Origin 364 to 370 CE
Two hundred and twenty two years after Zhang Daoling founded the Way of the Celestial Masters in 142, and about seven decades before Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei received Taoist investiture in 442, both already recorded here, a new visionary current entered Taoism's spread. Beginning in 364 and continuing to 370, the medium Yang Xi received a series of night visions at Jurong in which perfected beings from the heaven of Highest Clarity, Shangqing, dictated new scriptures, meditative practices and their own hagiographies to him, addressed to the aristocrat Xu Mi and his son Xu Hui, for whom Yang Xi served as a client and medium. Maoshan in present day Jiangsu, where the Xu family was based, became the school's principal center, and more than a century later Tao Hongjing's collation of Yang's revealed texts into the Zhen'gao around 499 established Shangqing as one of Taoism's most influential lineages, its visionary literature and meditative techniques shaping later Daoist practice broadly for centuries. Maoshan's standing as a center of Taoist authority endured long afterward: more than sixteen centuries after Yang Xi's own visions there, the mountain hosted the founding of the World Federation of Daoism in 2023, already recorded here.
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Dates
StatusEstablished marks Yang Xi receiving the Shangqing revelations at Jurong and Maoshan between 364 and 370, a milestone between Zhang Daoling founding the Way of the Celestial Masters in 142, already recorded here, and Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei receiving Taoist investiture in 442, also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Celestial Masters directly: "Zhang Daoling founded the Way of the Celestial Masters in 142, and about seven decades before Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei received Taoist investiture in 442, both already recorded here, a new..."
This source names Northern Wei directly: "seven decades before Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei received Taoist investiture in 442, both already recorded here, a new visionary current entered Taoism's spread."
This source names Yang Xi directly: "Beginning in 364 and continuing to 370, the medium Yang Xi received a series of night visions at Jurong in which perfected beings from the heaven of Highest Clarity, Shangqing, dictated new..."
This source names Zhang Daoling directly: "Two hundred and twenty two years after Zhang Daoling founded the Way of the Celestial Masters in 142, and about seven decades before Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei received Taoist investiture in 442..."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a milestone in Taoism's history between Zhang Daoling founding the Way of the Celestial Masters in 142 and Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei receiving Taoist investiture in 442, both already recorded here: Yang Xi receiving the Shangqing revelations at Jurong and Maoshan between 364 and 370, founding the school that became one of Taoism's most influential lineages.
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