Page 246 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

BAIY UN GUAN 207

spirit called "official of the Memorial" (biaoguan *'8), the offering of three
cups of wine to this messenger, and the circumambulation of the ritual area
by the whole group of priests, one of whom holds the concrete document
and takes it to the exit. In the Three Audiences (as performed in the classi-
cal tradition of southern Taiwan), this ritual theatre of transmission may be
extended with an inner transmission, that is, with the meditative journey to
heaven in order to deliver the document to the Most High (Taishang *...t),
performed by the high priest as he crouches on the floor of the temple and
remains still for some ten minutes.

Poul ANDERSEN
W Andersen 1989-9ob, 40-47; Andersen 1990; Andersen 1995; Cedzich 1987,
82-102; Lagerwey 1987C, 149-67; Lagerwey 1991, 152-56; Lii and Lagerwey 1992,
39-44; Maruyama Hiroshi 1986a; Matsumoto K6ichi 1983, 220- 22; Nickerson
1996b, 278-302; 6fuchi Ninji 1983, 336-42; Saso 1975, 3323-3436; Schipper 1974;
Zhang Enpu 1954
* jiao; sanchao; shu

Baiyunguan

Abbey of the White Clouds (Beijing)

The Baiyun guan is the most famous Taoist abbey in present-day China.
Founded as the Tianchang guan 7( {~Jm (Abbey of Celestial Perpetuity) in
the mid-eighth century, it was one of the state-sponsored abbeys staffed by the
official elite Taoist clergy. From II25 to 1215, under the Jin dynasty, it served as
the headquarters of the Taoist administration and played a major role in the
imperial cults. After Beijing fell to the Mongols, the abbey, then called Taiji
gong **1'8 (Palace of the Great Ultimate), was damaged but was soon
taken over by the *Quanzhen patriarch *Qiu Chuji (II48-1227) and renamed
Changchun gong ~ tf. '8 (Palace of Perpetual Spring) after his Taoist name.
From that time to the advent of the Ming it was the seat of the Quanzhen
patriarchy, known as tangxia :§tT.
After Qiu Chuji's death, his successor, *Yin Zhiping (n69-I251), built a
memorial shrine over Qiu's grave just east of the Changchun gong, around
which a contemplative community was founded under the name of Baiyun
guano The Changchun gong disappeared in the Ming period but the Baiyun
guan lived on, supervised by Taoist officials who, in spite of their *Zhengyi