Jingming (Pure and Bright) Daoism净明道
- Also known as
- Jingming Zhongxiao Dao (Way of Pure Brightness, Loyalty and Filial Piety), Jingming Branch, Xu Xun Branch, Xishan Branch, Xiaodao Branch (Filial Piety Branch)
- Type
- Sects
- Period
- Southern Song–Yuan to the present
- Founded
- Founded on Xu Xun (239–374) of the Eastern Jin as patriarch; He Zhengong promoted the "Jingming" ritual registers during the Shaoxing era of the Southern Song (1131); Liu Yu (1257–1308) of the early Yuan formally established the teaching around 1297
- Founder
- Xu Xun, He Zhengong, Liu Yu
- Region
- Xishan, Nanchang, Jiangxi
- Ancestral seat
- Wanshou Palace of Xishan (Yulong Wanshou Palace)
- Status
- Absorbed into Other Lineages — After the Ming, it merged into Zhengyi Daoism and no longer exists as an independent order; Wanshou Palace of Xishan remains its ancestral court and continues the cult of Xu Xun, today a Zhengyi temple, and numerous Xu Zhenjun temples (Wanshou Palaces) are found in Jiangxi, Hunan, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.
Overview
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 and "loyalty, filiality, and purity and brightness" as its guiding principle. Xu Xun is traditionally said to have been magistrate of Jingyang in the Jin dynasty who gave up office to cultivate the Dao, slew a flood dragon to control the waters, and "ascended to Heaven, household and all"; he was widely worshipped among the people of Jiangxi in the Tang and Song, with Youwei Temple at Xishan (later Yulong Wanshou Palace) as the center of his cult, forming a "Filial Way" tradition centered on filial piety. In the first year of the Shaoxing era of the Southern Song (1131), the Xishan priest He Zhengong claimed to have received the "Great Rite of Purity and Brightness" through revelation from Xu Xun, advocating ritual registers and zhai-jiao rites founded on loyalty and filiality, a forerunner of Jingming Daoism proper. In the early Yuan, Liu Yu (styled Yuzhenzi) claimed to have received revelations repeatedly from Xu Xun and Hu Huichao, and formally established "Jingming Zhongxiao Dao" (Pure and Bright, Loyal and Filial Daoism) between the Zhiyuan and Dade eras (around 1297), taking the Jingming Zhongxiao Quanshu as its scripture and holding that "purity and brightness are nothing but rectifying the mind and making the intentions sincere; loyalty and filiality are nothing but upholding the moral bonds," directly making Confucian ethics the substance of Daoist practice, simplifying talismanic and zhai-jiao ritual, and emphasizing the introspective cultivation of "true loyalty and utmost filiality," which won it broad popularity among the scholar-officials. Liu Yu's teaching passed to Huang Yuanji (of the Yuan, not the same person as the Qing-dynasty Huang Yuanji), Huang Yuanji to Xu Hui, Xu Hui to Zhao Yizhen (who also transmitted the Qingwei tradition), and in the Ming, Zhao Yizhen's disciple Liu Yuanran presided over Chaotian Palace in the capital, giving Jingming Daoism influence at court. From the mid-Ming onward, Jingming Daoism gradually merged into Zhengyi Daoism, though Wanshou Palace of Xishan remained its ancestral court. Jingming Daoism is renowned as the most thorough fusion of Confucianism and Daoism, and stands as a paradigm of the Song–Yuan Daoist current of "the unity of the Three Teachings."
Core Doctrine
Takes "purity and brightness, loyalty and filiality" as its guiding thread: purity and brightness are the substance (a mind clear and bright), loyalty and filiality are the function (loyalty to one's sovereign, filiality to one's parents, rectifying the mind and making the intentions sincere); it holds that "to cultivate the way of the immortals, one must first cultivate the way of being human," and that the utmost of loyalty and filiality suffices to communicate with the spirits and reach the Dao; it simplifies talismanic and zhai-jiao ritual, emphasizing introspection, the elimination of desire, and forbearance toward others; it worships Xu Xun and the "Twelve Perfected Lords." This orientation makes Jingming Daoism representative of the Confucianization of Song–Yuan Daoism.
Practice & Ritual
Receiving Jingming ritual registers; carrying out the daily ethical practice of "the way of loyalty and filiality" and introspective accounting of merit and demerit; zhai-jiao ritual protocols centered on the cult of Xu Xun; talismanic healing and exorcism together with the "Great Rite of Purity and Brightness"; pilgrimage to Wanshou Palace at Xishan and services on Xu Xun's birthday. Jingming Daoism also places weight on confession and the recording of "merit and demerit," advocating daily self-examination of one's faults and the correction of faults through good deeds; its precepts and its tradition of morality books influenced the popular morality movements of the Ming and Qing.
Transmission
Xu Xun (Patriarch) → (the Filial Way tradition of the Tang and Song) → He Zhengong of the Southern Song → Liu Yu of the Yuan → Huang Yuanji → Xu Hui → Zhao Yizhen → Liu Yuanran (early Ming) → Shao Yizheng and others → merged into Zhengyi Daoism after the mid-Ming, with Wanshou Palace of Xishan as its ancestral court. Jingming Daoism was also transmitted through Liu Yuanran, Shao Yizheng, and others at Chaotian Palace in Beijing and Shenyue Temple in Nanjing during the Ming, and it influenced Zhengyi ritual protocols and morality books of the Ming and Qing.