Daoist Temples and Altars of Hong Kong and Macau香港澳门道坛体系

Also known as

Daoism in Hong Kong, Daoism in Macau, Daoist Halls of Hong Kong and Macau, Hong Kong Taoist Association Network

Type

Daoist Schools

Period

Modern Era

Founded

Guangdong Daoist halls migrated south in the late nineteenth century; Sik Sik Yuen in 1921, Fung Ying Seen Koon in 1929, Ching Chung Koon in 1950, and the Hong Kong Taoist Association in 1961 (registered 1967)

Region

Hong Kong, Macau

Ancestral seat

Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, The Yuen Yuen Institute

Status

Extant — The Hong Kong Taoist Association has over a hundred member organizations and more than three hundred temples and Daoist halls, making it an important center of Daoism in southern China; the Macau Taoist Association promotes the transmission of ritual music; Daoist halls in Hong Kong and Macau maintain branches in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Overview

Daoism in Hong Kong and Macau consists mainly of Daoist halls (daotan), temples, and married (huoju) Zhengyi Daoist priests who arrived from Guangdong from the late Qing onward, forming a distinctive "Daoist hall" system. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, spirit-writing altars devoted to Patriarch Lü, Wong Tai Sin, and Jigong, along with Xiantian Dao and Quanzhen Daoist halls in the areas of Mount Luofu, Mount Xiqiao, and Guangzhou in Guangdong, migrated south to Hong Kong one after another owing to social upheaval: the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple was established in 1921 (originating from the Puyi Altar in Guangzhou); Fung Ying Seen Koon (of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen, originating in Guangzhou) was completed in 1929; Ching Chung Koon (of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen, originating from the Zhibao Tai in Guangzhou) was founded in 1950; and thereafter Wun Chuen Sin Koon, the Yuen Yuen Institute (1950, combining Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism), Shang Sin Chun Tong, Fei Ngan Tung, and others were successively established, most of them characterized by spirit writing, dispensing medicine, running schools, and providing relief, and combining Quanzhen doctrine with local Guangdong devotional practice; married Zhengyi Daoist priests, meanwhile, conducted funerals and offering rites (such as the Da Jiu Peace and Purity Offering) in the form known as "naam mou." The Hong Kong Taoist Association was established in 1961 (registered as a legal entity in 1967), becoming the coordinating body for Daoism in Hong Kong, with over a hundred member temples and Daoist halls, running secondary and primary schools and homes for the aged; from 2013 the Hong Kong government designated the fifteenth day of the third lunar month as "Taoism Day." Daoism in Macau is mainly of the Zhengyi tradition, with institutions such as the Lü Zu Xian Yuan and the Hong Kung Temple; the Macau Taoist Association was established in 2001 (with Ng Peng Chi as its president), and Macau's Daoist ritual music has been included in the national-level Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Daoism in Hong Kong and Macau played the role of preserving scriptures, liturgy, and tradition during the period of stagnation of Daoism on the mainland from 1949 to the 1980s, and also served as a transit point for the spread of Daoism to Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas; Fung Ying Seen Koon and Ching Chung Koon maintain branch temples overseas and fund academic research.

Core Doctrine

Most Daoist halls follow the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen, venerating Patriarch Lü, Wang Chongyang, and Qiu Chuji, while also worshipping Wong Tai Sin, Jigong, Guanyin, Guandi, and others; they place great emphasis on spirit writing and its moral instructions, the exhortation to virtue, charitable relief of the world, and the unity of the Three Teachings; the Zhengyi tradition, by contrast, centers on ritual service. Overall, the doctrine is inclusive, closely bound up with popular Guangdong devotional practice. Hong Kong Daoist halls also place great weight on charitable and educational work, regarding it as an important way of "practicing the Dao."

Practice & Ritual

Practices include spirit writing (descending into trance, phoenix-writing scriptures), scripture recitation and penitential liturgy (Quanzhen chant melodies and Cantonese "naam mou" ritual), the Da Jiu (Peace and Purity Offering), the Yulanpen dharma assembly, and celebrations such as the birthdays of Patriarch Lü and Wong Tai Sin; charitable work such as dispensing free medicine, running schools, and providing elderly care; some Daoist halls hold ordinations transmitting the precepts (Ching Chung Koon and Fung Ying Seen Koon have held Quanzhen ordinations or taken part in ordinations on the mainland); and Zhengyi "naam mou" masters conduct funerals and offering rites.

Transmission

Late-Qing Daoist halls and spirit-writing altars on Mount Luofu, Mount Xiqiao, and in Guangzhou, Guangdong → migration south to Hong Kong to establish halls in the 1920s–1950s → the Hong Kong Taoist Association in 1961 → resumption of contact with the mainland Taoist association, Mount Longhu, and the Baiyun Guan from the 1980s onward → the establishment of the Macau Taoist Association in 2001.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples