Schools.

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection)

The younger of Taoism's two great living branches, and today its dominant monastic tradition. Founded by Wang Chongyang in the 1160s, Quanzhen fused Taoist internal alchemy with Chan Buddhist meditation discipline and Confucian ethics into a single celibate, monastic path. Its transmission passed to Wang's "Seven Perfected" disciples, of whom Qiu Chuji's Longmen ("Dragon Gate") sub-lineage — headquartered at White Cloud Temple in Beijing — is by far the largest surviving branch.

Monastic, celibate clergy living in community; emphasis on neidan (internal alchemy), meditation, moral cultivation, and study, with far less ritual/talismanic practice than Zhengyi.

Wang Chongyang

• Daodejing
• Zhuangzi
• Great Dao Discourse on Cultivating Perfection (attributed to Wang Chongyang)

• Celibate monastic clergy, ordained and resident in monasteries
• Strong syncretism with Chan Buddhist meditation method
• Internal alchemy (neidan) as the central cultivation practice
• The China Taoist Association's clergy are overwhelmingly Longmen Quanzhen-ordained

Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity)

The older of the two great living branches, tracing its founding to Zhang Daoling's revelation from the deified Laozi in 142 CE and the establishment of the Way of the Celestial Masters — the first organised Taoist religious institution. Zhengyi priesthood is hereditary or apprenticed rather than monastic; priests may marry, live among their communities, and are called on for ritual services — exorcism, talismans, funerary rites, and communal festivals — rather than withdrawn cultivation.

Married or lay priesthood, ritual- and talisman-centered (fu, registers, exorcistic rites), embedded in lay community religious life rather than monastery-based.

Zhang Daoling

• Daodejing
• Taiping Jing
• Zhengyi ritual registers and talismanic canons

• Hereditary or apprenticed priesthood; marriage permitted
• Ritual, talismanic, and exorcistic practice is central
• The Zhang family Celestial Master lineage claims unbroken hereditary succession
• Historically dominant in south China and among diaspora Chinese communities

Shangqing (Highest Clarity)

An early and highly literary school of revealed scripture and visionary meditation, centered historically at Mount Mao (Maoshan) near Nanjing. Shangqing practice emphasises inner visualisation of the body as a landscape inhabited by resident deities, and produced some of Taoism's most sophisticated meditative and cosmological literature. Its scriptures and methods were later absorbed into the broader Taoist canon and into Quanzhen practice.

Visionary meditation, inner visualisation of celestial deities resident within the practitioner's own body, scripture transmission through a defined patriarchal lineage.

Wei Huacun (revealed to Yang Xi)

• Shangqing revealed scriptures (4th century)
• Declarations of the Perfected (Zhen'gao)

• Centered historically at Mount Mao (Maoshan), Jiangsu
• Emphasis on scripture as direct revelation from celestial Perfected Beings
• Deep influence on later Taoist meditation and on Chinese literary culture

Lingbao (Numinous Treasure)

A ritually elaborate school that drew heavily on Mahayana Buddhist cosmology — universal salvation, multiple heavens and hells, communal liturgy — to build the large-scale public rites (zhai, purification retreats; jiao, offering rituals) that remain the backbone of Taoist communal ceremony today. Lingbao liturgical structure was absorbed into both Zhengyi and Quanzhen practice and underlies most large public Taoist ritual performed in Chinese communities worldwide.

Large-scale communal liturgy — purification retreats (zhai) and cosmic renewal offerings (jiao) performed for entire communities rather than individual cultivation.

Ge Chaofu (compiling the revelations of Ge Xuan)

• Lingbao scriptures (4th–5th century)
• Liturgical manuals for zhai and jiao rites

• Source of the large public ritual forms (zhai, jiao) still performed today
• Explicit borrowing of Buddhist cosmological structure (universal salvation, multiple hells)
• Ritual framework absorbed into both Zhengyi and Quanzhen practice