A Social History of the Treasured Canon of the Mysterious Capital in North China under Mongol-Yuan Rule

Abstract

The history of the Treasured Canon of the Mysterious Capital, printed and published by Quanzhen Daoists in 1244, demonstrates important changes in social and political relations in north China in the thirteenth century. The Quanzhen Daoist church attracted many former Confucian scholars, established a cross-regional institutional network, coordinated different lineages, and collaborated with Mongolian and Chinese sponsors in the political world to carry out the canon project. The publication of the canon gave rise to new teaching positions for scholarly Daoists in new Daoist-style schools, and offered them an alternate route to spiritual realization, fame, and power. When facing the 1281 canon-burning catastrophe, Quanzhen Daoists produced new inscriptions and steles to erase the canon's place in earlier Quanzhen activities. Only when the political environment shifted again in favor of the Quanzhen order, did Quanzhen Daoists choose to resurrect the history of the publication of the Treasured Canon of the Mysterious Capital.