The Nameless Dao in Concealment: Historical Transformations of the Quanzhen Seven Masters’ Image from Antiquity to Modernity

The Seven Masters of the Quanzhen 全真七子 sect served as central figures during the founding phase of Quanzhen Daoism and played key roles in the sect’s early development. Originally positioned as the “Northern Seven Perfected Ones” (Bei Qi Zhen 北七真), they were instrumental in propelling the prosperity and expansion of Quanzhen Daoism. Over time, their images subsequently proliferated across various media—including portrayals in stone inscription, painting, biography, and novel, undergoing transformations through inscriptions, paintings, biographies, and novels—transforming transmission channels from Daoist temples to stage performances and from street corners to modern screens. In the Jin and Yuan 金元 periods, Daoist biographies and inscriptions portrayed the Seven Masters as exemplary figures of Daoist practice. In folk novels and precious scrolls (Baojuan 宝卷) in the Ming 明 and Qing 清 dynasties, they were presented as legendary, divine immortals and distant ancestors available for narrative appropriation. In modern times—particularly due to the popularity of Jin Yong 金庸’s martial art novels—they completed their universalization as Daoist cultural resources blending chivalric ethos and entertainment value. Examining the evolution of the Seven Masters’ imagery, two fundamental implications emerge: First, this transformation was jointly shaped by the power structures, functional needs, and media forms of each era. Second, beneath the fluid representations from sacred patriarchs of the Jin–Yuan period to modern entertainment symbols, there is an enduring thread of Daoist transcendental consciousness.