Luo teaching

Luo Teaching or Luodao () or Luoism (), originally Wuweiism (), refers to a Chinese folk religious tradition, a wide range of sect organisations flourishing over the last five hundred years,Seiwert, 2003. p. 215 which trace their origins back to the mystic and preacher Luo Menghong (1443–1527Nadeau 2012. p. 230) or known as or the Patriarch Luo () and the revelation contained in his major scripture, the ,Seiwert, 2003. pp. 214-215 the official title of which is The Scroll of Apprehending the Way through Hard WorkMa, Meng. 2011. p. 169 and that marked the beginning of the precious scrolls' tradition.Seiwert, 2003. p. 228

Luo and the movement he started is considered the most important influence within the Chinese salvationist tradition.Seiwert, 2003. pp. 214-215 A wide range of religious groups such as the Immortal Sect (), Green Lotus Sect (), ZhenKong (), Zhaijiao () and Yiguandao () can be traced to Luo's teachings, their names are numerous and have changed over the centuries.Seiwert, 2003. p. 215 Some of them have remained close to original Wuweiism as transmitted in Luo's scriptures, while other ones have developed other beliefs only preserving the name of the founding master.Seiwert, 2003. p. 215

Types of Luodao, together with other folk religions, have revived rapidly in China since the 1980s. Management change in the situation of mainland folk religion. Phoenix Weekly, July 2014, n. 500. Pu Shi Institute for Social Science: full text of the article .

History

Luo Menghong was born in 1442 in the area of Jimo, in Shandong province.Ma, Meng. 2011. p. 169 His religious titles were Luo Qing (Luo the Clear), Luo Jing (Luo the Quiet) and the Inactive Hermit ().Ma, Meng. 2011. p. 169 He died at the age of eighty-five in 1527.Ma, Meng. 2011. p. 169 The religious group he founded was called "Wuweiism", a name that has been continued by the purest branches of the movement in later history.Ma, Meng. 2011. p. 172

Early direct transmissions As long as Patriarch Luo was alive, his personality guaranteed the unity of the movement.Seiwert, 2003. p. 235 While some of his disciples may have established separate communities, they didn't contest Luo's position as teacher and leader of Wuweiism.Seiwert, 2003. p. 235 Then, when Luo died, apparently without having chosen a successor to the leadership, the Wuwei teaching started to split into different branches all claiming to continue Luo's tradition.Seiwert, 2003. p. 235

Little more than half a century after the death of Luo, the activities of Luoist sects began to raise the suspicion of state officials.Seiwert, 2003. p. 236 Just after 1584 several warnings were presented to the throne, against the influence of Luoism linking it to the earlier White Lotus movement, a label which by that time had become a derogatory designation used by official historians to demonise religious groups considered heretical by the established orthodoxy.Seiwert, 2003. p. 235 At the end of the 16th century there were religious groups which influenced and in turn were influenced by the Luoists, Hongyangism ( "Red Sun") and the Huangtiandao ("Way of the Yellow Sky"),Seiwert, 2003. p. 444 both identifying as Taoist branches.Seiwert, 2003. p. 343

Documents produced by the Buddhist establishment condemning Luoists testify the activity in the late 16th century of the branches known as Great Vehicles ( or ) and Timeless ( or ) Luoism.Seiwert, 2003. p. 236 The sources show that at the end of the 16th century, Luoist sects had spread widely in northern China, and they were known by different names.Seiwert, 2003. p. 236

Luo family transmission Also the Luo family contributed to the transmission of Luo's teaching.Seiwert, 2003. p. 236 Within the original movement, Luo's wife and two children, Fozheng and Foguang, occupied relevant positions.Seiwert, 2003. p. 236 Successively, Luo's wife continued the teaching according to the original tradition.Seiwert, 2003. p. 236 She founded a branch named Sudden Stillness ( or ) which by the late Ming dynasty no longer claimed connection to Luo's wife.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237

Fozheng continued the male line of the Luo family.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237 His grandson Wenju is mentioned in the imprint of the 1615 edition of the , printed in Nanjing.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237 Luo Congshan, the fourth generation patriarch, lived at the beginning of the 17th century.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237 A century later, official records testify that there were still male descendants of Luo active as sect leaders.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237 The centre of the family was in Miyun, where the tomb of Luo Menghong still existed.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237 It was destroyed on official order in 1768.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237

Grand Canal transmission In the early 18th century Luoist sects spread along the Grand Canal from Hebei to Zhejiang and Fujian; boatmen belonging to Luoist sects recognised the eighth generation descendant Luo Mingzhong as the head of the religion.Seiwert, 2003. p. 238 Records of the late 18th century testify the contribution of three persons surnamed Qiang, Wen and Pan, to the diffusion of the religion in southeast China.Seiwert, 2003. p. 238 They founded three different lines, which congregation halls () also functioned as social relief institutions.Seiwert, 2003. p. 239 After the ninth patriarch the line of hereditary leadership came to an end.Seiwert, 2003. p. 237 An investigation of 1816 testifies that the male descendants of Luo no longer practiced the religion of the forefather.Seiwert, 2003. p. 238

Yin Ji'nan and Yaoism

Meanwhile, in the 16th century Yin Ji'nan (1527-1582) from Zhejiang originated an independent line that successfully spread throughout their native province, Fujian, Jiangxi and surrounding southern provinces.Seiwert, 2003. pp. 251-257 He became the leader of a Luoist group and reformed it into the Venerable Officials' teaching of fasting (), which in later centuries gave rise to the Xiantiandao.Ma, Meng. 2011. p. 173-175

Yin Ji'nan organised his movement into a hierarchy and integrated the belief of Maitreyanism, the and the Three Suns eschatology within the original Luoist doctrinesSeiwert, 2003. p. 253 through the influence of a Hunyuan sect.Seiwert, 2003. p. 255 Years after Yin's death, Yao Wenyu (1578-1646) rose as the leader of the religion with strong opposition from other influential members, although he greatly expanded the sect's empire.Seiwert, 2003. pp. 255-257 By the time of Yao's successors in the late 17th century the sect was known as the Numinous Mountain (; school name )Seiwert, 2003. pp. 258-259

Yaoism later gave rise to the Dragon Flower ( or ) sect and other branches.Seiwert, 2003. p. 259 Wu Zixiang's branch, the Great Vehicle (Dacheng) or Third Vehicle ( or ) introduced his scripture entitled the "Book of the Great Precepts of the Great Vehicle" ().Seiwert, 2003. p. 259

Zhenkongdao and other branches Another important indirect branching is that started by Sun Zhenkong, claiming to be the fourth patriarch after Qin Dongshan and Master Zhao, a disciple of Luo who founded and independent group called .Seiwert, 2003. p. 243 Patriarch Sun incorporated the theology of Maitreya and Wusheng Laomu just half a century after the death of Luo and called his group the .Seiwert, 2003. pp. 244-247 The Namodao later developed into different currents.Seiwert, 2003. p. 248 A disciple of Yi Ji'nan's school, Pushen, formulated a Chan interpretation of Luo's writings that excluded the Maitreya eschatology.Seiwert, 2003. pp. 264-265

(; also ) founded in Anhui in the 1860s, is another Luoist branch promoting sitting meditation, healing, and scriptures recitation.Goossaert, Palmer. 2011. p. 209 The group expanded to Fujian in the late 19th century, and from there throughout southern China and Southeast Asian Chinese ethnic groups.Goossaert, Palmer. 2011. p. 209 It is possibly a continuation of Patriarch Sun's branch.

Luo Menghong's life and mysticism An orphan since youth, Luo Qing was raised by relatives and became a soldier.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 At the age of twenty-eight, for his distressful sentiment of forlornness,Seiwert, 2003. p. 446 he went on a spiritual quest and studied with several teachers,Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 although he was unable to establish permanent relationships.Seiwert, 2003. p. 446 Only at the age of forty, apparently without a direct guidance of a teacher,Seiwert, 2003. p. 446 he reached enlightenment:Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 awareness to be united with the absolute principle of reality.Seiwert, 2003. p. 446 He began gathering disciples and wrote the ("Five Instructions in Six Books"), first printed in 1527.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231

Written in a lucid vernacular language, Luo's texts are characterised by an egalitarian tone, erasing differences between lay and clergy, upper and lower classes, and men and women.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 Drawing on his own experience as an orphan, Luo describes the human condition of being lost and in search of one's true home and refuge.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 He speaks of the final destination that is the absolute principle of being, variously representing it through abstract symbols.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 An experience similar to that of Luo can be found in the biography of Lin Zhao'en, the founder of the Sanyi teaching.Seiwert, 2003. p. 448

By the 17th century the teachings of Luo combined with other folk beliefs, namely Maitreyan millenarianism and the folk mother goddess.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 In the new mythological representation of Luo's enlightenment, humans are children of the primordial goddess.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 Confused by the desires of the material world, they have forgotten their celestial origin, and so the Mother sends emissaries to remind her children the possibility of return to the original condition in the Three Suns, or stages of the world.Nadeau, 2012. p. 231 The three enlightened beings are Dipankara, Gautama and Maitreya the future one.

Doctrine God and the Goddess

In the theology of Luoist sects the absolute principle of the universe is the central focus of meaning and worship. In the original writings of Luo it is represented as .Seiwert, 2003. p. 387 In Luoist writings the symbol of means the state of "no birth and no death" that gives enlightenment.Seiwert, 2003. p. 390 Since in sectarian writings it often occurs in the combination there is a certain temptation to treat Wusheng as an abridged form of Wusheng Laomu. Since the 17th century the prevalent representation became a goddess, the Unborn Venerable Mother.Seiwert, 2003. p. 331, p. 444 This belief is shared by many Luoist sects, one of which is Yin Ji'nan's sect who came from Huangtianjiao who also has a tradition of worshipping Lao Mu. Other symbols of the source of being, also common to other traditions, are (the "Unlimited"), , .Seiwert, 2003. p. 387

These symbols are commonly combined in sect's precious scrolls to express the impersonal absolute origin according to the tastes of different social groups.Seiwert, 2003. p. 387 The absolute principle is also associated to the Big Dipper asterism.Seiwert, 2003. p. 387

Luo Menghong's original revelation emphasises the impersonal representation of the absolute.Seiwert, 2003. p. 387 However, he also talks of Holy Patriarch of the Unlimited ()Seiwert, 2003. p. 221 and of the mother as a duality, the Eternal Parents ().Seiwert, 2003. p. 444 Patriarch Luo is considered an incarnation of the universal God by his followers.Seiwert, 2003. p. 387

Eschatology