Yushan Lineage of Quanzhen全真嵛山派
- Also known as
- Yushan Lineage of Quanzhen, Wangzu Branch (Patriarch Wang's Branch), Yuyang Branch, Kunyu Branch
- Type
- Branch Lineages
- Period
- Jin–Yuan to the Present
- Founded
- Founded on Wang Chuyi (1142–1217) as patriarch; took shape in the Yuan
- Founder
- Wang Chuyi
- Derived from
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- Region
- Mount Kunyu, Wendeng, and Ninghai, Shandong
- Ancestral seat
- Mount Kunyu
- Status
- Extant — It has a generation-name transmission and a small number of successors, found mainly around Mount Kunyu in Shandong; it has no independent institutional organization.
Overview
The Yushan Lineage was founded by Wang Chuyi, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, and takes its name from his long cultivation of the Dao at Mount Kunyu (Yushan) in Shandong. Wang Chuyi's courtesy name was Yuyang and his sobriquet Quanyangzi; he was a man of Ninghai in Shandong. In the eighth year of the Dading reign of the Jin (1168) he took Wang Chongyang as his master and dwelt with him at Yanxia Cave on Mount Kunyu, after which he cultivated for nine years at Yunguang Cave on Tiecha Mountain in Wendeng, standing on one foot upon a rock in austere practice and becoming known as the 'Iron-Footed Immortal.' In the second year of the Cheng'an reign of Emperor Zhangzong of Jin (1197), he was summoned along with Liu Chuxuan for an audience on the Dao, and was for a time granted the title 'Great Master Tixuan'; during the Mingchang era he was again summoned to the capital to preside over offering rites for the Wanchun Festival, contributing greatly to Quanzhen Daoism's gaining of legal standing under the Jin dynasty. His writings include the Yunguang Anthology, the Gazetteer of the Western Marchmount Mount Hua, and the Qingzhen Anthology. In the sixth year of the Zhiyuan reign of Kublai Khan (1269), he was posthumously canonized as 'Perfected Yuyang Tixuan Guangdu.' Disciples of the Yushan Lineage include Zhao Jiugu and Ji Zhizhen; the lineage was transmitted in Shandong and Hebei during the Yuan, and Ji Zhizhen wrote the Yunshan Anthology. From the Ming and Qing onward, the Yushan Lineage was mostly continued within the Quanzhen public monasteries by means of a generation-name poem ('Qing jing wu wei dao, xuan zhen miao li zong…'), and the Quanzhen temples in the area of Mount Kunyu (such as Yanxia Cave and Shenqing Temple) are remains of its ancestral court. A small number of priests today still claim the Yushan Lineage as their house, found mainly in Shandong.
Core Doctrine
Following the Quanzhen teaching, it places emphasis on austere practice, clarity and stillness, and forbearance, combining 'mind-ground work' with internal alchemy; it holds that the Three Teachings share a single principle, and has much in common with Buddhist Chan methods. Wang Chuyi's writings also show reverence for the Confucian virtue of filial piety and the Buddhist virtue of compassion, and his rites of offering at the Jin imperial court won Quanzhen Daoism official recognition, contributing significantly to the legitimation of the order.
Practice & Ritual
Austere practices (prolonged standing, solitary dwelling in caves), quiet sitting and internal alchemy, scripture recitation, leaving the household to reside in temples, and participation in court rites of offering; transmission by generation names; and receiving the Three Altars of Great Precepts. Wang Chuyi was also once commanded to preside over rites of offering at the court of Emperor Zhangzong of Jin, and his Gazetteer of the Western Marchmount Mount Hua shows the importance he placed on temple gazetteers; his lineage also placed emphasis on the compilation of scriptures and teachings. Its other practices are the same as those of the other Quanzhen lineages.
Transmission
Wang Chongyang → Wang Chuyi → Zhao Jiugu, Ji Zhizhen, and others → transmission in Shandong and Hebei during the Yuan → continuation by generation names in the Ming and Qing → a small transmission in Shandong today. In the sixth year of the Zhiyuan reign of Kublai Khan (1269), Wang Chuyi was posthumously canonized as Perfected; his network of temples on the Shandong Peninsula was later gradually shared with other Quanzhen lineages, and the boundaries between lineages grew increasingly blurred.