Page 248 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

BAIYUN GUAN 209

Taiqing gong )c M -g (Palace of Great Clarity), where the main hall is devoted
to Laozi. There are several halls for a host of divinities both on the sides and
in the two smaller axes to the east and west of the main axis.
A delightful garden is located in the rear of the abbey, which also hosts the
ordination platform (see fig. 75). During the Qing period, the Baiyun guan was
the most important of some twenty Quanzhen ordination centers throughout
the country. The abbey gathered novices who-after three years of preliminary
tutelage in a temple or a hereditary cloister- underwent an extremely harsh,
sometimes fatal, training lasting one hundred days, later reduced to fifty-three.
The novices then passed examinations on Taoist classics, poetry, and precepts,
and finally received ordination. Some of the later ordination registers are still
extant. The last ordination was held in 1927, but the practice began anew, on
a reduced scale, in 1994. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
groups of about 200 candidates were ordained on average every four years.
Ordinations and religious life. Ordinations made the abbot of the Baiyun guan-
who usually, although not necessarily, was also an ordination master (liishi
f*fIffi)-an important public figure. Some abbots, however, were prominent
in their own right, like Gao Rentong i\W] f= JlJIiil (1841-1907) who lectured on
meditation and longevity techniques to large audiences, especially to artists
and actors. Such charismatic figures helped to maintain the institution's vital-
ity in a deteriorating political situation. The position of abbot was not filled
during the 1940S, while the prior An Shilin 1i:tI:t** gave a bad reputation to
his institution and was burned on a pyre in 1946. That was the last dramatic
application of the severe rules of the abbey. The Baiyun guan was closed for
many years but was rather well protected. It still houses a fine collection of
documents, including Ming and Qing liturgical paintings that have been par-
tially published. Today the abbey is the seat of the Chinese Taoist Association
(*Zhongguo daojiao xiehui; see fig. 90).
The importance of the Baiyun guan for our knowledge of Taoist monastic
institutions is based on the information collected by two Japanese scholars,
Oyanagi Shigeta in the late 1920S and the Tendai monk Yoshioka Yoshitoyo in
the early 1940S. Both lived in the abbey, cultivated friendship with the monks,
and gained access to internal documents. Their monographs together give
by far the most detailed information available on any Taoist abbey, including
rules, list of residents, ritual activities, and training.
Besides its institutional aspect, the Baiyun guan has always been a focus of
religious life in Beijing. It was visited especially from the first to the nineteenth
day of the first lunar month, the date of Qiu Chuji's birthday. It used to be
said that on that day the immortal Qiu comes back to earth. Local as well
as wandering Taoists from the whole country would gather on the abbey's
grounds, make merry; and hope for an encounter. The festival has existed since