Clerics › Religious Figure
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.
Mural of the cultural record “Daoist Ritual Music”, which this person is tied to.
Also known as Zi Fuzhen
- Roles
- Religious Figure
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
Dates 365 CE–448 CE