Komjathy, Daoist Tradition:
An Introduction 2013
by Louis Komjathy
by Louis Komjathy
Table of Contents
Part 1: Historical Overview
1. Approaching Daoism
2. The Daoist Tradition
Part 2: The Daoist Worldview
3. Ways to Affiliation
4. Community and Social Organization
5. Informing Views and Foundational Concerns
6. Cosmogony, Cosmology, and Theology
7. Virtue, Ethics and Conduct Guidelines
Part 3: Daoist Practice
8. Dietetics
9. Health and Longevity Practice
10. Meditation
11. Scriptures and Scripture Study
12. Ritual
Part 4: Place, Sacred Space and Material Culture
13. Temples and Sacred Sites
14. Material Culture
Part 5: Daoism in the Modern World
15. Daoism in the Modern World
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4 Community and social organization
Community, especially place-specific community, is a central dimension of the Daoist tradition, and there are diverse Daoist models of community, including ascetic, eremitic, householder, and monastic models. Some Daoists followed a way of life based in renunciation (ascetic, eremitic, and monastic), while others followed a way of life that involved commitment to family and often to social and even political involvement (householder). There are, in turn, different Daoist views on the most beneficial and “highest” religious paths. However, a more comprehensive and integrated perspective recognizes that each of these paths has been understood as one of many paths to the Dao, as one of many expressions of Daoist religious life. Of particular note in this chapter is the section on Daoist women and female participation. Although Daoism cannot be read as a “proto-feminist” tradition, it is among the more inclusive and empowering religious traditions with respect to female adherents.
1] Hermits and eremitic communities
On the most basic level, a hermit or recluse is someone who goes into seclusion. Such a person seemingly withdraws from the larger society, and takes up a corresponding way of life rooted in simplicity and interiority. In Chinese, a recluse is usually referred to as yinshi, which literally means “hidden literatus.” In Daoist terms, one might translate this term as “concealed adept.” These individuals frequently live among “hills and mountains” (qiushan) and “mountains and forests” (shanlin). Yinshi may be actual hermits, who live in physical isolation from others, or members of eremitic communities, in which a group of recluses live together. In contrast to cenobitic (communal) institutions such as monasteries, eremitic communities consist of individuals living in separate dwellings but within a particular geographical area and with a sense of communal participation. They understand themselves to be supporting each other’s religious practice, whether through actual meetings, conversations, and spiritual direction or through a more subtle sense of connection. We may think of such recluses as members of an alternative or intentional community, a religious community opting out of the dominant social order and corresponding value-system. They embrace a different vision of human meaning and purpose.
Although very little work has been done on Daoist eremiticism, partially of course because the “hermit tradition” often exists on the margins of court politics and the larger religious institution, and thus outside of official historiography, there is evidence of such a flourishing Daoist subculture throughout Chinese history. Traces of Daoist eremiticism are found in hagiographies (biographies of saints) and in poetry. Although open to interpretation and debate, the earliest Daoist eremitic communities existed during the time of classical Daoism. These are the classical inner cultivation lineages already discussed in previous chapters of this book. Within the Zhuangzi, we find evidence to support the existence of hermits and eremitic communities. Some passages indicate temporary seclusion, while others point toward a more permanent way of life. For example, in Chapter 7 of the
Inner Chapters, Huzi (Gourd Master) manifests the formless state of “beingnot-yet-emerged-from-the-ancestral” to the shaman Ji Xian, who subsequently flees in terror. Liezi (Master Lie; see also Chapters 1, 18, 21, 28 and 32),1 one of Huzi’s disciples who had been momentarily enamored by Ji Xian’s apparent power and prognostication skills, decides that he had never really learned anything.
LIEZI ENTERS SECLUSION
He went home and for three years did not go out. He replaced his wife at the stove, fed the pigs as though he were feeding people, and showed no preferences in the things he did. He got rid of carving and polishing and returned to simplicity (su). He let himself stand alone like an uncarved block (pu). In the midst of entanglement he remained sealed, and in this Oneness he ended his life. (Zhuangzi, Chapter 7; cf. Daode jing, Chapter 19)
This passage parallels others wherein three years is identified as the ideal period of temporary seclusion for intensive training: Cook Ding (Chapter 3), Gengsang Chu (Chapter 23), as well as adept Huan and Zhuping Man (Chapter 32). As three years is the traditional Chinese mourning period, one might read these descriptions both literally and metaphorically. One goes into physical seclusion, which also involves the death of one’s former self and mundane social concerns. For Liezi, seclusion establishes a situation conducive for intensive Daoist cultivation. It results in mystical union with the Dao, which may or may not include physical death. Here one also notes that the classical Daoist eremitic ideal did not involve abandoning one’s family and property. Such a renunciant model contradicts traditional Chinese values and appears later under the influence of Buddhism.
Seclusion is further emphasized in Chapters 23 and 28 of the Zhuangzi, which contain the earliest Daoist occurrences of the phrase huandu (lit., “four du squared”). This is significant because in later organized Daoism, specifically during the late medieval period, huandu took on a technical meaning of “enclosed and shut-off” and “meditation enclosure.”
CLASSICAL DAOIST IDEALS OF EREMITIC WITHDRAWAL
Master Gengsang Chu [a disciple of Lao Dan] said, “When the vernal qi manifests, the various grasses grow. Later, when autumn arrives, the myriad fruits ripen. And how could it not be like this? The Way of Heaven is already moving. I have heard that the utmost person dwells like a corpse in a four-walled room (huandu zhi shi ). He leaves the various clans to their wild and reckless ways, unknowing of their activities.” (Zhuangzi,
Chapter 23)
***
Yuan Xian [a disciple of Kongzi] lived in the state of Lu. He resided in a four-walled room (huandu zhi shi ). It was thatched with living grasses, had a broken door made of woven brambles and mulberry branches for doorposts. Jars with the bottoms out, hung with pieces of coarse cloth for protection from the weather, served as windows for its two rooms. The roof leaked and the floor was damp, but Yuan Xian sat upright (kuangzuo), playing the zither and singing. (Zhuangzi, Chapter 28; see also 2, 11, 14 and 24)
Here we find the expression of classical Daoist eremitic commitments, including architectural requirements (see Chapter 15): the second passage states that the recluse lives in a hut constructed from natural, found, and discarded materials, including a thatched roof, woven-bramble door, mulberry-branch doorposts, and broken-jar windows. Such a life is informed by classical Daoist values of simplicity and disengagement from wealth, reputation, and social status. Many of the stories are also framed as critiques of political power and social position, with various rulers and officials visiting Daoist adepts only to be rebuffed. The Zhuangzi also documents Daoist recluses associated with particular physical places such as Chu (present-day Hubei, Hunan, Henan, etc.; Chapter 4), the Hao and Pu rivers (Jiangsu; Chapter 17), the Liao river (Liaoning; Chapter 7), Lu (present-day Shandong; Chapters 20 and 28), Mount Gushe (Chapter 1), Mount Kongtong (possibly in Pingliang, Gansu; Chapter 11), Mount Kunlun (Chapters 6, 12, and 18), Mount Tai (Tai’an, Shandong; Chapter 29), Mount Weilei (Chapter 23), Mount Zhong (Chapter 28), and the Ying river (Chapter 28), a tributary of the Huai river (Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu) (see also Mair 1998). Interestingly, the Zhuangzi utilizes physical places and non-physical places as symbolic of Daoist commitments and spiritual states. Certain passages of the Zhuangzi also highlight the eremitic qualities of certain humans and animals, including fishermen (Chapters 17 and 31), firewood-gatherers and wood-cutters (Chapters 20, 26, and 29), warblers and moles (Chapter 1), as well as turtles (Chapters 17 and 26).
In the early medieval period, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (zhulin qixian) are often associated with Daoist eremitic withdrawal, with the members Ji Kang (Xi Kang; 223–262) and Ruan Ji (210–263) being among the most prominent. However, these individuals are better understood as disillusioned literati with Daoistic interests. They are probably best characterized as “Daoist sympathizers” (see Chapters 3 and 16) with particular interest in classical Daoist texts as opportunities for cosmological speculation as well as philosophical reflection and conversation.
In terms of actual early medieval Daoist hermits and recluses, one important representative is Yan Zun (Junping [Noble Peace]; ca. 83 BCE-ca. 10 CE), who was originally named Zhuang Zun. Yan Zun was an urban recluse and Fangshi who spent his days in the markets of present-day
Chengdu engaging in divinization and prognostication and his nights teaching cultured elite the intricacies of the Chinese literati tradition. For instance, he taught Yang Xiong (53 BCE–18 CE), a famous Han poet and philosopher. Yan Zun wrote the Laozi zhigui (Essential Meaning of the Laozi; a.k.a. Daode zhenjing zhigui; DZ 693), which is the earliest surviving Daoist commentary on the Daode jing in the Daoist Canon. He was later bestowed with the honorific imperial title Miaotong zhenren (Perfected Subtle Pervasion) during the Shaoxing period (1131–62) of the Song dynasty (Berkowitz 2000: 93).
Eremiticism remained a primary model for Daoist community in later organized Daoism and even in modern Daoism. During the Song-Jin period, one relatively unknown recluse exerted an unexpected influence on the emerging Quanzhen movement. This was Liu Biangong (Gaoshang [Exalted Eminence]; 1071–1143), who lived as a solitary ascetic with a small group of disciples in Bingzhou, Shandong (Goossaert 1997: 47–54; 1999). Liu Biangong began his lifelong self-confinement at the age of fifteen. While mourning his father’s death, he encountered an “extraordinary person” and received secret teachings. He then dedicated himself to intensive and prolonged ascetic practice in a meditation enclosure (huandu) near his family home. He observed silence, wore a simple cloth robe, and maintained a vegetarian diet. He also never married and practiced sexual abstinence. Following his death, his brother searched his hut and discovered a short treatise on cultivating clarity and stillness through meditation and within one’s daily life.
Liu’s commitments influenced the early Quanzhen community, which inhabited the same region of Shandong as Liu and his disciples. Ma Yu (1123–84) explicitly mentions the Shandong hermit.
MA YU REMEMBERS THE SHANDONG ASCETIC LIU GAOSHANG
“Liu Gaoshang lived in a meditation enclosure for forty years. He freed himself from everything but emptying the heart-mind, filling the belly, avoiding ornamentation, forgetting reputation, abandoning profit, clarifying spirit and completing qi. The elixir formed naturally, and immortality was completed naturally.”
(Danyang yulu, DZ 1057, 8b)
Here we find one source of inspiration for early Quanzhen practice, especially with respect to the practice of meditation enclosure. Liu emphasized the importance of solitary meditation as the path to spiritual realization. In Ma’s description, Liu’s training is informed by classical Daoist values, as evident in the allusion to Chapters 3 and 19 of the Daode jing. At the same time, meditation enclosure allowed one to undertake intensive internal alchemy, which might culminate in immortality (see Chapters 7 and 11).
Moving back to a slightly earlier moment in the emerging Quanzhen community, Wang Zhe, at the age of 48, completely embraced the life of a Daoist renunciant and moved to Nanshi village, near present-day Huxian, Shaanxi. There he dug himself a “grave” that he named “Tomb for Reviving the Dead” (huo siren mu), often translated as “Tomb of the Living Dead.” This was a mound of dirt several feet high, with a ten-foot high ceiling dug under it. Near the entrance to this underground enclosure Wang placed a plaque that read “Wang Haifeng” (Lunatic Wang). Wang spent three years in this enclosure, most likely engaging in ascetic practices, practicing internal alchemy, and exchanging poetry with those who came to visit him. One account of Wang’s solitary training appears in his ten-poem cycle titled “Tomb for Reviving the Dead.”
WANG ZHE REVIVES THE DEAD MAN
Reviving the dead man, the living dead man, I bury the Four Elements that are my cause.
In this tomb, I sleep soundly reclined near flowing waters; Breaking through the Void, I crush every particle of dust.
(Quanzhen ji, DZ 1153, 2.10a)
In the autumn of 1163, Wang Zhe filled in his meditation enclosure and moved to the village of Liujiang (present-day Huxian), located in the Zhongnan mountains. There Wang trained with two hermits, He Dejin
(Yuchan [Jade Toad]; d. 1170) and Li Lingyang (Lingyang [Numinous Yang]; d. 1189). It seems that the three renunciants lived on a small piece of land near a stream, where each had a separate grass hut. Wang engaged in solitary practice, focusing on asceticism and internal alchemy (see Komjathy 2007a).
After four years Wang Zhe burned down his hut, dancing while he watched it burn to the ground. This occurred in the summer of 1167, when Wang was 54 years old. Wang then traveled east, eventually arriving in Ninghai (present-day Muping, Shandong). While living in Shandong’s eastern peninsula for the last three years of his life, Wang gathered together a number of senior disciples, most often referred to as the Seven Perfected (see Chapter 2). They all engaged in alchemical, ascetic, and eremitic training, both individual and communal. Each senior first-generation adherent also lived for some period of time as a solitary recluse (see Komjathy 2007a).
While the early Quanzhen adherents spent time in seclusion, it is also noteworthy that they maintained connections with fellow practitioners and lay supporters. Evidence points toward an extensive community composed of solitary hermitages, eremitic communities, community meeting halls, and shrines (Komjathy 2007a). There was also a communal dimension of meditation enclosures.
EARLY QUANZHEN EREMITICISM
The master [Ma Yu] returned to the Ancestral Hall, locking himself in an enclosure and residing there. On the new moon of the eighth month of 1178, he emerged from enclosure. In the first month of the next year he traveled to Huating county. Li Dasheng invited the master to be attended by him. [Beginning on] the full moon of the second month, [Ma Danyang] lived in enclosure at his [Li’s] home, coming out only after one hundred days. The master revived a withered tree outside the enclosure. In spring of 1180, he arrived in Jingzhao (Shaanxi). Zhao Penglai offered his shelter as a hermitage. The master again lived in enclosure for one hundred days and then came out.
(Jinlian xiangzhuan, DZ 174, 24b-25a)
Here Ma Yu is the model for aspiring adepts, committed to consistent and prolonged solitary religious praxis. In this passage and elsewhere, adherents were often attended by one or more fellow practitioners, disciples, or lay followers. These individuals were responsible for providing support, such as food, water, and medical attention. Solitary ascetic training enabled early adepts to separate themselves from familial and societal entanglements and to purify themselves emotionally and intellectually. It represented the opportunity to move from ordinary human being to more actualized ontological conditions, as defined and understood by the early Quanzhen Daoist religious movement (Komjathy 2007a, forthcoming).
The Quanzhen case is instructive on multiple levels. First, it reveals some of the specifics of ascetic training, including the importance of place, seclusion, spiritual direction, spiritual friendship, and intensive training. Second, Quanzhen began as a small eremitic community emphasizing ascetic and alchemical praxis. It then became a regional community in Shandong and Shaanxi, which included both fully committed renunciants and lay members. The next phase involved a transition from a regional religious movement to national monastic order. It is especially noteworthy that late medieval Quanzhen monasteries not only institutionalized asceticism and eremiticism, but also retained those early commitments, forms of practice, and communal dimensions. Many early Quanzhen monasteries incorporated rows of meditation enclosures into their architecture designs, and these meditation rooms were used for solitary and intensive meditation during huandu retreats. Such winter retreats usually occurred from the winter solstice to the end of the lunar New Year period and lasted for one hundred days (Goossaert 2001, 127).
2] Householder and proto-monastic communities
The eremitic model is only one of many forms of Daoist community and social organization. In fact, the dominant form of Daoist community is probably that of the householder living among other householders. Although the category of householder (“laity”) is often contrasted with renunciant and monastic, here it simply designates individuals who marry and have families. It is a family-centered form of social organization, and parallels dominant Chinese values rooted in Confucianism. It is also congruent with Mahāyāna Buddhist ideals, such as those expressed by the enlightened lay Buddhist in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. In the case of Daoism, many householder communities include ordained, married priests as well as individuals and families living a committed religious life. Such patterns of adherence frequently revolve around specific values (see Chapter 5) and ethical commitments (see Chapter 8).
In the early Tianshi movement, the Daoist community centered on a hierarchically organized theocracy, a semi-independent state (Shu) oriented towards the Dao, organized according to Daoist commitments, and informed by Daoist religious views. Early Tianshi Daoism benefited from a variety of political circumstances, including the decline of centralized Han power and the movement’s relative geographical remoteness. The same was true of the early Quanzhen community’s location in Shandong during the decline of the Jurchen-Jin dynasty.
As discussed in Chapter 2, the Tianshi movement began with a revelation from Laojun (Lord Lao), the deified Laozi and personification of the Dao, to Zhang Daoling in 142 CE. During Lord Lao’s revelation, Zhang was appointed as terrestrial representative, the “Celestial Master,” and given healing powers as a sign of his empowerment. The movement in turn became patrilineal, passing from Zhang Daoling to his son Zhang Heng and then to his grandson Zhang Lu (d. 215). The Celestial Masters established “parishes” (zhi ) with hierarchically ranked followers, wherein the so-called libationers (jijiu) were highest. The intent was to establish “people of the Dao” (daomin) and “seed people” (zhongmin) that would populate an earth made ritually and morally pure.
CHART 6 Early Tianshi Community Organization
In early Tianshi, the Celestial Master was the highest socio-political and religious position filled by a single male of the Zhang family. It was patrilineal and hereditary: it passed from the senior male leader (father or elder brother) to next senior male heir (eldest son or brother) in the Zhang family. This remained the case into later and modern Daoist history, though the lineage was disrupted and then reconstructed during the Tang dynasty (see Chapters 2 and 3). The libationers were the highest-ranking community members below the Celestial Master and the Zhang family, and they reported directly to the Celestial Master. The libationers were the equivalent of ordained community priests, and they served as leaders of twenty-four parishes (see Wushang biyao, DZ 1138, 23.4a–9a). Their rank was based on degree of adherence, ordination level with accompanying registers (lu), and ritual attainments. The registers were lists of spirit generals that Tianshi leaders could use for healing, protection, and exorcism. At the next level of the social organization, demon soldiers (guizu) were meritorious leaders of households who represented smaller units in the Celestial Master community. With the exception of the Celestial Master himself, all leadership positions could be filled by men or women, Han Chinese or ethnic minorities (see Kleeman 1998). In fact, some evidence suggests that the ideal model for priests was a married couple performing ritual together, thus expressing an embodied balance between yin and yang. At the bottom of the hierarchically ordered organization were congregants or ordinary adherents, who were again organized and counted according to households. Each of these had to contribute rice or its equivalent in silk, paper, brushes, ceramics, or handicrafts. Each Tianshi member, from childhood to adulthood, also underwent formal initiations at regular intervals and received the above-mentioned registers, including seventy-five for unmarried people and one hundred and fifty for married couples (Hendrischke 2000; Kohn 2004a: 71).
Early Tianshi Daoism is noteworthy for its influence on later Daoist models of participation and social organization. First, it appears that the position of Celestial Master was modeled on (or designed to replace?) the Chinese emperor as Son of Heaven who held the Mandate of Heaven (tianming). This position was viewed through a Daoist lens wherein the political leader should be a high-level Daoist practitioner (sage-king) as described in the Daode jing. There was thus a reciprocal and symbiotic relationship between the Celestial Master as community leader and the Tianshi community. Expressing a vision of communal welfare, each was responsible for the wellbeing of the other and for the community as a whole. Rather than view early Tianshi grain collection as a “tax” or “membership fee,” it is probably more accurate to understand it as a “food distribution system.” It was a form of charity that supported the community as a whole. It was used to help other members in need and to ensure social harmony. Here we find a specific example of Daoist utopianism, which also appears on a smaller scale in classical Daoism, especially among its Primitivist strain. Second, the early Tianshi movement attempted to create a community oriented towards the Dao. According to its own founding account, the inspiration for Tianshi Daoism came from Lord Lao as a personal manifestation of the Dao. Under a generous reading, the early community accepted the direction of that divine communication through Zhang Daoling and his successors. These Daoist religious leaders in turn attempted to guide a community to maintain and propagate Daoist religious commitments, values, and ideals (see Chapters 5 and 8). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Tianshi movement established a hierarchically organized community wherein deeper levels of religious commitment and degrees of adherence led to higher positions in the community. That is, as is the case in most traditional Daoist communities and forms of social organization, early Tianshi was an elder-centered system. Here “elder” is not solely a matter of age seniority; it is also based on level of commitment, training, and expertise.
The early, Shu-based Tianshi community under the leadership of Zhang Lu, the third Celestial Master, was eventually conquered by General Cao Cao (155–220) in 215 CE. Cao Cao, who was instrumental in laying the foundations for the Cao Wei dynasty (220–65), then forced members of the Tianshi community to migrate to different parts of China. This geographical diffusion was pivotal for the emergence of subsequent Daoist movements, and for the development of a more diverse, integrated, and large-scale Daoist tradition.
In terms of Daoist social organization, Tianshi dissemination eventually led to a division within the community between the so-called Northern and Southern Celestial Masters, so named because of their respective locations in northern and southern China. A descendant of a Northern Celestial Masters family in Chang’an, Shaanxi, Kou Qianzhi (365–448), was a pivotal figure in the formation of the first formal Daoist theocracy (government ruled through the divine), which occurred through an alliance with the Toba (Northern) Wei dynasty. After going into seclusion on Songshan (Mount Song; Dengfeng, Henan), Kou supposedly received a revelation from Lord Lao (see Chapter 3). In 415, he received a divinely transmitted text titled Yunzhong yinsong xinke jiejing (Precept Scripture of the New Code, Recited in the Clouds; abbr. “New Code”; partially lost; DZ 785), which contained a set of precepts for a newly envisioned Daoist community. According to this revelation, Kou was to replace the Zhang family as the Celestial Master, abolish some of their received practices, and establish a community based on thirty-six rules. In 424, Kou obtained a court audience with Emperor Taiwu (408–52; r. 424–52) and gained support from the Prime Minister Cui Hao
(381–450). Kou and Cui convinced the ruler to put the “New Code” into practice and thus established the Daoist theocracy of the Northern Wei. Kou became the official leader with the title of Celestial Master, while his disciples were invited to the capital to perform regular rituals. Within the early Toba Wei theocracy, Kou lived in a converted-palace monastery, the Chongxu si (Monastery for Venerating Emptiness), in the capital with some one hundred and twenty disciples and administrators. In 431, Daoist institutions, including temples, ordained clergy, moral rules, and rituals, were also established in the provinces, thus extending the reach of Daoist and state control farther into the countryside. The pinnacle of the theocracy occurred in 440, when the emperor underwent Daoist investiture rites and changed the reign title to Taiping zhenjun (Perfect Lord of Great Peace) (Mather 1979: 118; Kohn 2000b: 284–5). Following Kou’s death in 448, Daoism eventually fell out of favor, and the Daoist theocratic experiment came to an end, with Buddhism taking its place.
The Northern Wei Daoist theocracy provides another glimpse into forms of Daoist community and social organization. Here we find an example of state-sponsored Daoism, specifically through the systematic integration of Daoist religious institutions, clergy and values into the larger society and political system. One key issue, yet to be adequately explored, is the actual political policies, the larger societal institutions and practices, which were inspired by Daoism. What actually occurred on the ground, and how did it affect the daily lives of the average person? To what degree and in what ways was it “Daoist”? Historically, many court Daoists sought imperial patronage, both for themselves and the larger tradition, while many Chinese rulers and governments sought support and legitimation through Daoism. Such an expression of Daoist community, still rooted in a certain utopian vision, reveals a political dimension. In this respect, Daoists competed with the dominant Confucian political project and with the increasingly powerful Buddhist monasteries.
The search for imperial patronage had diverse motivations and dimensions. Sometimes it involved an integrated vision for Chinese society and the Daoist tradition, but at other times, it involved intra-Daoist and interreligious competition, especially with Buddhists. Some prominent examples include the alliance of the Southern Celestial Masters with the Liu-Song dynasty, partially as a result of Tianshi competition with the Taiqing and
Shangqing Daoist movements; the Tang dynasty elevation of Daoism to state religion, partially as a result of the imperial Li family tracing their ancestral line back to Li Er (Laozi); Yuan dynasty support of the Quanzhen monastic order, which was eventually lost through a series of Buddho-Daoist debates and subsequent anti-Daoist edicts; and Qing dynasty support of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen.
In early medieval China, Buddhism gained a stronger role in Chinese culture and society. Han people, the indigenous ethnic majority of traditional China, found Buddhism increasingly attractive, primarily due to its alternative soteriological model and promise of relief from everyday suffering, and large numbers began converting to Buddhism. In addition, Buddhism provided a new model of community and social organization, namely, monasticism. Here we should remember that the model of eremitic communities already had a long and revered history in China, but, in keeping with traditional Chinese values, rejection of family and social reproduction (celibacy) was largely unheard of. Under Buddhist influence, Daoists began adopting and experimenting with quasi-monastic and monastic communities. Tao Hongjing’s (456–536) Shangqing community at Maoshan (Mount Mao; Jurong, Jiangsu) is one representative expression of Daoist quasi- or protomonasticism (see Strickmann 1977, 1979). Tao Hongjing was a descendent of Tao Kedou (d. 363), who was allied through marriage with the Xu family of the original Shangqing revelations (see Chapters 2 and 3). Tao Hongjing ranks as one of the most famous Daoists in Chinese history because of his collection and identification of the original Shangqing manuscripts, his development of a critical pharmacology, and his commitment to alchemical experimentation, especially through the search for external elixirs. While mourning the death of his father (484–86), Tao received Daoist training under Sun Youyue (399–489), abbot of the Xingshi guan (Abode for a Flourishing World) in the capital and a former senior disciple of Lu Xiujing (406–77). It was during this time that Tao first saw a Shangqing manuscript. Tao was enchanted by the calligraphic style and would dedicate a substantial portion of his life to collecting, transcribing, and classifying the extant Shangqing textual corpus. Over the next five years, he traced the manuscript owners and collected various manuscripts, especially those associated with Yang Xi and the Xu family (see Chapters 2, 3, 12 and 15).
Tao Hongjing retired to Maoshan in 492 at the age of thirty-six. There he lived in Huayang guan (Abode of Flourishing Yang) with some of his direct disciples as well as among other Shangqing adherents.2 The Maoshan community included solitary and celibate members as well as communal and married members. That is, there were different paths to spiritual attainment, and renunciant and married adherents lived side by side. While it is unclear what Tao himself thought about these different models, he must have been fairly supportive. This is based on the fact that Zhou Ziliang (fl. 480–520), one of his senior disciples, moved to Maoshan with his entire family. In addition, as the mountain grew in fame, Maoshan became an object of pilgrimage and tourism for both the pious and curious. The mountain was only some thirty miles from the imperial capital; writing in 499, Tao describes the multitudes that annually flocked there on the two festival days associated with the Mao brothers. The community of permanent residents also continued to grow, with the mountain becoming populated by entire households, including young children (Strickmann 1979, 150–51). Tao’s seclusion involved residence in a mountain temple, study and compilation of Daoist scriptures, and decoction of elixirs of immortality. In the process, Tao describes his aesthetic appreciation of the landscape and the esoteric topography of Maoshan as particularly conducive for the compounding elixirs. These two dimensions commingle in Tao’s frequent visits to a northward ridge and an adjacent scenic spot with a bubbling spring (Strickmann 1979: 141–2).
Thus, on the Maoshan of Tao Hongjing, we find an inclusive, placespecific Daoist community. This community included men, women, children, and domestic animals. It included individuals following eremitic, quasi-monastic, or householder religious paths. It allowed space for various Daoist activities: from scholarship and meditation, through alchemical experimentation, to popular devotion and pilgrimage. Such perhaps is the most Daoist of models of community and social organization. Respecting traditional Chinese values and rooted in traditional Chinese culture, Maoshan Daoists accepted both individualistic and family-centered paths to the Dao. As an expression of foundational Daoist values and views (see Chapter 5), the Maoshan community was inclusive, flexible, minimalist, and relatively egalitarian in terms of recognizing potential. At the same time, there were clearly degrees of adherence and commitment (see Chapters 3 and 8). The community was organized hierarchically, recognizing differences of affinity, aptitude, and effort. We must also note that there are other Daoist minority and dissenting views that understand spiritual capacities as endowed, as is the case in some alchemical discussions of “immortal bones” (xiangu). While there are many paths to the Dao, some are recognized as more efficacious, advanced, and esteemed.
The Maoshan community also reveals some of the challenges of inclusion, especially in terms of a daily life of cohabitation and shared place. Fame and public interest frequently leads to the diminishment of the very aesthetic and spiritual dimensions that created elevation (see Chapter 1). People came to Maoshan with different motivations, including materialist, tourist, devotional, and soteriological ones. Following a pattern in many contexts and traditions, increases in membership led to a decrease in commitment among the Maoshan community. This was so much the case that Tao Hongjing relocated to more secluded parts of the mountains later in life, and eventually departed incognito to an area farther east where he hoped to complete his alchemical transformation (Strickmann 1979: 150–1).
3] Monasticism
As a comparative category, monasticism refers to a community of people following a particular form of religious life, typically centering on formal religious vows and commitments, rules, daily schedules, religious discipline, and, at least ideally, an orientation towards the ultimate concern and dedication to the ideals of the associated tradition (see Weckman 1987). Historically speaking, monasticism is a highly organized type of religious institution, usually emerging out of earlier ascetic tendencies and eremitic (hermit and/or quasi-monastic) communities. The term is usually associated with Catholic religious orders, but it may be reasonably applied to other traditions, including Buddhism and Daoism. Those who follow this way of life and live in these types of communities are referred to as “monastics.” They may be monks (men) or nuns (women). Generally speaking, the title of monastic assumes a vow of celibacy. In addition, a distinction may be made between eremitic (solitary) forms and cenobitic (communal) forms of monasticism, although most monastic communities involve some degree of social interaction among the community members. Monastics live in monasteries, which are also referred to as nunneries or convents in the case of nuns. Some forms of monasticism are also mendicant or peripatetic, usually involving homelessness, wandering, and begging, while others are cloistered, usually involving complete isolation and residence in a separate cell. While monasticism has been a primary form of Daoist community and a central expression of the Daoist religious institution from the late medieval period to today, peripatetic and cloistered examples are rare.
Daoist monasticism developed under the influence of Buddhism, which had been introduced to China during the first and second centuries CE and became increasingly influential from the fourth century forward. Both the Northern Celestial Masters community of Kou Qianzhi and the Maoshan community of Tao Hongjing were quasi- or proto-monastic. These Daoist communities included unmarried, celibate practitioners, married priests and religious administrators, and disciples of various persuasions. They were thus not monastic in the strict sense of the word. They were not religious communities where celibate monastics (monks and/or nuns) lived according to a strict rule and schedule in a tightly knit religious community. The earliest Daoist monastery was roughly contemporaneous with the Maoshan community. After the Toba-Wei theocracy ended, Louguan (Lookout Tower Monastery; a.k.a., Louguan tai; Zhouzhi, Shaanxi) rose to become the major Daoist center in northern China and, in the early sixth century, also served as a refuge for southern Daoists who were persecuted under Emperor Wu (r. 464–549) of the Liang dynasty (Kohn 2003a: 41). Located in the foothills of the Zhongnan mountains and still a flourishing Quanzhen Daoist monastery today, Louguan was identified by Daoists as the place where Laozi transmitted the Daode jing to Yin Xi, the Guardian of the Pass (see Chapters 2 and 14). This version of the transmission legend arose in the mid-fifth century through Yin Tong (398–499?), a self-identified descendent of Yin Xi and owner of the Louguan estate. During the early sixth century, a group of Daoists, primarily members of the Northern Celestial Masters, apparently lived within a monastic framework, specifically according to ethical guidelines, communal celibate living, and standardized daily schedule. Members of the early Louguan community practiced longevity techniques, observed the five precepts adopted from Buddhism, venerated Laozi and the Daode jing, and honored Yin Xi as their first patriarch (Kohn 2003a: 41). They also composed and compiled various texts, such as the influential Taishang Laojun jiejing (Precept Scripture of the Great High Lord Lao; DZ 784). Regardless of the degree to which the early Louguan community was fully monastic, the sacred site became one of the most important Daoist monasteries from the Northern Zhou dynasty and Tang dynasty to today.
Louguan and other early Daoist monasteries prepared the way for later fully developed monastic systems, such as those of the Tang, late Song and Yuan, and Qing. While the actual social organization of the early Louguan community remains unclear, we have detailed information on later Daoist monastic life. Medieval Daoist monasticism was characterized by distinctive ordination rites, training regimens, distinctive vestments, ritual implements, as well as buildings and compounds (Kohn 2003a, 2004b). During the Tang, there was a nationwide monastic system, with large and small monasteries inhabited by celibate monks and nuns adhering to ethical codes (see Chapter 8) and following a standardized daily schedule. In this way, Daoist monasticism paralleled the Chinese Buddhist system. Daily monastic life included hygiene practices, abstinence, meal regulations, ceremonial meals and associated foods, eating procedures, ritual performances, obeisances, and audiences with senior monastics, especially one’s spiritual director (Kohn 2003a: 112–39).
While fully systematized Daoist monasticism thus emerged during the Tang dynasty, the most influential Daoist monastic tradition, Quanzhen, was established during the late Song-Jin period and early Yuan. Quanzhen monasteries and temples were established throughout northern China and its clerical membership grew, so that by the late thirteenth century there were some 4,000 Quanzhen sacred sites and 20,000 monks and nuns (Goossaert 2001: 114–18). From records dating to the Yuan dynasty we know that late medieval Quanzhen monastic life was characterized by intensive meditation, spiritual direction, and a set daily schedule. According to the Quanzhen qinggui (Pure Regulations of Complete Perfection; DZ 1235), the standard daily monastic schedule was as follows:
3 a.m. – 5 a.m. Wake-up
5 a.m. – 7 a.m. Morning meal
7 a.m. – 9 a.m. Group meditation
9 a.m. – 11 a.m. Individual meditation
11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Noon meal
1 p.m. – 3 p.m. Group meditation
3 p.m. – 5 p.m. Individual meditation
5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Formal lecture or interviews
7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Group meditation and tea
9 p.m. – 11 p.m. Individual meditation
11 p.m. – 1 a.m. Scripture recitation
1 a.m. – 3 a.m. Personal time
(DZ 1235, 6a)
Some Daoist monasteries functioned as semi-independent communities, while others were part of a vast, interconnected network of temples. Like the Maoshan community of Tao Hongjing, many of these temples attracted tourists and pilgrims, and some received imperial recognition. Patronage from lay supporters, regional magistrates and aristocratic families, and the imperial court was essential. It is one thing to attempt to maintain a single monastery, but ensuring the flourishing of a nationwide monastic system with thousands of monks and nuns is a different matter entirely. As court Daoist and monastic leaders formed working relationships and political connections with emperors and officials, state regulation also became a social dimension of Daoist monasticism. For example, during the Ming dynasty, Emperor Taizu (1328–98; r. 1368–98) established the Xuanjiao yuan (Court of the Mysterious Teachings), an independent body that dealt with the administration of all Daoists throughout the empire. This court was abolished in 1371, after which Daoists were governed by the Daolu si (Bureau of Daoist Registration). This organization was a subdivision of the Libu (Ministry of Rites), responsible for the supervision of all levels of Daoist activity. It controlled the Daoji si (Bureaus of Daoist Institutions) on the provincial level, Daozheng si (Bureaus of Political Supervision of Daoists) on the prefectural level, and Daohui si (Bureaus of Daoist Assemblies) on the district level (de Bruyn 2000: 596). There were, in turn, various policies associated with these state-sponsored administrative agencies. In addition to regulating the ages and total numbers of Daoists, the Ming administration continued the system of ordination certificates first established during the Tang, through which the state certified monks and nuns after an official examination taken after three years of study. The certificates contained the names of the monastic, his or her religious affiliation, date of ordination, as well as their various appellations. The Ming administration also created the Zhouzhi ce (Register of Complete Comprehension), an official list that contained the names of all Daoists who had ever passed time in any monastery (de Bruyn 2000: 596–7). The Qing dynasty continued the Board of Rites and Bureau of Daoist Registration, and in certain ways it was the precursor to the modern PRC Bureau of Religious Affairs (see Chapter 16). In these bureaucratic institutions, we find another dimension of Daoist social organization, namely its ties to the Chinese imperial court and state control.
Daoist women and female participation
Women have occupied a central place in the Daoist tradition from the beginning; women comprised a substantial portion of every Daoist movement, and many served as religious leaders. When considered comparatively, and especially in terms of pre-modern Chinese history, there can be little debate that Daoists tended to be on the more egalitarian side with respect to inclusion and recognition of women. Here we must distinguish three separate concepts: Daoist views of women and of the “feminine” (see Chapter 5); the Daoist veneration of goddesses and female Perfected (see Chapter 6); and the actual place of women in the Daoist tradition. These dimensions of Daoist religiosity are complex. Veneration of “feminine” qualities or goddesses does not necessarily correspond to the empowerment of women. In the case of Daoism, however, we do find evidence that these three dimensions of religious traditions often went handin-hand. There have, in turn, been various Daoist technical terms designating female Daoist adherents: daonü (“women of the Dao”), daomu (“mothers of the Dao”), nüguan (“female caps”), nüshi (“female masters”), nüzhen (“female Perfected”), and kundao (“female Daoists”), with Kun-earth being the trigram representing “the feminine” through three yin or “broken” lines. Many of these terms only refer to Daoist nuns.
Daoist women fulfilled conventional social roles such as that of mother, daughter, sister, wife, and sexual partner. These are rooted, more often than not, in patriarchal social networks: women are defined in relation to men. This statement, of course, requires additional reflection on actual power relations and women’s perspectives. Moreover, in what ways should we frame the discussion of gender: Is it more important to be a Daoist (“female Daoist”) or to be a woman (“Daoist woman”)? What is the relation between religious identity and gender identity? More important for present purposes, women have become Daoist religious leaders, teachers, priests, nuns, and founders. There also are female Daoist immortals and Perfected, women who became divinized on some level. Throughout Daoist history, these individuals have often been divine teachers and bestowers of revelations.
In terms of specific women, no discussion of Daoism would be complete without reference to Nüyu (Woman Yu), the female Daoist master mentioned in Chapter 6 of the Zhuangzi (see Chapter 3; above); Wei Huacun (252– 334), a Tianshi libationer and eventual divine being who transmitted some of the early Shangqing revelations; Zu Shu (fl. 889–904), a Tang priestess who received a revelation from Lingguang shengmu (Holy Mother of Numinous Radiance) and founded the Qingwei (Pure Tenuity) school (see Chapters 2 and 13); the Tang princesses Jinxian (Gold Immortal) and Yuzhen (Jade Perfected), who were the youngest daughters of Emperor Ruizong’s (r. 710– 12) third consort and who became ordained as Daoist priests in 711 after receiving six years of Daoist training (see Benn 1991); and Sun Buer (1119– 82), the only senior first-generation female Quanzhen adherent and eventual matriarch of female alchemy (nüdan) (see Komjathy 2011e). Unfortunately, very little research has been done on post-Song Daoism, so we do not know much about female Daoists during the late imperial and modern periods (see Despeux and Kohn 2003: 151–74, 198–210). This is not to mention “ordinary” Daoist women whose names have been lost to history. We also lack studies of certain women such as the wives of the actual Celestial Master, women who were pivotal in daily Daoist communal life and in the preservation and transmission of the Daoist tradition. Some insights may be gleaned from culling received Daoist hagiographies. In this respect, the Yongcheng jixian lu (Record of Assembled Immortals of the Walled City; DZ 783) is especially important (see Cahill 2006). This text is an anthology of women’s hagiographies compiled by Du Guangting (850–933), the famous Daoist religious leader, scholar and ritual expert.
Wei Huacun, also known as Lady Wei, is associated with both the Tianshi community and the Shangqing revelations. The daughter of a high official and apparently a birthright member of Tianshi, Wei Huacun eventually married a Tianshi religious leader and raised two sons. She then retired to a separate part of the family compound and devoted herself to selfcultivation. In 299, she had visions of several perfected beings who presented her with sacred scriptures and oral instruction, and she became a libationer with ritual powers and administrative duties. During the war that led to the rise of the Eastern Jin in 317, her family fled to Jiankang (presentday Nanjing, Jiangsu), after which she spent the rest of her life in seclusion, receiving further visits from celestial Perfected. She eventually attained the Dao on Hengshan (Mount Heng, Hunan), the southern sacred mountain that was an active center of both Buddhism and Daoism during the early medieval period (see Chapter 14). She was accordingly called Nanyue furen (Lady of the Southern Marchmount) and, after her ascension into the Daoist heavens, appeared to Yang Xi (330–386) and revealed numerous texts and instructions (Despeux and Kohn 2003: 13–14, 97). As recorded in the Zhen’gao (see above), the Perfected Wei Huacun described her own views on immortality practices.
WEI HUACUN’S VIEWS ON IMMORTALITY PRACTICE
“The way of the yellow and red [bed-chamber arts; sexual practices], the art of commingling qi, constitutes one of the minor methods commended for becoming one of the elect as espoused by [the first Celestial Master] Zhang Daoling. The Perfected [of Shangqing] do not make use of such practices. Although I have observed some people interrupting their decline by practicing these methods, I have never met anyone who has attained eternal life through them.” (Zhen’gao, DZ 1016, 2.1a; adapted from Despeux and Kohn 2003: 16)
She thus became one of the central divine figures in the early Shangqing revelations. Also noteworthy is the pivotal role played by other female divinities and Perfected in those revelations. They include Shangyuan furen (Lady of Highest Prime), Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West), and Ziwei furen (Lady of Purple Tenuity) (see Chapter 6). Unfortunately, at present there are no systematic studies of Wei Huacun, including the specific revelations associated with her, but from her earthly life and post-mortem influence, we gain a glimpse into patterns of female participation in Daoist communal life: from wife and mother, through recluse and renunciant, to religious leader and ultimately Perfected. With respect to the latter, Wei became divinized and located within the hierarchically ordered Daoist pantheon. Like many other Daoist apotheoses, she then became divine source for revelations and contributed to the formation of new communities and movements.
Female Daoists also lived as renunciants and monastics. One of the most famous was Sun Buer, the only female member of the so-called Seven Perfected of early Quanzhen.
FIGURE 4 Late Imperial Representation of Sun Buer
Source: Daoyuan yiqi jing, ZW 87
Sun Buer was born as Sun Yuanzhen in a small town in the Ninghai (presentday Muping), Shandong. As a daughter of a local scholar-official, Sun received a literary education. In her teens, she was married to Ma Yu, the son of a prominent Ninghai landowning family. The couple had three sons and lived quietly until 1167, when Wang Zhe, the founder of Quanzhen, arrived. Ma and Sun eventually became his formal disciples, which required the couple to divorce and become Daoist renunciants. There are various accounts of these events, with competing positive and negative conceptions of Sun. Wang’s various attempts to convince the couple to pursue dedicated Daoist training is documented in the twelfth-century Chongyang fenli shihua ji (Chonyang’s Anthology of Ten Conversions by Dividing Peaches; DZ 1155). Following the death of Wang in 1170 and complete separation from Ma around 1173, Sun began wandering throughout northern China. She moved to Luoyang in 1179, where she trained with a female Daoist recluse from Henan named Feng Xiangu (Immortal Maiden Feng; fl. 1145–79). According to the Lishi tongjian houji, Feng lived in an “upper cave” (shangdong) and had Sun live in the lower one. Sun practiced and taught there until her death in 1182. Her teachings are obscure because few works remain. The only writings that may be reasonably attributed to Sun appear in a fourteenth-century anthology of poems, the Minghe yuyin (Lingering Overtones of the Calling Crane; DZ 1100) (see Komjathy forthcoming). From this text it seems that Sun adhered to foundational Quanzhen commitments and practiced internal alchemy. Her place in early Quanzhen is complex, as it appears that there were varying degrees of acceptance and conceptions of her. While Wang Zhe clearly accepted her as a disciple, the other first-generation adherents and second-generation disciples oscillated among recognition, indifference, disregard, and even explicit dismissal. The latter tendency reveals misogynist tendencies, patriarchal at the very least, in the early community. However, Quanzhen eventually became a nationwide monastic order, within which nuns composed a substantial portion. In addition, as Quanzhen monasticism continued to develop, and as women became increasingly prominent, Sun Buer was accordingly elevated to matriarch of “female alchemy” (nüdan) (see Chapter 11). She also reached the highest status as nominal founder of Qingjing pai (Clarity and Stillness lineage), a Quanzhen women’s lineage. Various poems and prose works were, in turn, attributed to her. Like Wei Huacun, the parameters of Sun Buer’s life reveal patterns of participation for female Daoists: from daughter, wife and mother, through renunciant and alchemist, to immortal and matriarch.
While we await a detailed study of daily monastic life with specific attention to nuns, it appears that most Daoist monasteries that included women were inhabited by both men and women. It appears that there were few, if any, pre-modern Daoist convents where women lived only among other women. In contemporary Daoism, women continue to have a prominent position. Although rural Zhengyi communities have generally departed from tradition by excluding women from ordination, mainland Chinese monasticism as well as other Taiwanese and Hong Kong Daoist communities tend to be more inclusive and empowering. For example, the Taiwanese Daode yuan (Morality Temple) in Gaoxiong and Cihui tang (Compassion Society Temple) near Taibei are contemporary female Daoist communities (Ho 2009). There are also large numbers of prominent nuns in contemporary Quanzhen monasteries, many of whom also serve in leadership positions. Some of the largest populations of Daoist nuns are in Sichuan. Interestingly, a new Daoist seminary for women also was established at Hengshan, the place of Wei Huacun’s seclusion and eremitic training, near Changsha, Hunan (see Wang 2008).
FURTHER READING
Berkowitz, Alan. 2000. Patterns of Disengagement: The Practice and Portrayal of Reclusion in Early Medieval China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Despeux, Catherine, and Livia Kohn. 2003. Women in Daoism. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press.
Eskildsen, Stephen. 1998. Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Kleeman, Terry. 1998. Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial Kingdom. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Kohn, Livia. 2003. Monastic Life in Medieval Daoism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Ōzaki Masaharu. 1986. “The Taoist Priesthood: From Tsai-chia to Ch’uchia.” In Religion and Family in East Asia, edited George DeVos and T. Sofue, 97–109. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Porter, Bill. 1993. Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. San Francisco, CA: Mercury House.
Vervoorn, Aat. 1990. Men of the Cliffs and Caves: The Development of the Chinese Eremitic Tradition to the End of the Han Dynasty. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.
Yoshioka Yoshitoyo. 1979. “Taoist Monastic Life.” In Facts of Taoism, edited by Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, 220–52. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
