WANG ZHE (1112–1170), also known by his clerical name, Zhongyangzi; Daoist master of the Jin period (1115–1234) and founder of the Quanzhen sect. The third son of a great landowner in Xianyang, Shaanxi province, Wang received a Confucian education and entered the district school in Xianyang at the age of twenty. Following a disagreement with his teacher, however, Wang was denied permission to sit for the civil service examination and had to settle for success in the less prestigious military examination. Although at first enthusiastic about a career in the military, Wang grew discouraged by his failure to advance in rank and resolved to abandon the military for a life of seclusion on Mount Zhongnan. He practiced Buddhism for a time, but in the sixth month of 1159 he received secret oral teachings from Lü Chunyang and Zhong Liquan. Thereafter, he converted to Daoism and was ordained a priest...