Yuxian Lineage of Quanzhen全真遇仙派
- Also known as
- Yuxian Lineage of Quanzhen, Mazu Branch (Patriarch Ma's Branch), Danyang Branch
- Type
- Branch Lineages
- Period
- Jin–Yuan to the Present
- Founded
- Founded on Ma Yu (1123–1183) as patriarch; took shape in the Yuan
- Founder
- Ma Yu
- Derived from
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- Region
- Ninghai, Shandong; the Zhongnan Mountains, Shaanxi
- Ancestral seat
- Chongyang Palace (Ancestral Temple of Quanzhen)
- Status
- Extant — It has a generation-name transmission and a small number of successors, but no independent system of temples, and is attached to the Quanzhen public monasteries.
Overview
The Yuxian Lineage was founded by Ma Yu, foremost of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Ma Yu was originally named Congyi, courtesy name Yifu; after entering the Dao he changed his name to Yu, courtesy name Xuanbao, and took the sobriquet Danyangzi. He was a wealthy man of Ninghai in Shandong, and together with his wife Sun Bu'er he took Wang Chongyang as his master. After Wang Chongyang's transformation-departure in the tenth year of the Dading reign of the Jin (1170), Ma Yu, together with Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, and Qiu Chuji, escorted the coffin back for burial at Liujiang Village in the Zhongnan Mountains (present-day Chongyang Palace), and Ma Yu subsequently presided over the ancestral court and was recognized as the second-generation head of the Quanzhen order. He preached mainly in the Guanzhong region, advocating the two words 'clarity and stillness' as the essential aim of practice, and wrote works such as the Collection of Gold and Jade from the Cavern of Mystery, the Anthology of Gradual Awakening, and the Recorded Sayings of the Perfected Danyang. In the sixth year of the Zhiyuan reign of Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu of Yuan) (1269), he was posthumously canonized as 'Perfected Danyang, Embracer of the One and Practitioner of Non-Action.' The name 'Yuxian' ('Encountering Immortals') derives either from the episode in which Ma Yu and Sun Bu'er encountered Wang Chongyang in Ninghai (where Wang Chongyang had first lodged in their home, the 'Quanzhen Hermitage'), or from the sense of Wang Chongyang's encounter with immortals at Ganhe. The Yuxian Lineage had a considerable following in the early Yuan, owing to Ma Yu's influence in Shaanxi; his disciples included Yu Tongqing, Liu Zhenyi, and Lai Lingyu, and thereafter, like other lineages, it was transmitted according to a generation-name poem ('Zhen chang xuan miao yi, yuan jing xing tong tian…'). From the Ming and Qing onward the Yuxian Lineage's influence was not prominent, but today there are still Quanzhen Daoist priests who claim the Yuxian Lineage as their house, found mainly in monastic communities in Shaanxi, Shandong, and the Northeast.
Core Doctrine
It takes 'clarity and stillness' as its core teaching, holding that 'clarity means clarifying the source of the mind, and stillness means stilling the sea of qi,' and advocates non-action, few desires, forbearance, and the forgetting of emotion, practicing the dual cultivation of nature and life while placing particular emphasis on refining nature. It holds the Quanzhen position that the Three Teachings are one, and often expounds the Dao in the language of Chan Buddhism. Ma Yu was also the earliest 'head of the order' in Quanzhen Daoism, and his proselytizing in Shaanxi established the standing of the ancestral court on the Zhongnan Mountains; his doctrine of 'clarity and stillness' is regarded as the most concise summary of Quanzhen teaching.
Practice & Ritual
Leaving the household for pure cultivation, quiet sitting and internal alchemy, mendicant austerities, and scripture recitation, shared with the other Quanzhen lineages; it has its own generation-name poem; and ordination follows that of the public monasteries. In his proselytizing in Guanzhong, Ma Yu advocated simplicity and opposed believers spending lavishly to build temples, taking as his task 'not establishing written texts' and 'seeking only clarity and stillness'; this style of practice was later upheld by the Yuxian Lineage as its standard. Its other practices are the same as those of the other Quanzhen lineages.
Transmission
Wang Chongyang → Ma Yu (second-generation head of the order) → Yu Tongqing, Liu Zhenyi, and others → transmission in Guanzhong and Shandong during the Yuan → transmission by generation names in the Ming and Qing → scattered transmission today. After his death, Ma Yu was buried at the ancestral court in the Zhongnan Mountains; in the sixth year of the Zhiyuan reign of Kublai Khan (1269), he was posthumously canonized as 'Perfected Danyang, Embracer of the One and Practitioner of Non-Action,' and his community gradually merged with the other Quanzhen lineages at the ancestral court.