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Quanzhen founded

12th century · Ninghai, Shandong (Yantai, Shandong, China)

In 1167 Wang Chongyang travelled east to Shandong, took the name Quanzhen, Complete Perfection, for his teaching, and gathered the disciples who made it an order: celibate monks and nuns under a rule, living in monasteries, practising inner alchemy as a communal discipline rather than a hermit's art. Under the Jin and then the Yuan, Quanzhen became the dominant form of Daoism in north China, and its monasteries, headed by the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, lead the tradition's monastic life today.

Tagged: Daoism Quanzhen

The Event

Date
12th century (approximate)
Era
Song and Jin: Quanzhen; Standard periodization of Daoist history
Location
Ninghai, Shandong; today Yantai, Shandong, China
Traditions
Daoism
Streams
Quanzhen
Key figures
Wang Chongyang, Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji
Key texts
Anthology of Complete Perfection

Connections

Illustration for Wang Chongyang History Event Wang Chongyang 1113-1170 follows from

Primary Sources

  • Wang Chongyang, Anthology of Complete Perfection.

Secondary Sources

  • Kirkland, Russell. Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. Routledge, 2004.
  • Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Translated by Phyllis Brooks, Stanford University Press, 1997.

Provenance: HIST-0811; confidence 0.85; accessed 2026-10-28.

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