest Kou Qianzhi reformed the Way of the Celestial Masters under the Northern Wei. Kou Qia…
The Pu'an Ritual Tradition is a folk ritual tradition venerating the Southern Song eminent monk Patriarch Pu'an as its founding master; although it arose from Buddhism, i…
The Qingwei School is a Thunder Rites Daoist tradition that arose at the end of the Southern Song and into the Yuan, fusing the talismanic methods of the Shangqing, Lingb…
The Qionglong Mountain Lineage is a Daoist school founded in the early Qing by Shi Daoyuan in Suzhou, named after its ancestral court, Shangzhen Temple on Mount Qionglong…
Daoism was never transmitted to Japan as an organized religious order, but from ancient times its ideas, deities, and techniques were transmitted in great volume via the …
Vietnam has been under Daoist influence since the Han dynasty, when it belonged to Jiaozhi Commandery, and it is one of the regions within the Sinitic cultural sphere whe…
The Sanfeng Lineage is a Daoist tradition honoring Zhang Sanfeng as its founding patriarch, transmitted mainly at Mount Wudang. Zhang Sanfeng, given name Quanyi, also cal…
The Sanhuang (Three Sovereigns) Tradition is a Wei–Jin Daoist scriptural school centered on the Sanhuang wen (Scripture of the Three Sovereigns — comprising the Sanhuang …
The Sannai (Three Ladies) Branch of Lüshan is a division of the Lüshan tradition whose patriarchs are the "Three Lady Sovereigns" — Chen Jinggu (Lady Chen), Lin Jiuniang …
The Sanyi Teaching is a religion founded by Lin Zhao'en of Putian, Fujian, in the Ming dynasty, teaching the unity of the Three Teachings; it does not itself belong to Da…
The Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School is a new Daoist school that emerged among the great clans of Jiangnan in the mid-Eastern Jin, taking its name from the Shangqing Sc…
The Shenxiao (Divine Empyrean) School is a talismanic Daoist order distinguished by its thunder rites, which arose at the end of the Northern Song. "Shenxiao" refers to t…
The Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir (Nanzong) is a Daoist school of the Song–Yuan period that takes Zhang Boduan as its founding patriarch and internal-alchemical c…
Taiyi Daoism was a new Daoist tradition that arose in the Hebei–Henan region in the early Jin dynasty, together with Quanzhen Daoism and Zhen Dadao known as the 'Three Gr…
The Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Method of the Celestial Heart) is a talismanic Daoist tradition that arose in Jiangxi at the beginning of the Northern Song, the earliest of …
Lingguan Fa refers to the system of ritual methods and liturgies centered on invoking the Daoist Dharma-protecting deity Wang Lingguan (also called Wang E or Wang Shan, a…
The Way of Great Peace (Taiping Dao) was an early Daoist religious community founded by Zhang Jiao in Jizhou at the end of the Eastern Han, and together with the Way of t…
The Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao) is the continuation and further development of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice after Zhang Lu's surrender to Wei in 215, …
The Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao) was a Daoist religious community founded by Zhang Daoling (Zhang Ling) in the Ba-Shu region at the end of the Eastern Han,…
Wudang Daoism refers to the Daoist tradition centered on Mount Wudang in Hubei and on the cult of Zhenwu (the Dark Emperor of Heaven); historically it was not a single sc…
The Langmei (Elm-Plum) Lineage is one of the resident schools of the Wudang Mountains, taking its name from Wudang's native "langmei" fruit and from Li Suxi, a Daoist pri…
The Wudang Qingwei Lineage is a local branch that formed after the Qingwei Thunder Rites spread north to the Wudang Mountains. Its founder, Zhang Shouqing (1253–1336?), p…
The Xuanwu Lineage is a branch within the resident Daoist orders of the Wudang Mountains that possesses a complete generational-name genealogy; it takes its name from its…
The Xihe Lineage is a ritual tradition that honors Sa Shoujian as its founding patriarch, taking its name from Sa Shoujian's self-styling as the "Sa Guest of Fenyang" and…
Xuanjiao (the Mysterious Teaching) is a lineage that split off from Zhengyi Daoism in the Yuan dynasty, founded by Zhang Liusun. Zhang Liusun (1248–1321), a native of Gui…
Yao Daoism refers to the form of Daoism believed in and transmitted by the Yao people (particularly the various branches of the Guoshan Yao and the Panyao). From the Song…
Zhen Dadao (True Great Way), originally named Dadao Jiao (Teaching of the Great Way), is a new Daoist order founded by Liu Deren (1122–1180) of Cangzhou, Hebei, in the ea…
Zhengyi Daoism takes the Celestial Masters of Longhushan as its patriarchal line and is characterized by talismans, registers, and rites of retreat and offering; together…
The Zhengyi Sanshan Dixue Lineage is the generation-name system current within Zhengyi Daoism, and is today the principal basis on which ordination names are assigned in …
In 1949, Zhang Enpu, the 63rd-generation Celestial Master of Longhushan in Jiangxi, crossed the strait to Taiwan together with his son Zhang Yunxian and the ancestral swo…
The Hsinchu City God Temple holds the highest rank among the City God temples of Taiwan. It was built on the memorial of Zeng Riying, sub-prefect of Danshui Sub-prefectur…
Hsing Tian Kong, Taipei, was founded by Daoist Master Xuankong (Huang Cong), a coal-mining proprietor, who established the "Xingtiantang" in 1943; it relocated and was re…
The Tua Pek Kong Temple (formally Vihara/Klenteng Tri Dharma Bumi Raya), built in 1878, is the oldest Chinese temple and a city landmark of Singkawang. Ethnic Chinese mak…
The Mansion of the Celestial Masters was the residence and seat of authority of successive generations of the Celestial Master Zhang. It was built by imperial decree at G…
The Miaoli Yuqing Temple principally enshrines the Three Benefactor Lords (Guandi, Fuyou Dijun, and Siming Zhenjun), and belongs to the luantang tradition. It was founded…
Mount Gezao is the ancestral court of the Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School. Tradition holds that Ge Xuan (the Immortal Elder Ge) of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms per…
Mount Mao was anciently called Mount Gouqu; tradition holds that the three Mao brothers — Mao Ying, Mao Gu and Mao Zhong — of the Western Han cultivated the Dao here, giv…
The Wong Tai Sin Temple is the most actively worshipped Daoist temple in Hong Kong, administered by the charitable organization Sik Sik Yuen. Wong Tai Sin is Huang Chupin…
The Tenson-byo and Tenpi-gu in Naha are administered by the Kume Sosei-kai, a general incorporated association, and are the wellspring of Daoist belief in Okinawa. From t…
Then Sze Koon, Seremban, is a temple in Negeri Sembilan with Zhang Tianshi (Zhang Daoling, the founding Celestial Master of Zhengyi) as its principal deity, a relatively …
Wudang Mountains, anciently called Mount Taihe, is the sacred site of Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior, Xuandi), and is listed as the ninth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands,…
The Yicheng Tang Guandi Temple principally enshrines Guandi (Emperor Guan); at its founding it venerated the Three Sage Benefactor Lords, and it belongs to the Rujiao She…
Zhengyi Temple stands beneath Liandan Cliff (Alchemy Cliff) at Mount Longhu; tradition holds that Zhang Daoling built a hut here and practiced alchemy, and that Zhang She…
Zhinan Temple, popularly known as the Immortal Lord's Temple (Xiangong Miao), is dedicated mainly to Sovereign Lord Fuyou, Lü Dongbin, and is the most famous place of Lü …
A collective term for Daoist lineages whose primary practice is alchemy — external or internal — as opposed to the talismanic schools. It traces its origins to Fangxian D…
Written by Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin, the Inner Chapters (20 scrolls) discuss immortality, the golden elixir, ingestion of herbs and minerals, talismans and registers, a…
The foremost of the Three Pure Ones, dwelling in the Qingwei Heaven (Pure Tenuity) of the Jade Clarity Realm, a supreme deity held to have existed before the creation of …
A national Daoist organization founded in 1957, headquartered at White Cloud Temple in Beijing; its successive presidents have included Yue Chongdai, Chen Yingning, Li Yu…
Conferral of Registers (shoulu) is the rite by which a Zhengyi priest receives a ritual register and thereby obtains priestly rank. It must be presided over by a register…
Consecration (kaiguang) is the rite performed for a newly made deity image, in which the eyes are "dotted" and the deity is invited to enter the image; the priest perform…
Compiled at the turn of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, in 268 scrolls, it gathers the thunder rites, talismans and incantations, methods for summoning generals, healing, an…
Daoshi (Daoist Priest) is the term for religious professionals who follow the Dao in practice and preside over liturgical rites; women are called kundao or nüguan. Quanzh…
A selective compendium of the Daoist Canon compiled by Jiang Yuanting during the Jiaqing reign of the Qing and reprinted with additions by Erxian Nunnery in Chengdu durin…
Divine generals who guard the Dharma, temples, and ritual altars, such as Wang Lingguan, the Four Great Marshals (Ma, Zhao, Wen, and Guan), the marshals of the Thunder De…
The gods who guard the household gate and ward off evil, originally Shentu and Yulü, replaced from the Tang onward mostly by Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong. New Year woodblock…
The eight three-line symbols — Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen and Dui — symbolizing heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake. Daoism uses the pre-…
The five basic material properties — metal, wood, water, fire and earth — and their relationships of mutual generation and mutual overcoming, used to explain the transfor…
The four Celestial Masters venerated by Daoism as Dharma Protectors: Zhang Daoling, Ge Xuan, Xu Xun, and Sa Shoujian (in one account Qiu Chuji replaces Sa Shoujian). Thei…
The deity who presides over wealth. The Civil God of Wealth usually refers to Bi Gan or Fan Li, while the Martial God of Wealth is Zhao Gongming (Perfected Lord of the My…
Hand Seals (jue, also qiajue) are specific finger configurations, such as the Sword Seal, Thunder Seal, and Yuqing Seal, symbolizing the summoning of spirits, transformat…
Handwritten Confessions to the Three Officials was a healing method of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice: the sick person wrote his own name and an expression of repentan…
The High Priest (gaogong) is the officiating Daoist who presides over the entire jiao and communicates with the gods on behalf of the assembled faithful. He must be thoro…
The practice of suppressing inauspicious influences in a dwelling and safeguarding the household's peace by means of talismans and registers, mirrors, bagua plaques, Shi …
Incantations (zhou) are verbal formulas recited to command spirits and ghosts and to restrain evil forces, such as the Incantation for Purifying the Mind, the Golden Ligh…
The head clerical office of each parish under the early Way of the Celestial Masters, responsible for governing Daoist commoners, presiding over the submission of petitio…
The master-to-disciple genealogy of Daoist transmission, perpetuated through the passing on of scriptures, the conferral of registers, the transmission of precepts, or se…
Lü Dongbin, styled Chunyangzi, a late-Tang Daoist priest, one of the Eight Immortals, and patriarch of the Zhong–Lü Internal Alchemy Tradition; Quanzhen venerates him as …
A Thunder Rite talismanic lineage formed in the late Song and early Yuan, tracing its founder to the Tang-dynasty Zushu; brought to culmination by Huang Shunshen in the Y…
Refinement and Salvation (Liandu): a rite of salvation for the dead that arose after the Song, in which the officiating priest combines their own internal-alchemical atta…
Registers (lu) are secret texts recording the names, forms, and subordinate officers and troops of the celestial gods. Once a Daoist priest has received a register, he ma…
Ritual Implements are the objects used during liturgical rites, such as the audience tablet (chaojian, or hu), the command plaque, the ritual sword, the Tianpeng ruler, t…
Ritual Registers (falu) are the graded texts of registers conferred on a Daoist priest. The Zhengyi order confers, among others, the Taishang Sanwu Dugong Register, the Z…
Perfected Man Sa, a Song-dynasty Daoist priest who transmitted the Thunder Rites of Shenxiao and secret methods of incantation with jujubes, known for burning down licent…
A Thunder Rite lineage founded by Wang Wenqing and Lin Lingsu in the late Northern Song, vigorously patronized by Emperor Huizong of Song, venerating the Supreme Sovereig…
Twelve divine generals named after the sexagenary stems and branches — the six Ding are yin spirits, jade maidens, and the six Jia are yang spirits, mighty warriors — who…
An internal-alchemy lineage tracing its founder to Zhang Boduan, which flourished in Jiangnan during the Southern Song; it taught cultivating Life before Nature and did n…
A method of divination and revelation in which a planchette writes on a tray of sand to invite a deity's descent; already flourishing in the Song dynasty, a great many Da…
The Steps of Yu are traditionally said to derive from the limping gait that Yu the Great developed from the exhaustion of controlling the floods — three steps leaving nin…
Submitting Petitions (shangzhang) was a core rite of the early Way of the Celestial Masters, in which a priest wrote a petition on behalf of a believer and submitted it t…
Talismans (fu) are mysterious graphic characters written in cinnabar ink on paper or silk, serving as the script of the celestial gods and as tokens attesting a priest's …
Water into which a burnt talisman has been mixed, or water empowered by talismanic incantation, drunk or sprinkled to cure illness and expel evil. The Way of Great Peace …
Talismans and Registers (fulu) is a compound term for fu and lu together, referring broadly to the Daoist ritual traditions characterized by talismans, incantations and m…
The three great talisman-conferral centers recognized by the Song court: Longhushan (Zhengyi), Maoshan (Shangqing), and Mount Gezao (Lingbao). In the Yuan dynasty the Cel…
The Celestial Worthy of Universal Transformation through the Sound of Thunder, Responding to the Primordial from the Nine Heavens, the highest deity of the Thunder Depart…
Thunder Rites (leifa) are a system of Daoist ritual that arose in the Song dynasty, in which a priest, grounded in internal-alchemical attainment, summons and commands th…
A talismanic lineage transmitted by Rao Dongtian in the Northern Song, noted for healing and exorcism through the Northern Ultimate Court for Expelling Evil and the Three…
A religious community founded in Shu by Zhang Ling during the reign of Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han, named for the five pecks of rice required of new initiates; it was…
Perfected Lord of the Mysterious Altar, originally recorded as a plague deity as early as the Jin dynasty; in Song and Yuan Daoist scriptures he is a marshal of the Thund…
A general term for the talismanic lineages descended from the Way of the Celestial Masters; in the Yuan dynasty the Celestial Master of Longhushan was given authority ove…
Emperor Xuanwu, the northern god of water; the name was changed to Zhenwu under a naming taboo of the Song. Emperor Yongle of Ming honored him as 'Perfected Warrior, Myst…
《清微丹诀》一卷，分合道、入室、临坛、发用四门，附清微坐功，是清微派把内丹学与雷法打通的纲领文本。其核心命题：「玄关一窍，乃先天一炁，此万法之宗、金丹之枢纽」——并明言此先天一炁在神霄谓之「真王」、在雷法谓之「雷祖」：内丹所炼与雷法所召，本是同一物。又云「法中之要，非专于符，非泥于咒，先以我之正气，合将之灵……故德者道之符，诚者法之本」「…
The Cuixu pian (Anthology of Cuixu) is a collection of alchemical poetry and prose by Chen Nan (styled Cuixu, also Niwan), fourth patriarch of the Southern Lineage, conta…
The Baopuzi Inner Chapters is Ge Hong's systematic theoretical work summarizing the immortality arts transmitted from the Han and Wei onward, and the representative scrip…
The Classic of Filial Piety of Lord Wenchang purports to have been transmitted through spirit-writing by Wenchang Dijun, composed in imitation of the format of the Confuc…
Bai Yuchan, fifth of the Five Southern Patriarchs and the effective founder of the Southern Lineage as an organized school, left his poetry, prose, and alchemical writing…
The Complete Works of Patriarch Lü (Lüzu quanshu) is a Qing-dynasty compendium gathering scriptures, poetry, and spirit-writing revelations attributed to Lü Dongbin; Liu …
The Wudang Fudi Zongzhen Ji (Comprehensive Collection of the Perfected of the Blessed Land of Wudang), in three juan, is the earliest surviving gazetteer of the Wudang Mo…
The Concealed Instructions for Ascending to Perfection (Dengzhen yinjue) is Tao Hongjing's compilation of Shangqing scriptural instructions, in which he classified, arran…
The Corpus of Daoist Ritual is the largest compendium of talismanic and ritual methods in the Daoist Canon, in 268 juan, gathering the Thunder Rites and ritual methods of…
The Shangqing Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Rites of the Celestial Heart of Shangqing) is a seven-fascicle ritual manual of the Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Method of the Celestia…
The Xuanmen Risong Zaowan Gongke Jing (Daily Morning and Evening Liturgy of the Mysterious Gate) is a compilation of scriptures and litanies recited daily, morning and ev…
Daoist Texts outside the Canon is the most important modern facsimile compendium of Daoist texts, edited by Hu Daojing, Chen Yaoting, Duan Wengui, Lin Wanqing, and others…
The Essentials of the Daoist Canon (Daozang jiyao) is the most important compendium of Daoist texts from the Qing dynasty. Two accounts exist of its compilation: one hold…
The Gazetteer of Mount Longhu records the history of Mount Longhu in Guixi, Jiangxi — the ancestral seat of Zhengyi Daoism and the residence of successive generations of …
The Chi Jian Da Yue Taihe Shan Zhi (Gazetteer of Mount Taihe, the Great Marchmount, Built by Imperial Decree) is the representative officially compiled gazetteer of the W…
The Gazetteer of Patriarch Lü, in six scrolls, is included in the Supplementary Daoist Canon of the Wanli Era and is a compendious document of the cult of Lü Dongbin. The…
The Qingwei Xianpu (Genealogy of the Immortals of the Qingwei Tradition) is a one-fascicle genealogy of the Qingwei school's patriarchal transmission, compiled by Chen Ca…
The Golden Book of Salvation according to the Lingbao Tradition is the largest compendium of ritual in the Daoist Canon, attributed to the transmission of Ning Quanzhen o…
The Great Clarity Scripture of Daoyin and Nourishing Life is an important text in the Daoist Canon devoted specifically to recording daoyin exercises, gathering together …
Jin Yunzhong's recension of the Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao is the culminating work of Southern Song Lingbao ritual, in forty-five juan. Jin Yunzhong was a Southern …
Wang Qizhen's recension of the Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao, in sixty-six scrolls, is a systematic compilation of the Lingbao methods of the Donghua tradition transmi…
《清微元降大法》二十五卷，是清微派法术的大型汇编。前半述源流（〈元始清微应运〉〈师承集要宗会〉〈道原〉诸篇），后半汇集约五十种雷法——清微通玄秘法、上清摄山五雷法、西梵碧落五雷法、上清五元五雷法、清微龙光内法等。每种雷法体例固定：先列本部雷神将帅之姓名、表字、冠服、相貌（如「欻火律令大神炎帝天君邓燮，字伯温……执铁钻锤，乘龙」「雷霆都督元…
The Jade Mirror of Lingbao is a compendium of Lingbao retreat and offering ritual essentials compiled in the Yuan dynasty, in 43 juan, its title "Jade Mirror" likening th…
The Pearls Left Behind from the Sea of Rituals is a compendium of ritual methods assembled in the Yuan–Ming transition, in 46 juan; similar in nature to the Corpus of Dao…
The Preface to the Five Talismans of Lingbao is the fountainhead text of the Lingbao scriptural lineage, and it is from this work that the name "Lingbao" (Numinous Treasu…
The Record of Ranks of the Mysterious (Xuanpin lu), in five scrolls, was compiled by the celebrated Yuan-dynasty Daoist and poet-calligrapher Zhang Yu, who arranges Daois…
Records of Daoist Miraculous Efficacy is the most important collection of Daoist miracle-tales from the Tang and Five Dynasties, compiled by Du Guangting, gathering sever…
The Qingwei Zhaifa (Retreat Rites of the Qingwei Tradition) is a Yuan-dynasty ritual manual of the Qingwei school in two fascicles, recording the procedures and essential…
The Taishang Dongyuan Shenzhou Jing (Scripture of Divine Incantations of the Cavernous Abyss) is the scripture of the popular Daoist ‘Dongyuan (Cavernous Abyss)’ traditio…
The Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace) is the earliest and longest of the surviving early Daoist scriptures, and the intellectual source of the Way of Great Peace (T…
The Scripture of Precepts Chanted by Lord Lao preserves a surviving portion of the Yunzhong Yinsong Xinke zhi Jie (New Chanted Regulations and Precepts from within the Cl…
The Yuhuang jing, in full the Scripture of the Original Deeds of the Jade Emperor (Gaoshang yuhuang benxing ji jing), is a scripture that appeared after the rise of the c…
The Scripture of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) is the foundational scripture of the Dongshen (Cavern of Spirit) Section among the Daoist "Three Caverns," standing a…
The Taishang Zhuguo Jiumin Zongzhen Biyao (Secret Essentials of the Assembled Perfected for Aiding the State and Saving the People) is a Tianxin Zhengfa ritual manual com…
《清微神烈秘法》二卷，出自元末武当山清微道士之手，是武当清微一系（张守清法脉）的代表性法本。分〈雷奥秘论〉〈师派〉〈圣位〉〈习定坐法〉〈祈祷建四溟外坛式〉〈符命一宗〉诸门。〈雷奥秘论〉立论「万法以心为正……其妙乃以吾神合彼神，吾灵合彼灵……静则是道，动则是法」，并述元始一炁分梵、清、景三炁的雷法宇宙论，称人间清微雷法为「下品灵书，应世宗师…
The Supplementary Daoist Canon of the Wanli Era (Wanli xu Daozang) was compiled and printed by imperial edict in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign of Emperor Shenz…
The True Scripture of Awakening the World by Lord Guan is one of the "Three Sage Scriptures," the morality books of the Ming and Qing periods, attributed to Guan Yu (Lord…
True Words Singing the Dao (Changdao zhenyan) is a work on internal alchemy produced at Qing-dynasty spirit-writing altars, said to have been transmitted through the brus…
The Duren jing, in full the Wondrous Scripture of the Upper Chapters on Limitless Salvation of Primordial Beginning, is the first scripture of the Lingbao lineage, and th…
清微雷法是宋元「道法合一」运动的完成形态：它把内丹学彻底注入符箓道法，主张「以道为体、以法为用」，符咒诀罡只是末技，先天一炁与正心诚意才是根本。本文依据《正统道藏》原典——《道法会元》前五十五卷清微部分、《清微元降大法》《清微神烈秘法》《清微斋法》《清微丹诀》——逐项整理清微雷法的具体行持：法论纲领、内炼基础、变神存思、书符运炁、掐诀步罡…
「武当玄武派」作为有连续可考谱系的道派，文献依据相当薄弱；它今天的形态，本质上是 1989 年由武当山道教协会（首任会长王光德）恢复并统合而设的本山派系。其起源叙事有三种互相竞争的说法——明永乐十一年（1413）张宇清选调四百道士说、张三丰开创说、元代张守清一系说——三说均带有不同程度的追认性质：选调道士确有其事（任自垣《敕建大岳太和山志…
「武当＝武学圣地」的公众形象，是三重叠加的产物：黄宗羲《王征南墓志铭》（1669）一句「内家拳起于宋之张三峰」、民国中央国术馆把太极形意八卦划归「武当门」的分类建构、以及金庸与还珠楼主的小说想象。真实的武当道教以真武信仰、斋醮科仪、内丹修炼为主体，武术是附属，且大量内容为民国以来整合追认；但当代武当山又以这一形象为依托，重建了确实存在且已…