Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism全真道

Also known as

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, Quanzhen (Complete Perfection), Northern Lineage, Quanzhen Daoism

Type

Sects

Period

Jin–Yuan to the Present

Founded

In the seventh year of Dading of Emperor Shizong of Jin (1167), Wang Chongyang established the "Quanzhen Hermitage" (Quanzhen An) at Ninghai, Shandong

Founder

Wang Chongyang

Region

Originated in the Zhongnan Mountains of Shaanxi and the Shandong Peninsula; spread throughout the north during the Yuan, and across the whole country and overseas from the Ming and Qing onward

Ancestral seat

White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan), Beijing, Chongyang Palace (Ancestral Temple of Quanzhen), Yongle Palace (Palace of Eternal Joy)

Status

Extant — One of the two main traditions of Daoism on the Chinese mainland today; Quanzhen priests renounce the world and reside in temples, with the Longmen Lineage as its largest branch; the White Cloud Temple in Beijing is its ancestral seat and the seat of the Chinese Taoist Association; there are Quanzhen temples and precept-transmission activities in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Europe, and the Americas, with precept-transmission ceremonies held repeatedly — in 1989, 1995, 2002, 2016, and other years — at the White Cloud Temple, Mount Qingcheng, Mount Qian, and elsewhere.

Overview

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism was founded by Wang Chongyang (1112–1170) of the Jin dynasty and, together with Zhengyi Daoism, forms one of the two main currents of Daoism over the past eight hundred years. Wang Chongyang was a native of Xianyang, Shaanxi; in the fourth year of the Zhenglong era of Jin (1159) he claimed to have met immortals (later identified as Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan) at Ganhe Town, and in the seventh year of the Dading era (1167) he traveled east to Ninghai in Shandong, where he took as disciples Ma Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, and Sun Bu'er (the 'Seven Perfected'), successively founding societies such as the Three Teachings and Seven Treasures Society, the Golden Lotus Society, the Three Radiances Society, the Jade Florescence Society, and the Equality Society, promoting the 'unity of the three teachings,' and distinguishing his community, called 'Quanzhen,' by internal-alchemical cultivation and ascetic renunciation. After Wang Chongyang's death, the Seven Perfected proselytized separately in Shandong, Shaanxi, and Henan, each founding his own lineage. Between 1220 and 1223, Qiu Chuji traveled west to the Hindu Kush to meet Genghis Khan and was granted authority over Daoism throughout the empire; Quanzhen reached its peak in the early Yuan, with temples spreading across the north and the Changchun Palace (today's White Cloud Temple) in Yanjing becoming its center. Between 1255 and 1281, Quanzhen suffered a setback after losing a series of Buddhist–Daoist debates and having its scriptures burned, but it revived in the mid-Yuan and merged with the Southern Lineage. Under the Ming, Quanzhen's standing fell below that of Zhengyi, but it continued to develop among the populace; in the early Qing, Wang Changyue publicly transmitted the precepts at the White Cloud Temple, reviving the Longmen Lineage, giving rise to the saying that 'Longmen holds half the realm' — Quanzhen, with Longmen as its main body, became the dominant form of Daoism in the north. Quanzhen established the institutions of monastic residence, ordination and the transmission of precepts, public monasteries, and monastic rules, making it the most institutionally complete religious order in the history of Daoism. Today, Quanzhen Daoism on the Chinese mainland has the White Cloud Temple in Beijing as its ancestral seat, successive presidents of the Chinese Taoist Association have mostly come from the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen, and there are also numerous Quanzhen temples in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

Core Doctrine

Quanzhen venerates as its patriarchs Laozi, Donghua Dijun, Zhongli Quan, Lü Dongbin, and Liu Haichan (the 'Five Northern Patriarchs'), together with Wang Chongyang; it advocates the 'unity of the three teachings,' taking the Daodejing, the Heart Sutra, and the Classic of Filial Piety as shared scriptures; it holds 'recognizing the mind and seeing one's true nature' and 'preserving one's original authenticity whole' as its core teaching, pursuing the dual cultivation of nature and life with the cultivation of nature taking priority; it stresses monastic renunciation, solitary cultivation, asceticism, and abstention from wine, sex, wealth, and anger, rejects external alchemy and the pursuit of bodily longevity, and holds that 'when the true nature is undisturbed and free of all entanglements' one has become an immortal.

Practice & Ritual

Monastic renunciation and residence in temples, wearing the hair long under a topknot and cap, vegetarianism and celibacy; seated meditation and internal-alchemical cultivation, and the performance of morning and evening liturgy; those who renounce the world must receive the 'Three Altars of Great Precepts' — the Precepts of Initial Perfection, the Precepts of Medium Ultimate, and the Great Precepts of Celestial Immortality; the public monastery system is practiced, with an abbot, a prior, and officers of the 'three chief and five head positions and eighteen offices,' following the Pure Rules of Complete Perfection; sitting in meditation with an alms bowl, wandering pilgrimage, and ascetic begging; retreat and offering rituals (in the Quanzhen liturgical style) are also performed.

Transmission

The Five Northern Patriarchs → Wang Chongyang → the Seven Perfected: Ma Yu (Yuxian Lineage), Tan Chuduan (Nanwu Lineage), Liu Chuxuan (Suishan Lineage), Qiu Chuji (Longmen Lineage), Wang Chuyi (Yushan Lineage), Hao Datong (Huashan Lineage), and Sun Bu'er (Qingjing Lineage) → successive Yuan-dynasty heads of the order including Yin Zhiping, Li Zhichang, and Zhang Zhijing → Ming-dynasty transmission passing into various sub-lineages and local temples → the revival of Longmen by Wang Changyue in the early Qing → continuation in modern and contemporary times through the Chinese Taoist Association (founded 1957), with each lineage transmitted according to its generation-name poem.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples