What is it about?
Historians of modern internal alchemy understand Sun Xuanqing’s Gold Mountain Daoism to have been absorbed by Zhao Bichen’s Thousand Peaks subsect. However, Wang Yannian, a Taipei taiji quan master, taught a method of internal alchemy that shared Zhao’s lineage and preserved the Gold Mountain name. This article explores the differing accounts of how Gold Mountain left the confines of its Complete Perfection roots. They reveal different sentiments of the laity towards the clergy in Republican China. In addition, the article explores the details and aims of the method itself. Even though Wang was clear that the goal of the method was to produce an immortal pill, he emphasized meditation’s utility as an internal foundation for taiji quan. Nonetheless, the system reveals the sophistication of Daoist alchemy and is clearly not simply a basic qigong meditation.
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Why is it important?
This article contributes to the growing scholarship on contemporary Daoism and its origins in China's Republican Period.
Perspectives
This was especially fun for me because I had the opportunity to personally speak with Wang Yannian and some of his students in Taiwan.
Dr Bede Bidlack
Saint Anselm College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Alchemy and Martial Arts: Wang Yannian’s Gold Mountain Daoism, Journal of Daoist Studies, January 2012, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/dao.2012.0004.
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