道法自然
王重陽
Founder of Quanzhen
Era · 1113–1170 CE, Jin dynasty
Founder of Quanzhen
After years of ascetic practice in a grave-mound he called 'the Tomb of the Living Dead', he emerged to found Quanzhen — 'Complete Perfection' — a monastic order blending Taoist inner alchemy with meditative discipline. His seven disciples became the seven patriarchs of the north.
Era · 1113–1170 CE, Jin dynasty
History · 史记
Wang Chongyang (1113–1170) founded Quanzhen, Complete Reality — the order that with Zhengyi constitutes Taoism today. A failed military man of the Jin era, he claimed to have met two immortals in 1159 who gave him the inner teaching. He burned his hut, dug himself a tomb he called the Living-Dead Tomb, and sat in it for three years; then, following the immortals' command, he went east to Shandong.
There he founded five societies, most famously the Golden Lotus Society, and converted the seven disciples who became the Northern Seven Perfected. His teaching: the three teachings are one family — one Daode Jing, one Heart Sutra, one Analects — and the twin cultivation of nature and life through inner alchemy.
After his encounter with the immortals, Wang Chongyang burned his house, dug a tomb in the earth, hung a tablet naming himself the madman of the tomb, and sat inside for three years — dying to the old self before being born to the new. When the time came, he filled it in and left.
In Shandong he founded the Golden Lotus Society — the lotus that blooms in fire — and converted Ma Yu and Sun Bu'er, a married couple who became two of the Seven Perfected. Quanzhen dates its community life to this society.
重陽全真集
His own collected writings — poems and essays of Quanzhen's founding.
歷世真仙體道通鑑
Preserves his hagiography and the founding of the Quanzhen lineage.