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Jiugongdao (九宫道 "Way of the Nine Palaces") is aChinese folk religious sect centered in theWutai County of the province ofShanxi.[1] The name of the sect is based on thejiugong diagram of esoteric cosmology.
Flourishing in theQing dynasty, but rooted in earlier times, the Jiugongdao developed greatly onMount Wutai thanks to the efforts of Li Xiangshan, also known asPuji, his name as a Buddhist monk who was close to the Manchu court.[2] With his contribution, Jiugongdao took over more than twenty run down former Buddhist monasteries on Mount Wutai and rebuilt them thanks to the donations of its strong following, especially concentrated innortheast China.[2] The monasteries were reformed intoChinese temples dedicated to indigenous deities and the cosmologicalLords of the Five Peaks.[3] The sect also gathered a following amongKhorchin Mongols.[4]
The Jiugongdao declined on Mount Wutai in the 1940s, as aHan Chinese-acquired tradition ofTibetan Buddhism took power.[4] With the campaigns against religion in the 1950s and theCultural Revolution, Jiugongdao and other folk religious sects focused on Mount Wutai, Huanxiangdao andHoutiandao, were persecuted and went underground.[1] They have revived since the 1980s.[1]
