What Are the Different Titles for Taoist Priests?

Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism

In most people’s eyes, Taoist priests have always been a mysterious group. Influenced by literature, many people think that Taoist priests either form hand seals, chant incantations, draw talismans, and work magic as in the movies, or sit at the doors of temple halls interpreting oracle lots and casting divinations for tourists. Everyone has their own understanding of Taoist priests. Whatever the case, today, amid the rapid development of modern society, they still wear Taoist robes and preserve traditional Chinese culture.

What is a Taoist priest (daoshi)? According to the Scripture of the Langgan Book of the Grand Empyrean (Taixiao Langshu Jing): “One who walks the Great Tao is called a daoshi, a scholar of the Tao. In body and mind they follow principle, following the Tao alone and making the Tao their work; therefore they are called daoshi.”

Since ancient times Taoist priests have had many titles: some they use of themselves, such as “poor Taoist,” and there are also joking names from outsiders, such as “old ox-nose Taoist” or “Taoist aunt.” This article introduces several titles for Taoist priests from ancient times to the present.

Perfected

Many people online, even some Taoist priests, call themselves “Perfected” (zhenren), which can only make knowledgeable people laugh. First let us understand what a “Perfected” is. The Zhuangzi (True Classic of Southern Florescence) records: “What is a Perfected? The Perfected of old did not rebel against want, did not grow proud in plenty, and did not plan their affairs. Being like this, they could make a mistake and not regret it, meet with success and not be self-satisfied. Being like this, they could climb the heights and not be frightened, enter the water and not get wet, enter the fire and not get burned. Such is the knowledge that is able to ascend to the Tao.”

A Perfected must have reached a very high realm, able to see through to the source of the world and attain the unity of heaven and humanity that Taoism seeks. Looking across the history of Taoism, very few have borne the title of Perfected—such as the familiar Zhang Sanfeng, called Perfected Zhang, and the famous “Four Great Perfected”: Perfected Tongxuan, Perfected Chongxu, Perfected Nanhua, and Perfected Dongling.

Feathered Scholar

Taoist priests have a deep bond with the immortal crane, because Taoist teaching is about living forever without dying, attaining the Tao and becoming an immortal, and the crane is regarded as the messenger who receives and guides those ascending to immortality. So Taoist priests, too, imagine themselves soaring upward like the crane: “Floating as if leaving the world behind and standing alone, sprouting wings and ascending as a feathered immortal.” Taoist priests call themselves feathered guests, feathered scholars, or feathered people; “feathered” refers to wings, implicitly suggesting ascending as an immortal.

The Record of Gleanings (Shiyi Ji) says: “King Zhao of Yan dreamed of a person whose clothing was all made of feathers, and so called him a feathered person. In the dream he spoke with him and asked about the arts of the higher immortals.” Feathered people know the arts of immortality, so a “feathered person” means an immortal.

Poor Taoist

Taoist priests are often seen calling themselves “poor Taoist” (pindao). A poor Taoist is not a Taoist who is very poor; it is a self-effacing form of address, which also reflects the Taoist ideal of lessening selfishness and having few desires, of showing plainness and embracing simplicity.

The Scripture of the Langgan Book of the Grand Empyrean of the Most High records: “Taoist priests humbly say they are not yet rich in the Tao, and call themselves poor Taoists, or poor scholars. Their grasp of principle is not yet complete; being not yet complete, ‘I alone seem to lack,’ and so they are poor scholars. A scholar’s principle is to make the cultivation of goodness their work.” This form of address reminds Taoist priests that their attainment in the Tao still needs to improve and that they must keep cultivating.

Celestial Master

Celestial Master means a teacher who accords with the heavenly, natural Tao. Originally this was a title of respect used by the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of Taoism, for Qi Bo. Qi Bo was a master of medicine, and the Yellow Emperor learned from him.

The Zhuangzi, in the chapter “Xu Wugui,” says: “The Yellow Emperor bowed twice, touched his head to the ground, called him Celestial Master, and withdrew.” After Taoism was founded it kept this title. In the Eastern Han dynasty, Zhang Daoling was enlightened by Lord Lao the Most High (Taishang Laojun), received a sword, a seal, and precious registers, and founded Taoism. Later generations called Zhang Daoling the Celestial Master Zhang, and after he ascended, his descendants inherited the office of Celestial Master. Taoism also has three figures who together with Zhang Daoling are called the “Four Great Celestial Masters”: Zhang Daoling, Ge Xuan, Xu Xun, and Sa Shoujian.

Ritual Master

In some Taoist ritual services we see Taoist priests in ritual vestments pacing the stars of the Dipper; they are what are called ritual masters (fashi).

A ritual master is also called a high priest (gaogong): a Taoist priest who, after the Quanzhen ceremony of appointment to office or the Zhengyi conferral of registers, plays the leading role in fasts and offerings (zhaijiao). Because the high priest, in performing the rites, must communicate with heaven and earth and deliver humans and ghosts, Taoism sets high requirements for ritual masters: a Taoist priest’s inner cultivation must reach a certain level before they may perform the fasting rites.

Abbot

Many people mistakenly believe that fangzhang, “abbot,” is a term exclusive to Buddhism, but this is wrong. Fangzhang is a Taoist term of cultivation from the saying “The human heart is a square inch (fangcun); the heart of heaven is a square zhang (fangzhang).”

The abbot is the title the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) school gives to the highest leader of a public monastery (shifang conglin). Taoist abbots are chosen very strictly: only one who has received the Great Precepts of the Three Altars and is of high virtue and great prestige may serve. “The abbot is the teacher of humans and gods, a master who saves the world, expounding the true teaching of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage, steering the boat of compassion across the sea of suffering, the model of Complete Perfection and the guiding principle of the school of precepts. No one but a master who has the Tao may be installed.” Every ceremony in which a Taoist priest ascends the seat as abbot is a grand occasion for Taoism, and a continuation of its development.