The Immortal Zhou Fuhai: Hagiography and Community Building in Pure Yang Daoism

Abstract: The Daoist Zhou Fuhai (d. ca. 1935) was a hermit, healer and master of internal alchemy who lived in eastern Hunan and, in the early 20th century, reconstituted the Pure Yang tradition (Chunyang). Today local communities of Daoist women venerate him as a divine immortal and the founding ancestor of their ritual genealogy. This article explores his journey as a Daoist healer and outlines the construction of his veneration and his identity as an immortal on the basis of field observations and oral testimonies as well as a ritual text and a short official hagiography. It takes a close ethnological look at community construction and the transmission of the Pure Yang tradition in eastern Hunan, a region where it particularly developed during the Song dynasty (960-1279).