Wei Huacun (252–334),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Xianan (賢安), was a founder of the Shangqing sect of

Daoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

Overview

Wei was born in 252 in

Jining, Shandong Jining () is a former capital of Shandong. Is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Shandong province. It borders Heze to the southwest, Zaozhuang to the southeast, Tai'an to the northeast, and the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu to the nor ...

in the former county of Rencheng (任城). Her father, Wei Shu (魏舒), was a government official. From an early age she displayed a propensity for studying the works of

Laozi Laozi (), also romanized as Lao Tzu #Name, among other ways, was a semi-legendary Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosopher and author of the ''Tao Te Ching'' (''Laozi''), one of the foundational texts of Taoism alongside the ''Zhuangzi (book) ...

and

Zhuangzi Zhuangzi may refer to: * ''Zhuangzi'' (book) (莊子), an ancient Chinese collection of anecdotes and fables, one of the foundational texts of Taoism **Zhuang Zhou Zhuang Zhou (), commonly known as Zhuangzi (; ; literally "Master Zhuang"; als ...

, and practising

Daoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

methods of cultivation. At the age of 24, she was married to Liu Wen (劉文) against her will by her parents and had two sons. After they grew up, she resumed her Daoist practices. At some point she became a libationer in the priesthood of the Celestial Masters sect of Daoism. According to her Shangqing

hagiographer A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an wiktionary:adulatory, adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religi ...

s, her devotion to Daoist cultivation so impressed a number of immortals that she received revelations from them: 31 volumes of Daoist scripture which would become the foundation of Shangqing Daoism. Among these was the ''Yellow Court Classic'' (黃庭經), which detailed a form of Daoist meditation involving the visualizations of deities within the 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 the notion of the human body as a microcosm containing universal energies, which could be actualised by ecstatic union with deities. With the emphasis on meditation, there would be much less attention paid to physiological cultivation by ingesting herbs and drugs, which had been important in earlier forms of Daoism. When Wei's disciple Yang Xi (楊羲) formally founded the Shangqing school, 30 years after her death, Wei was acknowledged as the first Patriarch of Shangqing Daoism and, as an immortal, would be a source of continuing revelations. The sect would be centred on Mao Mountain (茅山), situated to the south of

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, and would thus be also known as the Maoshan sect. From the 6th to the 10th century, Shangqing would be the most prominent Daoist sect and would gain favour among aristocrats of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

. The Shangqing scriptures were regarded as possessing a high literary quality that previous Daoist scriptures did not, and their vivid esoteric imagery was an inspiration to artists and poets.

References

Works cited

* Boutonnet, Olivier, "La figure divine de Wei Huacun 魏華存 dans le taoïsme Shangqing au VIIIe siècle : la place du culte et la question du genre dans la pratique spirituelle", ''T'oung Pao'', volume 107 (2021): issue 5-6 (Dec 2021), p. 582-632. * Qing, Xitai
"Wei Huacun"
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Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, be ...

'' (Religion Edition), 1st ed. * Robinet, Isabelle. ''Taoism: Growth of a Religion.'' Trans. Phyllis Brooks. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. * Saso, Michael. ''The Gold Pavilion: Taoist Ways to Peace, Healing, and Long-life.''North Clarendon: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1995. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wei, Huacun 252 births 334 deaths 3rd-century Taoists Jin dynasty (266–420) Taoists Taoist religious leaders 3rd-century Chinese women 4th-century Chinese women 4th-century Chinese people Taoist immortals Taoist nuns 4th-century Taoists Three Kingdoms Taoists