Quanzhen CAD

Quanzhen CAD 全真道 Way of Complétude of Authentic the or Voie of Perfect Complétude is, with Zhengyi CAD, one of the two more important schools taoists born at the end of the Song. The patronage of the emperors Jin and Genghis Khan, founder of the Dynasty Yuan, played a great part in his prosperity. In spite of the decline of its institutional power starting from second half of the Mongolian dynasty, it left an important heritage in the fields of the thought, of the Alchimie, the Ascèse and the martial arts. The Quanzhendao current survived in addition until our days in the very many schools which are attached to it, and found established among in popular China through a limited number of institutions and authorized Masters. Via the current Xiantiandao , born at the beginning of the 18th century, it influenced the majority of the new religious currents Chinese.

The founder and birth of the school

Doctrines of Wang Chongyang

The thought of Wang Chongyang claims to carry out the synthesis of the three great Chinese doctrines; it joins together indeed the Li 理, principle supreme of the Néo-confucianisme to the xing 性, nature authentic of the Bouddhisme Chan and with the ming 命, life eternal of the taoism; one finds among his texts of reference the Classique of the filial devotion and the Soutra of diamond .

He recommended an extremely frugal and ascetic life, imposing the celibacy and the vegetarianism, according to a rule inspired of the Chan school. The objective of the monastic life remained nevertheless very taoist, since it was a question more of leading to immortality by completing an alchemical work on the body to free itself from the cycle of the rebirths. With this intention, it was necessary to avoid any loss of IQ, the body energy, most important being caused by the flow of seminal liquid, or blood for the women. It was thus necessary to abstain from any sexual relationship, to limit the wet dreams, to endeavor to make disappear the menstruations, which implied severe food restrictions and of sleep.

Except asceticism, the practice rested primarily on the quiet meditation and alchemy interns Neidan or neigong , which almost entirely replaced the absorption of potions or talismans of external alchemy Jindan. Wang Chongyang taken again in a limited way the techniques shangqing of light gymnastics Daoyin and visualization and proposed a new form of meditation which consisted with first of all controlling the spirit thanks to the xinggong inspired of the practice chan, before passing to the minggong to transform the body.

Hao Datong, one of its disciples, also called upon practices inspired by the Yi Jing. A characteristic of the Quanzhen school is the development of an internal alchemy especially intended for the women, codified by Wang Chongyang and Sun Bu' er.

Its disciples gathered and diffused his work after its death, a collection of thousand poems entitled Compilation of Complétude of Authentic the ; it was indeed accustomed to preaching in worms. Among his writings, one can mention the fifteen principles founders and, for the anecdote, the ten transformations thanks to the division of the pear , writes for exorter the husbands My to separate in order to carry out the ideal of celibacy of the school; the " divide poire" , fenli , is homonymous of " séparation".

Rise

With died of Wang Chongyang, My Yu took its succession. The school extended its activities to Shandong, with the Hebei, Shaanxi and the Henan, promoting the asceticism recommended by its founder. It attracted followers, but met the hostility of the authorities. My Yu ends up returning in its country of origin, yielding the place to Tan Chuduan, Liu Changsheng and Qiu Chuji, which followed one another the head of the principal branch of the school, Longmen , of 1187 with 1219. For this period, the relationships to the local authorities and exchange improved and the school thrived. Monasteries appeared in Shandong, centers of its field of influence. Its reputation succeeds in drawing the attention of the Jin emperors, who invited three times at the court Wang Chuyi, Master of the branch Yushan (1187, 1201, 1203); Qiu Chuji also went in 1188 there. In 1197, to reinflate the cases, the imperial administration on sale put certificates of monk and authorizations of opening of monastery. Quanzhen CAD went purchasing, and the number of its establishments still increased.

In 1219, Qiu Chuji, already old, accepted an invitation of Gengis Khan, which had taken four years before Yanjing (Beijing). The letter, dated May 15th, 1219 was preserved. Party in February 1220 with eighteen disciples for Yanjing, Qiu Chuji learned while arriving that the khan had set out again in forwarding in Central Asia. After one year of stay in the city, it went back on the way and joined finally the Mongolian conqueror in the North of the Afghanistan, close to the Hindū-Kūsh. The khan expressed a large respect to him, naming it " immortel". It put the school Quanzhen in load of the religions for the whole of China and exempted all its Masters of tax and drudgery. Gift was made in Qiu Chuji of part of the imperial gardens of Beijing and Monastère of made supreme the which was there.

The popular legend, which claims that it convainquit Gengis Khan to stop its massacres and to show themselves more lenient towards the Hans, made of Qiu Chuji a patriotic hero. Its tour is reported in the Voyage in Occident of immortal Changchun . Of return to Beijing in 1224, it settled with the monastery which the Mongolian emperor had offered to him. This one being dilapidated enough, Qiu Chuji and its disciples are reflected in shift to collect funds for its repair. Rebuilt, it became the Temple of spring eternal . With its death, in 1227, it was buried just at side, in the garden. On its tomb an oratory with its memory was high, the Chushuntang . After the destruction of the Temple of spring eternal at the time of the takeover by Ming, the emperor Chengzu will make build in his place the Monastère of the white clouds which will integrate the oratory renamed Salle of the patriarch Qiu .

Apogee

Death of Qiu Chuji to 1368, being based on its political power and institutional, the school continued its expansion under the direction of Yin Zhiping and Li Zhichang. Up to that point primarily presents to North Chang Jiang, it extended to the south in the provinces from the Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hubei and Fujian. The mount Wudang became its principal center of activity there. Quanzhendao met in the South the alchemical school Jindan , of which the practices partially had influenced Wang Chongyang, and who asserted the same founders as it: Zhong Liquan, Lu Dongbin and Liu Haichan. Jindan , which had never profited from any official protection, decided to amalgamate with Quanzhen , bringing two famous Masters to him, Li Daochun and Chen Zhixu.

The court continued to express its support at the school: in 1269, five mythical founders, Wang Xuanfu, Zhong Liquan, Lu Dongbin, Liu Haichan and Wang Chongyang, known as " Five Patriarchs of Nord" , immortal Seigneurs, second of the three ranks reserved to the divinities taoists were promoted; the seven disciples of Wang Chongyang were promoted with the first rank of Immortal. In 1310, the Wudi emperor conferred to the five patriarchs the ultimate rank of Emperor and raised the seven disciples with that of immortal Lord; the 18 disciples of Qiu Chuji were named Immortels.

The school was then with the ridge of its political importance. Masters Quanzhen were in load of the businesses taoists to the imperial Academy. Among the famous taoists of this time, it is necessary to mention Wang Zhijin, disciple of Hao Datong then of Qiu Chuji, founder of the branch Panshan , and Li Daochun, Master of the branch Zhong , independent school which decided to join the movement.

Political decline

From the medium of the Yuan dynasty, the power of the school started to carry damage to him. The imperial administration was wary about it, the protests of the other currents against its official position with the head of the religions were done stronger, on behalf of Buddhism in particular. Certain Masters were corrupted by prosperity and the capacity. In parallel, the School of the celestial Main , renamed Zhengyi CAD, specialist in the talismans and exorcisms, saw its importance growing.

Quanzhen CAD lost an argument engaged with the Buddhists around the conversion of the Barbarians by Lao Zi . This work, composed at the 3rd century by a member of the School of the celestial Masters, reported how Lao Zi, after being party towards the West, had become the Buddha. Regularly begun again by the taoists for propaganda anti-Buddhist, it had been the subject of continual additions and added up under Yuan ten booklets

The founder of the Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang, regarded the activities of Zhengyi as altruists and the asceticism of Quanzhen like egoist. He named the school Zhengyi with the head of the religions

Wang Changyue

Quanzhen CAD knew under the Qing a renewal of public prestige thanks to Wang Changyue, seventh patriarch of the branch Longmen founded by Qiu Chuji. From 1656, it successfully preached with the Temple of the white clouds the " great rule of the immortels" .

Originating in Changzhi to the Shanxi, Wang Changyue had for Ping first name and a social name Kunyang. One is unaware of his birth date, but its childhood proceeded for the period of disorders and wars of the end of the Ming, which could contribute to push it towards the religion. It is only with the ripe age that it integrated the branch Longmen of Quanzhen , becoming the disciple of the Master Zhao Zhensong which recommended a religious life made of serious and of dicipline. On these bases, Wang Changyue left to practice the CAT on the Hua mount.

In 1665 it came to Beijing and was allowed starting from 1656 to lavish its teaching with the Temple of the white clouds. It made many followers. He was very appreciated of the emperor Shunzhi who gave him the title of " Master national" , supreme distinction for the religious personalities, and offered three times l'" to him; dress violet" , mark of the imperial recognition. In 1663, it left to spread its teaching in the south of the Blue River where it establishes three temples, with Nankin, Hangzhou and on the Wudang mount. Many Masters of the South joined. It gave again a certain visibility at the school Quanzhen and the unit of the taoism whose influence near the capacity was declining, while sitting preeminence of the branch Longmen . He died in 1680, after having indicated Tan Shoucheng like successor. The Kangxi emperor decreed to him on a purely posthumous basis the title of " Large Master who embraces the unité" , a reference to the ideological synthesis asserted by Quanzhen CAD which one finds in his thought. It was called the " father of the rebirth of Quanzhen " .

Wang Changyue started again the tradition, initiated by the founder of the school, the practice of the CAT based primarily on asceticism and internal alchemy, rejecting the external visualizations and assistances. But the similarity stops there, because its principal originality is to have redefined the traditional objective of " long life and of immortalité" of the practitioner taoist, by giving him a form more easily acceptable by a public very influenced by the Confucianism and Buddhism. According to him, the practices of alchemy aiming to draw aside the diseases and to really prolong the terrestrial existence are to be proscribed. Death is inevitable, the historical Bouddha and Lao Zi themselves not having escaped there. That which prolongs its body life indefinitely becomes a demon and not immortal. One should not be concerned with ming , " vie" whose term is fixed and who must be naturally completed, but zhenxing , " nature authentique" , which only is immortal.

The five chapters of the Benzhuan and the Chuzhenjielu contained in the Anthology of the gun taoist as well as the Biyuantanjing of the Collection of old books of the house hidden represent the sum of its teaching.

Branches

Very many schools taoists claimed and claim still Quanzhen CAD . One distinguishes as of death from Wang Chongyang various branches, the principal one being that of the heirs to Qiu Chuji, Longmen 龍門 or " Doors of the dragon". With each of the six other disciples a branch is allotted:

Hao Datong : Huashan " Hua" mount; 華山
Liu Chuxuan : Suishan " Sui" mount; 隨山
My Danyang (My Yu): Yuxian " Meet immortels" 遇仙
Sun Drunk' er: Qingjing " Purity and calme" 清靜
Tan Chuduan: Nanwu 南無
Wang Yuyang :Yushan " Yu" mount; 崳山

At the beginning of the 18th century, was born the movement Xiantiandao , founded by Huang Dehui which claimed Quanzhen . The school thus has by its intermediary influenced the majority of the new syncretistic currents religious appeared in China and with Taiwan between the end of the 19th century and the end of the 20th century, of which most important is Ikuan CAT.

Compilation of the gun taoist

One of the important contributions of the school to the whole of the taoism is the reconstitution of the Canon taoist. Indeed, that of Song was incomplete for a long time and that of Jin had burned in 1191. In 1224, with the return of its voyage in Central Asia, Qiu Chuji charged Song Defang with work. The unit, heading Treasure of the city of the mystery , included/understood more than 7800 rollers.

Temples

The principal temples Quanzhen in China are the Temple of the white clouds of Beijing, the Temple of pure Yang in Shanxi and the Temple of Chongyang in Shaanxi.

Quanzhen CAD in the folklore of the kung fu

Like all the schools taoists of certain importance, Quanzhen CAD takes part of the universe of the Kung fu. The school is present in the folklore of martial arts, particularly through the very popular novels of Jin Yong, and the films and televised series which are inspired by it. Quanzhen CAD occupies in these works the not very enviable place of sect lower always seeking noise than truths hero; the seven disciples and Yin Zhiping are described under one day not very flattering. The novelist Nor Kuang, friend of Jin Yong, would have summarized the situation thus: “Has share Wang Chongyang, all the disciples of Quanzhen are idiots”. In the work of Jin Yong and its adaptations, the life of the founder of the school mixes real historical details and lovesong. Presented like a patriot, it is treated with more regards than the remainder of its school. Nevertheless, if it is probable that Wang Chongyang received a drive of martial art, it were not its speciality, and it were never implied in the policy. In addition, in total shift with its ascetic ideal, Jin Yong lends a history of love to him animated with a heroin, Lin Chaoyin.

The series of three novels in which the school Quanzhen CAD is most present was translated into French under the title the Legend of the Hero hunter of eagles .

It is not rare that the amateurs of literature of kung fu regard the version of Jinyong as entirely in conformity with historical truth.

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