Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School上清派
- Also known as
- Maoshan Lineage (later period), Shangqing Scriptural School, Maoshan Lineage
- Type
- Sects
- Period
- Eastern Jin–Sui-Tang
- Founded
- From the second year of the Xingning era to the Taihe era of the Eastern Jin (364–370), Yang Xi received revelations of the Shangqing scriptures
- Founder
- Wei Huacun, Yang Xi, Xu Mi, Xu Hui
- Region
- The area around Mount Mao in Jurong, Jiangnan; spread nationwide during the Tang
- Ancestral seat
- Mount Mao (Maoshan)
- Status
- Absorbed into Other Lineages — In the Yuan the registers of the Three Mountains were all absorbed into Zhengyi Daoism, and the Shangqing School ceased to exist as an independent order; but the Maoshan Daoist Institute still identifies itself today as the "Shangqing Ancestral Altar" and transmits Shangqing ritual registers. The present-day Maoshan Daoist Institute belongs to the Zhengyi order, and is the center of Daoism in Jiangsu.
Overview
The Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School is a new Daoist school that emerged among the great clans of Jiangnan in the mid-Eastern Jin, taking its name from the Shangqing Scriptures that it venerates; it later centered on Mount Mao (Maoshan) and is therefore also called the Maoshan Lineage. According to Tao Hongjing's Declarations of the Perfected, from the second year of Xingning (364) onward, the Daoist priest Yang Xi of Jurong claimed that Lady Wei Huacun of the Southern Peak and a host of Perfected Beings descended and orally transmitted the Shangqing scriptures to him; Yang Xi transcribed them in his fine calligraphy and passed them to the father and son Xu Mi and Xu Hui, giving rise to the more than thirty scrolls of early Shangqing scripture, including the Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern and the Scripture of the Yellow Court: Inner Effulgences. Thereafter the texts were copied and transmitted through Xu Huangmin, Ma Lang, Ma Han, and others, during which time Wang Lingqi inserted interpolations into the scriptures, and the Shangqing scriptures circulated widely in Jiangnan. Lu Xiujing of the Liu Song classified them as the "Cavern of Perfection" section, ranked foremost among the Three Caverns. Between the Southern Qi and the Liang, Tao Hongjing lived in reclusion on Mount Mao, gathered the authentic manuscripts of Yang Xi and the Xus, wrote the Declarations of the Perfected and the Concealed Instructions for Ascending to Perfection, and built the Huayang Lodge, establishing a line of transmission with Maoshan as its ancestral court; he was later honored as the ninth patriarch of the Shangqing lineage. The Shangqing School reached its height in the Tang, when Wang Yuanzhi, Pan Shizheng, Sima Chengzhen, and Li Hanguang served in succession as its patriarchs and were held in high esteem by Emperor Gaozong, Empress Wu, and Emperor Xuanzong; Sima Chengzhen's theory of "Sitting in Oblivion" had far-reaching influence. The Shangqing School emphasized visualization, scripture recitation, and inner vision over talismans and rites of retreat and offering, representing a form of Daoism characteristic of the educated gentry class, and its methods of visualization, guarding the One, and inner contemplation of the body's spirits prepared the ground for the later development of internal-alchemy learning. From the Song onward, Maoshan Shangqing, Longhushan Zhengyi, and Gezaoshan Lingbao were together known as the "Three Mountains of Registers," and in the Yuan the school was absorbed into Zhengyi Daoism.
Core Doctrine
It venerated the Celestial King of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianwang), the Great Lord of the Dao (Taishang Dadao Jun), and the host of Shangqing Perfected as its highest deities, holding that a multitude of gods dwell within and guard the human body; it sought to "ascend to Shangqing" — a higher realm of immortality than that sought by the Celestial Masters — through visualizing the body's spirits, reciting the scriptures, and ingesting qi; it valued individual spiritual cultivation over communal ritual; and it absorbed concepts from Wei-Jin Neo-Daoist philosophy (xuanxue) and Buddhism, advocating the cavern-vision of inner landscapes and the perfection of both physical form and spirit.
Practice & Ritual
Visualization (cunsi: visualizing the sun and moon, the qi of the five directions, and the various spirits within the body), reciting the Great Cavern Scripture, practicing the inner-landscape methods of the Yellow Court, ingesting qi, wearing talismans, massage and daoyin exercises, and taking medicinal substances; large-scale retreats and offerings were held less frequently, and in the early period talismans and registers and the union of yin and qi were given little emphasis. Tao Hongjing added the study of alchemy and materia medica, and in the Tang, Sima Chengzhen developed the meditative methods of "Sitting in Oblivion" and the "Fasting of the Mind."
Transmission
The genealogy of the Shangqing patriarchs, according to the Gazetteer of Mount Mao: Wei Huacun (first patriarch) → Yang Xi → Xu Mi → Xu Hui → Ma Lang → Ma Han → Lu Xiujing → Sun Youyue → Tao Hongjing (ninth patriarch) → Wang Yuanzhi → Pan Shizheng → Sima Chengzhen → Li Hanguang → Wei Jingzhao → Huang Dongyuan → Sun Zhiqing → Wu Fatong → Liu Dechang → Wang Qixia → Cheng Yanzhao → Jiang Yuanji → Wan Baochong → Zhu Ziying → Mao Fengrou → Liu Hunkang (twenty-fifth patriarch, under Emperor Huizong of Song), and so on; more than forty generations were transmitted from the end of the Song into the early Yuan, and in the Yuan, Liu Dabin (forty-fifth patriarch) compiled the Gazetteer of Mount Mao.