The Northern Sect 北宗

The Quanzhen temple — the institutional home of the Northern Sect, where the cultivation of nature and the purification of the mind were understood as the foundation of all practice.

Definition and Origins

The Northern Sect (北宗) is the common name for the Quanzhen (全真, “Complete Perfection”) school of Taoism, an important school of internal alchemy (内丹) founded during the Southern Song dynasty in the area around Chang’an, which was then under the rule of the Jurchen Jin dynasty. The sect reveres Donghua Shaoyang, Zhongli Zhengyang (钟离权), Lü Yan Chunyang (吕洞宾), Liu Haichan (刘海蟾), and Wang Zhe (王噢) as the “Five Patriarchs” (五祖), with Wang Zhe being its actual historical founder.

Wang Zhe (1112–1170), also known as Chongyangzi (重阳子), was originally from a prominent family in Xianyang. At the age of 48, he encountered two immortals in Ganhe Town and received the secrets of internal cultivation. He then practiced in seclusion at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain before traveling to Shandong in 1167 (the 7th year of the Dading era of the Jin dynasty), where he enlightened seven disciples on the Jiaodong Peninsula.

The Seven Perfected Ones

The Seven Perfected Ones — Wang Zhe’s seven disciples who founded the major branches of the Northern Sect, of whom Qiu Chuji’s Longmen School had the greatest historical influence.

Core Teaching: Nature Before Life

The Northern Sect’s cultivation is characterized by the principle of “cultivating nature first, then life” (先性后命) — in contrast to the Southern Sect’s “cultivating life first, then nature.” Wang Zhe stated in the Collected Works of Chongyang on Perfect Truth (《重阳全真集》):

“明心见性全真觉，识汞连铅善苗生。”
(Understanding the mind and perceiving nature brings the awakening of perfect truth; knowing mercury and connecting lead fosters the growth of good sprouts.)

Wang Zhe also said in Vol. 10:

“若真修行，饥来吃饭，困来即眠。不坐禅，不学道——只消琐事，只在「清心」二字；其余都不是修行。”
(If you truly wish to cultivate, eat when hungry, sleep when tired. Do not sit in meditation, do not ‘study the Dao’ — just eliminate trivial distractions, just focus on the two words ‘pure heart’; everything else is not cultivation.)

Ma Yu (马鈢) elaborated in his Recorded Sayings of Real Person Danyang (《丹阳真人语录》):

“清者，清其心源也；静者，静其气海也。心源清则外物不能扰，情定而神旺。气海静则邪欲不能侵，精全而腹实。”
(Purity means cleansing the source of the mind; tranquility means purifying the sea of qi. When the source of the mind is pure, external things cannot disturb it, so emotions stabilize and spirit flourishes. When the sea of qi is tranquil, evil desires cannot invade it, so essence is preserved and the abdomen is fulfilled.)

Qiu Chuji stated in his Recorded Sayings of Patriarch Changchun (《长春祖师语录》):

“吾道以见性为要，水火之功次之。”
(My teaching values nothing more than perceiving nature; the coordination of water and fire is secondary.)

Nature and Life: The Theoretical Basis

The Northern Sect’s emphasis on cultivating nature first stemmed from two sources: its synthesis of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism (deeply influenced by the Buddhist concept of “enlightening the mind and perceiving nature”), and its distinctive view of the relationship between nature (xing 性) and life (ming 命).

For Qiu Chuji, the physical form is born and perishes, but the divine nature is imperishable. He wrote in the Recorded Sayings of Real Person Changchun:

“一点阳光，超劫而存，在人身中为性海，即元神也。”
(A spark of yang, transcending the cycle of kalpas, exists in the human body as the sea of nature — this is the original spirit.)

Nevertheless, prioritizing nature did not mean neglecting life. Wang Zhe stated in the Collected Teachings of Chongyang (《重阳教化集》): “The union of qi and spirit is what makes immortals.” The division between the Northern and Southern Sects lay not in one cultivating only nature or the other only life — both cultivated both — but in sequence and initial practice: the Southern Sect advocated starting with filling the abdomen to cultivate life; the Northern Sect advocated starting with emptying the mind to cultivate nature.

The mountain temple — the Northern Sect’s cultivation began with the emptying of the mind, not the filling of the abdomen.

The Yuan Dynasty Merger

In the Yuan dynasty, Chen Zhixu (陈致虚, Shangyangzi 上阳子) merged the Northern and Southern Sects into two branches within Quanzhen Taoism. This merger was possible because both sects inherited the alchemical thought of Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, and because the pure cultivation methods of the Northern Sect’s Longmen School and the pure cultivation branch of the Southern Sect shared many similarities in absorbing Buddhist elements to facilitate the cultivation of the immortal embryo.

The Northern Sect also had branches practicing Yin-Yang alchemy — through Ma Yu → Song Defang → Li Shuangyu → Zhang Ziyang → Zhao Youqin → Chen Zhixu — but the Longmen School’s celibate solitary cultivation method was regarded as the orthodox branch.

Zhengyi Perspective

In the Zhengyi tradition, the Northern Sect represents the other great stream of organized Chinese Taoism — a tradition that shares the same Five Patriarchs lineage (Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin) but diverges fundamentally in institutional structure, cultivation method, and social orientation. Where the Zhengyi school is hereditary, married, and community-oriented — its priests living among the people and performing ritual services for the community — the Northern Sect is monastic, celibate, and individually oriented, its practitioners withdrawing from the world to cultivate nature in silence.

The two traditions are not rivals but complements. The Zhengyi priest who performs the jiao ceremony for a community’s ancestral festival and the Quanzhen monk who sits in meditation in a mountain temple are both pursuing the same ultimate goal — the realization of the Tao — by paths appropriate to their respective vocations. At Tianshi Fu (天师府), the Zhengyi tradition acknowledges the Northern Sect’s contribution to the inner alchemy heritage while maintaining its own distinct institutional identity as the tradition of the Celestial Masters.

Key Texts

• Wang Zhe (王噢). Chongyang Quanzhen Ji (《重阳全真集》); Chongyang Lijiao Shiwu Lun (《重阳立教十五论》).
• Ma Yu (马鈢). Danyang Zhenren Yulu (《丹阳真人语录》).
• Qiu Chuji (丘处机). Dadan Zhizhi (《大丹直指》); Panxi Ji (《磐溪集》); Changchun Zhenren Yulu (《长春真人语录》).
• Sun Buer (孙不二). Sun Buer Nv Xianren Yulu (《孙不二女仙人语录》).
• Chen Zhixu (陈致虚). Jindan Dayao (《金丹大要》); Wuzhen Pian Sanzhu (《悟真篇三注》).

Related Concepts

• Wang Chongyang (王重阳): the founder of the Northern Sect → Wang Chongyang
• Neidan (内丹): the internal alchemy tradition the Northern Sect developed → Neidan
• Taoist Sects (道教派别): the broader classification → Taoist Sects