What is Qingwei School 清微派?

The Qingwei Sect is a new talismanic school that emerged in the Song Dynasty. It claims to originate from Yuanshi Tianzun (Primeval Lord of Heaven) of the Qingwei Heaven and the Yuqing Realm, hence the name "Qingwei". It also states that after Yuanshi Tianzun passed down the Dharma, it evolved into four schools: Zhenyuan, Taihua, Guanling, and Zhengyi. By the tenth generation, Ancestor Shuyuanjun integrated the four schools into one, thus establishing the Qingwei Sect. The lineage was then passed down to figures such as Guo Yulong, Yao Zhuang, Zhu Dongyuan, Li Shaowei, Nan Bidao, and Huang Shunshen.

The Qingwei Sect also specialized in practicing thunder magic. Its theory of thunder magic, similar to that of the Shenxiao Sect, still advocates the unity of heaven and humanity, the combination of internal (cultivation) and external (magic) practices, with internal cultivation as the foundation. It emphasizes that only sincerity in the heart can resonate with heaven; only cultivation within can manifest externally. Qingwei Rituals (Volume 1) states: "For practice, the main thing is to have a righteous heart and sincere intention. If the heart is not righteous, it is insufficient to influence things; if the intention is not sincere, it is insufficient to communicate with spirits. When the spirit operates here, things respond there, so even across thousands of miles, it can be as close as breathing within reach." It also says: "The generals and officials [of the spiritual realm] exist within the body; the gods and spirits never leave the mind." The "generals and officials" and "gods and spirits" here all refer to the ghosts and gods invoked in the practice of thunder magic. It means that the ability to invoke ghosts and gods entirely depends on a sincere and upright heart as well as profound internal cultivation.

After the Qingwei Sect took shape in the Southern Song Dynasty, it achieved significant development in the Yuan Dynasty, with various branches. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, Taoism declined, and the details of the Qingwei Sect became difficult to trace.