Qianfeng (Thousand Peaks) School千峰派

Also known as

Qianfeng Xiantian (Thousand Peaks Pre-celestial) Branch, Zhao Bichen Lineage, Qianfeng Laoren (Old Man of the Thousand Peaks) Lineage

Type

Branch Lineages

Period

Republican era to the present

Founded

Founded in the ninth year of the Republic (1920) by Zhao Bichen in Changping, Beijing

Founder

Zhao Bichen

Derived from

Wu–Liu School of Internal Alchemy

Region

Changping (Beijing), Tianjin, the Northeast, and nationwide

Status

Extant — Transmission groups still exist informally in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and mainland China, with no monastic institution of its own; it circulates chiefly through writings, correspondence courses, and lectures.

Overview

The Qianfeng (Thousand Peaks) School is an internal-alchemy lineage founded by Zhao Bichen at the end of the Qing and the beginning of the Republic, named for his sobriquet 'Old Man of a Thousand Peaks'; its full name is the Qianfeng Xiantian Pai (Thousand Peaks Pre-celestial Lineage). Zhao Bichen (1860–1942), style name Shunyi, was a native of Changping, Beijing, who took up the study of the Dao owing to illness in his youth; by his own account he studied successively under the monks Liaoran and Liaokong (who claimed to be transmitters of Liu Huayang's teaching) as well as masters of the Quanzhen Longmen and Nanwu lineages, receiving instruction in Wu-Liu alchemical methods and various oral formulas. In 1920 he formally established the Qianfeng lineage as a transmission line, and in 1933 published the Xingming fajue mingzhi, reorganizing the Wu-Liu lineage's sequence of 'laying the foundation, refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, and refining spirit to return to emptiness' into a sixteen-step course of practice, illustrated with diagrams and explained in physiological terminology, plain and direct in style, and openly published — breaking with the tradition of secret oral transmission of alchemical formulas. His disciples numbered in the thousands, spread throughout North and Northeast China, making the lineage one of the most influential internal-alchemy transmission groups of the Republican era. Taking 'pre-celestial' (xiantian) as its watchword, the Qianfeng lineage advocates the dual cultivation of nature and life through solitary quiet practice, emphasizing 'stopping the leakage' and 'turning the Dharma wheel,' while also absorbing Chan meditation and life-nourishing methods. After 1949 the Qianfeng lineage was interrupted for a time on the mainland, its writings and transmission continuing in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas; after the reform era it circulated once more amid the 'qigong craze,' with the Xingming fajue mingzhi repeatedly reprinted, becoming a standard text in contemporary internal-alchemy and qigong circles. The Qianfeng lineage is a key case of internal-alchemy learning moving from secret transmission to open publication, from a religious practice to a form of popular life-nourishing.

Core Doctrine

The lineage follows the Wu-Liu tradition of solitary alchemical cultivation, advocating dual cultivation of nature and life and the pre-celestial single qi; it holds that the 'sixteen steps of dual cultivation of nature and life' can be accomplished by following a set sequence; it emphasizes abstaining from sexual desire and 'stopping the leakage' as the foundation of laying the base; it fuses Buddhist Chan meditation with Quanzhen precept concepts; and it advocates open transmission of the teaching for the salvation and relief of all. The Qianfeng lineage held that Daoist alchemical formulas should not be kept secret, advocating that 'the great Dao should be made public, and anyone may learn it'; its doctrine is comparatively plain and direct, emphasizing practice over theory.

Practice & Ritual

The sixteen-step course of practice: gathering the mind and stilling thought, regulating the breath, gathering the medicine, the celestial circuit, stopping the fire, warm nurturing, the emergence of the spirit, and so on; illustrated with diagrams in the Xingming fajue mingzhi; supplemented by daoyin, quiet sitting, and precepts; transmission both in groups and by correspondence course. The Qianfeng lineage also compiled and printed illustrated and correspondence-course teaching materials, emphasizing entry-level instruction and step-by-step verification for beginners — an important transformation in the mode of internal-alchemy transmission.

Transmission

Wu Shouyang → Liu Huayang → Liaoran and Liaokong (according to Zhao Bichen's own account) → Zhao Bichen (established the lineage in 1920) → disciples such as Niu Jinbao → contemporary transmitters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the mainland. The Qianfeng lineage is also regarded as the Republican-era extension and popularization of the Wu-Liu tradition, and has had a direct influence on the contemporary qigong craze.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures