The Shangqing School (Chinese:上清), also known as Supreme Clarity, Highest Clarity, or Supreme Purity,[1] 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, a man, (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 – fr), 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 and beliefs differ from the original values of the school.
^Carrasco, David; Warmind, Morten; Hawley, John Stratton; Reynolds, Frank; Giarardot, Norman; Neusner, Jacob; Pelikan, Jaroslav; Campo, Juan; Penner, Hans; et al. (Authors) (1999). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Edited by Wendy Doniger. United States: Merriam-Webster. p. 691. ISBN 9780877790440.
Zhou (561-578) placed a great deal of importance on the Shangqing texts. The ShangqingSchool dominated the Daoist movements under the Tang. During this...
Shangqing may refer to: Shangqing (deity), a Taoist god ShangqingSchool, Daoist movement Shangqing Bridge, overpass in Beijing Shangqing, Jiangxi (上清)...
absorbed into the Shangqing and Zhengyi currents during the Tang dynasty. The Lingbao School is a synthesis of religious ideas based on Shangqing texts, the...
(316–589) era saw the rise of two new Taoist traditions, the Shangqing and Lingbao schools. Shangqing was based on a series of revelations by gods and spirits...
Early Shangqing texts emphasize that the purpose of bugang is to achieve individual immortality through the ascent to heaven. In the Shangqing texts,...
adept's body, a practice that would become a defining feature of Shangqing. Shangqing has sometimes been described as a "mystical" form of Daoism, emphasising...
school Old Text Korean Taoism Quanzhen School ("School of the Fulfilled Virtue") ShangqingSchool ("School of the Highest Clarity") Way of the Five Pecks...
received from an unknown source by Wei Huacun, one of the founders of the ShangqingSchool (Chinese: 上清), in 288 CE. The first reference to the text appears in...
the 4th century the ShangqingSchool recognized a woman, Wei Huacun (251–334), as the school's founder. Women in this Taoist school transmitted scriptures...
or Zuowang lun is a Taoist meditative text that was written by the ShangqingSchool patriarch Sima Chengzhen (647–735). Taoism incorporated many Buddhist...
period (420-589): development of the Shangqing and Lingbao branches. Shangqing Taoism (上清派 Shàngqīng pài, "School of the Highest Clarity") Maoshan Taoism...
natural substances, medicines or elixirs, from outside of the body. The ShangqingSchool of Taoism played an important role in the emergence of neidan alchemy...
promoting the Northern Louguan school of Taoism, while the second reign instead promoted the Southern Shangqingschool of Taoism, possibly due to Emperor...
specifically warned about the toxicity of elixirs. For instance, the ShangqingSchool Daoist pharmacologist Tao Hongjing's 499 Zhen'gao (真誥, Declarations...
adding cannabis into ritual censers. The ShangqingSchool of Daoism provides a good example. The Shangqing scriptures were written by Yang Xi (330– c...
attributes the Shenxian Zhuan to Ge. The (6th century) biography of the ShangqingSchool patriarch Tao Hongjing (456-536) says he "obtained Ge Hong's Shenxian...
Huacun 魏華存 (252-334) and Xu Mi 許謐 (303-376) founded the Taoist ShangqingSchool. The Shangqing scriptures were supposedly dictated to Yang Xi (330-c. 386)...
present" in the Daoist meditation technique, which both the ShangqingSchool and Lingbao Schools popularized. It thus means that the meditator, by an act...
Celestial Master Zhang Keda to unite the Lingbao School, the ShangqingSchool and Zhengyi Dao. The new school was to retain the Zhengyi name and remain based...
the Tao and a heavenly order with Mahayana Buddhist influences. The Shangqingschool is the beginning of the Taoist tradition known as “inner alchemy” (neidan)...
concepts as well as additions to the practice, like visualizations. The ShangqingSchool (上清, Supreme Clarity) began during the Western Jin dynasty, and their...
Other schools rose to prominence throughout Chinese history, such as the Shangqingschool during the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Lingbao school during...
proto-meditation that later became widespread in movements such as the ShangqingSchool of Daoism. These instructors handled religious and administrative duties...
best known as a founder of the Shangqing "Highest Clarity" School of Taoism and the compiler-editor of the basic Shangqing scriptures. There are a variety...
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