The Northern Celestial Master Daoism 北天师道

The Northern Celestial Master Daoism refers to the Celestial Master Daoism in northern China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

It underwent reforms by Kou Qianzhi. In his early years, Kou Qianzhi believed in Celestial Master Daoism, practiced the techniques of Zhang Lu, and reformed it. He pretended to have met the Supreme Old Lord (Tai Shang Lao Jun) on Songshan Mountain, where the Lord conferred upon him the title of "Celestial Master" and bestowed twenty volumes of *The Admonitions of the New Code Chanted in Clouds* (Yun Zhong Yin Song Xin Ke Zhi Jie). The Lord inspired him, saying: "Now the time has come for you to propagate my new code; purify and rectify Daoism, eliminating the false methods of the Three Zhangs, the rent, rice, and tax systems, as well as the techniques of male-female energy union.

The Great Dao is pure and empty, so it should take ritual propriety as the primary principle, supplemented by practices like food ingestion and inner alchemy." This became the general outline of Kou Qianzhi's reform of Daoism: first, abolishing the "false methods" of the traditional Five-Dou Rice Daoism and creating a "new code" that met the needs of rulers; second, making the new Daoism "take ritual propriety as the primary principle," that is, adopting Confucian ethical codes as the core tenet of Daoism. The purpose of rectifying and reforming Daoism was to assist the Peaceful True Lord in achieving universal peace and maintaining the ruling order.  

Kou Qianzhi's reform of Daoism mainly involved formulating a set of precepts and rituals, rectifying the organization, and abolishing the economic measures by which early Daoism competed with the state for rents and taxes. However, he made no new contributions to Daoist doctrines. Thereafter, the Northern Celestial Master Daoism never again reached the peak of prosperity it had enjoyed during Kou Qianzhi's era.