Wang Chongyang was a Song Dynasty Taoist who founded Quanzhen Taoism ("The Way of Complete Perfection") in the 12th century. According to tradition, in the summer of 1159 C.E. Wang met two Taoist immortals , Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin. Wang left his family to be trained by the two immortals. When his training was complete, he gathered seven disciples, who later became known as the Seven Immortals , and founded Quanzhen Taoism.

Notable among his seven disciples were Sun Bu'er, now one of the most important Taoist female role-models, and Qiu Chuji who gained the favor of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan granted tax-exempt status to all Quanzhen monasteries and put Qiu Chuji in charge of all religions in China. As a result, the Quanzhen school of Taoism flourished and is still strong today.

Popular Culture

Wang Chongyang is a fictional character in the novels of Jin Yong.

• Original name: Wang Zhe
• AKA: Central Divinity
• Martial Arts: Quanzhen martial arts, Yiyang Finger and attained proficiency in the art of Nine Negation.

References

Wang Chongyang is mentioned throughout the novels The Eagle-shooting Heroes and The Great Eagle and its Companion . Xie Xun mentions Wang Chongyang in chapter seven of Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre .

History

Wang Chongyang in the world of Jin Yong was an extraordinary man. In his younger years, he assembled an army of righteous, heroic men against the Jurchens with the objective to recover the lost territories of the Song dynasty and rescue the Han Chinese who lived under dire circumstances under the Jurchen rule. However, he could not overcome the strong and powerful Jurchen army and was defeated many times and in the end he gave up this dream of his. And retreated to his ancient tomb on Mount Zhongnan, in this tomb he resided for many years contemplating on his mistakes. He felt that he had failed utterly and felt very depressed and hence he built this tomb. He did not want to share the same sky with the Jurchens; many friends came to urge Wang Chongyang to come out of the tomb and not to give up like that. But he did not listen to his friends. The emperor of the Jurchen empire still saw Wang Chongyang as a threat even when his army was gone. So, he sent more than ten martial arts experts to track down the ancient tomb and kill Wang Chongyang, however all of those martial arts experts were killed by Wang Chongyang instead. After the death of that emperor the new emperor did not know of Wang Chongyang and did not see him as a threat so no more experts were sent. It was Lin Chaoying who forced him out of the tomb in the end. Wang Chongyang had met Lin Chaoying earlier in his life and they were very close to each other, they even exchanged correspondence while Wang Chongyang was in war with the Jurchens. She stood outside his tomb and cursed him for days and finally he stepped out of the tomb to confront his curser. But when he stood outside, Lin Chaoying laughed and said that he does not have to go back into the tomb anymore because he has already broken his vow by stepping out of the tomb. From then on, Lin Chaoying and Wang Chongyang roamed the realm of martial arts together. Together they would often train martial arts together and develop their martial arts to a higher level. Both fell in love with each other, unfortunately their prides got in their way. Lin Chaoying would often indirectly show hints of love towards Wang Chongyang, but he pretended not to see those hints. It was not because he did not love her, but somehow he could not bring it to himself to openly accept her and start a relationship with her. Because of this Lin Chaoying thought Wang Chongyang looked down upon her and was angered. They would often quarrel and fight each other. Because Wang Chongyang was not eager to fight Lin Chaoying, she could sometimes gain the upper hand but that is usually because Wang Chongyang held back, they would often reach a draw. In the end Lin Chaoying proposed a duel to end this endless debate. If Wang Chongyang defeated her, she would commit suicide. But if she won, Wang would have to surrender his ancient tomb to her or become a Taoist priest or a Buddhist monk and live in the vicinity of the ancient tomb on Mount Zhongnan for at least 10 years. The underlying meaning was giving up the tomb to her meant marrying her and live in the tomb together. Or if he did not want to, he had to become a Taoist or a Buddhist and thus preventing him from marrying another woman. Wang Chongyang consented to this and asked how they would duel; Lin Chaoying said that whoever could write on a stone slab with his fingers would win. Wang Chongyang knew he could not do that and said he lost; Lin Chaoying walked over the stone slab and gently stroked the slab a few times. And started to used her fingers to carve a poem and after she was done she smiled wryly that Wang Chongyang was destined to become a Taoist priest. Lin Chaoying knew very well, that her level in martial arts was inferior to Wang Chongyang and proposed this duel, because by stroking the stone slab, she smeared a chemical substance on the slab to make it soft and thus making it possible for her to write on. The very next day, Wang Chongyang became a Taoist priest and resided at Mount Zhongnan. Wang Chongyang only found out how Lin Chaoying won many years later, when Huang Yaoshi visited him and he asked Huang if he knew how it was possible that Lin Chaoying could write on stone. Huang Yaoshi saw the slab and laughed and said he did not master this technique yet of writing on stone and said he would return one month later. After a month, Huang Yaoshi came back and together with Wang Chongyang they went back to the slab. Huang Yaoshi stroked the slab a few times too and started to write another poem on the slab. Wang Chongyang was extremely surprised and touched the slab and found out that it was soft and realised how Lin Chaoying won. In the beginning Wang Chongyang was very reluctant to become a Taoist priest, but after studying Taoist codices for some time he understood Taoism and became an enlightened priest. Thus, the Quanzhen School was founded. His sworn-brother Zhou Botong became his younger martial arts brother and learnt martial arts from Wang Chongyang. He accepted seven disciples, teaching them Taoist philosophies and martial arts. They were the famous Seven Masters of Quanzhen ; Ma Yu , Tan Chuduan , Liu Chuxuan , Qiu Chuji , Wang Chuyi , Hao Datong and Sun Bu’er . After many years, Lin Chaoying passed away. Wang Chongyang quietly entered the ancient tomb again to pay his final respects to the woman he loved. However, when he saw the martial arts Lin Chaoying carved on the walls of tomb he was shocked. Almost every stance of his Quanzhen martial arts was countered, he was amazed by the marvellous Jade Maiden martial arts Lin Chaoying created. He went into retreat for three years, hoping to create a new set of martial arts to overcome the Jade Maiden Manual by Lin Chaoying. He was able to come up with some new styles but not the desired results he wanted. He gave up this objective to create a new set of martial arts and respected Lin Chaoying’s talent in martial arts. Meanwhile, the Quanzhen School became the most prominent martial arts school in the entire realm of martial arts and was known as the Taoist orthodox martial arts school. The main principles of Quanzhen was to help others and resist the Jurchen aggressors in the north, thus Wang Chongyang and the Quanzhen school not only won the respect of martial artists but also of the common people. Several decades later, the codex of Nine Negation appeared in the realm of martial arts. Many martial artists had died over this codex, everyone wanted to claim this manual whatever it takes. The situation became more and more chaotic about a hundred martial artists had already died over this manual, so Wang Chongyang decided to invite the most prominent and powerful martial arts masters of that time to settle this dispute about the manual once and for all. He invited East Heretic, Huang Yaoshi, West Venom Ouyang Feng , South Emperor, Duan Zhixing and North Beggar, Hong Qigong , they agreed to duel at Mount Hua whoever was the victor could claim the title of the number one martial arts expert of the time and have the codex of Nine Negation. The duel would consist of a theoretical and a practical part, it lasted for seven days and seven nights. In the end, Wang Chongyang was victorious. He entered the tournament of Mount Hua not to claim the manual or for the title of number one martial arts master, but to prevent the realm of martial arts thrown into turmoil and innocent lives wasted on this codex anymore. He did not want to study the martial arts in the manual and prohibited all Quanzhen disciples to learn it. But out of curiosity he flipped through the manual and read it, after about ten days he absorbed the contents of the codex and became proficient in the art of Nine Negation. He laughed heartily and knew know how to counter the Jade Maiden manual by Lin Chaoying. He went back into the tomb and carved a few styles of the Nine Negation on the walls of the ancient tomb, which could counter the Jade Maiden Manual. One year after the tournament, Wang Chongyang and Zhou Botong travelled to the Dali Kingdom to meet Duan Zhixing. Wang Chongyang said that he admired the Yiyang Finger of the Duan family and wished to learn this skill and in exchange he would teach Duan Zhixing the Pre-heaven skill. The reason for this was that Wang Chongyang knew he was dying and wanted to pass his Pre-heaven skill to Duan Zhixing so someone would be around to counter West Venom after he himself died. He and Zhou Botong stayed in Dali for about half a month. Prior to his death, he wished to burn the codex of Nine Negation but he could not do it. Because he realised that the manual was not his to burn and hoped that in the future someone would make good use of the codex. But he issued a final order that no disciple of the Quanzhen school was allowed to learn the martial arts of the manual with that he died. Zhou Botong and the seven masters of Quanzhen were mourning for their teacher, but later that night several martial arts experts came to the Chongyang Shrine with the purpose of stealing the codex. The seven masters quickly went outside to engage the enemies individually to prevent those martial arts experts from entering the shrine and possibly harming the body of Wang Chongyang. Only Zhou Botong remained in the main hall to wake, at this point Ouyang Feng came with the purpose of stealing the codex. Zhou Botong did his best to stop Ouyang Feng, but was no match for him and was defeated. Ouyang Feng was about to snatch the codex which was put next to the coffin of Wang Chongyang. Suddenly the lid of the coffin was smashed and Wang Chongyang emerged from the coffin used his Yiyang Finger to hit Ouyang Feng between the eyebrows. Ouyang Feng was heavily injured and quickly ran off, nonetheless that blast of Wang Chongyang severely injured him and he had to use at least five years time to recover. It seems that a few days earlier, Wang Chongyang sensed that Ouyang Feng was lurking about in the vicinity. So he feigned his own death to lure him over and injure him. Wang Chongyang sat down cross-legged to rest; Zhou Botong did not disturb him because he knew that using Yiyang Finger and the Pre-heaven Skill absorbs a lot of energy. He quickly helped the seven masters to drive off the other enemies. All of them were very happy that Wang Chongyang was alive but when they came back to the main hall they saw that this time Wang Chongyang had really passed away. Although Jin Yong did not mention the exact age when Wang Chongyang died, but it is presumed that he died when he was 80 odd years old.