Zhengyi Sanshan Dixue Lineage正一三山滴血派

Also known as

Sanshan Dixue (Three Mountains Blood-Drop) Lineage, Sanshan Dixue Ritual Lineage, Generation-Name Register of the Celestial Masters' Zhengyi Lineage

Type

Branch Lineages

Period

Song–Yuan to the Present

Founded

Traditionally said to have been fixed by the Celestial Master of Longhushan at the Song–Yuan transition, it became the standard generation-name register used in Zhengyi ordination between the Ming and Qing

Founder

Zhang Jixian

Derived from

Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism

Region

Centered on Longhushan, Jiangxi, current among Zhengyi Daoist altars in Jiangnan, Fujian–Guangdong, Hong Kong–Taiwan, and overseas

Ancestral seat

Mount Longhu (Dragon and Tiger Mountain), Mansion of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Fu)

Status

Extant — This is the generation-name poem in common use for Zhengyi register conferral today, followed by the Mansion of the Celestial Masters at Longhushan, the Tianshi Fu in Taiwan, and Zhengyi ritual altars in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore/Malaysia; since Longhushan resumed conferring registers in 1991, the ordination names of recipients at home and abroad have largely been assigned according to this poem.

Overview

The Zhengyi Sanshan Dixue Lineage is the generation-name system current within Zhengyi Daoism, and is today the principal basis on which ordination names are assigned in the conferral of registers. "Three Mountains" originally referred to the Three Mountains of Talismans and Registers — Mount Longhu (Zhengyi), Mount Mao (Shangqing), and Mount Gezao (Lingbao); from the Yuan dynasty onward the talismanic traditions of the Three Mountains were placed under the unified authority of the Celestial Master of Longhushan, giving rise to the idea of a single generation-name system governing the lineages of all three mountains — hence the name "Sanshan Dixue" ("the Three Mountains united by a drop of blood"), taking the meaning that the ritual lineages of the various mountains share a common origin and flow together as if joined by shared blood. Another account holds that "Three Mountains" refers instead to Mount Longhu, the Wudang Mountains, and Mount Heming, a variant interpretation current among popular ritual altars. This lineage's genealogy is traditionally said to derive from the thirtieth-generation Celestial Master Zhang Jixian's transmission to Sa Shoujian, and it later became the shared basis for generational naming observed jointly by the Zhengyi Wanfa Zongtan (Ancestral Altar of the Myriad Methods) and by the Shenxiao, Qingwei, and other ritual lineages; scholars generally hold that it did not take its final form earlier than the Ming dynasty, and that the Song-Yuan legendary elements should be treated with caution. The generation-name poem circulates in a standard fifty-character version, of which Longhushan's transmission commonly uses the first forty characters. Any disciple receiving registers must take an ordination name according to this poem's sequence in order to be recognized within the tradition; the Sanshan Dixue Lineage is therefore better understood not as an independent school with its own doctrine, but as a system of ordination-name sequencing and identity verification covering the entire Zhengyi tradition. Today the register-conferral activities presided over by the Mansion of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Fu) at Longhushan, as well as ordinations at the Tianshi Fu in Taiwan and at Zhengyi ritual altars in Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia, largely follow this generation-name poem.

Core Doctrine

The lineage has no doctrine independent of Zhengyi Daoism; its core is the concept of dharma-transmission summed up as "the myriad methods return to a single source": the talismanic traditions of the Three Mountains share one origin and are all governed by the Mansion of the Celestial Masters; only by taking a name according to the generation-name poem upon receiving registers, and by entering the genealogy of the ritual lineage, does one gain the qualification to perform rites and standing within the religious community. This concept both maintains the organizational unity of Zhengyi Daoism and provides a shared genealogical framework for the Shenxiao, Qingwei, Lüshan, and other ritual lineages.

Practice & Ritual

At the conferral of registers, an ordination name is taken according to the generation sequence, and certificates of rank and registers are issued; Zhengyi zhai and jiao rites, talismans and incantations, and memorial-petition protocols are performed; both temple-based and "fire-dwelling" (married, lay-resident) Daoist priests may be sequenced according to this system. The conferral of registers is divided into stages of initial conferral, promotion, and additional conferral, each matched to a corresponding rank.

Transmission

The standard fifty-character generation-name poem reads: "Shou dao ming ren de, quan zhen fu tai he, zhi cheng xuan yu dian, zhong zheng yan jin ke, chong han tong yuan yun, gao hong ding da luo, sanshan yu xing zhen, fu hai yong hong bo, qionglong yang miao fa, huanyu zheng xian du" (Preserve the Dao, be enlightened and virtuous; Complete Perfection restores Great Harmony; sincere and true, proclaiming the jade canons; loyal and upright, expounding the golden statutes; vast and boundless, penetrating the primal essence; lofty and grand, the Great Canopy is established; the Three Mountains ever more flourish and rise; the sea of blessings surges with great waves; Qionglong spreads its wondrous methods; the whole world attests to the realm of the immortals). Longhushan's transmission commonly uses the first forty characters. It is said to descend from the line of the thirtieth-generation Celestial Master Zhang Jixian's transmission to Sa Shoujian, merging in the Ming-Qing period with the register-conferral system of the Zhengyi Wanfa Zongtan; the Yuan-dynasty sequence "Dao–Ming–Ren" among the disciples of Zhang Shouqing of the Wudang Qingwei Lineage matches the opening line of this poem, showing that this character sequence was already in circulation by the Yuan-Ming transition.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples