Shangqing School

The Shangqing School (Chinese:上清) or Supreme Clarity is a Daoist movement that began during the aristocracy of the Western Jin dynasty. Shangqing can be translated as either 'Supreme Clarity' or 'Highest Clarity.' The first leader of the school was a woman, Wei Huacun (251-334). According to her Shangqing hagiographers, her devotion to Daoist cultivation so impressed a number of immortals that she received revelations from them 31 volumes of Daoist scriptures which would become the foundation of Shangqing Daoism. Later, Tao Hongjing (Chinese: 陶弘景) (456－536) structured the theory and practice and compiled the canon. He greatly contributed to the development of the school that took place near the end of the 5th century. The mountain near Nanjing where Tao Hongjing had his retreat, Maoshan (茅山), today remains the principal seat of the school.

Shangqing practice values meditation techniques of visualization and breathing, as well as physical exercises, as opposed to the use of alchemy and talismans. The recitation of the sacred canon plays an equally important role. The practice was essentially individualistic, contrary to the collective practices in the Celestial Master school or in the Lingbao School. Recruiting from high social classes, during the Tang Dynasty, Shangqing was the dominant school of Daoism, and its influence is found in literature of the time period. The importance of the school only began to diminish beginning from the second half of the Song dynasty. Under the Yuan dynasty, the movement was known by the name Maoshan and the focus changed from meditation to rituals and talismans. In the 21st century, Maoshan Daoism is still practiced but its current techniques are very different from the original techniques developed at the beginning of the school.

Lady Wei Huacun, an aristocrat from the Jin dynasty and a Celestial Master practitioner, was the first leader of the Shangqing School. Three decades after her death, from 364 to 370, Yang Xi 楊羲 (330-386) supposedly had revelations and transcribed texts from a group of immortals and spirits that appeared to him. These texts eventually formed the basis of the school’s beliefs. The revelation began to spread in aristocratic circles of South China, and eventually Tao Hongjing, advisor to the princes of Qi, joined the group. He commented upon, and compiled the Shangqing texts, and developed a well-structured system consisting of a pantheon and new ways to reach immortality that depended upon meditation. More interested in Daoism and Buddhism than in public administration, in 492 he received authorization to leave the court. He moved to Maoshan, which had by now become the center of the school. There, with the help of the Emperor Wudi of the Liang dynasty, he built the temple of Huayang, the first Shangqing temple.

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