The Qianfeng School 千峰派

The Qianfeng School is a school of inner alchemy.

It was founded by Zhao Bichen, known as the Qianfeng Elder, in the late Qing Dynasty.

Zhao Bichen, with the Taoist name Shunyi Zi and later known as the Qianfeng Elder in his old age, was a native of Changping County, Beijing. He was born around the 10th year of the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty (1860). He claimed that in the early years of the Guangxu era, he suffered from hematochezia and followed his grandmother to Taoyuan Temple on Qianfeng Mountain to worship Liu Mingrui as his teacher, obtaining the true transmission of the 内丹 (inner alchemy) methods of the Nanwu School. Later, in March of the 21st year of the Guangxu era (April 1895), he went to Jinshan Temple to worship Zen masters Liaoran and Liaokong, and obtained the complete formulas of the inner alchemy methods of Liu Huayang. In the 9th year of the Republic of China (1920), he began to accept disciples and pass on his teachings, thus founding the Qianfeng School. He passed away around 1937. He wrote An Explicit Guide to the Methods and Formulas of Nature and Life. The initial practice of his inner alchemy method starts with focusing on the ancestral orifice between the two eyebrows and observing the tip of the nose. His inner alchemy method incorporates Zen practices and belongs to the pure and tranquil inner alchemy method of the Northern School. The Qianfeng School still has successors to this day. The inner alchemy methods of this school are orthodox, with clear teacher-disciple transmission, leaving reliable foundations for later scholars to study traditional inner alchemy practices.