Jinshan Lineage of Quanzhen全真金山派
- Also known as
- Jinshan Lineage of Quanzhen, Laoshan Branch, Laoshan Jinshan Branch, Sun Xuanqing Branch
- Type
- Branch Lineages
- Period
- Ming–Qing to the Present
- Founded
- Sun Xuanqing (1517–1569), during the Jiajing era of the Ming (mid-16th century)
- Founder
- Sun Xuanqing
- Derived from
- Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage of Quanzhen
- Region
- Mount Lao (Laoshan), Qingdao, Shandong
- Ancestral seat
- Mount Lao (Laoshan)
- Status
- Extant — The principal branch of Laoshan Daoism, transmitted at Taiqing Palace, Taiping Palace and other temples on Mount Lao, Qingdao; its scope is confined to the Shandong region.
Overview
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 Xuanqing, who is said to have cultivated the Dao at Jinshan on Mount Lao (or, by another account, near Minxia Grotto); it is popularly known as the Laoshan Lineage. Sun Xuanqing, sobriquet Haiyue Shanren, was a native of Shouguang, Shandong; he left the household early in life to become a Daoist priest on Mount Lao, studying successively under Li Xiantuo (also written Li Xiantuo) at Minxia Grotto on Mount Lao and the Perfected Tongyuan at Mount Tiecha, belonging to the fourth generation of Longmen. In the thirty-seventh year of the Jiajing era (1558) he traveled to the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, and, his prayers having proven efficacious, was granted the imperial title 'Perfected Ziyang, Chief Preceptor for the Protection of the State and Left Assistant to the Teaching'; he later returned to Mount Lao to teach, and his disciples formed the Jinshan Lineage, establishing their own generation-name poem ('Xuan zhi yi wushang, tian yuan miao li sheng...'), venerating Sun Xuanqing as founding patriarch. The Jinshan Lineage was transmitted chiefly through the various temples of Mount Lao (Taiqing Palace, Shangqing Palace, Minxia Grotto, and others), coexisting with the Longmen lineage on the mountain; in the Qing the Jinshan Lineage held considerable power on Mount Lao, and successive abbots of Taiqing Palace mostly belonged to it. Laoshan Daoism declined during the Republican period and was interrupted for a time after 1949; Taiqing Palace reopened in the 1980s, Jinshan-lineage priests returned to Mount Lao, and transmission resumed at Taiqing Palace, Taiping Palace, and elsewhere. Today the Laoshan Taoist Association and Taiqing Palace remain centered on the Jinshan Lineage, an important branch of Quanzhen Daoism in Shandong. The Jinshan Lineage is a typical example of a local sub-lineage: its doctrine is no different from that of Quanzhen Longmen generally, distinguished only by its own founding patriarch, place of practice, and generation-name poem.
Core Doctrine
The lineage follows the Quanzhen Longmen principles of the unity of the Three Teachings, dual cultivation of nature and life, and disciplined quiet cultivation; it venerates Sun Xuanqing as founding patriarch and emphasizes the local tradition of Mount Lao; it has no independent doctrinal system of its own. The Jinshan Lineage of Mount Lao also places emphasis on local deities (such as the spirits of the various grotto-heavens of Mount Lao) and on the tradition of martial arts and life-nourishing; Qing-dynasty priests of Mount Lao were renowned for swordsmanship and medical skill, distinguishing this lineage somewhat from other branches of Quanzhen.
Practice & Ritual
Monastic residence, internal-alchemy cultivation, morning and evening liturgy, and rites of retreat and offering (Laoshan Daoist music); the Jinshan Lineage's own sequence of generation names; receiving the Three Altars of Great Precepts (usually at the White Cloud Temple or the ordination platform on Mount Lao). Priests of the Laoshan Jinshan Lineage have traditionally also practiced martial arts, medicine, and Daoist music; Laoshan Daoist music is a Shandong provincial intangible cultural heritage item. Priests of Mount Lao also participate in local temple fairs and tourism-culture activities.
Transmission
Qiu Chuji (Longmen) → ... → Li Xiantuo → Sun Xuanqing (Jiajing reign of the Ming) → successive abbots of the various temples of Mount Lao → Liu Huaming and others in the Republican era → revival from the 1980s under Kuang Changxiu and others → the contemporary Laoshan Taoist Association. The contemporary Laoshan Taoist Association and Taiqing Palace remain centered on the Jinshan Lineage, an important branch of Quanzhen Daoism in Shandong, its generation-name sequence continuing to the present day.