Maoshan Lineage茅山宗
- Also known as
- Maoshan Lineage, Maoshan Shangqing Lineage, Shangqing Ordination Altar (Zongtan)
- Type
- Sect
- Period
- Southern Dynasties–Song-Yuan
- Founded
- Took shape after Tao Hongjing of the Southern Qi and Liang resided at Mount Mao (entering the mountain in 492), and became fully established during the Tang
- Founder
- Tao Hongjing
- Derived from
- Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School
- Region
- Mount Mao in Jurong, Jiangsu; its influence spread nationwide during the Tang and Song
- Ancestral seat
- Mount Mao (Maoshan)
- Status
- Absorbed into Other Lineages — After being absorbed into Zhengyi Daoism in the Yuan dynasty it ceased to exist as an independent lineage, but the Maoshan Daoist Temple still carries the name of the Shangqing Ancestral Altar and confers the Shangqing registers to this day; it is the seat of the Jiangsu Provincial Taoist Association and an important ancestral court of the Zhengyi tradition.
Overview
The Maoshan Lineage is the sectarian institution that the Shangqing School developed after the Southern Dynasties, centered on Mount Mao (Maoshan) as its ancestral court; scholars commonly call the period of Yang Xi and the Xu family the 'Shangqing scriptural school,' and the period after Tao Hongjing the 'Maoshan Lineage.' In the tenth year of the Yongming era of Qi (492), Tao Hongjing resigned his office and withdrew into seclusion on Mount Goqu (Maoshan), styling himself the 'Recluse of Huayang.' He sought out and collected the handwritten texts of Yang Xi, Xu Mi, and Xu Hui, collated and compiled them into the Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected), and composed the Concealed Instructions for Ascending to Perfection and the Chart of the Ranks and Functions of the Perfected Numina. He built the Upper and Lower Lodges of Huayang, where he gathered disciples to teach, and Emperor Wu of Liang repeatedly consulted him, so that he was known at the time as the 'Prime Minister of the Mountains.' Thereafter the Maoshan Lineage was characterized by the transmission of the teaching through successive 'Patriarchs' (zongshi): in the Tang, Wang Yuanzhi was received with honor by Emperor Yang of Sui and by the founding Emperor Gaozu of Tang; Pan Shizheng dwelt in Xiaoyao Valley on Mount Song; Sima Chengzhen was repeatedly summoned by Emperor Ruizong and Emperor Xuanzong, and Xuanzong himself received the Daoist registers from him in person; Li Hanguang later returned to Maoshan, and Xuanzong had the Ziyang Temple built for him. The patriarchs of the Maoshan Lineage were mostly versed as well in Confucian learning, calligraphy, and medicine, and maintained close ties with the court, representing the highest level of Daoist scholarship in the Tang dynasty. In the Northern Song, Liu Hunkang was honored by Emperor Zhezong and Emperor Huizong, who bestowed on him the title 'Master Baozhen Guanmiao,' and Maoshan was ranked as one of the 'Three Mountains of Registers,' with sole authority to confer the Shangqing registers. In the Yuan dynasty, Liu Dabin compiled the fifteen-scroll Gazetteer of Mount Mao, systematically recording the genealogy of the patriarchs and the temples on the mountain. In the eighth year of the Dade era of Emperor Chengzong of Yuan (1304), the thirty-eighth-generation Celestial Master Zhang Yucai was imperially charged with overseeing the registers of the Three Mountains, and the Maoshan Lineage was absorbed into Zhengyi Daoism, though Maoshan's status as the Shangqing Ancestral Altar and its transmission of registers continued. In the Ming and Qing, Maoshan Daoism saw the coexistence of Quanzhen and Zhengyi; today the Maoshan Daoist Temple belongs to the Zhengyi public-monastery tradition.
Core Doctrine
Continuing the Shangqing tradition's principles of visualization, inner contemplation, scripture recitation, and qi ingestion, centered on the Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern; Tao Hongjing organized the pantheon in his Chart of the Ranks and Functions of the Perfected Numina, establishing a seven-tiered hierarchy of deities with the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning at its summit. The Tang-dynasty patriarchs fused Lao-Zhuang Xuanxue with Buddhist calming-and-insight meditation, advancing theories of mind-cultivation such as sitting in oblivion, settling the mind, and true contemplation; after the Northern Song the lineage also practiced talismans, registers, and rites of retreat and offering.
Practice & Ritual
Visualization, scripture recitation, qi ingestion, daoyin, and alchemy (Tao Hongjing's work in alchemy and materia medica); the system of successive patriarchs and the conferral of the Shangqing registers; Sima Chengzhen's seven stages of sitting in oblivion in the Tang — severing entanglements, gathering the mind, simplifying affairs, true contemplation, great stability, and attaining the Dao; from the Northern Song onward, rites of retreat and offering and rain-prayers performed in service to the court were added. Maoshan's Daoist music and its system for conferring registers continue to the present day.
Transmission
Tao Hongjing (9th Patriarch) → Wang Yuanzhi (10th) → Pan Shizheng (11th) → Sima Chengzhen (12th) → Li Hanguang (13th) → Wei Jingzhao → Huang Dongyuan → Sun Zhiqing → Wu Fatong → Liu Dechang → Wang Qixia → Cheng Yanzhao → Jiang Yuanji → Wan Baochong → Zhu Ziying → Mao Fengrou → Liu Hunkang (25th) → Da Jingzhi → Xu Xihe → Jiang Jingche → Li Jingying → Xu Jingming → Xue Ruji → He Jinghua → Chen Jingyuan → Jiang Jingliang → Jiang Jingsheng → Xu Jingxiang → Jiang Zongying (39th), and others; in the Yuan dynasty Liu Dabin was the 45th Patriarch.