A Daoist Career in Modern China: Wang Xin’an of the Southern Peak1

Alive for most of the twentieth century, Wang Xin’an 王信安 (1918–1993) lived through the deep and violent social changes from which emerged the Chinese nation-state, technology, and modern economy. In the 1930s, he had been healed of his weak health and initiated in a monastic community by a master of the Quanzhen 全真 (Complete Authenticity) school. Then he became a master of Daoist liturgy, practicing both personal ritual techniques of internal alchemy and healing as well as the collective recitation of scriptures and offerings to the celestial hierarchy. Master Wang accomplished virtuous achievements and established his meritorious existence and identity.

After 1949 he moved to Hunan province and became a leading official representative of the Daoist community of the Southern Peak. As the new state endowed Daoism with a national administrative hierarchy and a globalized leisure class and tourism industry developed, the Southern Peak was reinvented as a site of natural, cultural, and intangible heritage. Master Wang dedicated his life in this changing milieu to build official Daoism in Hunan.