Nanwu Lineage of Quanzhen全真南无派
- Also known as
- Nanwu Lineage, Tanzu Branch (Patriarch Tan's Branch), Changzhen Branch (Branch of Eternal Perfection)
- Type
- Branch Lineages
- Period
- Jin–Yuan to the Present
- Founded
- Founded on Tan Chuduan (1123–1185) as patriarch; took shape in the Yuan
- Founder
- Tan Chuduan
- Derived from
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- Region
- Ninghai, Shandong (present-day Yantai), Luoyang, Henan, and other places
- Status
- Extant — There is still a generation-poem transmission and Daoist priests who identify themselves as belonging to the Nanwu Lineage, but it has no independent order-based institution, and is usually found sharing Quanzhen public monasteries with Longmen and other lineages.
Overview
The Nanwu Lineage is the branch founded by Tan Chuduan, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Tan Chuduan, courtesy name Tongzheng, sobriquet Changzhen Zi, was a native of Ninghai, Shandong; he became a disciple of Wang Chongyang in the seventh year of Dading (1167) and followed his teacher to Shaanxi, and after Wang Chongyang's death he propagated the teaching in the area of Luoyang, known for "enduring humiliation" and "severing all deliberation and forgetting all scheming"; he died at Chaoyuan Temple in Luoyang. He wrote the Anthology of Clouds over Water. In the sixth year of Zhiyuan of Kublai Khan of Yuan (1269) he was posthumously titled "Perfected of Eternal Perfection Who Accumulates Virtue amid Clouds and Water." Scholars generally hold that the name "Nanwu" is a transliteration of the Buddhist term "namo" (taking refuge), reflecting Quanzhen Daoism's stance of the unity of the Three Teachings, though some interpret it as meaning "the boundlessness of the south." The Nanwu Lineage had a certain transmission in the Yuan dynasty, with disciples including Wang Zhiming and Zhao Zhigu, but its influence was no longer conspicuous after the mid-Yuan. From the Ming and Qing onward, the Nanwu Lineage continued mainly within Quanzhen public monasteries through its generation poem ("Dao Ben Chong Zhen Li; Xuan Wei Zhi Miao Xian..."), and in the Qing dynasty there were also those who transmitted the teaching in the name of the Nanwu Lineage in Jiangnan and between Fujian and Guangdong. Among contemporary Quanzhen temples on the mainland, in Hong Kong and Macau, and in Southeast Asia, there are still Daoist priests who identify themselves as belonging to the Nanwu Lineage — for instance, records of Nanwu transmission exist at Mount Luofu in Guangdong and at some Daoist halls in Hong Kong — though its overall scale remains limited.
Core Doctrine
Upholds the principles of Quanzhen Daoism, with particular emphasis on "enduring humiliation" and "non-action," advocating that "the mind should be like still water" and that one should "forget both self and things," with dual cultivation of nature and life rooted in the cultivation of the mind, integrating Buddhist Prajna thought as well. Tan Chuduan's recorded sayings frequently cite the Buddhist teaching of "enduring humiliation" and Chan Buddhist huatou, and the name "Nanwu" of his lineage is also understood as an incorporation of Buddhism, one concrete expression of Quanzhen Daoism's unity of the Three Teachings.
Practice & Ritual
Leaving the family for quiet cultivation, internal-alchemical quiet sitting, scripture recitation, and ascetic endurance of humiliation; transmission by generation poem; receiving the precepts and taking part in retreat-and-offering ritual through the Quanzhen public-monastery system. Tan Chuduan begged for food and practiced austerities in the Luoyang area, wearing a single robe regardless of cold or heat, representing the early ascetic style of Quanzhen Daoism; later Nanwu Daoist priests took "enduring humiliation" as their family tradition. The rest of their practice does not differ from that of the other Quanzhen lineages.
Transmission
Wang Chongyang → Tan Chuduan → Wang Zhiming and others → transmission in Henan and Shandong during the Yuan → continued through the generation poem in the Ming and Qing, with some transmission into Fujian and Guangdong → scattered transmission today. In the sixth year of Zhiyuan of Kublai Khan of Yuan (1269), Tan Chuduan was posthumously ennobled as a Perfected; his order had a number of temples in Henan and Shandong, and Ming-dynasty documents still record the activity of Nanwu Daoist priests.