The New Wudang Sect 新武当派

A branch of the Qingwei School, founded by Zhang Shouqing, a Taoist priest from Wudang Mountain during the Yuan Dynasty.

According to Cheng Jufu’s Stele of Wanshou Palace at Wudang Mountain in Junzhou (Yuan Dynasty), Zhang Shouqing, also known by his courtesy name Dongyuan and literary name Yuexiaosou, was a native of Yidu in Xiazhou (present-day Yidu County, Yichang, Hubei). He studied the imperial examination curriculum in his youth and later worked as a low-ranking official. In the 21st year of the Zhiyuan era (1284), at the age of 31, he left for Wudang Mountain to become a Taoist monk, studying under Lu Dongyun, a local Taoist priest who had once visited the Quanzhen Taoist Yin Zhiping. After Lu Dongyun’s death, Zhang led other Taoists in repairing roads, building temples, and reclaiming farmland, achieving considerable accomplishments.

In a certain year, he further studied the Qingwei methods under other local Taoist priests such as Zhang Daogui, Ye Yunlai, and Liu Daoming, inheriting the teachings of Huang Shunshen. Thereafter, his reputation as a Taoist spread far and wide, attracting numerous disciples. In the 3rd year of the Zhida era of Emperor Wuzong of the Yuan Dynasty (1310), the Empress Dowager, hearing of his virtuous practices, sent envoys to commission the construction of a Jinluo ritual altar and summoned him to the imperial court, bestowing the name "Tianyi Zhenqing Wanshou Palace" on the temple he had built. In the first and second years of the Huangqing era of Emperor Renzong (1312–1313), when a severe drought struck the capital, he was ordered to pray for rain, and his prayers were repeatedly answered. In the 1st year of the Yanyou era (1314), he was awarded the title "Tixuan Miaoying Taihe Zhenren" (True Man of Subtle Unity, Wondrous Response, and Great Harmony).

Zhang Shouqing inherited the teachings of the Quanzhen, Qingwei, and Zhengyi schools. He was proficient in scriptural rituals, talismans, the Qingwei Thunder Methods, and inner alchemy, with a focus on transmitting the Qingwei teachings. He was a key inheritor of the northern branch of Huang Shunshen’s Qingwei School in the early Yuan Dynasty. Qingwei Shenlie Mifa (The Mysterious and Valiant Methods of Qingwei), in its first volume’s "Lineage of Masters," lists, after Huang Shunshen: "Ye Yunlai, Envoy of Qingwei and Harmonious Vitality; Zhang Daogui, Envoy of Qingwei and Balanced Vitality; Zhang Shouqing, Envoy of Thundering Primordial Vitality; and Zhang Shouyi, the Unofficial Scholar of Purple Mystery." Zhao Yizhen, an important inheritor of the Qingwei School in the early Ming Dynasty, wrote: "In recent times, such as the True Man Dongyuan (Zhang Shouqing), whose influence spread across the four seas and stood out like a lone peak, he only taught the Shenlie (Divine Valiance) stage to scholars. As for the profound mysteries of other stages and methods like salvation rituals and memorials, even those who occasionally obtained them rarely grasped their essence" (Daofa Huiyuan, Vol. 5, Preface to Qingwei Fuzhang Jingdao). This confirms that Zhang Shouqing made significant innovations to the Qingwei Thunder Methods, hence his school is also known as the Wudang Qingwei Sect.

According to records such as Records of Taihe Mountain, the Great Peak, the sect passed down generations using a character lineage starting with "Shou, Dao, Ming, Ren, De..." This lineage is almost identical to that of the 37th "True Master Zhang’s Zhengyi School" and the 70th "Patriarch Sa’s Xihe School" recorded in Zhongzhen Zongpai Zonglu (General Register of Various Immortals’ Lineages); the latter four lines also match the lineage of the 37th "Qingwei School under the Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain’s Zhengyi Sect." Whether this coincidence indicates historical connections between these schools and the New Wudang Sect, or merely their adoption of the New Wudang Sect’s lineage characters, remains undetermined.