The Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) school takes Taoist inner alchemy as its substance, Confucian ethics as its function, and Buddhist teaching on mind and nature as its method, building a new system of Taoist thought based on “dual cultivation of nature and life, with equal weight on inner practice and outward deeds.” Its core aim is to reach the ultimate Taoist ideal of “becoming an immortal by preserving the perfect” through the complementarity of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, reflecting the deep fusion and mutual absorption of the three traditions in the Jin and Yuan period.
1. Integration of Confucian Culture
An important part of Quanzhen self-cultivation is the improvement of one's learning; studying the Tao under a master and reading books to gain knowledge are important aspects of the self-cultivation of Quanzhen Taoists. Wang Chongyang said: “Climb perilous high mountains to visit enlightened masters without weariness; cross distant roaring waters to ask about the Tao without tiring. If a single phrase strikes home, a round light will shine forth within.” “The way of studying books is not to chase the words and dazzle the eyes, but to gather the meaning to accord with the heart. Set aside the book to probe the meaning and gather the principle; accord with the principle to gather its delight. Once you have gathered the delight, you can take it into your heart; with long and sincere effort, the light of the heart will naturally overflow, the wisdom of the spirit will leap forth, and there will be nothing you do not understand and nothing you cannot explain.” (Chongyang's Fifteen Discourses on Establishing the Teaching) When someone asked Qiu Chuji why immortals, who husband their qi and nourish the genuine, read books of history and write poems, Qiu Chuji replied: “In heaven there are no illiterate immortals.” The great body of Quanzhen poetry produced in the Jin, Yuan, and later periods shows the importance Quanzhen Taoists attached to learning.
This Quanzhen ideal of self-cultivation through the pursuit of learning has always been a model for later Quanzhen followers, and it is an important expression of Quanzhen's borrowing from Confucian culture. Quanzhen's absorption of Confucianism is further seen in its adoption of Confucian ideals such as benevolence, loyalty, and filial piety.
(1) Absorption of Benevolence
Wang Chongyang said: “If you want to be a true practitioner, you must cultivate benevolence and store up virtue, help the poor and relieve suffering, and when you see people in distress, always keep the heart to rescue them.” (Memorial for the Jade Flower Society) Here “cultivate benevolence and store up virtue” is a Confucian ideal of self-cultivation. Wang Chongyang valued the medical art of healing the sick and saving lives; in his Fifteen Discourses on Establishing the Teaching he included a discourse on “compounding medicines,” saying that the art of medicine can “save people's lives.” Later Quanzhen followers obeyed this teaching, healing the sick and saving lives without asking for payment—as it was said, “through the art of medicine they built the so-called foundation of accumulated goodness; from the rich and noble they took nothing, and to the poor they gave all the more, so that far and near there were no early deaths, and all were grateful to them.” (Chen Yuan, Collection of Taoist Epigraphy) The Taoist saying that “nine Taoists in ten are physicians” is, in a sense, the embodiment of benevolent love in Taoist priests.
Quanzhen holds that accumulating virtue and doing good is a necessary condition for becoming an immortal. Ma Yu said: “The benevolent can share in the blessings of the immortals.” Wang Chuyi said: “Benevolence and righteousness open the pass of life and death.” Qiu Chuji wrote in a poem: “The Confucian scholar has truly found the delight; why yearn for the glory of the purple robe?” (“Visiting Ning Zhidao of Huaidao Village in Zhongnan and Staying the Night in the Bamboo Garden”) At the advanced age of 73, Qiu Chuji made a long journey to meet Genghis Khan and urged him not to kill the innocent indiscriminately, using the phrase “relying on benevolence and following righteousness,” which shows the character of his thought in combining Confucianism and Taoism. The Quanzhen patriarch Yin Zhiping wrote in a lyric: “Cherishing benevolence and embracing righteousness, the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns governed thereby. Embracing righteousness and cherishing benevolence, all living beings under heaven are kin as one body.” Another Quanzhen patriarch, Li Zhichang, was likewise praised by the Taoist world for spreading benevolence and righteousness throughout the land. These are clearly expressions of recognition and absorption of the Confucian idea of benevolent love. (See Guo Zhonghua, “A Confucianized Taoist Culture: On the Confucian Thought in the Basic Doctrines of Early Quanzhen Taoism”)
(2) Absorption of Filial Piety and Loyalty
The Confucian idea of revering heaven and following the ancestors is also clearly reflected in Taoism. For example, in Tao Hongjing's Chart of the Ranks and Functions of the Perfected and Numinous Beings, Confucian sages such as the Yellow Emperor, Yao, Shun, Confucius, and Yan Hui were brought into Taoism and ranked alongside Laozi in the pantheon of immortals. Quanzhen's integration of Confucian thought is also seen in its absorption of the ideas of filial piety and loyalty. The Quanzhen patriarchs made the Confucian Classic of Filial Piety required reading for those entering the Tao, the most conspicuous sign of its absorption of Confucian culture. The later Qing scholar Chen Jiaoyou commented on Wang Chongyang: “Chongyang's learning takes Laozi as its refuge, yet in teaching people he puts the Classic of Filial Piety first.” (Taoist Texts Outside the Canon, vol. 31, p. 51)
Quanzhen maintains a high degree of identification with Confucian ideas of filial piety and loyalty. Wang Chongyang said in the Instructions on the Golden Pass and Jade Lock: “Be loyal to the ruler, filial and respectful to parents and teachers: this is the method of spiritual practice.” Clearly, loyalty to the ruler, filial piety to parents, respect for teachers, and obedience to the laws of the state were norms of conduct that Quanzhen Taoists had to observe. Wang Chuyi said: “Always practice loyalty and filial piety, without selfish crookedness, and the gods will surely point you to the true lineage.” Ma Yu held that practitioners should “respectfully obey the laws of the state and the statutes of heaven and never violate them,” “obey the laws of the state and do not violate the statutes of heaven.” Tan Chuduan said: “Governing cleanly as an official is the same as cultivating the Tao; loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and kindness surpass leaving home.” Liu Chuxuan also said: “Govern the people with loyalty and filial piety, still the mind and nourish nature. When the mind does not wander outward, the spirit is naturally settled.” “Govern cleanly and clearly, serve as an official with loyalty and filial piety. Moderate desires and the body is at peace; in years to come, the isle of Penglai.” This shows how much Quanzhen Taoists valued the Confucian ideals of loyalty and filial piety. Qiu Chuji also expounded the idea of loyalty to the ruler in his lyric “The First Tier of the Jasper Terrace,” which Emperor Shizong of the Jin greatly admired on reading it. Later Quanzhen followers all faithfully observed the ideas of loyalty to the ruler and filial piety to parents, which pointed the way for the development of Quanzhen. Qiu Chuji also promoted the Confucian culture of filial piety, which holds that there is no crime greater than unfiliality, and that to be unfilial is not to accord with heaven. He practiced this himself and diligently studied and recited the Classic of Filial Piety. Although he had left home to cultivate the Tao, he deeply missed his late parents. When he learned that fellow villagers and devotees had reburied his parents, he was deeply moved and wrote a lyric to the tune “Fragrance Filling the Courtyard” to express his boundless gratitude to them. In Quanzhen literature we find many uses of the terms “master-father” and “father-master,” which reflect the Quanzhen idea of honoring one's teacher. As the founder of Quanzhen, Wang Chongyang attached even greater importance to filial piety and taught his disciples accordingly. When he passed away, his disciples moved his coffin for burial in his hometown in the Zhongnan Mountains and kept mourning for him for three years, clearly an expression of Confucian mourning rites.
Quanzhen absorbed the most representative Confucian ideas of benevolence, loyalty, and filial piety in pursuit of harmony and integration. This shows the cultural character of Quanzhen in drawing on Confucianism without losing its Taoist standpoint, displaying the “true spirit” of Taoism.
2. Integration of Buddhist Culture
The development of Quanzhen is closely related to its integration and absorption of Buddhism, especially Chan thought. Quanzhen's turn from the pursuit of Taoist “techniques” at the level of form to the cultivation of the metaphysical “mind” and nature was the result of drawing on Buddhism to interpret the Tao. On the basis of advocating the unity of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, Quanzhen developed a tendency to fuse Confucianism and Buddhism.
Buddhist ideas such as the suffering of all beings, karmic retribution, the coming together of causes and conditions, compassion and equality, and rebirth in the six realms are commonly found in Taoist scriptures. Buddhism stresses “taking compassion as one's heart,” and Quanzhen also values compassionate love. Wang Chongyang said: “No one understands this practice at all; in fact it is only earnest compassion.” This embodies Laozi's idea that “the first is compassion.” Qiu Chuji said: “Take compassion as the root and skillful means as the gate.” (Perfected Changchun's Proclamation of Rules) This may be seen as a fusion of Buddhist and Taoist thought. Among the six perfections practiced in Mahayana Buddhism is “patience overcoming hatred,” and Qiu Chuji likewise stressed the importance of patient endurance of insult: “Forgiving others and enduring insult, cutting off all thoughts and worries, letting the mind rest in all things—this is inner daily practice (that is, ‘inner cultivation’).” (Letter from Perfected Qiu Changchun to Fellow Taoists in Xizhou)
Quanzhen's absorption of Buddhism appears in several respects.
(1) Absorption of the Ideas of Suffering, Conditions, and Cause and Effect
The first of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism is the truth of suffering. Quanzhen developed the Buddhist idea that “all beings suffer,” as it is said: “Sights, sounds, clothing, and food in the human world are seen by people as pleasures, but they are not true pleasure; they are in fact suffering. Worldly people take the false for the true and suffering for pleasure—is it not sad!” (Record of the Celebrated Meeting of the Mysterious Wind) If life is suffering, why seek long life? Moreover, the body is a combination of the four elements—earth, water, fire, and wind: “Fire, wind, earth, and water combine to form the flesh; it is only a deluded walking skeleton,” and “White forms the bones and red the flesh; red and white make up a falsely combined corpse.” (Chongyang's Collection of Teaching and Transformation, scroll 2) Thus the body is finite, and death is a natural law. Only “true nature” is eternal and undying. So Quanzhen abandoned the traditional Taoist doctrine of bodily immortality and instead led people to see through the illusion of the body and the suffering of life it causes, devoting themselves to cultivating mind and nature in pursuit of spiritual liberation beyond life and death—a theory clearly more persuasive than the old doctrine of bodily immortality. (See Sun Yiping, “On Quanzhen Taoism's Borrowing from and Absorption of Buddhism”)
Why do beings “suffer”? This is closely related to the Buddhist ideas of “conditions” and “cause and effect.” Precisely because all dharmas arise through the coming together of causes and conditions, all dharmas are empty and lack self-nature; but beings cling to their delusions, create all kinds of karmic causes, and receive their fruits, and so they cycle through birth and death. Therefore beings must understand the principles of “conditions” and “cause and effect” in order to attain liberation.
The theory of dependent origination is the cornerstone of all Buddhist theory and the fundamental basis on which all Buddhist schools develop their theory and practice. “Dependent origination” means that all things and phenomena exist within a universal web of cause and effect and arise dependent on certain conditions. Quanzhen accepted the Buddhist theory of dependent origination and made the return to “true nature” the highest state of cultivating the Tao. It absorbed this idea of dependent origination to enrich its own concept of “true nature.” In the Quanzhen view, the physical body is an illusion arising from the combination of causes and conditions, and only mind and nature are real; it stresses that if a practitioner has not understood “true nature,” he remains stuck in illusory form and cannot achieve the transcendence of life. Accordingly, Quanzhen takes “true nature” as the object of its pursuit and seeks “becoming an immortal by preserving the perfect” through “dual cultivation of nature and life,” thereby opening a new path for the development of Taoism.
Buddhism stresses karmic retribution and rebirth, based on the idea of cause and effect; karmic retribution is the theoretical cornerstone of Buddhism's exhortation to goodness. Quanzhen likewise holds that only by believing in cause and effect, doing good and avoiding evil, and planting karmic causes can one escape the bonds of the body and achieve transformation and ascent. Quanzhen holds that people should realize the ideals of life from their authentic existence, reaching the state of immortality by cultivating nature and life, and for this it built a system of practice and realization based on “the theory of cause and effect.”
Wang Chongyang held that “true nature” exists in the human mind—“the true numen that is neither born nor destroyed, that neither decays nor perishes” (Numinous Text in Five Chapters)—and is therefore the root of cultivating long life without death. But in real life material desires run rampant, and birth and death turn in cycles, just as Wang Chongyang said: “But people live their lives within a hundred years, and seventy is rarely reached. They struggle hard for fame and profit, toiling in vain. The golden sun flies and the jade moon runs, pressing on, until old age and death, when they are dragged by their children and grandchildren into the earth.” (Chongyang's Collection of Complete Perfection, scroll 3) That is, human life lasts no more than a hundred years, and struggling for fame and profit ends in toil for nothing. Pursue a hall full of gold and jade, and in the end one cannot escape death. So Quanzhen stresses that in this short life people should do good and avoid evil, and only by continually accumulating good causes can they reap good fruits, return to “true nature,” and achieve the transcendence and sublimation of life.
The ideas of conditions and cause and effect are important theoretical cornerstones of Buddhism. Quanzhen fully absorbed and drew on these two ideas, enriching its own theoretical content.
(2) Absorption of “Removing the False and Preserving the True”
In Buddhism, “removing the false and preserving the true” means getting rid of illusory thoughts and attachments so that the true self and original nature appear. This Buddhist idea had a direct influence on Quanzhen. In the Quanzhen view, the “true mind” and “true nature” are a prior-heaven endowment latent in the human mind; they are still and unmoving, and are also the mind that can turn back and illuminate itself, so they are also called the “mind of the Tao” and the “illuminating mind.” This is the fundamental basis for attaining the Tao and becoming an immortal through spiritual practice.
According to the Recorded Sayings of Patriarch Qiu, Qiu Chuji said while living at the Tianchang Abbey in Yanjing: “The Tao contains heaven and earth; spirit governs all forms. What is born and destroyed is form; what is neither born nor destroyed is spirit, is nature. All that has form decays; heaven and earth too are an illusory body, which comes to an end when its cosmic cycle is exhausted. There is only a single point of yang light that transcends the kalpas; in the human body it is the ocean of nature, that is, the primordial spirit. That is why the World-Honored One cultivated only the learning of nature, refining and nurturing the primordial spirit.” (Fu Jinquan, ed., Secret Books for Attesting the Tao) It is worth noting that Qiu Chuji used the term “primordial spirit” to stand for the “true mind” and “true nature,” and held that awareness and illumination of the primordial spirit (the so-called “illuminating mind”) is the key to removing the false and preserving the true.
The Yuan inner alchemist Li Daochun said in the Collection of Centrality and Harmony: “The ancients said: Always extinguish the moving mind; do not extinguish the illuminating mind. Every unmoving mind is an illuminating mind; every unceasing mind is a false mind. The illuminating mind is the mind of the Tao; the false mind is the human mind. ‘The mind of the Tao is subtle’ means it is subtle and hard to see; ‘the human mind is precarious’ means it is in danger and not at peace. Though it is the human mind, it also has the mind of the Tao; though it is the mind of the Tao, it also has the human mind—it depends on the balance between movement and stillness. Only those who sincerely hold fast to the mean keep the illuminating mind forever present and the false mind unmoved; the precarious becomes safe, and the subtle becomes manifest. At this point the mind that had falsehood is restored, and the Tao without falsehood is accomplished.” This means that when the “illuminating mind,” aware of the primordial spirit, extinguishes the worldly “false mind,” one can remove the false and preserve the true and so achieve the transcendence of life.
The Qing inner alchemist Huang Yuanji, in the Recorded Sayings of the Hall of Joyful Nurture, speaks of “the primordial spirit taking charge” and “the conscious spirit withdrawing to listen.” Here the “primordial spirit” is the prior-heaven original mind, the mind that holds true nature, while the “conscious spirit” is the later-heaven mind of seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, the mind far from true nature. So Quanzhen cultivation stresses returning from later heaven to prior heaven and from deluded nature to awakened nature—that is, removing the false and preserving the true.
As to the substance of mind and nature, Quanzhen holds that human nature is of two kinds. The first is the formless, insubstantial “true nature” (also called “original nature” or “constant nature”), which, to borrow a term of Chan Buddhism, refers to the prior-heaven original state “before one's parents were born,” and so is eternal, without birth or death. This “true nature” corresponds to the “primordial spirit.” The second is the “qi nature,” which has form and substance and refers to the five natural dispositions of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth with which people are endowed in later heaven, as it is said: “People are born endowed with the qi of the Five Phases, and so they follow its nature. The Wood nature is inclined to benevolence, the Fire nature to propriety, and so on. None of these is my original truth; only by going beyond the Five Phases does one first see one's true nature.” (Recorded Sayings of Perfected Qinghe's Northern Travels) That is, the “qi nature” changes ceaselessly with yin and yang and the Five Phases, so it is not the original truth of life; if people rely only on the qi nature of the Five Phases, they will have birth and death. This “qi nature” corresponds to the “conscious spirit.” “True nature,” that is, the “primordial spirit,” stands in contrast to the qi nature of the Five Phases yet also exists within it; it is an inseparable part of human life and the fundamental basis on which people can attain long life through cultivation. Only by going beyond the qi nature of the Five Phases through cultivation does one first see the numinous light of true nature appear and become able to transcend the cycle of birth and death. If the human body does not take the “primordial spirit” as its root and does not use the “conscious spirit” as its function, one cannot transcend the mundane and enter sagehood. Yet the “primordial spirit” can be grasped neither by the senses nor by reason; it can appear only through the “conscious spirit.” Thus between the primordial spirit and the conscious spirit there is a relationship of substance and function in which being and nonbeing correspond and the manifest and the subtle are seamless. Speaking of “nature” and “mind” in terms of the “primordial spirit” and the “conscious spirit” is a major feature of Quanzhen's inner-alchemical theory of mind and nature, and can be said to be Quanzhen's extension and development of the Buddhist idea of removing the false and preserving the true. (See Sun Yiping, “On Quanzhen Taoism's Borrowing from and Absorption of Buddhism”)
(3) Absorption of the Chan Theory of Mind and Nature
Quanzhen values the purity of mind and nature and holds that cultivating the Tao means striving to remove passions and desires and return to “true nature” (that is, the originally pure mind and nature). Zhang Boduan of the Northern Song said that cultivating nature in “dual cultivation of nature and life” is cultivating Chan, which fully shows how great the influence of Chan on Quanzhen was.
“True nature” can also be called the “original mind,” which likewise draws on the Chan Buddhist view of the mind. Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, once said: “Recognize your own original mind; see your own original nature.” “Inside and outside thoroughly bright, recognize your own original mind.” (Platform Sutra, chapter “Prajna”) Quanzhen's “true nature” can also be called the “true mind,” meaning the original state of the mind, and is also called the “pure mind” or “original mind.” The “true mind” is constant and pure, but it can be clouded by passions, desires, and false thoughts, which directly affect a person's life. Therefore the “true mind,” as the authentic state of life, is the pure substance of the mind—originally wondrous and bright, unstained and unattached—expressing a spirit that transcends the mundane. Quanzhen often contrasts the true mind with the greedy mind to help people understand the necessity and possibility of cultivating the Tao.
Chan also says that “no-mind is the Way,” meaning that when a person lets go of all discriminating and attached thoughts and reaches a state of no-mind, he can experience the true meaning of the Way. This no-mind does not mean being without awareness like wood or stone, but a pure mind that has transcended discrimination and attachment, like a mirror that reflects all things without clinging to any image. This idea is also reflected in Quanzhen. The Recorded Sayings of Perfected Danyang, for example, says: “No-mind does not mean being mindless and dull like a cat or dog, but keeping the mind always in the realm of purity, without an evil mind. Thus worldly people lack a pure mind, while people of the Tao lack a mind of dust and dirt.” Clearly, “no-mind” does not mean that a person has no conscious thought and the mind is an empty void, but that through cultivation one eliminates all distracting thoughts, always keeping the mind in the realm of purity so that it remains in a still, unmanifest state.
Quanzhen also regards “true nature” as the “ordinary mind.” The Quanzhen poet Wang Dangui's lyric “Remembering the Prince: Original True Nature Is Called an Immortal” says: “Original true nature is called an immortal; loving a secluded dwelling far from the market, hiding alone in a mountain hall is most wondrous and profound. Joyful and serene, singing aloud when happy, sleeping when tired.” The line “singing aloud when happy, sleeping when tired” naturally calls to mind the Chan example of Dazhu Huihai. Someone asked Dazhu Huihai: “Venerable monk, do you still make efforts in practice?” He replied: “Yes! When tired I sleep; when hungry I eat.” The man asked again: “Don't ordinary people do the same?” He replied: “When ordinary people are tired they will not sleep, calculating in a thousand ways; when hungry they will not eat, demanding a hundred things.”
If one can keep the attitude that “the ordinary mind is the Way” in daily life, the true nature of life will appear naturally; this is called “seeing one's nature.” “Just have no mind and no thought, attach to nothing, clear and still, with nothing happening inside or out: this is seeing one's nature.” (Recorded Sayings of Perfected Jin) “Seeing one's nature” is achieving spiritual transcendence. Wang Chongyang said: “Leaving the mundane world does not mean leaving with the body; it refers to the ground of the mind. The body is like the lotus root, the mind like the lotus flower: the root is in the mud, while the flower is in the open air. A person who has attained the Tao has his body in the mundane world while his mind is in the realm of the sages.” (Chongyang's Fifteen Discourses on Establishing the Teaching) If practitioners work on the ground of the mind, seeking the true within and realizing their inherent “true nature,” they can understand the true meaning of life and death in a single thought.
In the history of Chan there is the saying “sudden in the south, gradual in the north; Huineng in the south, Shenxiu in the north,” and the theories of mind and nature underlying sudden awakening and gradual cultivation are entirely different. Only if one admits that the actual mind-consciousness contains true and pure elements (the so-called “true nature”) can one derive the path of gradual awakening, gradually leaving defilement and returning to purity. In Chan history there is a distinction between the true and the false. The line of thought holding mind and nature to be false was the mainstream of Chan, and the development from early Chan through Huineng and Shenhui to the school of Mazu can be seen as the evolution of this line. The corresponding line holding the mind to be true asserts that mind-consciousness has the capacity for truth and purity. If the actual mind-consciousness were entirely defiled and false, then the only way back to the true and pure nature would be sudden awakening that cuts through the tangle at a stroke—the consistent position of Huineng's Chan.
Quanzhen's theory of mind and nature adopted the method of gradual cultivation. The Record of the Celebrated Meeting of the Mysterious Wind says: “When a person of the Tao first begins to govern the mind, it is very difficult; but after years of deepening effort, decreasing and decreasing again, one reaches non-action.” This takes up “decrease and decrease again until one reaches non-action” from the Tao Te Ching, clearly a process of continual gradual progress. The Recorded Sayings of Direct Pointers of the Perfected Immortals says: “Sitting, lying, standing, or walking, keep the mind on the Tao. Even if the ground of the mind has not yet opened, in every moment hidden merit is accumulated; if the merit is not yet sufficient, the Tao is not yet complete. It is like a person who wants to buy a great bright pearl worth a million: though he does not yet have enough money, he must work day and night, diligent and frugal, accumulating wealth—three or five thousand, or thirty or fifty thousand. Though the money is not yet enough and the pearl not yet obtained, the wealth he has accumulated can still be used in an emergency.” This too clearly follows the path of gradual awakening. It also says: “When you remove one part from your mind, you have one part of merit; remove ten parts and you have ten parts of merit. If you have removed nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine parts and only one part remains, it cannot be called purity; you must remove it all. The sages and worthies will examine your mind, and a true master will come of himself to save you.” (Letter from Perfected Qiu Changchun to Fellow Taoists in Xizhou) Clearly this is exactly like the Chan master Shenxiu's “Wipe it diligently at all times, and let no dust alight.”
The Chan view of purity is mainly expressed in reaching inner calm and liberation through meditation. Meditation methods help practitioners keep their minds pure in daily life and cope with all kinds of challenges and troubles; through daily practice and awareness, one can find inner peace in a bustling world and so attain true inner calm and liberation. The early Quanzhen masters mostly took clarity and stillness as their principle, Ma Yu most of all. Ma Yu summed up the root of cultivating immortality in the two words “clarity and stillness.” He said: “So the thousands of scriptures and ten thousands of treatises, the alchemical classics and books of the masters left by the Taoists, can be summed up in a word: ‘clarity and stillness.’” And also: “The Tao is simply clarity and stillness, non-action, free and easy wandering, unstained and unattached. If one can chew through these twelve characters, one becomes a thorough person of the Tao.” (Recorded Sayings of Perfected Danyang) Qiu Chuji also said: “Practicing spiritual cultivation through clarity and stillness is inner daily practice.” (Letter from Perfected Qiu Changchun to Fellow Taoists in Xizhou)
Chan also stresses “not relying on words,” emphasizing non-attachment to the form of words and avoiding equating words with the true meaning of the Dharma itself; its core is to break superstitious dependence on and bondage to language and return to the awakening of mind and nature. When a nun asked Huineng how to read a certain character, Huineng said: “I cannot read characters, but please ask me about the meaning.”
Examples of opposition to reading scriptures abound in Chan. Chan Master Shenzan's verse “Unwilling to leave by the empty gate, butting against the window—what folly! Boring into old paper for a hundred years, when will you ever break through?” is especially well known. Quanzhen, too, has a very deep and systematic understanding of the limits of language. Taoism holds that language cannot describe the ultimate Tao. The Laozi opens by stressing: “The Tao that can be told is not the constant Tao; the name that can be named is not the constant name,” pointing out that language can only refer to limited experience and cannot reach transcendent being.
Quanzhen inherited this view, holding that the Tao, as the source of life and the goal of cultivation, must be realized directly through practice of body and mind rather than explained in words. Quanzhen also uses a system of metaphors, such as “dragon and tiger, lead and mercury” and “the infant and the fair maiden,” to describe the process of cultivation. These images are not meant literally but guide practitioners beyond logical thinking to grasp intuitively, through symbolic association, the principles of the transformation of essence, qi, and spirit; such expressions aim to break the shackles of linear logic through “image thinking.” The inner scenes produced by inner-alchemical cultivation—perceptions of light, movements of qi, the appearance of the primordial spirit, and so on—are likewise beyond language. How similar this experience “where the path of words is cut off” is to the wordless state sought in Chan! Quanzhen also advocates dissolving the interference of language with mind and nature through concrete practice, emphasizing concentrating the spirit and regulating the breath so as to “withdraw sight and turn back hearing,” cutting the chain of verbal thought and returning to prior-heaven intuition, and thereby reaching the state of understanding described as “grasp the meaning and forget the words,” “catch the fish and forget the trap,” and “catch the hare and forget the snare.”
Clearly, Chan influenced Quanzhen in many ways, and by comparing Chan and Quanzhen we can find where their ideas connect and blend, thereby deepening the study of Quanzhen.
In short, in the course of its founding and development, Quanzhen deeply fused the intellectual resources of Confucianism and Buddhism, forming a distinctive theoretical system that “takes the Tao as the root and unites the three teachings.”