Qingjing (Clarity and Stillness) Lineage of Quanzhen全真清静派
- Also known as
- Qingjing (Clarity and Stillness) Lineage of Quanzhen, Sunzu Branch (Patriarch Sun's Branch), Qingjing Branch (Clarity and Stillness Branch), Kundao Branch (Female Practitioners' Branch)
- Type
- Branch Lineages
- Period
- Jin–Yuan to the Present
- Founded
- Founded on Sun Bu'er (1119–1182) as patriarch; took shape in the Yuan
- Founder
- Sun Bu'er
- Derived from
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- Region
- Ninghai, Shandong; Luoyang, Henan; later spread among female Daoist practitioners (kundao) nationwide
- Status
- Extant — As a lineage for female Daoists it still has transmission and generation names, and Sun Bu'er is universally venerated as the founding ancestor by Quanzhen female Daoists; it has no independent system of temples.
Overview
The Qingjing Lineage was founded by Sun Bu'er, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, and takes its name from her sobriquet 'Wanderer of Clarity and Stillness' (Qingjing Sanren); it is one of the rare Daoist lineages founded by a female patriarch. Sun Bu'er's given name was Fuchun; she was a woman of Ninghai in Shandong and originally the wife of Ma Yu. In the ninth year of the Dading reign of the Jin (1169), moved by Wang Chongyang's teaching, she left the household, and Wang Chongyang granted her the title 'Wanderer of Clarity and Stillness'; she practiced at Jinlian Hall. After Wang Chongyang's transformation-departure, she went to Fengxiangu Cave in Luoyang, where she cultivated alone for seven years, brought women to conversion, and is held to have reached 'complete accomplishment and perfect attainment of the Dao.' Her writings include the Dharma Words of the Primordial Sovereign Sun Bu'er and the Stages of Practice for Female Daoists (Kundao gongfu cidi), some of which were attributed to her by later generations. In the sixth year of the Zhiyuan reign of Kublai Khan (1269), she was posthumously canonized as 'Perfected Qingjing Yuanzhen Shunde.' The Qingjing Lineage was already being transmitted in the Yuan dynasty, and from the Ming and Qing onward it was characterized mainly by transmission among female Daoist priests (kundao); its generation-name poem ('Quanzhen tong xuan li, dadao ziran cheng…') is used for the ranking of female Daoists. Later works on female alchemy, such as the Stages of Practice for Female Daoists of the Primordial Sovereign Sun Bu'er and the Collected Texts on Female Alchemy, all venerate Sun Bu'er as the founding ancestor of female alchemy. Today most Quanzhen female Daoists on the mainland belong to the Longmen Lineage, but some still claim the Qingjing Lineage as their house, such as some convents for female Daoists in Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong; there are also records of the Qingjing Lineage in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Core Doctrine
Following the Quanzhen teaching of clarity, stillness, and non-action and the dual cultivation of nature and life, it sets out, in response to the physiological characteristics of women, a sequence of female alchemical practice involving 'severing the red dragon' and 'refining form into qi' (developed by later generations), emphasizing clarity and stillness, chastity, forbearance, and compassion, with the Three Teachings held to be one. Sun Bu'er is regarded as the 'founding ancestor of female Daoists'; her image was shaped in Ming and Qing writings on female alchemy as the exemplar of female cultivation, and her teaching style of 'clarity and stillness' and 'compassion' has continued in the tradition of female Daoism.
Practice & Ritual
Female Daoists leaving the household for pure cultivation, quiet sitting and internal alchemy (methods of female alchemy), scripture recitation, and austere cultivation; transmission by generation names; and receiving the Three Altars of Great Precepts (at ordination platforms for female Daoists). Later methods of female alchemy mostly take Sun Bu'er as their founding ancestor and speak of stages of cultivation specific to women such as 'severing the red dragon,' 'refining the form,' and 'the milk stream'; convents for female Daoists are generally kept strictly separate from monasteries for male Daoists. Ordination for female Daoists today is mostly conducted at public monasteries such as the White Cloud Temple.
Transmission
Wang Chongyang → Sun Bu'er → female disciples in Luoyang (not clearly recorded historically) → transmission among female Daoists in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing → compilation of writings on female alchemy in the Qing (such as He Longxiang's Collected Texts on Female Alchemy) → scattered transmission in convents for female Daoists today. When He Longxiang compiled the Collected Texts on Female Alchemy in the Qing, he placed Sun Bu'er first; in the Republican era, Chen Yingning's commentary on Sun Bu'er's Poems on Female Alchemy extended her influence further. Today, Quanzhen female Daoists are mostly transmitted under either the Longmen Lineage or the generation names of the Qingjing Lineage.