Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage of Quanzhen全真龙门派

Also known as

Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage, Longmen Lineage, Qiuzu Branch (Patriarch Qiu's Branch)

Type

Branch Lineages

Period

Yuan dynasty to the present

Founded

Founded on Qiu Chuji (1148–1227) of the late Jin and early Yuan as patriarch; the branch name took shape from the mid-Ming onward, and flourished greatly after Wang Changyue publicly transmitted the precepts at the White Cloud Temple in the thirteenth year of Shunzhi of the Qing (1656)

Founder

Qiu Chuji

Derived from

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism

Region

Originated at Mount Longmen in Longzhou, Shaanxi; active in Beijing and Shandong during the Yuan, and spread across the whole country and overseas from the Qing onward

Ancestral seat

White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan), Beijing

Status

Extant — The mainstream and largest branch of Quanzhen Daoism on the mainland today, to which most Quanzhen temples belong; it has transmissions at White Cloud Temple in Beijing, Qingcheng Mountain, Laoshan, the Wudang Mountains, Qian Mountain, and Jizu Mountain, among other places; Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Europe and America (such as Quanzhen Daoism in the United States) also have Longmen precept transmission and ritual lineages.

Overview

The Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage is the most influential of the branches descending from the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, honoring Qiu Chuji as its patriarch, and takes its name from Mount Longmen in Longzhou, Shaanxi, where Qiu Chuji once lived in reclusion. In 1220 Qiu Chuji traveled west to the Snowy Mountains at the summons of Genghis Khan, urging him to "revere Heaven and love the people" and to "purify the mind and reduce desire"; he was granted authority over all Daoism under Heaven, and on returning to Yanjing he resided at Changchun Palace (today's White Cloud Temple), from which Quanzhen Daoism reached the height of its power. Qiu Chuji's disciples Yin Zhiping, Li Zhichang, Song Defang, and Wang Zhitan, among others, directed the affairs of the order in the Yuan dynasty and compiled and printed the Precious Canon of the Mysterious Metropolis. "Longmen Lineage" emerged as the name of an independent branch in the Ming dynasty and was transmitted at temples across the north from the mid to late Ming; its formal sectarian identity and the tradition of the hundred-character generation poem ("Dao, De, Tong, Xuan, Jing; Zhen, Chang, Shou, Tai, Qing...") are traditionally attributed to having been set by Qiu Chuji, but in fact took shape gradually after the Ming. In the thirteenth year of Shunzhi of the Qing (1656), Wang Changyue, the seventh-generation precept master of Longmen, opened an altar at White Cloud Temple by imperial order to confer precepts, ordaining over a thousand people in forty days, and subsequently transmitted precepts at Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hubei and elsewhere, so that the Longmen Lineage spread throughout the south, giving rise to the situation described as "Longmen holds half of all under Heaven"; thereafter Longmen branches arose at Jingai Mountain under Min Yide, and at Laoshan, Wudang, Jizu Mountain in Yunnan, Qingcheng Mountain in Sichuan, and Qian Mountain in the northeast, among other places. Modern and contemporary Longmen figures — such as Chen Yingning (some say he belonged to Longmen), Yue Chongdai, Li Yuhang, Min Zhiting, Ren Farong, and Li Guangfu, all of whom served successively as president of the Chinese Taoist Association — all came from this lineage. Characterized by strict observance of the precepts, a system of precept transmission, quietist internal-alchemical cultivation, and the administration of public monasteries, the Longmen Lineage is the mainstay of Quanzhen Daoism on the mainland today, and most Quanzhen temples in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Europe and America also belong to Longmen.

Core Doctrine

Upholds Quanzhen Daoism's principles of the unity of the Three Teachings, dual cultivation of nature and life, and clarity, stillness and non-action, with particular emphasis on the precepts, holding that "the precepts are the supreme root of enlightenment"; Wang Changyue's Heart Methods of the Dragon Gate Lineage advocates "taking refuge in the Three Treasures, repentance, cutting off anger, renouncing attachment, and cultivating perfection," unifying the observance of precepts with internal alchemy; later figures such as Min Yide integrated Confucianism and Buddhism, advocating "healing the world" through salvation. This tradition of precepts made the Longmen Lineage the central bearer of Quanzhen Daoism's institutions.

Practice & Ritual

The system of transmitting the Three Altars of Great Precepts (Initial Perfection, Medium Ultimate, and Celestial Immortality), with White Cloud Temple as the center of precept transmission; morning and evening liturgy, internal-alchemical quiet sitting, scripture recitation, and repentance rites; the public-monastery system, under which the abbot must be a Longmen precept master who has received the Celestial Immortality precepts; names assigned by generation according to the hundred-character generation poem ("Dao, De, Tong, Xuan, Jing; Zhen, Chang, Shou, Tai, Qing; Yi Yang Lai Fu Ben; He Jiao Yong Yuan Ming..."); and the practice of retreat-and-offering ritual and Quanzhen liturgical chant as well.

Transmission

Qiu Chuji (first generation) → Zhao Daojian (second generation according to the Longmen genealogy) → Zhang Dechun → Chen Tongwei → Zhou Xuanpu → Zhang Jingding and Shen Jingyuan (sixth generation) → Wang Changyue (seventh generation) → Tan Shoucheng and others → various regional branches in the Qing: Min Yide (eleventh generation) at Jingai Mountain, and branches at Laoshan, Wudang, Jizu Mountain (the Xizhu Xinzong branch), and Qingcheng Mountain, among others; from the Republican era to today, transmission continues by the hundred-character generation poem beginning "Dao, De, Tong, Xuan, Jing," with contemporary generations mostly in the twenties.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples