Taoist Music of Qingcheng Mountain

Qingcheng Mountain is one of the birthplaces of Chinese Taoism, where Zhang Daoling preached in the Eastern Han dynasty. Taoist ritual music developed here through more than a millennium of Taoist ceremonial practice, forming a Zhengyi-school musical tradition with a distinctive Sichuan character.

Performed during Taoist ritual services, the music features flute, erhu fiddle, guqin zither and percussion. The repertoire encompasses hymns to deities, ceremonial interludes and chanted scripture, solemn in tempo and rich in modal character.

Taoist music of Qingcheng Mountain is a living continuation of China's traditional ritual-music culture within the Taoist faith system, and an important resource for studying the fusion of Taoist ceremony and Sichuan folk music.