Our Religions by Arvind Sharma

Author:Arvind Sharma [Sharma, Arvind]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-206426-4
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1993-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Wang Che and the Establishment of Ch’üan Chen Taoism

After the northern and southern dynasties, Taoism matured into an institutionalized religion. Under the T’ang dynasty (618–907) it enjoyed the patronage of the ruling house, because the emperors shared the same family name with Lao Tzu and revered him as their dynastic ancestor. Some emperors in both the northern and the southern Sung dynasty (960–1279) were also enthusiastic believers and patrons of Taoism. New schools and texts developed, and some scholars—for example, Cheng Hsüan-ying (middle seventh century), Ssu-ma Ch’eng-chen (655–735), Tu Kuang-t’ing (850–933), and Chang Po-tuan (987–1082)—contributed to Taoist literature from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries. However, the most important school in late Taoist history was Ch’üan Chen Taoism, which was founded by Wang Che (1113–1169).

Wang Che, also known by his clerical name, Ch’ung-yang Tzu or Wang Ch’ung-yang, was the son of a great landowner from Hsien-yang in Shensi (Shaanxi) Province. During his youth, the Sung dynasties were righting against the Chin dynasty (1115–1234), which was ruled by the Jurchen (Ju-chen), ancestors of the Manchus from northeastern China. Eventually the Sung surrendered, and Shensi became a part of the Chin dynasty. Wang reluctantly accepted the reality that the Chinese majority were ruled by barbarians. He tried to take the civil service examination, and later took the less prestigious military examination. However, he failed to advance in rank and eventually resolved to abandon both his military office and his family for a religious career at the age of forty-seven. He claimed to have met Taoist sages who taught him the secret oral teachings. Thereafter he left home for a life of seclusion on Mount Chung-nan. While digging a hole two meters deep in which to meditate, Wang named his austere cell “the grave of a living corpse” and practiced an ascetic life. Eight years later he burned his hermitage and journeyed alone to Shantung Province, where he formally established the Ch’üan Chen (Completing Truth) religion and received seven disciples, who were later called the Seven Perfected Ones of Ch’üan Chen Taoism.

After Wang’s death, his seven leading disciples continued their self-cultivation and did successful missionary work in Shensi, Hopei, Shantung, and Honan Provinces. It was the youngest among them, however—Ch’iu Ch’u-chi, also known as Ch’iu Ch’ang-ch’un (1148–1227)—who was crucial in bringing about the great popularity of Ch’üan Chen Taoism. Along with the decline of the Chin and southern Sung dynasties, Chinggis Khan was fighting and killing for the establishment of the Mongol Empire. In 1219 when Ch’iu was seventy-one, he refused invitations brought to him by envoys of the Chin and southern Sung emperors but responded to Chinggis Khan’s call readily and trekked more than ten thousand miles with eighteen disciples to visit him in central Asia. Chinggis was interested in the secret of longevity, but Ch’iu taught him the basic principles of Taoist philosophy, such as nonaction and nonkilling. Perhaps for political considerations, Chinggis Khan respected Ch’iu. He referred to him as “Immortal Ch’iu” and put him in charge of monks and nuns all over the country.

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