The Celestial Masters and the Origins of Daoist Monasticism

Abstract

The Daoist monasteries, which were first popularized in southern China in the late fifth century, reflected major changes in the structure of medieval Daoism. From the perspective of comparative religious history, the rise of Daoist monasteries bears some similarity to the monasticisms that came into being in the Christian and Buddhist traditions; all three originated in hermitic and ascetic practices. However, Daoist monasticism did not naturally stem from the hermetic Daoism tradition; instead, it underwent a two-stage process of “grafting” in terms of its spiritual beliefs and values. The first stage saw the emergence of Daoist scriptures in the Jin and Song periods; in particular, the Lingbao scriptures, which transformed and distilled the tradition of hermetic Daoism practiced in the mountains and invested hermitic practice with a more complete and sacrosanct doctrinal foundation. The second saw the Southern Dynasties’ Celestial Masters order embrace and experiment with the beliefs and values within the Lingbao scriptures; this process introduced the inherent communitarian nature of the Celestial Masters into the development of Daoist monasticism and resulted in the large-scale transformation of religious practice among the Celestial Masters of the period. This change of direction among the Celestial Masters order in the Jin and Song periods toward mountain-based practice led to the establishment of Daoist monasticism, but also to a loss of purity therein.