Suishan Lineage of Quanzhen全真随山派
- Also known as
- Suishan Lineage, Liuzu Branch (Patriarch Liu's Branch), Changsheng Branch (Branch of Eternal Life)
- Type
- Branch Lineages
- Period
- Jin–Yuan to the Present
- Founded
- Founded on Liu Chuxuan (1147–1203) as patriarch; took shape in the Yuan
- Founder
- Liu Chuxuan
- Derived from
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- Region
- Shandong Peninsula (Laizhou, Yexian)
- Status
- Extant — As one of the branches descending from the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, it still has a generation-poem transmission today, but has no independent system of temples or large body of transmitted disciples, and is usually found sharing the same public monasteries as other Quanzhen lineages.
Overview
The Suishan Lineage is the branch founded by Liu Chuxuan, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Liu Chuxuan, courtesy name Tongmiao, sobriquet Changsheng Zi, was a native of Donglai, Shandong (present-day Laizhou); he became a disciple of Wang Chongyang in the ninth year of Dading (1169), and after Wang Chongyang's death observed mourning at Liujiang village in Zhongnan before returning to Shandong, where he propagated the teaching in the area of Wuguan Village, Laizhou, and founded temples such as Lingxu Temple and Taiwei Temple; in the second year of Cheng'an of Emperor Zhangzong of Jin (1197) he was summoned to the capital and questioned on "the utmost Dao," and granted the title "Grand Master Who Embodies the Mystery," making him one of the earlier of the Seven Perfected to receive court favor. Liu Chuxuan wrote the Anthology of Immortal Music, the Commentary on the Yellow Emperor's Yinfu jing, and the Recorded Sayings of the Perfected of Non-Action, Clarity and Stillness, and Eternal Life on the Utmost Perfection, his thought centering on "non-action and clarity and stillness" and "forgetting both body and mind." His lineage is called "Suishan" (Following the Mountain); one account holds this takes the meaning of "following circumstance, following the time, following the place," while another holds it was named after his place of residence. In the sixth year of Zhiyuan of Kublai Khan of Yuan (1269) he was posthumously titled "Perfected of Eternal Life Who Assists Transformation and Illuminates Virtue." The Suishan Lineage held a certain degree of influence in Shandong during the Yuan dynasty; its disciples included Yu Daoxian, Cui Daoyan, Zhao Daojian (who later joined Longmen), and Song Defang (some say he belonged to Suishan); Song Defang directed the printing of the Precious Canon of the Mysterious Metropolis, a major project of Yuan-dynasty Daoist culture. From the Ming and Qing onward, the Suishan Lineage was far smaller in scale than Longmen, and was mostly transmitted attached within Quanzhen public monasteries. Today Daoism still preserves a Suishan generation poem ("Si, Dao, Ming, Ren, De; Quan, Zhen, Xing, Fu, Chang..."), and Daoist priests who identify themselves as belonging to the Suishan Lineage are scattered among Quanzhen temples in Shandong, the northeast, and elsewhere.
Core Doctrine
Upholds the principles of Quanzhen Daoism, taking clarity, stillness and non-action as its guiding tenet, advocating "neither staining nor attaching" and "forgetting both the mind and its objects," with dual cultivation of nature and life that emphasizes the refinement of the mind; it integrates the Three Teachings, drawing especially on the Yinfu jing to expound alchemical practice. Liu Chuxuan's recorded sayings stress that "the mind should not chase after things" and "should not cling to any appearance," holding that practitioners should be "at ease wherever they are" — a teaching that accords with the meaning of the lineage's name. Its style of teaching is known among the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen for "following circumstance without attachment."
Practice & Ritual
Leaving the family to reside at temples, internal-alchemical quiet sitting, scripture recitation, and ascetic practice, the same as in the other Quanzhen lineages; it has its own independent generation poem for assigning names by generation; and it receives the Three Altars of Great Precepts through the Quanzhen public-monastery system. Liu Chuxuan himself taught disciples using the Yinfu jing and the Daodejing, placing emphasis on scriptural lecturing and the recording of sayings, an important part of the early scriptural and doctrinal activity of Quanzhen Daoism. Its methods of practice are essentially identical to those of the other Quanzhen lineages.
Transmission
Wang Chongyang → Liu Chuxuan → Yu Daoxian, Cui Daoyan and others → transmission in Shandong and Hebei during the Yuan → from the Ming and Qing onward, attached to Quanzhen public monasteries, continuing to the present through its generation poem. In the Yuan dynasty the Suishan Lineage had a fair number of temples in Laizhou, Yexian and elsewhere; Kublai Khan posthumously ennobled Liu Chuxuan, and his disciple Yu Daoxian wrote the Recorded Sayings of the Perfected of Eternal Life; most details of its transmission from the Ming and Qing onward cannot be traced.