Louguan School楼观道
- Also known as
- Louguan School, Louguan Daoist School, Yin Xi School
- Type
- Sects
- Period
- Northern and Southern Dynasties–Sui-Tang
- Founded
- Formed during the Northern Dynasties (c. 5th century), traditionally traced back to Yin Xi of the Zhou
- Founder
- Guan Yin (Yin Xi), Liang Chen
- Region
- Louguan on the Zhongnan Mountains, Zhouzhi, Shaanxi
- Ancestral seat
- Louguantai (Louguan Terrace)
- Status
- Absorbed into Other Lineages — The independent religious community faded after the Tang; since the Yuan dynasty Louguantai has been a Quanzhen temple, today belonging to the Quanzhen Longmen lineage, regarded as one of the ancestral sites of Daoism, and preserving ancient monuments such as the Shuojing Terrace (Scripture-Expounding Terrace).
Overview
Louguan Daoism was a Daoist tradition centered on the Louguan (Tower Belvedere) on Mount Zhongnan, active from the Northern and Southern Dynasties through the Sui and Tang. According to its own account, Louguan was the place where Yin Xi, Gatekeeper of the Hangu Pass under King Kang of Zhou, built a tower of thatched grass and observed the stars and vapors; Laozi, traveling west, stopped there and delivered his five-thousand-character teaching, the Daodejing, to Yin Xi — hence Louguan is renowned as "the place where all Daoist forests under Heaven take their origin." This legend took shape gradually after the Wei-Jin period, while the actual religious community formed in the Northern Dynasties: under Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, the Daoist priests Yin Tong and Niu Wenhou, among others, resided at Louguan, and Liang Chen (also written Liang Zhan) transmitted the divinely revealed scriptures and methods recorded in the Traditions of the Former Masters of Louguan; under Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Wang Yan, Yan Da and others of the "Ten Elders of Tiangu" were held in high esteem, and Emperor Wu built the Tongdao Temple to gather Daoists there to organize the scriptures, bringing Louguan Daoism to its height. At the Sui-Tang transition, the Louguan Daoist priest Qi Hui (Qi Pingding) financed Li Yuan's uprising, and during the Wude reign of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Louguan was rebuilt by imperial decree and bestowed the name Zongsheng Temple, making Louguan Daoism a prominent tradition of the early Tang, in keeping with the Li-Tang imperial house's policy of honoring Laozi as its ancestor. Louguan Daoism takes Yin Xi as its founding patriarch, venerating the Daodejing, the Scripture of Laozi's Western Ascension and the Scripture of Laozi's Conversion of the Barbarians, and propagating the doctrine of Laozi's conversion of the barbarians; it played an important role in the Buddhist-Daoist debates of the Northern Dynasties, and its priests, drawing on the scriptures organized at the Tongdao Temple, took part in compiling the early Daoist encyclopedia Supreme Secret Essentials. Louguan Daoism practiced Celestial Master talismans and registers, Shangqing visualization, and the ingestion of alchemical elixirs together, without any distinctive doctrine of its own — it was a synthesis of northern Daoism during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. From the mid-Tang onward Louguan Daoism gradually declined, and in the Yuan dynasty Louguantai came under Quanzhen Daoism, becoming one of the important ancestral sites of the Quanzhen tradition.
Core Doctrine
Venerating Laozi as founder of the teaching and Yin Xi as founding patriarch, with the Daodejing and the Scripture of Laozi's Western Ascension as its principal scriptures; it propagated the theory that Laozi traveled west out of the Hangu Pass and converted the barbarians into Buddhists, holding that Daoism preceded Buddhism; it combined Celestial Master talismans and registers, Shangqing scriptural methods and the ingestion of alchemical elixirs, its doctrine inclined toward reconciling the various northern traditions. Louguan Daoism was also an important promoter of the Sui-Tang political theology that made "Laozi the ancestor of the Li-Tang house," and its scriptures and hagiographies largely embellish the sacred genealogy of Yin Xi's reception of the scriptures and Laozi's descent into the world.
Practice & Ritual
Chanting the Daodejing and the Scripture of Laozi's Western Ascension; lecturing on scripture and discoursing on doctrine (at the Northern Zhou's Tongdao Temple); liturgical retreats and offerings to avert calamity and pray for blessings; ingesting breath and refining elixirs; receiving the scriptures and registers of the Three Caverns; Northern Dynasties Daoists took part in Buddhist-Daoist debates and in shaping court religious policy. Louguan priests also gave weight to alchemy, elixir ingestion and visualization; Tang-dynasty artifacts and steles excavated at Louguan reflect the scale of its temple and its liturgical activities. Its activities combined religious cultivation with political and cultural functions.
Transmission
Traced back to its founder Yin Xi; Yin Tong and Niu Wenhou of the Northern Wei → Liang Chen → Wang Jia, Sun Che → Wang Yan, Yan Da and other members of the "Ten Elders of Tiangu" of the Northern Zhou → Qi Hui, Yin Wencao and others of the Sui-Tang → gradual decline in the mid-to-late Tang → Louguantai absorbed into Quanzhen Daoism in the Yuan dynasty. Tang-dynasty Louguan Daoists such as Yin Wencao once compiled, by imperial decree, the Sacred Record of the Sovereign Emperor of Mystery and Origin, incorporating Louguan into the cult of the Li-Tang ancestors; its transmission thereafter gradually merged with other temples on Mount Zhongnan.