Wudang Xuanwu Lineage武当玄武派

Also known as

Xuanwu Lineage, Zhenwu Xuanwu Lineage, Wudang Native Zhengyi Lineage (alternate name)

Type

Branch Lineages

Period

Ming dynasty to the present

Founded

Formed on Mount Wudang around the eleventh year of the Yongle reign of the Ming (1413), recorded in the Zhuzhen Zongpai Zongbu (诸真宗派总簿, General Register of the Lineages of All the Perfected) as the “Zhenwu Xuanwu Lineage”; in 1989 the Wudang Mountain Daoist Association resolved to restore its transmission

Founder

Zhang Yuqing

Derived from

Wudang Daoism

Region

Mount Wudang, Hubei (present-day Danjiangkou), and its network of temples

Ancestral seat

Wudang Mountains, Zixiao Palace (Purple Cloud Palace), Golden Summit and Taihe Palace, Wudang

Status

Extant — Since the restoration of the lineage's transmission in 1989, Xuanwu Lineage priests are found at Taihe Palace, Zixiao Palace, Nanyan Palace, and other sites on the Wudang Mountains, alongside the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen and the Sanfeng Lineage on the same mountain; the Xuanwu Lineage's generational names have now reached characters such as "Xuan" and "Li." Wudang martial-arts organizations at home and abroad also frequently borrow its name, and this should be distinguished from the temple lineage's actual transmission.

Overview

The Xuanwu Lineage is a branch within the resident Daoist orders of the Wudang Mountains that possesses a complete generational-name genealogy; it takes its name from its principal deity, Zhenwu (Xuantian Shangdi, anciently called Xuanwu), and is recorded in the Comprehensive Register of All Perfected Lineages at White Cloud Temple, Beijing, under the name "Zhenwu Xuanwu Lineage." This site also has a separate entry for "Wudang Daoism" (wudang), which denotes the general regional Daoist tradition centered on the Wudang Mountains and the cult of Zhenwu, historically encompassing the Quanzhen, Zhengyi, Qingwei, and Jingming systems; the Xuanwu Lineage, by contrast, is a specific order within this regional tradition, ranked by generational names with a clearly reckoned lineage of succession — the two stand in a relationship of general category to specific branch and should not be conflated. The founding of the Xuanwu Lineage is directly tied to the Yongle Emperor's large-scale construction on Wudang: in the tenth year of the Yongle era (1412), the court mobilized over three hundred thousand troops and civilians to build the Wudang temple complex, and the following year (the eleventh year of Yongle, 1413) it further selected priests from across the country to conduct religious affairs on the mountain. According to Wudang genealogical records, the eminent Zhengyi priest Zhang Yuqing and others were ordered to select over four hundred priests to come to the mountain, and the resident priests thereupon took Zhenwu as their patriarch and established a lineage ranked by generational names. This order is grounded in the Zhengyi ritual tradition, also practicing Qingwei thunder rites and zhai-jiao offerings, while also influenced by the Quanzhen monastic system; during the Ming–Qing transition it existed alongside the Sanfeng, Langmei, and Qingwei lineages across the various Wudang temples. Owing to the warfare, temple decline, and social upheaval from the late Ming onward, the transmission of the Xuanwu Lineage was interrupted after the twelfth generation. On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month (Chongyang) of 1989 — the anniversary of Zhenwu's Ascension — the Wudang Mountains Taoist Association resolved to restore the order, continuing the succession from beyond the original twelfth generation, and held a transmission ceremony at Taihe Palace and Zixiao Palace; and because the original name "Zhenwu Xuanwu Lineage" was redundant in meaning (Zhenwu and Xuanwu both referring to the same deity), it was renamed the "Wudang Xuanwu Lineage." Today, in the temples of the Wudang Mountains, the Xuanwu Lineage exists alongside the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen and the Sanfeng Lineage, and is an important marker of Daoist identity on Wudang.

Core Doctrine

Takes the Great Emperor Zhenwu (Xuantian Shangdi, Celestial Worthy Who Dispels Demons, Perfected Lord Who Protects the Sage of the North Pole) as its founding lord and principal deity of the mountain, and regards the Wudang Mountains as the sacred site where Zhenwu cultivated perfection and ascended. Its doctrine inherits the Zhengyi talismanic and zhai-jiao traditions, taking reverence for Heaven and ancestors, protection of the state and the people, and the dispelling of evil and impurity as its purpose, while also drawing on the Qingwei thunder-rite teaching of "uniting the mind with the Dao and commanding ritual method through the Dao" and the Quanzhen principle of dual cultivation of nature and life. It emphasizes that priests should take the Wudang temples as their fundamental sacred site, observing the regulations and performing the ritual protocols of the mountain — hence it is also called the "Home Mountain Lineage."

Practice & Ritual

Annually observes Zhenwu's birthday (third day of the third lunar month) and the great ceremony of his Ascension (ninth day of the ninth lunar month), along with pilgrimage to the mountain; performs Zhengyi zhai-jiao rites, Qingwei thunder rites, and talismanic ritual protocols; recites the Scripture of Xuantian Shangdi on Requiting the Profound Kindness of Parents, the Beidou Jing, and others; practices Wudang Daoist music (Wudang yun) and Wudang internal martial arts and daoyin health cultivation. When transmitting the lineage, priests take Daoist names according to the generational-name poem, are ranked according to the genealogy, and succeed from master to disciple, receiving a certificate of lineage.

Transmission

The generation-name poem (paishi) reads: "Xuan Yuan Yi Dao Zhi, Qiu De Zhen Chang Cun, Zhao Ying Tong Xuan Li, Wei Xi Tai Jing Cheng. Wudang Xing Fa Pai, Wei Xian Zun Zhi Zong, Da Yue Qi Zi Ran, Wu Long Cheng Xiang Yan. Yuxu Hong Tu Zhan, Sanfeng Dan Ji Chuan, Nanyan Peng Sheng Zhen, Zixiao Yong Ji Chang" (宣渊一道志，求德振常存，照应通玄理，微希太景成。武当兴法派，惟仙尊之宗，大岳气自然，五龙呈祥烟。玉虚宏图展，三丰丹技传，南岩捧圣真，紫霄永吉昌。) — sixty characters in all, the first twenty being the original lineage characters and the latter forty a continuation added later; versions vary slightly between texts, sometimes reading "Xuan Xiang Yi Dao Zhi" for the first line, "Wei Xian Zun Zhi Zong" for the sixth, or "Wei Xi Da Jing Cheng" for the fourth. Transmission within the lineage broke off after the twelfth generation; since the restoration of transmission in 1989, successors have been ranked starting from the thirteenth generation. The Sanfeng Lineage, also based on Wudang, has its own generation-name poem, "Xuanyun tong dao ju duanjing, baihe cheng xu xiang muqing…" (玄云通道居端静，白鹤乘虚向目清……), and the Langmei Lineage has its own poem, "Bishan chuan riyue, shoudao he ziran…" (碧山传日月，守道合自然……), running in parallel alongside the Xuanwu Lineage's poem, without conflict.

Key Scriptures

Key Figures

Principal Temples