道法自然
寇謙之
Maker of the Imperial Church
Era · 365–448 CE, Northern Wei
Maker of the Imperial Church
Claiming two revelations from on high, he purged the rites of the Celestial Masters and rebuilt them as an imperial state church. Through his disciple Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei, Taoism was proclaimed the religion of the empire — the first time in history.
Era · 365–448 CE, Northern Wei
History · 史记
Kou Qianzhi (365–448) reformed Celestial Master Taoism and made it a state religion. The Weishu Shilao Zhi tells his career: after retreats on Song Mountain, he proclaimed that in 415 Laojun had descended to confer on him the New Code of Yin Song and the office of Master of the Heavenly Palace, commanding him to purify the corrupted old Way — abolishing the rice tax and the sexual rites, replacing them with decorum and state liturgy.
He won the patronage of the Northern Wei chancellor Cui Hao and of Emperor Taiwu himself, who in 440 took the title Taiping Zhenjun and personally received the Taoist registers — the first Chinese emperor to do so. For decades afterwards, Northern Wei emperors received the registers upon ascending.
On Song Mountain, Kou Qianzhi fasted in retreat; Laojun descended twice, conferring the New Code of Yin Song and the registers of the Master of the Heavenly Palace, charging him to reform the degenerate Celestial Master community.
In 440 Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei received the Taoist registers at the great altar, changed the era name, and proclaimed himself Taiping Zhenjun — the first emperor to register himself as heaven's Taoist subject. Every Northern Wei successor followed.
魏書·釋老志
The official Northern Wei history's treatise on Buddhism and Taoism — the primary record of his reform.
老君音誦誡經
The New Code attributed to his revelation — liturgy and commandments reforming the old Way.