The roles of women in Taoism (, ) (also spelled "Daoism" ) have differed from the traditional patriarchy over women in ancient and imperial China. Chinese women had special importance in some Taoist schools that recognized their transcendental abilities to communicate with deities, who frequently granted women with revealed texts and scriptures. Women first came to prominence in the Highest Clarity School, which was founded in the 4th century by a woman, Wei Huacun. The Tang dynasty (618–907) was a highpoint for the importance of Daoist women, when one-third of the Shangqing clergy were women, including many aristocratic Taoist nuns. The number of Taoist women decreased until the 12th century when the Complete Perfection School, which ordained Sun Bu'er as the only woman among its original disciples, put women in positions of power. In the 18th and 19th centuries, women Taoists practiced and discussed nüdan (女丹, "women's neidan inner alchemy"), involving gender-specific practices of breath meditation and visualization. Furthermore, Taoist divinities and cults have long traditions in China, for example, the Queen Mother of the West, the patron of xian immortality, He Xiangu, one of the Eight Immortals, and Mazu, the protectress of sailors and fishermen.
Terminology Since organized Taoism began in the late Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), women have been active in different schools, which gave them diverse names. In the Tianshi Dao (Way of the Celestial Masters), they were called nüshi (女士 or 女師, "female masters") when married to a Master, or nüguan (女官, "female officers") when among chosen zhongmin (種民, "seed people"). In the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School, Taoist nuns were most often solitary practitioners, and called nü daoshi (女道士, "female Taoists" or "female Taoist masters") or nüguan (女冠, "female hats", describing a distinctive ritual headdress) in the Song dynasty. The Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) School uses daogu (道姑, "ladies of the Dao") in reference to both convent nuns and devout laity.
History
Pre-Han and Han Xiwang mu, the Queen Mother of the West, is the most prominent female Taoist divinity, although her traditions predated organized Daoist religions. Sources from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) associate the Queen Mother with shamanistic traditions, such as her familiar the three-legged crow, and her peaches of immortality orchard.Despeux (2000), p. 386. The c. 3rd century BCE Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) says, "In appearance, Queen Mother of the West looks like a human, but she has a leopard's tail and the fangs of a tigress, and she is good at whistling. She wears a victory crown on her tangled hair. She presides over the Catastrophes from the Sky and the Five destructive Forces."
During the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), people believed that the Queen Mother could protect them from disease and death, and she became the central figure worshiped by a peasant sect that arose in Shandong and swept through the country in 3 BCE. Xiwang mu became known as the goddess of epidemics who resided in the west on Kunlun Mountain and ruled over the demons of pestilence. Her sect worshiped the Queen in different regions of China, especially Mount Heng in Hunan, Mount Hua in Shaanxi, and Mount Wuyi in Fujian.
Under the Six Dynasties, the Queen mother's sect was integrated into the pantheon of Shangqing (Highest Clarity) Taoism and she became one of the school's key goddesses, helping both sexes at this time. The worshiping and devotees peaked during the Tang period, when she emerged particularly as the protectress of women, and was revered as the representative of the female ideal. Since the Song dynasty, Xiwang mu's sect within official Taoism has been increasingly supplanted by that of other goddesses. She has nevertheless continued to be a major figure in sectarian movements and small congregational groups who received messages from her through fuji spirit writing. Descending onto the altar during séances, under the Ming and Qing she took on the title Wusheng Laomu (無生老母, Unborn Venerable Mother), and still remains a key goddess worshiped by women, especially in popular settings.Despeux (2000), p. 387.
Early Middle Ages Women began to become important in organized Taoism during the Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties (221–590) and Sui dynasty (590–618) periods. In the 4th century the Shangqing School recognized a woman, Wei Huacun (251–334), as the school's founder. Women in this Taoist school transmitted scriptures, taught methods, and served as initiators.
Married to a leading Tianshi officer, Wei Huacun became a respected jijiu (祭酒, libationer), which means that she received a thorough religious education in the organization, including sexual rites of passage and the reception of official registers.Despeux (2000), p. 388. Her hagiography says that she attained the Tao on Mount Heng, which at the time was a highly active center of both Buddhist and Taoist practices. She was accordingly called Nanyue Furen (南嶽夫人, Lady of the Southern Marchmount). After this time, she became the object of an important following which, especially under the Tang became prominent among women Taoists and spread throughout China.
According to a Six Dynasties text, the Tianshi School distinguished five different types of women suited to become Taoist practitioners: young unmarried girls, women unable to marry due to an inauspicious horoscope, women forced into marriage, widows, and rejected wives. These were all undesirable classes, rejected by society, to which Tianshi offered a form of escape and an alternative. Such a status allowed these women to have at least some role and not be excluded completely. The same pattern also held true for other Taoist schools and periods, especially during the Tang dynasty.Despeux (2000), p. 385.
Tang
The status of women in Taoism reached a peak during the Tang dynasty (618–907), particularly in the 8th century, when women formed one-third of the clergy. Under the auspices of the Shangqing School, which dominated organized Taoism under the Tang, women reached their most prominent religious positions as initiators, preceptors, and possessors of sacred texts and methods. This was actively supported by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (), whose "passions for women and Taoism extended to women Taoists". According to the official statistics, there were 1,687 Taoist temples in the 8th century: 1,137 for men and 550 for women. Women thus constituted an important part of the Taoist clergy as it was recognized officially.
The rise of aristocratic Taoist nuns during the Tang was an unprecedented development in Chinese society and history. More than ten imperial daughters became ordained Taoist nuns and converted their residences into convents. Separated from the Chinese social order through their religious conversion, the women could both maintain their political influence and avoid palace intrigues. They economically benefited from their new status, enjoying a remarkable degree of personal freedom for a Tang woman, often led a licentious life, traveled extensively, and devoted themselves to the arts.
Women would enter Taoist convents for differing reasons, such as girls purifying their lives before entering society or widows seeking a better life. Sometimes a woman would become a Taoist nun in order to escape an unwanted marriage or to change her husband. Princess Taiping, the youngest daughter of Emperor Gaozong () and Empress Wu, entered a Taoist convent in 670 to escape a requested marriage of state with the king of "barbarian" Turpan.Despeux (2000), p. 389. Yang Guifei (Most Honorable Consort Yang), the beloved concubine of Emperor Xuanzong, was married to Li Mao, the emperor's eighteenth son; she left him by becoming a Taoist nun in 745, which then allowed her to enter Xuanzong's imperial harem.
A celebrated example of noble Taoist nuns was the elaborate 711 ordination ceremony of two imperial princesses, Xining (西寧) and Changlong (昌隆), the eighth and ninth daughters of Emperor Ruizong of Tang () and sisters of Emperor Xuanzong. The Taoist ritualist Zhang Wanfu (張萬福) described the princesses' splendiferous 14-day ordination rite, and noted the widespread criticism from ministers and officials about the high costs. The emperor also ordered the construction of two monasteries for his daughter nuns in Chang'an, nearby the imperial concubines.
Official Taoism incorporated several female-based sects during the Tang. While local followings had always flourished in the north and northwest of China, they predominantly began in the maritime and central regions of the east and south where divine women, including goddesses, shamanesses, and cultic founders, grew in stature and often became objects of pilgrimages undertaken equally by men and women. Taoist texts often described the integration of regional divinities into the official pantheon as conquests, and praised female Taoists for their exceptional powers as prophets, healers, and saviors.Despeux (2000), p. 390.
The lesser-known Qingwei (清微, Pure Subtlety) school, a tradition that emphasized therapy and exorcism, incorporated a local sect founded by the Taoist priestess Zu Shu (祖舒, ) from Lingling (near present-day Yongzhou, Hunan). Unlike the well-documented biography of Wei Huacun, little is known about Zu. After receiving ordination in the traditions of Taoist Tianshi, Shangqing, and Lingbao schools, she went to Guiyang (present-day Chenzhou, Hunan) where she met Lingguang shengmu (靈光聖母, Holy Mother of Numinous Radiance), who transmitted to Zu Shu the Way of Pure Subtlety together with talismans and exorcism techniques, said to have been passed down from Yuanshi Tianzun (Heavenly Worthy of Primordial Beginning). Later Qingwei followers placed Zu at the head of their "patriarchal" lineage, which Chen Cai (陳采) first constructed in the 13th-century Qingwei xianpu (清微仙普, "Account of the Immortals of Pure Subtlety"). According to Catherine Despeux, Zu Shu seems more like a southern shaman than a religious visionary. Rather than an active founder, she appears in the Pure Subtlety school mainly as a preceptor who transmitted methods that she learned from another woman.Despeux (2000), p. 391.
Song
In the early Song dynasty (960–1279) the number of women Taoists declined to about 3–5% of the registered clergy and only rose again later, with the emergence of the Quanzhen School in the late 12th century during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). Nevertheless, cults of women continued to flourish and there were some senior female practitioners of various techniques.
Among the cults, in addition to the Queen Mother of the West, the Taoist pantheon includes other well-known female divinities. For instance, He Xiangu (Immortal Maiden He), one of the Eight Immortals, whose cult was established between the Tang and Song dynasties.