Immortality Studies (Xianxue) of Chen Yingning仙学（陈撄宁）

Also known as

Xianxue (Immortality Studies) School, Chen Yingning's Immortality Studies (Xianxue), Modern Immortality Studies

Type

School

Period

Republican Era–Present

Founded

Promoted in the 1930s by Chen Yingning (1880–1969) in the Yangshan Banyuekan and Xiandao Yuebao in Shanghai

Founder

Chen Yingning

Region

Shanghai, Beijing, and nationwide

Ancestral seat

White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan), Beijing

Status

Extant — As an intellectual school it remains influential; the Daoist cultural research of the Chinese Taoist Association and popular "Xianxue" study groups continue its approach, though it has no institutional religious organization.

Overview

Xianxue (Immortality Studies) is a Daoist reform movement and school of Neidan research proposed by Chen Yingning during the Republican era, which held that the study of immortality cultivation should be made independent of traditional religious forms and pursued as an experimental "discipline" and "science." Chen Yingning, a native of Huaining, Anhui, studied medicine in his youth and, owing to illness, visited Daoist sacred mountains and studied the Daozang extensively; from 1933 he published a large number of articles in the Yangshan Banyuekan (Fortnightly for Promoting Goodness), sponsored by Zhang Zhuming of the Yihua Tang in Shanghai, and its successor the Xiandao Yuebao (Monthly of the Immortal Way), setting out the theory of "the independence of Xianxue": he held that Xianxue was distinct from the Three Teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, being an empirical discipline native to the Chinese nation aimed at "bodily longevity," which should organize the alchemical scriptures and verify their methods in a scientific spirit, draw a clear line against Buddhism and superstitions concerning ghosts and spirits, and at the same time use it to strengthen national self-confidence and resist the erosion of foreign religious cultures. He edited and annotated works such as the Lecture Notes on the Huangting jing, Annotations to Sun Bu'er's Poems on Female Alchemy, and A Vernacular Commentary on the Song of the Great Dao from the Numinous Source; he advocated the dual cultivation of nature and life while emphasizing the cultivation of life (ming), promoted the "Three Origins method of alchemy" (celestial origin, terrestrial origin, and human origin), and encouraged the study of female alchemy; his circle formed an Xianxue association composed mainly of lay practitioners (a planned Shanghai Xianxue Institute was never established). After 1949 Chen Yingning was elected vice-president and then president (1961–1969) of the Chinese Taoist Association, and Xianxue thought was absorbed into the Association's work on Daoist scholarship; his disciple Hu Haiya and others carried it forward in medicine and the nourishing of life. Xianxue represents modern Daoism's self-adjustment in the face of scientism and national crisis, and its orientation toward the scholarly systematization of Daoism and the scientification of Neidan has profoundly influenced contemporary Daoist studies and life-nourishing culture on the Chinese mainland.

Core Doctrine

It holds that Xianxue is independent of the Three Teachings, aims at bodily longevity and the perfection of both form and spirit, and maintains that immortality "can be attained through study"; it advocates verifying alchemical methods by scientific means, opposes superstition about ghosts and spirits and empty talk of nature and mind, practices the dual cultivation of nature and life while emphasizing the cultivation of life, and reveres the Zhouyi cantong qi and the Wuzhen pian as its foundational texts; it stresses national cultural self-confidence and the reform of Daoism. This orientation has had a far-reaching influence.

Practice & Ritual

Quiet sitting; Neidan (primarily the human-origin method, with some discussion of the terrestrial-origin external alchemy); research on female alchemy; the nourishing of life and medicine; publishing journals, giving lectures, and answering questions by correspondence; and advocating the organization of the Daozang and academic research. Chen Yingning also advocated verifying alchemical methods by scientific means and recording the experience of cultivation for cross-verification with medicine; his "Xianxue" circle consisted mainly of educated lay practitioners.

Transmission

Chen Yingning (self-taught, and also studying under various Daoist priests and lay practitioners) → the Shanghai Xianxue circle (Zhang Zhuming, Wang Boying, and others) → disciples such as Hu Haiya → the research tradition of the Chinese Taoist Association and contemporary scholars of Xianxue. Chen Yingning was also a promoter of the scholarly systematization of Daoism, and his influence extends into contemporary Daoist studies and life-nourishing culture on the mainland; he is known as "the father of contemporary Xianxue."

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples