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Kou Qianzhi

Northern Wei Daoist who claimed to receive the Precepts of the New Code of Chanting in the Clouds on Mount Song and reformed the Celestial Masters with chanted liturgy.

Also known as Zi Fuzhen

Kou Qianzhi, styled Fuzhen, came from Changping in Shanggu and trained as a young man under Chenggong Xing on Mount Hua and Mount Song. According to the Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism in the Wei shu, in 415 he announced that Lord Lao had descended on Mount Song, named him Celestial Master and given him the twenty-chapter Precepts of the New Code of Chanting in the Clouds, ordering him to purge the false practices of the three Zhangs. His new code set scripture to musical chant, reformed communal rites and abolished the rice levy and sexual rites. In 424 he went to Pingcheng and, introduced by Cui Hao, won the patronage of Emperor Taiwu. He died in 448.

Life and times

  1. 365 CEBornJinNorthern and Southern
  2. 448 CEDied

Records

Said to be given the Heavenly Master post by a great deity; Cui Hao became his pupil

From 415, Northern Wei

The Book of Wei, in its treatise on Buddhism and Daoism, records the Daoist Kou Qianzhi, courtesy name Fuzhen, a younger brother of Zan, Governor of Southern Yongzhou. On the yimao day of the tenth month of the second year of Shenrui (415) he suddenly met a great deity riding clouds and a dragon, who granted him the post of Heavenly Master. Cui Hao alone found his words remarkable, studied under him and received his methods. When Qianzhi died he was buried with Daoist rites.

References (1)