Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) School重玄派

Also known as

Chongxuan Learning (Twofold Mystery), Twofold Forgetting School (Shuangqian), Learning of Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery)

Type

School

Period

Sui–Tang

Founded

Originated with Sun Deng of the Eastern Jin and continued through the Southern Dynasties, maturing in the Sui and Tang (7th–8th centuries)

Founder

Cheng Xuanying, Li Rong

Region

Chang'an, Shu, and Jiangnan

Status

Absorbed into Other Lineages — As an intellectual current it faded after the mid-Tang, with no organized transmission; its theory of Dao-nature and its apophatic method were absorbed into internal alchemy and Daoist philosophy from the Song and Yuan onward.

Overview

The Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) school was not an organized religious community but a hermeneutical school and philosophical current within Sui-Tang Daoism devoted to interpreting the Laozi under the principle of "twofold mystery." The term "chongxuan" derives from the Laozi's phrase "mystery upon mystery, the gate of all wonders"; Sun Deng of the Jin was the first to interpret the Laozi through "twofold mystery," followed by Meng Zhizhou and Zang Xuanjing of the Southern Dynasties. In the early Tang, Cheng Xuanying wrote the Subcommentary on the Meaning of the Laozi and the Subcommentary on the True Scripture of Southern Florescence, Li Rong wrote a Commentary on the Daodejing, and Wang Xuanlan of Shu wrote the Record of the Mysterious Pearl; all of them expounded the substance of the Dao through the method of "double negation" — "neither being nor non-being, and also neither non-being nor non-non-being" — absorbing the apophatic logic of the Buddhist Three Treatise school and Madhyamaka thought, and holding that one must negate being, negate non-being, and then negate the negation itself ("twofold mystery"), returning to the empty, still and self-so nature of the Dao, thereby elevating the study of Laozi and Zhuangzi into a highly speculative metaphysics. Chongxuan thought and the Buddhist theories of "Dao-nature" and "Buddha-nature" stimulated one another, and Tang-dynasty scriptural treatises such as the Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching, the Scripture of the Original Bound and the Scripture of the Wisdom Treasury of Ocean-Emptiness embody this current of thought, providing the theoretical background for Emperor Xuanzong's imperial commentary on the Daodejing and for Sima Chengzhen's Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion. After the mid-Tang, Chongxuan scholarship declined, but its concepts of "nature," "mind" and "Dao-nature" were absorbed into Song-Yuan internal-alchemy studies, transformed into the theory of mind and nature within the "dual cultivation of nature and life"; the Song-dynasty commentaries on the Laozi by Chen Jingyuan and Du Guangting still bear traces of Chongxuan thought. Scholars regard the Chongxuan school as the highest philosophical achievement of Tang-dynasty Daoism, the intellectual refinement Daoism accomplished under the stimulus of Buddhism.

Core Doctrine

Taking 'twofold mystery' — the double negation of being and non-being, and the negation of that negation as well — as its method, it holds that the substance of the Dao is neither being nor non-being, adheres to neither extreme, and does not even adhere to 'non-adherence,' ultimately returning to 'empty mystery'; it puts forward the theory of Dao-nature, holding that all sentient beings possess Dao-nature, and that cultivating the Dao is realizing one's own inherently pure and still Dao-nature; it advocates dispelling desire to clarify the mind and sitting in oblivion to merge with the Dao, engaging extensively with Buddhist Madhyamaka and Nirvana doctrine.

Practice & Ritual

Centered chiefly on writing commentaries on the scriptures and discoursing on doctrine, such as commentaries on the Laozi, the Zhuangzi and the Scripture of Laozi's Western Ascension; its cultivation methods emphasized clarifying and contemplating the mind and nature, forgetting things and forgetting the self, and visualization grounded in scripture; it had little connection to communal ritual. Chongxuan scholars were mostly temple Daoists or court Daoist officials, taking part in Buddhist-Daoist debates and the compilation of imperially commissioned scriptural commentaries; their conception of cultivation centered on 'sitting in oblivion,' 'guarding stillness' and 'embodying the Dao,' bearing a conceptual connection to the formation of internal alchemy.

Transmission

Sun Deng of the Eastern Jin interprets the Laozi through twofold mystery → Meng Zhizhou and Zang Xuanjing of the Southern Dynasties → Liu Jinxi of the Sui → Cheng Xuanying, Li Rong, Cai Zihuang and Wang Xuanlan of the early Tang → the mid-Tang system of Meng Anpai's Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching and the Scripture of the Original Bound → influencing Sima Chengzhen, Wu Yun and Emperor Xuanzong's commentary on the Laozi → Chen Jingyuan and Du Guangting of the Song still influenced by it → its concepts absorbed into the theory of mind and nature in internal alchemy.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples