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Wang Chongyang

1113-1170 · The Zhongnan mountains, Shaanxi (Shaanxi, China)

Wang Chongyang, a former soldier and minor official who failed his age's tests of success, met two immortals in a wine shop in Ganhe in 1159, by his school's account, and received secret instructions. He withdrew to the Zhongnan mountains, lived for a time in a grave mound he called the Tomb of the Living Dead, and emerged to preach a discipline that joined Daoist inner alchemy to Chan meditation and Confucian ethics. His seven disciples, the Seven Perfected, carried his order across north China.

Tagged: Daoism Quanzhen

The Event

Date
1113-1170 (exact)
Era
Song and Jin: Quanzhen; Standard periodization of Daoist history
Location
The Zhongnan mountains, Shaanxi; today Shaanxi, China
Traditions
Daoism
Streams
Quanzhen
Key figures
Wang Chongyang
Key texts
Anthology of Complete Perfection

How the Tradition Tells It

The meeting with the two immortals at Ganhe is told by the Quanzhen order about its founder, and the order's own histories are the source for it. What stands outside hagiography is the man, the teaching, and the seven disciples; the wine shop belongs to the order's memory of how heaven called him.

Primary Sources

  • The Writings of Wang Chongyang.

Secondary Sources

  • Kirkland, Russell. Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. Routledge, 2004.
  • Kohn, Livia, ed. Daoism Handbook. Brill, 2000.

Provenance: HIST-0810; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.

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