Qiu Chuji

Qiu Chuji was a leading Quanzhen Daoist and the founder of the Longmen lineage. He travelled across Central Asia to meet Genghis Khan and advised the conqueror on spiritual discipline and the preservation of life. Jin Yong makes him a major martial mentor and political conscience in Legends of the Condor Heroes.

Qiu became one of the most prominent masters of the Quanzhen school of Daoism and gained extraordinary prestige after travelling across Central Asia to meet Genghis Khan in 1222. Their conversations, recorded by Qiu’s disciple Li Zhichang, concerned longevity, government and moral restraint. Mongol patronage subsequently strengthened Quanzhen institutions in northern China, making Qiu an important intermediary between religious communities and the new imperial power.

In Jin Yong’s A Bond Undone, Revenge follows Guo Jing from his childhood on the steppe, and Qiu Chuji’s long-planned wager approaches its conclusion. In Jin Yong’s A Hero Born, in 1205, Song patriots Skyfury Guo and Ironheart Yang are attacked after a chance meeting with the Daoist Qiu Chuji.