YIN XI:

THE MASTER AT THE

BEGINNING OF THE SCRIPTURE

 

by Livia Kohn, publisher, Three Pines Press.

NOTE: [This study is part of a longer work on the hagiography and myth of Laozi, both in history and in comparative analysis. I am indebted to K. M. Schipper for the most fortuitous translation of @I{wenshi} as “at the beginning of the scripture” (1985, 44).]]

Yin Xi, also known as the Guardian of the Pass (@I{guanling}), was the first recipient of the @I{Daode jing} (Scripture of the Tao and Its Virtue), demanding the work from Laozi during his emigration to the west. Known in the early Han as a Taoist philosopher and disciple of Laozi, Yin Xi, once linked with the sage and his work, grew in stature as Laozi’s myth advanced. Like Laozi stylized as an immortal, he was, in the second century C.E., known as the sage’s first disciple and his close companion in the conversion of the western countries. Later, in the fifth century, under the sponsorship of an alleged descendant, Yin Xi further rose to patriarch of the Louguan group of the Celestial Masters, a major Taoist lineage.

In the sixth century, with the various Taoist schools integrated into a coherent religious system, Yin Xi was formally known as Wenshi xiansheng, the “Master at the Beginning of the Scripture,” and given the celestial rank of Wushang zhenren, “All-Highest Perfected.” He then had his own essential or inner biography, the @I{Wenshi neizhuan}–extant in fragments and citations–which told of his supernatural stature, his fated encounter with the Tao, his trials and proper ordination, as well as his ecstatic travels with Laozi and their joint conversion of the barbarians.

The imperial sponsorship of Laozi and Taoism under the Tang contributed to the further advancement of Yin Xi, who was then known as a relation of Laozi by marriage. In the late Song and early Yuan, finally, with the integration of the Louguan group into the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) school, Yin Xi was named a prominent patriarch among the sages and representative of the Yinxi pai or “Yin Xi Lineage.” Thus formally recognized, his biography was reedited in collections of immortals’ biographies while his praises were sung variously. Among others, there is the lineage hymn of the Yinxi pai, which runs as follows:

The Tao and its virtue are pure and lofty,

The path of the clouds lies in elixir concoction.

Only the Master beyond the nine-layered heavens

Truly knows the mystery of all that’s wondrous.

 

Mind purified, he embodies the so-being of nature,

Hair white, he yet has the countenance of youth.

In his sleeve, the trigrams of heaven and earth wax larger,

As yin and yang mutate to create a true immortal.FOOT[Cited in Zhang 1990, 22 after the @I{Baiyun guan zhi} (Gazetter of the White Cloud Monastery), ed. ôyanagi 1934, 95.]

A full immortal, sage, and patriarch of the Taoist religion, Yin Xi stands representative for the active practitioner of the Tao. More than that, the development of his legend from philosopher to Laozi’s companion to celestial immortal and Taoist patriarch is symptomatic for the emergence and growth of Taoism as a fully organized and integrated religious system. Moreover, the content and structure of the Yin Xi myth, as it was fully formed in the sixth century, mirror the essential myths of the Tao as it was envisioned and practiced in medieval China.

In the following, I pursue the Yin Xi legend through Chinese history in three parts: (1) its beginnings and first formulation in ancient China, down to the early fifth century; (2) its flourishing and full development under the Northern Wei in the fifth and sixth centuries; (3) its later development, mainly carried by members of the Yin family, notably Yin Wencao of the early Tang and Yin Zhiping of the Southern Song.

 

PART 1: BEGINNINGS (ZHOU-JIN)

 

Yin Xi is first mentioned in the @I{Zhuangzi} (Writings of Zhuangzi), once as a philosopher of the Taoist school and once in discussion with Liezi (Zhang 1990, 23; Li 1993, 43-44). In both cases named Guan Yin, interpreted as “Pass Guardian Yin,” he is represented as a Taoist philosopher who explains the mysteries of the Tao to his fellow seekers. In chapter 33, the postface of the @I{Zhuangzi}, which discusses the basic doctrines of various philosophers, his teaching is described as follows:

@Quotation[When a man does not dwell in self, then things will of themselves reveal their forms to him. His movement is like that of water, his stillness like that of a mirror, his responses like those of an echo. Blank-eyed, he seems to be lost; motionless, he has the limpidity of water. Because he is one with it, he achieves harmony; should he reach out for it, he would lose it. Never does he go ahead of other men, but always follows in their wake. (Watson 1968, 372)]

Guan Yin’s vision of the Tao seems to center on the stillness and purity of the individual; he emphasizes the mirror-like nature of the pure mind, the immobility of the simple soul. He proposes an approach of selflessness, emptiness, softness, and the core of his vision lies in limpidity and tranquility, developing the quietistic strain of the @I{Daode jing} and applying it to the individual practitioner of the Tao.

The same tendency is also evident in the other @I{Zhuangzi} passage that features Guan Yin, here in dialogue with his fellow philosopher Liezi.FOOT[It is contained in chapter 19 of the @I{Zhuangzi} and also found in the second chapter of the @I{Liezi} (Writings of Liezi). See Graham 1960, 37-38.] The latter raises the question of the supernatural powers of the perfected:

@Quotation[The perfected can walk under water without choking, can tread on fire without being burned, and can travel above the ten thousand things without being frightened. May I ask how he manages this? (Watson 1968, 198)]

To this Guan Yin gives a lengthy reply. He emphasizes that the key to supernatural faculties is the perfect control of energy, the “guarding of pure @I{qi},” and has nothing to do with acquired skills or techniques. Central to attaining the Tao is the practice of pure energy, the realization of heaven within. Only by holding on to the formless and substanceless energy at the root of creation can one

@Quotation[rest within the bounds that know no excess, hide within the borders that know no source, wander where the myriad beings have their end and beginning, unify his nature, nourish his energy, unite his virtue and thereby communicate with that which creates all things. (Watson 1968, 198; see also Graham 1960, 37)]

The perfected, in other words, with the help of energy control becomes so fully unified with heaven that his faculties are spontaneously one with the creation of all. Such a person will never be harmed, however difficult life’s situations may be. As an example, Guan Yin relates the famous story about the drunken man who falls from a carriage but suffers no injury because

@Quotation[he didn’t know he was riding, and he doesn’t know he has fallen out. Life and death, alarm and terror do not enter his breast, and so he can bang against things without fear of injury. (Watson 1968, 199; see also Graham 1960, 38)]

In the same way, the perfected is not affected by water, fire, or wild beasts. The stability and tranquility of his inner being, his power of energy and oneness with Tao keep him forever safe; he is no longer an ordinary human being, but has become something heavenly. As Guan Yin advises Liezi,

@Quotation[Do not try to develop what is natural to man, develop what is natural to heaven. (Watson 1968, 199)]

To do so means to regard all things of the world as equal, to understand that life and death are cyclical and ultimately the same. In this, the philosophy of Guan Yin seems close to the vision of the @I{Zhuangzi}, which strongly emphasizes both the equalization of things and the control over one’s inner energy (Li 1993, 50).

 

 

@I{Guan Yin as Teacher and Author}

 

In addition, the philosopher is also mentioned in the @I{Lüshi chunqiu} (Mr. Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals), here named Guan Yin Xi and again paired with Liezi. The setting is a shooting range, where the latter inevitably hits the bull’s eye.

@Quotation[Master Guan Yin Xi asked, “Do you know why you hit?”

 

“No, I don’t,” Liezi answered.

 

“Then you are not ready yet.”

 

Liezi withdrew. After three years, he came back and once again asked to be taught.

 

“Do you know now why you hit?” asked Master Guan Yin Xi.

 

“I know.”

 

“That is good. Hold on to it and never let it go!” (IX.4; Wilhelm 1971, 112)]

The context is a chapter entitled “Self-Analysis,” which concerns the need for personal awareness in governing a state. One should not look at outer appearances and formal conditions but focus on the underlying reasons for things, gaining proper understanding and deep awareness. Again, the cental issue of Guan Yin’s thought is the development of the inner dimensions of being, the control of energy and proper knowledge of the Tao as it is realized within the self.

In another @I{Lüshi chunqiu} passage, Guan Yin is characterized as “valuing purity.” He is contrasted with nine other early philosophers and their particular concerns, including Laozi who values softness, Confucius who emphasizes benevolence, Mozi who likes simplicity, and Liezi whose central theme is emptiness (XVII.7; Wilhelm 1971, 285).

This evaluation, too, shows the philosopher Guan Yin as a representative of the Taoist school who was concerned with the inner purity and tranquility of the individual mind. According to him, energy control and a high level of self-awareness allow the full flourishing of heavenly nature within and the development of supernatural powers without.

Guan Yin is further cited as the author of a philosophical treatise known as the @I{Guanyinzi} (Writings of Guan Yin). The work is listed as of nine sections in the bibliographic section of the @I{Hanshu} (History of the Han Dynasty) but appears neither in the @I{Suishu} (History of the Sui Dynasty) nor in either histories of the Tang (Zhang 1990, 25; Li 1993, 48). It surfaces again in the @I{Songshi} (History of the Song Dynasty), in an obviously reconstituted version that was later included in the Taoist canon under the title @I{Wenshi zhenjing} (Perfect Scripture of Master Wenshi).

In the Taoist canon, the text is contained three times (Li 1993, 52):

— first, a version of text only (DZ 667)FOOT[Texts in the Taoist Canon (@I{Daozang}, abbreviated DZ) are given according to Schipper 1975.] in one scroll and is nine sections;

— second, a commentated edition, the @I{Wenshi zhenjing zhu} in nine scrolls, compiled by Niu Daoshun of the early Yuan (DZ 727);

— third, the @I{Wenshi zhenjing yanwai zhi} (Pointers Beyond Words to the Perfected Scripture of Master Wenshi, DZ 728) by Chen Xianwei, dated to 1254. Like the commentary edition, this third work consists of nine scrolls but in addition subdivides the text into numbered sections, which are each introduced with “Guanyinzi said.” The commentary here rephrases the @I{Wenshi zhenjing} and adds heavily of the author’s personal views, integrating much Buddhist thought (Hervouet 1978, 362).

In content, the @I{Wenshi zhenjing} moves between two poles: the abstract philosophical discussion of the nature of the Tao and the universe, focusing particularly on the ineffable nature of the Tao and the impossibility of all true knowledge; and the systematic and rather technical analysis of human life and body in accordance with the correspondence system of the five phases. It is a rather scholastic yet at the same time technical text whose theoretical sections tend to integrate both Confucian and Buddhist notions, while its more concrete parts have a distinctly inner alchemical flavor. It dates to Song times and probably goes back to Yin Zhiping (1169-1251), sixth patriarch of the Quanzhen sect and namesake, if not relative, of Yin Xi. I will come back to him below.

 

 

The philosopher Guan Yin, in the early centuries C. E., advanced to become an immortal and celestial of the Tao. This development began with his connection to Laozi, the foremost Taoist philosopher and alleged author of the @I{Daode jing}. Parallel to the unfolding of the latter’s myth, Yin Xi was stylized in two major ways: as an immortal, and as a proselytizer of the Tao in the so-called conversion of the barbarians (Zhang 1990, 31). The two strands, though distinct, were woven together in an integrated narrative.

The link between Laozi and Guan Yin appears first in Laozi’s biography in the @I{Shiji} (Historical Records).

@Quotation[Laozi cultivated the Tao and the virtue. He taught that one should efface oneself and be without fame in the world. He lived under the Zhou. After a long time he realized that the dynasty was declining and he decided to leave.

 

When he reached the western frontier, Yin Xi, the Guardian of the Pass, said: “You want to withdraw forever. Please write down your ideas for me.”

 

Thereupon Laozi wrote a book in two sections dealing with the Tao and the virtue. It had more than five thousand words. Then he left, and nobody knows what became of him. (ch. 63; see also Lau 1982, X; Fung and Bodde 1952, 1:170)]

Here for the first time, the full appellation “Guanling Yin Xi” appears, interpreted as the name Yin Xi linked with the official title @I{guanling}, Guardian of the Pass. In the Han dynasty, both Yin and Guan were surnames, the Guan family in particular claiming descent from Yin Xi (Zhang 1990, 26). The word @I{yin}, moreover, had three usages: it meant “to oversee,” indicated the position of overseer, and appeared as a family name (Zhang 1990, 27; Li 1993, 47). @I{Guanyin}, in other words, had the same meaning as @I{guanling}, i.e., “overseer [guardian] of the pass.” While @I{guanyin} might therefore indicate an official position, the appearances of the word among names of ancient philosophers and in various dialogues with Liezi strongly indicate its use as a personal name (Zhang 1990, 27). Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that Yin or Guan was the family name of the thinker, who might just have been known as the “Pass Overseer.” The customs officer who met Laozi, therefore, as likely as not may have been quite a different person from the ancient philosopher known as Guan Yin.

The identity of Yin Xi and Guan Yin was taken for granted by later writers who embellished the basic @I{Shiji} story in various ways and expanded it to include Laozi’s further travels: to heaven or Mount Kunlun in some cases, to the western countries in others. The most popular version, created after the introduction of Buddhism in the first century C.E. and first mentioned in a court memorial by Xiang Kai in 166 C.E., was that Laozi, after transmitting the @I{Daode jing}, went on to the countries of Central Asia and India and there spread his teaching in a sweeping effort to “convert the barbarians.” Then and there, he became known as the Buddha.

Two early variants of the story appear. First, Laozi continues his journey alone. This seems to be the more original version which also apparently formed the plot of the original conversion scripture, @I{Huahu jing}, written by Wang Fu around the year 300. References to this plot appear also in Xiang Kai’s memorial and in Huangfu Mi’s (215-282) @I{Gaoshi zhuan} (Biographies of Eminent Scholars). Later it is taken up by Pei Songzhi in his commentary to the @I{Sanguo zhi} (Record of the Three Kingdoms) of the year 429. The latter account has,

@Quotation[What is recorded in the Buddhist [scriptures] is analogous to [the teachings contained in] the scripture of Laozi in the Middle Country, and it is actually believed that Laozi, after having gone out of the pass to the West and having traversed the Western Region, went to India where he instructed the barbarians and became the Buddha. (Z@o<u”>rcher 1959, 291)]

According to a second variant, Laozi continues his journey together with Yin Xi, who becomes a central figure in the story (Qing 1988, 437). This occurs first in the @I{Liexian zhuan} (Immortals’ Biographies), originally by Liu Xiang of the Han but recompiled in the second century (Kaltenmark 1953). This text is also the first to characterize Yin Xi as an immortal. It says,

@Quotation[Yin Xi, the guardian of the pass, was a high official under the Zhou. He was fond of esoteric studies and frequently nourished on the essential florescences [of plants and minerals]. He always hid his virtue and lived in pure cultivation, so that no one knew his real attainments.

 

When Laozi went west, Yin Xi saw his energy and realized that a perfected person would come his way. He observed the appearance of the phenomenon and followed its path until Laozi indeed arrived. Laozi equally knew Yin Xi’s extraordinary nature and agreed to write a book for him.

 

Later the two traveled together to the Floating Sands and converted the barbarians, always living on sesame seeds. Nobody knows what became of them.

 

Yin Xi himself wrote a work in nine sections. It is called the @I{Guanyinzi} (Writings of Pass Master Yin). (Kaltenmark 1953, 66)]

The @I{Liexian zhuan} firmly identifies the customs officer Yin Xi with the philosopher Guan Yin; in addition, it describes him as a practitioner of physical immortality who followed special diets and withdrew from official duties (Li 1993, 45). It emphasizes Yin Xi’s power over both inner and outer energy as well as his ability to recognize the sage emanations of Laozi as the latter sets out for the west. Yin Xi, not yet the astrologer of later years, has yet already become a technician. The philosopher Guan Yin’s emphasis on energy control has been transformed into Yin Xi’s concrete practice of diet and observation, while the philosopher’s concern with purity has changed into the immortal’s purposeful encounter with the Tao, allowing the transmission of its sacred scripture.

 

 

@I{Ge Hong on Yin Xi}

 

In the early fourth century, as Ge Hong’s @I{Baopuzi} (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity, DZ 1185) documents, Yin Xi was known as the author of the @I{Guanyinzi}, a text considered similar but somewhat inferior to the @I{Daode jing} (8.5a; Ware 1966, 142), and alleged to have authored a certain @I{Daoji jing} (Scripture on the Activities of the Tao; 4.1b; Ware 1966, 69). Ge Hong further argues that “the Zhou did not condemn Yin Xi for disloyalty when he repudiated the duties of his office and fled the responsibility of taking corrective measures” (8.6b; Ware 1966, 145). This shows that Yin Xi in the 320s was not only thought of in close conjunction with Laozi but recognized as a faithful practitioner of the Tao who gave up his rank and office to pursue perfection.

Ge Hong’s @I{Shenxian zhuan} (Biographies of Spirit Immortals}, although extant today only in a rather late and reconstituted edition (see Fukui 1951), gives further impressions in the same direction. Grown in a milieu of southern magico-technicians (@I{fangshi}), the text presents Laozi as an inspired leader of ascetic and immortality practices. He is a teacher of the right way to govern the country while at the same time cultivating oneself and extending one’s life–not yet a god and yet no longer a mere thinker, reclusive official, or master of ritual.

The Laozi of Ge Hong and the immortality seekers is himself a practitioner of longevity techniques, one who has lived for several hundred years, maintained his vigor, and attained the magic of the immortals. He has full control over life and death, forsees the future, knows all about the patterns of the heavenly bodies, can order demons about at will, and wields talismans and spells with ease (see Kohn 1996).

He is, as the text says, “indeed a true immortal” who leaves China for the paradise of Kunlun after he has transmitted a whole series of immortality techniques to his disciples: a total of “930 scrolls of texts as well as seventy scrolls of talismans.” Among the methods are alchemy, dietetics, visualization, concentration, energy exercises, exorcism, control over demons, and many others more–a whole plethora of Taoist techniques, now firmly linked with Laozi.FOOT[See @I{Shenxian zhuan} 1. The biography of Laozi is translated in Güntsch 1988, 36-52 and Kohn 1996.]

The meeting between Laozi and Yin Xi, his first and foremost disciple, is consequently no longer a mere chance encounter but the predestined coming together of celestial powers. Yin Xi is described as gifted with a special sense for the flow and quality of energy. As the text has,

@Quotation[He divined from the winds and energies [of the world] that a divine personage would soon come [across the pass]. He duly had the road swept for forty miles. When he saw Laozi approach, he knew that he was the one. (@I{Shenxian zhuan} 1)]

Laozi, too, “knew that Yin Xi was destined to realize the Tao and therefore willingly stopped on the pass.” The two sages therefore come together not as customs officer and traveler but as two differently placed yet equally magnificent repositories of the superb workings of heaven.

The powerful relationship between the two is further illustrated by the confrontation of Laozi with his servant Xu Jia: hearing that Laozi is about to leave China, Xu demands his pay which, since he has served Laozi for over two hundred years, is substantial and not easily available. Indicting Laozi before the Guardian of the Pass, a confrontation ensues, in the course of which Laozi removes the life-giving talisman from Xu Jia who collapses into a heep of bones. Yin Xi, moved by compassion, has him restored to life and takes care of the sage’s obligations.

The obvious purpose of this story at this stage of the myth is to show the ancient philosopher effectively as a master of magic and immortals’ powers. In addition, however, as later hagiographical and liturgical sources make clear, it also serves to illustrate the contrast between Xu Jia and Yin Xi as disciples of the Tao.

Xu Jia is a servant; Yin Xi is an official. Xu Jia is illiterate; Yin Xi writes down the @I{Daode jing}. Xu Jia is greedy for worldly goods; Yin Xi strives only for perfection. Xu Jia is easily led astray; Yin Xi stays steadily on the path. In one word, Xu Jia is the bad disciple, the failure, the side-kick, while Yin Xi is the good disciple, the success, the predestined acolyte (Schipper 1985, 44).FOOT[Later variants of the story, as studied in Schipper 1985, include citations in Du Guangting’s @I{Guangsheng yi} (DZ 725; 3.14b-16a), the @I{Youlong zhuan} (DZ 774; 3.12a-13a), the @I{Hunyuan shengji} (DZ 770; 3.9b), as well as a contemporary myth that explains the dichotomy between vernacular and classical Taoist, collected in Tainan.]

Yin Xi, in the @I{Shenxian zhuan}, rises to the level of predestined immortal and worthy disciple of the sage’s techniques. The transmission of the @I{Daode jing} becomes the formal reconfirmation of a teacher-disciple relationship, where pledges are made, scriptures are handed over, and oral explanations are given. Yin Xi, moreover, once fully initiated, becomes an immortal himself with the help of the @I{Daode jing}. As the @I{Shenxian zhuan} says,

@Quotation[Yin Xi served Laozi with the formality proper for a disciple and received Laozi’s teachings of extending life. When Yin Xi further begged him to teach him the formal precepts of the Tao, Laozi transmitted to him [a scripture in] five thousand words. Yin Xi withdrew to seclusion and wrote it down faithfully. It was named @I{Daode jing}. Practicing its teaching of the Tao, Yin Xi also attained immortality. (ch. 1)]

The @I{Shenxian zhuan} version of the @I{Daode jing} transmission establishes the meeting of Laozi and Yin Xi firmly as an initiation into the sacred. It opens the way for the Yin Xi story to become a mythological model of Taoist ordination.

 

 

@I{The} Santian neijie jing

 

The same tendency is further continued in the @I{Santian neijie jing} (Inner Explanation of the Three Heavens, DZ 1205), a text of the southern Celestial Masters that dates to approximately 420 and shows the dominant Taoist worldview of the time. Here Laozi is born three times. He first appears as the Tao itself, embodying emptiness and nonbeing and bringing forth the Jade Maiden of Mystery and Wonder. She in turn gives life to the deity Laozi in a second birth, after which he creates heaven, earth, and humanity, placing people in different regions and endowing them with the different religions, including Buddhism (1.1a).

In a third birth, Laozi is born to Mother Li, integrating the life story of the ancient philosopher into the cosmic myth of the Tao. During this descent into human shape, he emigrates across the pass and wanders west to convert the barbarians. Meeting Yin Xi, he transmits not only the @I{Daode jing} but also the @I{Shangxia zhongjing} (Central Scripture of Above and Below) in one scroll. Yin Xi, in this version, has no need to practice the Tao. As soon as he “receives these texts, his Tao attains perfection” (1.4a). Then the two sages set out to convert the barbarians of Central Asia with great success. Following this, Laozi decides to move on to India. The @I{Santian neijie jing} says,

@Quotation[The queen of India was called Qingmiao [Clear Wonder; M@o<@+’-’a>y@o<@+’-’a>]. Once, when she was taking an afternoon nap, Laozi ordered Yin Xi to stride on a white elephant and change into a yellow sparrow. In this shape he flew into the mouth of the queen. To her, his shape appeared like a shooting star coming down from heaven.

 

In the following year, on the eighth day of the fourth month, he split open her right hip and was born. He dropped to the ground and took seven steps. Raising his right hand to heaven, he exclaimed: “Above and under heaven, I alone am venerable! The Three Worlds are nothing but suffering. What is there enjoyable?”

 

He later realized that all birth meant suffering and became the Buddha. From that time onward, the Buddhist way flourished anew in these areas. (1.4ab)]

This story integrates, almost verbatim, the hagiographic account of the Buddha’s life as it appears in Chinese in the @I{Taizi ruiying benqi jing} (Sutra of the Origins and Deeds of the Prince in Accordance with All Good Omens; T. 185, 3.471-83).FOOT[Texts in the Buddhist canon are cited after the Japanese Taishô Tripitaka edition (abbreviated T.), giving the serial number, the volume, and the page.] It also links the formal transmission of the @I{Daode jing} with the conversion of the barbarians, raising both Laozi and Yin Xi from the level of heavenly favored immortality practitioners to central deities of the Tao.

The philosopher Guan Yin, by the early fifth century, has come far indeed: first a thinker, then an immortal, and now a god, he occupies a central position in the Taoist teaching, from where he will rise to yet greater heights as the religion advances.

 

 

 

 

PART 2: FLOURSHING (NORTHERN WEI)

 

Louguan is a Taoist institution in the foothills of the Zhongnan mountains, about two hours southwest of Xi’an. According to the legend, it was originally Yin Xi’s old home, given to him as a reward for official service by King Kang of the Zhou (r. 1078-1052 B.C.E.). Having espied the telltale energies of the sage, Yin Xi left this place–which served as his astronomical observatory, hence the name Louguan or “Lookout Tower”–and had himself stationed at the pass. There he became Laozi’s disciple and then invited the sage to his home where the @I{Daode jing} was finally transmitted.

The exact location of the pass is shrouded in confusion. Neither the @I{Shiji} nor any of the hagiographic or early conversion texts mention it by name. Some early sources, as cited in Xie Shouhao’s @I{Hunyuan shengji} (Sage Record of Chaos Prime, DZ 770), dated 1191, mention a Sanguan, located somewhere north of the Huanghe-Wei confluence and marking the border to the ancient province of Long (3.3a). In the Later Han, as documented in Li You’s (ab. 89-140 C.E.) @I{Hangu guan fu} (Rhapsody on the Hangu Pass; Zhang 1990, 30), it was firmly identified with the Hangu Pass in the far eastern part of the Zhongnan mountains. Located in Taolin district, twelve Chinese miles south of the district town, it is east of Mount Hua and south of the Huanghe-Wei junction. It marks the border of the Eastern Zhou and separates the flat river plains from the massive Zhongnan mountain range (see Porter 1993, 39-41).

While the transmission of the @I{Daode jing} was thus located to the east of Xi’an in the Later Han, the continued divinization of Laozi and increased importance of Yin Xi as the paradigmatic disciple and follower of the Tao shifted the focus away from Hangu and to Louguan as a major center. It is not clear when Louguan was first settled or used as a Taoist institution, since the earliest solid historical evidence of its existence is only found in the Tang. An inscription, the @I{Zongsheng guan ji} (Record of the Monastery of the Ancestral Sage), dated to 625, documents a formal name change from Louguan to Zongsheng guan (Chen et al. 1988, 46-48),FOOT[The inscription is also contained in the @I{Gu Louguan ziyun yanqing jing} (DZ 957, 1.1a-4b). On this text, see Boltz 1987, 126.] indicating its imporatnce at this time.

In 742, Louguan was again in the imperial spotlight. A few months after a casket with a numinous talisman of Laozi, the “heavenly treasure” of the ensuing reign period, had been discovered at the Hangu Pass, Laozi appeared in a dream to Emperor Xuanzong. He said, “I have long been hidden southwest of the city. Get me, so that we can see each other in the palace.” The emperor sent searchers who were led to Louguan by a purple cloud. Reaching the foot of the Zhongnan mountains, a beam of light pointed them to a specific spot, where they unearthed a three-foot statue of Laozi. The emperor installed in the palace and, to spread its benign influence, had copies made and distributed throughout the country. The events were duly recorded in an inscription, the @I{Meng zhenrong ji} (Dreaming of the Perfected Countenance; Chen et al. 1988, 126).

In the late Tang, Louguan was a flourshing center, as a description in Du Guangting’s @I{Daojiao lingyan ji} (Evidential Miracles in Support of the Taoist Teaching, DZ 590; see Verellen 1992) shows. He says,

@Quotation[Louguan is the home of Yin Xi who served under King Kang of the Zhou [r. 1078-1054 B.C.E]. It is located on the northern slope of the Zhongnan mountains, close to the capital, in Zhouzhi County, Shenqiu Township, Wenxian Hamlet.

 

The monastery includes temple halls and porches installed by King Mu of the Zhou, the First Emperor of the Qin, and the Martial Emperor [Wudi] of the Han. In addition, there are an ink inscription by the First Emperor and a numinous well of Yin Xi.

 

Immortality mushrooms grow there together with medical herbs, grasses, and trees that go back to the Venerable Lord himself. There is also a Terrace of Ascension to Heaven. Song Keban of the Jin dynasty left a memorial, and there are numerous inscriptions and records from the Han throug the ages. (3.9b)]

Visiting Louguan today, one finds the various halls–and a gingko tree that was allegedly planted by Laozi–still in place, now newly restored after destruction in the Cultural Revolution. Entering an open courtyard, one faces various low buildings containing dormitories, a dining hall, and a souvenir shop. To the south, a few steps up a hill, the main temple hall is dedicated to Laozi; it has two stone steles containing the @I{Daode jing} near the entrance.

Beyond the hall, further steps lead to another courtyard that holds a shrine for the Lady of the Southern Dipper, goddess of immortality and destiny. This in turn is followed by a hall dedicated to Bixia yuanjun, the Goddess of the Rosy Morning Clouds, daughter of the god of Mount Tai and bringer of children. From the back porch of the second hall one has a sweeping view over the valley below and into the hills above.FOOT[The author visited Louguan in the fall of 1991. A detailed description of the location, including lesser buildings further in the mountain, is found in Porter 1993, 43-45.]

Architecturally quite imposing but not easy to reach by bus or car, Louguan today is still an important center that has its small population of active Taoist practitioners. Located in the foothills of the Zhongnan mountains, it is surrounded by beautiful scenery and boasts a number of pavilions and small shrines in the outlying hills. It is a worthy remnant of the historical greatness of the location and its inhabitants.

 

 

@I{Yuan Sources}

 

As a Taoist lineage, now defined as the Yinxi pai (or Louguan pai or Wenshi pai) in the Quanzhen school, Louguan has merited various records in the Taoist canon, primary among which are three Yuan-dynasty texts. Written in the wake of Yin Zhiping’s reconstruction of the place in the 1230s (Boltz 1987, 125), they not only document the revival of Louguan at this time but also preserve earlier information and materials.

There is first Li Daoqian’s (1219-1296) @I{Zhongnan shan zuting xianzhen neizhuan} (Essential Biographies of the Immortal Perfected of the Ancestral Halls in the Zhongnan Mountains, DZ 955) in three scrolls. A Quanzhen chronicler, who also wrote the @I{Qizhen nianpu} (Chronology of the Seven Perfected, DZ 175), Li in this work presents the biographies of altogether thirty-seven figures, beginning with He Dejin (d. 1170) and ending with Gao Daokuan (1195-1277; Boltz 1987, 68). He also has a biography of Yin Zhiping, to which I shall come back below.

Next, there are two works by Zhu Xiangxian (fl. 1279-1308), a Maoshan Taoist who visited Louguan on a pilgrimage in 1279. Spending the summer there, he discovered much interesting material, both epigraphic and textual, and was inspired to compile several devout records.

Zhu Xiangxian’s first work is a collection of stele inscriptions at and about Louguan. The @I{Gu Louguan ziyun yanqing ji} (The Abundant Blessings of the Purple Clouds at the Old Lookout-Tower, DZ 957), named after a gallery added to the monastery in 1242 (Boltz 1987, 126), consists of three scrolls and begins with the @I{Zongsheng guan ji} by Ouyang Xun (557-641) on the name change of Louguan to Zongsheng guan in 620. Next, it has the tomb inscription for Yin Wencao by Yuan Banqian, dated to 717, followed by a memorial on the divine manifestations of Laozi in Louguan that was written by Liu Tongsheng and engraved in 742. The first scroll ends with the memorial dedicated to the restoration of Louguan in the Yuan dynasty, which was first set up in 1262 and remounted in 1295.FOOT[See Boltz 1987, 126. The inscriptions are also contained in Chen et al. 1988, 46, 102, 132, and 549.]

The second scroll presents tomb inscriptions for Yin Zhiping and Li Zhirou as well as miscellaneous memorials dedicated to various landmarks in the wider monastery compound. The last scroll, finally, contains a eulogy on Louguan by Du Daojian (1237-1318) of the year 1303 as well as reprints of poems and songs on the place from the Tang through the Song (Boltz 1987, 126).FOOT[Inscriptions regarding Louguan abound under the Yuan, dated largely to the late thirteen century. Many commemorate restoration projects, others are tomb inscriptions for major masters. See Chen et al. 1988, 1378, “Zongsheng guan.”]

 

 

@I{Louguan Hagiographies}

 

Zhu Xiangxian’s other work is the @I{Zhongnan shan shuojing tai lidai zhenxian beiji} (Inscription on Successive Generations of Perfected Immortals of the Transmission Terrace in the Zhongnan Mountains, DZ 956; hereafter abbreviated @I{Zhongnan beiji}). One scroll in length, it also appears in Chen Yuan’s collection of Taoist inscriptions (Chen et al. 1988, 674-79). The text summarizes an older collection of Louguan hagiographies, the @I{Louguan xianshi zhuan} (Biographies of Previous Louguan Masters). This is an early work, now lost, which consisted of thirty biographies of Louguan masters, to which Zhu added a formal biography of Yin Xi in the beginning as well as records of four Tang and later masters in the end (Boltz 1987, 124-25; Qing 1988, 437).

In a concluding note, Zhu Xiangxian describes the old @I{Louguan xianshi zhuan} as consisting of three scrolls and compiled by three major Louguan masters in formal recognition of their lineage. The first part, he states, goes back to Yin Gui, originally an alchemist and immortal of the Jin dynasty who merited a biography in the @I{Shenxian zhuan} (ch. 9; Güntsch 1988, 258-59). Under the impact of the growing Laozi cult, Yin Gui advanced not only to younger brother or cousin of Yin Xi but also gained the rank of a high celestial who first graced the world with his presence in the early Zhou (see Zeng 1985). In 305 C.E., he descended to Louguan upon the deified Laozi’s command to teach the Taoist recluse Liang Shen (247-318) methods of refining energy and the practice of alchemy. At this time he also transmitted the first scroll of the @I{Louguan xianshi zhuan} containing accounts of thirteen Louguan masters from the early Zhou to the Han (Qing 1988, 432; Ren 1990, 221; Zhang 1991, 71).

The second scroll was later added by Wei Jie (496-569), philosopher, Louguan Taoist, and contender in the Northern court debates of the sixth century, who is best known for his commentary on the @I{Xisheng jing} (Scripture of Western Ascension, DZ 726; Kohn 1991, 167). He recorded the lives of eleven immortality seekers and early Taoist masters, under whose guidance Louguan began to play a part in the national scene. Third, finally, eight successive masters received biographies by Yin Wencao (622-688), Laozi biographer and Louguan abbot of the early Tang (see Table 1).

Following this basic structure of the text, one can distinguish four main phases of Louguan development:

@tabset(1 in)

1.  a legendary period from the early Zhou to the Han;

2.  a time of immortality seekers and alchemists in the Jin;FOOT[This phase includes Liang Shen, Wang Jia (who is the best documented among them and also mentioned in the @I{Jinshu} [History of the Jin Dynasty], ch. 95), Sun Zhe, and Ma Jian. They form part of an alchemical lineage of masters specializing in various types of cinnabars (Needham 1976, 112).]

3.  the first organization of Louguan as a major Taoist center under Yin Tong, Wang Daoyi, and Chen Baozhi;

4.  the heyday of Louguan activities in the sixth and seventh centuries (Zhang 1991, 82-83).

With the exception of Wang Jia of the Jin, only masters in the fourth phase are mentioned in independent sources and play some role on the national and religious scene of the time. Nevertheless, personages such as Yin Tong and Wang Daoyi, unlike many earlier figures, seem to have contributed significantly to Louguan development and cannot be dismissed outright as legendary.

In terms of textual transmission, the @I{Louguan xianshi zhuan}, also called @I{Louguan xiansheng benxing neizhuan} (Essential Biographies of the Origins and Deeds of the Louguan Masters) or simply @I{Louguan [nei] zhuan} ([Essential] Louguan Biographies), is mentioned in various Song sources as by Yin Gui and Wei Jie (Chen 1975, 235; Loon 1984, 157). Before that, it is cited at length in the @I{Xianyuan bianzhu} (A String of Pearls from a Forest of Immortals, DZ 596). This collection, put together by Wang Songnian of Mount Tiantai, dates from the 920s and contains materials on 132 Taoist masters based largely on the @I{Shenxian zhuan} and various Shangqing sources, such as Tao Hongjing’s (456-536) @I{Zhengao} (Declarations of the Perfected, DZ 1016), his @I{Dengzhen yinjue} (Secred Instructions on the Ascent to the Perfected, DZ 193), and the @I{Daoxue zhuan} (Biographies of Students of the Tao; lost). It contains short notices cited from the @I{Louguan zhuan} on almost all Louguan masters.

The next collection that presents biographical Louguan materials is the @I{Sandong qunxian lun} (Record of the Collected Immortals of the Three Caverns, DZ 1248) by Chen Baoguang of the year 1154. A long exposition of immortals’ lives, this work was written in support of the view that immortality could be achieved by learning and practice and did not require innate abilities (Boltz 1987, 59). It includes most Louguan masters but does not cite the @I{Louguan zhuan} explicitly. The information contained here, except for basic biographical data, is frequently different from that found in the @I{Xianyuan bianzhu}, emphasizing distinct methods of Taoist attainment rather than the veneration of the @I{Daode jing} and master-disciple relationships. Nevertheless, the order in which the masters are listed, their dates and lines of succession coincide largely in all relevant documents, giving the impression that the Louguan lineage was established and well known in the Tang and Song.

Zhu Xiangshan summarizes the information contained in the earlier collections and adds laudatory verses to each entry. His work, together with other sources, in due course afforded inspiration for Zhao Daoyi (fl. 1294-1307), the great hagiographer, who furnishes extensive narratives on all Louguan masters in his @I{Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian} (Comprehensive Mirror through the Ages of Perfected Immortals and Those Who Embody the Tao, DZ 296). Beginning with Yin Xi, he presents the early masters in scrolls 8 and 9 and has an extensive record of later Louguan Taoists in scroll 30, supplemented by various individual biographies in scrolls 18, 21, and 29. His work, in its turn, provided the basis for later summaries in collections like Wang Shizhen’s @I{Liexian quanzhuan} (Complete Immortals’ Biographies; dated 1653). A list of the biographical information on the various Louguan masters is found in Table 2.

 

 

@I{The “Original Record”}

 

In addition to inscriptions and the @I{Louguan zhuan}, there is also a text called @I{Louguan benji} (Original Record of Louguan), which seems to have been a comprehensive history of the institution. It is cited variously in the Tang, notably in the eighth-century @I{Miaomen youqi} (Entrance to the Gate of all Wonders, DZ 1123). It gives a summary of early Louguan history:

@Quotation[Louguan was originally divined to be the residence of a high minister of King Kang of the Zhou [r. 1078-1054 B.C.E]. The minister was called Yin, first name Xi, appellation Gongzhang. He came from Tianshui. With an aura and spirit of high refinement and elegance, he eschewed all ordinary rites but recognized Louguan immediately as the place where he would attain perfection. Thereupon he pulled together straw and erected a tower, from which he observed the stars and watched the energies of the earth. When King Kang heard of this, he had proper halls and buildings erected and a lookout point set up. Because of this, the institution became known as the “Lookout Tower.” (13b-14a)

 

King Mu of the Zhou [r. 1001-947 B.C.E.] loved the Yellow Emperor and Laozi. Hearing that the immortality master Du Chong was of outstanding virtue and had lofty conduct, he followed him as his teacher. Later he cleared away old traces [of earlier buildings at Louguan] and erected a numinous altar. Then he invited hermits and recluses of the four directions to continue their spiritual activities there, modeling themselves after the Nestfather and [the recluse] Xu You. The king bowed to them and did not treat them as vassals; local lords respected them and did not treat them as dependants. Because they widely practiced the Tao at court and in the wilderness, they were called Taoists.

 

When King Ping of the Zhou [r. 770-720] moved his capital east to Luoyang, he left seven Taoists there. Similarly the Qin kings Zhao and Zhuang [r. 255-247] supported seven Taoists there.

 

Emperor Wen of the Han [r. 179-157] venerated the Tao and its virtue and variously summoned recluses to his court. He had many Taoists ordained, maintaining a steady group of twenty-seven. Emperor Wu of the Han [r. 140-87], too, loved spirit immortality. He set up twenty-one Taoists. Emperor Wu of the Jin [r. 265-290 C.E.], finally, greatly honored the Tao and ordained forty-nine of its followers. (19a)]

From the early Zhou, when Yin Xi first discovered the place, to the Qin and Han, Louguan is thus described as an active center of Taoist practice and benign political influence. The @I{Louguan benji}, its foremost record, seems to have been the predominant source to establish the link of Louguan with Yin Xi under King Kang and associate the flourishing of the institution with King Mu. It is cited with the same information, albeit less detailed, in several seventh-century texts. Wang Xuanhe’s @I{Shangqing daolei shixiang} (Taoist Affairs of Highest Clarity, DZ 1132), for example, has:

@Quotation[The @I{Louguan benji} says: In the old days, King Kang of the Zhou heard that Master Yin had the intention of attaining immortality and going beyond the world. Thereupon he asked him to serve as high minister, after which he was called Xi [Joy]. His residence was in Louguan.

 

Later King Mu of Zhou expanded the place, summoning hermits and recluses to it as properly established practitioners of the Tao. From that time onward, to the present, the Louguan tradition has been continued without interruption. (1.8b)]

The second paragraph of this citation is also found in

the @I{Yaoxiu keyi} (Essential Rules and Observances, DZ 463; 12.14b) and in Xu Jian’s @I{Chuxue ji} (Record of Initial Learning; 23.552). The same basic information on Louguan is further repeated in Li Jifu’s @I{Yuanhe junxian tuzhi} (Illustrated Record of Provinces and Districts of the Yuanhe Era; 2.6a) of the early ninth century.

Louguan, in the foothills of the Zhongnan mountains to the southwest of Xi’an, was therefore a well-known and flourishing Taoist center in the early Tang dynasty, when it was renamed Zongsheng guan in honor of Laozi as the ancestor of the imperial family. Linked closely with Yin Xi, Laozi’s emigration, and the transmission of the @I{Daode jing}, its foundation was dated to the early Zhou, from which time onward, so the claim of its followers, it never ceased to attract active and powerful Taoists.

 

The link between Louguan and Yin Xi was, according to all indications, established in the fifth century. Two main phases can be distinguished at this time: first, under Yin Tong, resident Taoist at Louguan and of the same surname as Yin Xi, the claim was established that Louguan was the original location of the transmission of the @I{Daode jing} and place of Yin Xi’s perfection; second, based on this legend, under Wang Daoyi, the master after Yin Tong, Louguan greatly expanded both physically and as an institution, turning onto a major center for the integration of the various early Taoist teachings.

 

@I{Yin Tong}

According to the @I{Louguan zhuan} as cited in the @I{Xianyuan bianzhu}, Yin Tong (398-499) was also called Lingjian. He received the Tao from Ma Jian at Louguan in 424, then embarked on a course in dietetics, nourishing on “yellow essence” or deer-bamboo and asparagus (Needham 1976, 112). Later he became an accomplished Taoist and had numerous disciples and followers (2.24a). The @I{Gaodao zhuan}, cited in the @I{Sandong qunxian lu}, adds that Yin Tong was erudite in the classics and histories and found worldly life too fickle to be satisfying. Gradually overcoming the resistance of his parents, he eventually left the householder’s life and became so famous as a Taoist that Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei (r. 424-452) bestowed honors upon him (17.16b-17a).

Zhu Xiangxian’s inscription summarizes this basic information and only supplements Yin Tong’s family relationship to Yin Gui, the Jin-dynasty alchemist (@I{Zhongnan beiji} 10b). Zhao Daoyi, in his @I{Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian}, finally, weaves it all together into a lengthy narrative, including the dialogue with his parents and his daily ritual activities. He also mentions several disciples by name, a nephew called Yin Faxing, the rather obscure Niu Wenhou (457-539), and the more important Wang Daoyi (447-510).

What can be gleamed from these scanty sources is that Yin Tong was a Taoist under early Northern Wei rule, living at a time when the foreign rulers encouraged representatives of the various organized religions to offer models and practices that would hold the state together and afford better control of both Chinese and Central Asian subjects (Kohn 1995, 22; Ren 1990, 231). Kou Qianzhi (365-448), after having received a set of precepts known as the “New Code” from the deified Laozi in 415 and being appointed new Celestial Master by the god, with the help of the prime minister Cui Hao succeeded in gaining the emperor’s ear and established Taoism as a theocracy that controlled the country from 425 to 451 (Mather 1979, 107-8). Yin Tong, it seems, profiting from the good climate at court, not only practiced immortality techniques at Louguan but also became central to the claim that the place was the Yins’ old family home where the @I{Daode jing} had been first transmitted. Through him, Yin Xi was connected both with Louguan as a Taoist sacred place and with other early Taoists named Yin, notably Yin Cheng of the Zhou and Yin Gui of the Jin, establishing a firm family pattern and solid lineage location (Qing 1988, 434).

 

 

@I{Yin Cheng and Yin Gui}

 

Yin Cheng allegedly lived for 340 years, from 431 to 90 B.C.E., before ascending bodily into heaven. Various emperors tried to obtain his arts of immortality, but he did not obey their summons. He adored life in the forest, where–according to a tale reminiscent of Androclus in ancient Rome–he incurred the gratitude of the local deer by helping them in need and was duly rescued in his turn during a violent thunderstorm (@I{Sandong qunxian lu} 3.9b; @I{Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian} 9.9a). Like most of the early masters, he is unknown outside of his connection with the Louguan lineage.

Yin Gui (fl. 290-307) is rather better documented. Also called Gongdu, he has several biographies in Taoist texts and is mentioned variously in the literature.FOOT[In the Taoist canon, see @I{Xianyuan bianzhu} 2.14b; @I{Yunji qiqian} 104.4b; @I{Sandong qunxian lu } 7.6a; @I{Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian} 8.19a; @I{Xuanpin lu} 1.1b; @I{Zhongnan beiji} 3a; and @I{Wudang fudi zongzhen ji} 3.20a.] Linked with the alchemical environment of Ge Hong and associated with the magico-technicians around Emperor Wu of the Han (r. 140-87 B.C.E.), he is described in the @I{Han Wudi waizhuan} (Biographies of People Surrounding Emperor Wu of the Han, DZ 293) as a man of the Western Jin who practiced the “numinous art of flying” (13b). The @I{Shenxian zhuan} characterizes him as a practitioner of astrology, dietetics, and alchemy, who used his methods to succor the less fortunate. One of the stories here runs,

@Quotation[There was a man whose father had died and was to be buried, but he was very poor [and had not the means]. Yin Gui passing by asked him what was the matter and learnt of his plight. Moved by sympathy, he said: “Can you borrow several tens of catties of lead?”

 

The filial son said that he could, and soon came back with a hundred catties. Yin took it up into the neighboring mountains, where he built a small shelter and melted the lead in a furnace. Then, from a tube he had brought along, he took a small pellet of of a chemical about the size of a jujube and threw it into the molten lead. On stirring, it all became silver of good quality. This he gave to the poor man, saying that he had made it on account of his misfortune, and asking him to keep silent about it. (@I{Shenxian zhuan} 9; Needham 1976, 101; see also Güntsch 1988, 259)]

In a later, Shangqing, context, Yin Gui is associated with the @I{Wudi lingfei liujia jing} (Scripture of the Five Emperors on Numinous Flying and [Control of] the Six Jia Deities), which he recited, practiced, and transmitted to his fellow seeker Su Zixun (Robinet 1984, 2:254). By the tenth century, he is known as an immortal who lived for over one thousand years and appeared periodically to warn people about impending disasters (@I{Xianyuan bianzhu} 2.15a). The @I{Sandong qunxian lu} expands on this, giving his final age as 1,300 years and endowing him with a plethora of magical powers, most prominent among which are flying and shape-changing (7.6b). Only Zhu Xiangxian’s inscription names him Yin Xi’s younger relative and disciple, who gained his supernatural powers after attaining Yin Xi’s Tao and then rose to celestial rank as Taihe zhenren, Perfected of Great Harmony. From that position, he duly descended again to transmit alchemical methods to Zhang Shen in the early Jin and dictate the biographies of early Louguan masters (@I{Zhongnan beiji} 2ab).

Yin Gui was thus known in the Northern Wei as an alchemist of some standing who may have practiced his art in the Zhongnan mountains. It is quite possible that Yin Tong, in a climate of state support for Taoism, was not only looked upon positively himself but also associated with various famous ealier Yins, including Yin Xi and Yin Gui as an immortal of some renown. With Yin Tong, it seems, not only was Louguan established as the major place of @I{Daode jing} transmission but, developing a link between Yin Tong and various earlier Taoists named Yin, a patriarchal lineage closely associated with the Yin family was created. Yin Tong may have stimulated this actively on his own account and by conscious choice, or it may have been the by-product of his growing fame as a Taoist and the association of his family name with the first recipient of the @I{Daode jing}. Whatever the case, it was around the early fifth century and in connection with the person of Yin Tong that the link of Yin Xi to Louguan and other Taoists named Yin was first established.

 

 

@I{The Flourishing of Louguan}

 

After the theocracy under Kou Qianzhi collapsed in 448 and Buddhism came to the fore in 552, Taoists continued to strive for influence at court but increasingly also sought alternative outlets for their activities. By the late 470s, Louguan had grown into a considerable center, with about forty Taoists in residence, led by Yin Tong and his disciple Niu Wenhou. At this time, the Taoist Wang Daoyi moved there in the awareness that “in the Zhongnan mountains were the place where Yin Xi had attained perfection” (@I{Sandong qunxian lu} 3.2a). Apparently he also brought some serious financial backing along, since with his arrival a new phase in the development of Louguan commenced. Not only were its architectuaal endowments repaired and greatly expanded, but a major collection of Taoist scriptures and ritual manuals was undertaken, including not only northern but also southern materials of the Shangqing and Lingbao schools (Qing 1988, 435; Ren 1990, 222; Zhang 1991, 78).

The late fifth century thus saw the blossoming of Kou Qianzhi’s form of Celestial Masters Taoism in north China, and especially at the Louguan center. With Yin Xi as major patriarch and Yin Gui as senior immortal, the Louguan lineage proceeded to define itself and created its own brand of the Taoist teaching, incorparating both northern and southern traditions into a coherent whole. Louguan thus came to play an essential part in the history of medieval Taoism as one of the major locations where the various Taoist traditions were pulled together and merged to form a fully developed and highly integrated organized religion (Qing 1988, 441; Zhang 1991, 80)–the other main place being Jiankang (modern Nanjing), the southern capital, where Lu Xiujing (406-477) developed his model of the Three Caverns and submitted the first complete catalog of Taoist scriptures to the throne in 471 (see Bell 1987).

The teaching of Louguan Taoism followed the northern Celestial Masters. It centered specifically on Laozi and saw the @I{Daode jing} as the main vehicle to salvation. Many early legendary masters are accordingly described as having attained immortality through recitation of the text (Zhang 1991, 87-88). In addition, Louguan Taoism focused on Yin Xi as the first patriarch and main link to the deity, giving him the formal title Wenshi xiansheng (Master at the Beginning of the Scripture) and placing him at the center of Louguan doctrine.

Two texts, dated to the late fifth or early sixth century, document this tendency: the @I{Laojun jiejing} (Precepts of the Venerable Lord, DZ 784, incomplete); and the @I{Xisheng jing} (Scripture of Western Ascension, DZ 726). Both are set at the occasion of Laozi’s transmission of the @I{Daode jing} and thus located to Louguan. Both contain a dialogue between Yin Xi and Laozi and relate the deity’s detailed oral instructions to his first disciple, while at the same time setting down the rules and main doctrines of the Louguan teaching.FOOT[The present author has translated and studied both texts elsewhere. See Kohn 1991 and 1994.

 

The two texts are linked not only through the similarity of their setting and the central role of Yin Xi. In addition, on three occasions the commentary to the @I{Laojun jiejing} cites the @I{Xisheng jing} in clarification. Once it uses a passage that emphasizes obedience to the precepts, which the @I{Xisheng jing} insists must be strictly observed as long as one has not grasped the subtlety of the scriptures (3a). Next, it uses the @I{Xisheng jing} to explain the interaction of the five phases (12b), and finally it cites it in the context of @I{Daode jing} recitations (23b).]

 

 

@I{The Five Precepts}

 

The @I{Laojun jiejing} deals primarily with practical matters, such as precepts and proper Taoist behavior, and provides a Taoist rationale for the practice of the five precepts (no killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, and intoxication), originally introduced from Buddhism. It imitates Kou Qianzhi’s “New Code” and is also based on the popular Buddhist @I{Tiwei boli jing} (S@o<@+’-’u>tra of [the Lay Followers] Trapusa and Ballika), written around 450 by the monk Tanjing (Lai 1987, 13).

In contents, the @I{Laojun jiejing} can be divided into eight sections, beginning with a description of Laozi’s emigration to the west and the transmission of the @I{Daode jing} to Yin Xi. In the second section, Laozi agrees to impart further details about the precepts and composes a song of praise in three stanzas. The remaining six sections each begin with a question of Yin Xi, standing representative for potential lay believers, just as Laozi in the scripture stands for the imposing Taoist master.

First, what are the exact words of the precepts? Laozi answers this with a short and precise list with introductory explanation. For example:

@Quotation[The Venerable Lord said:

The first precept is not to kill. The precept not to kill means that you must not kill any living being or anything that contains vital energy, be it even flying or wriggling.

 

The second precept is not to steal. The precept not to steal means that you must not take anything that does not belong to you, be it owned by someone or without obvious owner, even as little as one single copper coin. (6b-7a; Kohn 1994, 201)]

Second, why are there five? The number, originally taken over from Buddhism, is here explained with a short description of the cosmological connection of the precepts. The rules provide a framework for good human behavior, just as the five planets establish a pattern for heaven, the five phases structure what goes on on earth, and the five inner organs give organization to the human body.

Third, how can one ever lose them? This question is done away with very briefly. One must take the precepts firmly and hold on to them. If one breaks one or the other, one must take them again, with more determination.

Fourth, what is their deepest root? As this questions leads to the core of the text, it explains the cosmological correspondences in some detail, not only pointing out the parallel structure of heaven, earth, humanity, and ethical behavior but also linking each precept with a direction and with an organ in the human body. For example,

@Quotation[The Venerable Lord said: The precept against unchastity belongs to the west. It embodies the material power of Lesser Yin and preserves the purity and strength of men and women. People who delight in unchastity will receive corresponding foulness in their lungs. (14b; Kohn 1994, 204)]

In addition, Laozi also explains the karmic consequences of upholding or violating the precepts. People who lie and cheat during this life will not be believed by others in their next life; those who are always honest in their dealings, on the contrary, will be looked up to and honored in the community.

Fifth, how does one receive the precepts? Here Laozi gives a short description of Taoist ordination rites, not unlike the comparable account in the preface of the “180 Precepts” but patterned more clearly on their Buddhist counterpart and similarly found in the @I{Tiwei boli jing}.

Sixth and last, what violations are there in worshiping the scriptures? The answer to this question, cut short due to the incomplete nature of the text, defines the violations as the involvement with the five senses and the six passions, mixing @I{Daode jing} doctrine and Buddhism. In addition, it specifies them as the “ten and three”–six passions and six defilements plus the mind–based again on the @I{Daode jing}. Laozi describes various possible karmic sufferings and blissful states, repeatedly emphasizing that nothing is ever lost and that only the precepts can provide a wholesome existence and future happiness. The text as a whole is practical and popular, addressing lay followers as its purported audience. It spells out the benefits and advantages of following the Tao in great detail, not hesitating to threaten with hell and bad rebirths for non-believers. It ends inconclusive, as it is not extant in its entirety.

 

 

@I{Laozi’s Western Ascension}

 

The @I{Xisheng jing} (DZ 726), too, begins with the emigration and transmission scene. As a whole, however, it is abstract and esoteric, presenting Laozi’s oral explanations of Taoist philosophical intricacies and addressing specialized practitioners of the Tao rather than a lay community. It consists of thirty-nine sections, which can be divided into five cycles of progressive Taoist teaching.

The first cycle (secs. 1-7) deals with the possibility of knowing the Tao:

@Quotation[Laozi said: Who knows does not speak; who speaks does not know. Language is formed when sounds are exchanged. Thus in conversation words make sense, but [in regard to the Tao] when one does not know it, words only create confusion. (1.3b-4a; Kohn 1991, 235)]

It explains the relation of human beings to the world, of sense experience to knowledge, of body to mind, and of true teachings to false.

The second cycle (8-14) focuses on the practice of the Tao. Although the Tao as such cannot be known, people can develop a working hypothesis about it, which, once laid down in scriptures and precepts, can be verified through practical application, i.e., in meditation that results in tranquility and freedom from desires.

The third cycle (15-22) intensifies the discussion of theory and practice, focusing on the cosmic nature of human beings and explaining their position in the larger universe.

@Quotation[Laozi said: The Tao is an empty and latent being; latent it is yet real, empty it is yet full. Heaven received the one energy, turned luminous and became utterly pure. Then the energy descended and transformed to bring forth the myriad beings in all their different shapes. (4.9b; Kohn 1991, 247)]

The fourth cycle (23-31), next, discusses the sage as the one who has fully realized the Tao in the world and acts among human beings from a position of the Tao, as teacher, helper, and ruler. The fifth cycle, in turn (32-38), concentrates on returning, both in terms of the human return to the Tao through death and in terms of the return of everything where it ultimately belongs in perfect accordance with its nature. Similarly Laozi gets ready to return to heaven, having given Yin Xi the way of perfection and final return. The last section (39), recovers the narrative of the beginning, describing Laozi’s ascension and Yin Xi’s last bid for some pertinent advice

@Quotation[Yin Xi went out into the courtyard, bowed down and said: “Please, dear spirit man, let me see you once again. Give me one more rule so that I can guard the primordial source of it all.” Then he looked up and saw Laozi’s body sitting suspended in mid-air several meters above the ground. He looked like a statue. The image appeared and disappeared, vague and indistinct. His age did not seem to stay the same.

 

Laozi said: “I will give you one more admonition, make sure you get it right: Get rid of all impurity and stop your thoughts, calm your mind and guard the One! When all impurities are gone, the myriad affairs are done. These are the essentials of my Tao.” (6.16b-17a; Kohn 1991, 255-56).]

As a whole, the @I{Xisheng jing} is a scripture of theoretical teachings that focuses on the mystical ascent to the Tao; its language is often polysemic, its contents obscure, encouraging readers and practitioners to overcome the limitations of their ordinary minds and opening themselves fully to the Tao.

 

 

@I{The Tao at Louguan}

 

Taken together, the @I{Laojun jiejing} and the @I{Xisheng jing} present a picture of an already integrated Taoist practice that uses traditional Celestial Masters teachings in conjunction with popular Buddhism and the veneration and recitation of the @I{Daode jing} to afford both a specialized, mystical ascension to union with the Tao and a popular, practical ordering of human life in accordance with the precepts.

Yin Xi, as the first disciple of Laozi, represents the essential aspects of early Louguan Taoism. A belief in the karmic retribution from life to life is linked closely with the practice of the five precepts, which alone will guarantee a proper life now and good rewards in the future. “Male and female followers of pure faith who uphold and obey the precepts will find the world a happy place and never know sorrow nor distress,” the @I{Laojun jiejing} says (19a). Gradually ascending through the ranks of the Taoist ordination hierarchy,FOOT[The exact ordination procedures and rituals of Louguan have also survived in a separate text, the @I{Chuanshou jingjie yi zhujue} (Commentated Explanation of the Transmission Formalities of Scriptures and Precepts, DZ 1238), which is cited in the @I{Sandong zhunang}, thus dating to before the Tang, and focuses on Laozi as the central deity. See Ren and Zhong 1991, 979.] disciples can receive further and more detailed precepts until their lives merge completely with the Tao.

In addition, they practice the recitation of the @I{Daode jing} (ideally, 10,000 times) and the worship of Laozi as the highest deity, to eventually overcome the limitations of earthly existence and ascend to the ranks of the immortals. To do so, they must understand the cosmological framework of the universe as it functions through energy and the five phases; although originally part of both nature and the human body, it is spoilt by people’s passions and desires. “Scattered yang becomes light; spread-out energy forms the six roots of the senses. From this, life and death arise: because the Tao is scattered and divided. Thus people leave the root and rush after the branches,” the @I{Xisheng jing} explains (sect. 5; Kohn 1991, 93). To reverse this unfortunate development, more advanced practitioners of Louguan Taoism pursue immortality through the purification of their bodies and minds, using various longevity techniques and meditational methods in the process: dietetics and energy control, talismans and visualizations, ecstatic roamings and alchemy (Zhang 1991, 99).

Yin Xi, the primary follower of Laozi and first master of Louguan, holds this complex network of practices and doctrines together. As ideal Louguan master, he provides the model for Taoist cultivation among northern Taoists in the late fifth century. Far from being a mere philosopher, immortal, or disciple of Laozi, Yin Xi here is the ideal, the teacher, the first leader of the group. Through the Yin family connection placed at the Louguan center, he has become a patriarch of the Tao, the focal point for a unique new form of Taoism–one that inherits Kou Qianzhi’s Celestial Masters teaching, integrates Buddhism, actively pursues various southern Taoist techniques, and establishes a model for Taoist ordination and organization that greatly contributed to the integration of the Taoist teaching in the following decades.

In the sixth century, Louguan continued to flourish as a major center of Taoist activity in North China. Located in the Zhongnan mountains, it represented one of three major Taoist mountains at the time, the others being Mount Song, where Kou Qianzhi had his revelation, and Mount Hua, the sacred mountain of the west, where especially the Yuntai guan (Cloud Terrace Monastery) was the seat of renowned recluses.FOOT[Among Louguan masters, especially Chen Baozhi and Wei Jie were residents of Mount Hua (Zhang 1991, 81).]

The importance of Louguan and other Taoist centers in North China lay particularly in their support of the Toba rulers, who continued to search for an orthodoxy that would not only hold their subjects together in a joint vision but also provide the foundation for a future reunification of China. To find such an integrative orthodoxy, the northern rulers staged various formal court debates, in which all three teachings, but in fact mainly Buddhism and Taoism, presented their teachings as the most valid and best suited to the rulers’ purpose (see Kohn 1995).

 

 

@I{Religious Politics}

 

A first round of such debates took place at the Toba-Wei court in 520 C.E. and was primarily carried by the Taoist Jiang Bin and the Buddhist Tanmozui. They argued the relative seniority of their teachings by dating the conversion of the barbarians. To go west and become the Buddha, so argued the Taoists, Laozi must have left China earlier than the recorded birth of the Buddha in India. For this reason they claimed that Laozi was born in 605 B.C.E. and converted the barbarians in 519. Buddhism was thus established as Laozi’s second-hand teaching, developed to control the barbarians. Its presence in China could do nothing but harm.

The Buddhists countered this allegation by dating the birth of the Buddha back to 1029 B.C.E., a date reached with the help of the @I{Mu tianzi zhuan} (Biography of King Mu of Zhou, DZ 291), which recorded unusual celestial phenomena for this time. This was in turn bettered by the Taoists in the @I{Kaitian jing} (Scripture of Opening the Cosmos; lost, not identical with DZ 1437), describing Laozi’s creation of the universe and establishment of the various religions well before the birth of the Buddha. Showing that this scripture was a forgery and not a revealed text, the Buddhists emerged victorious in this phase of the debate and gained influence at court.

A second major set of debates took place under Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou in 570. Following the footsteps of his father, Yuwen Tai, who had seen himself as the unifier of China and propagator of a vision along the lines of the @I{Zhouli} (Rites of the Zhou), Emperor Wu was looking for a teaching that would be contemporary and intrinsically Chinese yet worked well with the ancient Confucian ideal. While first intrigued by Buddhism, he was formally initiated as a Taoist in 567 and from that time onward tended to favor the Taoist course. During the debates, too, he disregarded the @I{Erjiao lun} (On the Two Teachings; T. 2103, 52.136b-143c), which favored Buddhism and regarded Taoism as a lesser form of Confucianism, and had Zhen Luan’s @I{Xiaodao lun} (Laughing at the Tao; T. 2103, 52.143c-52c) burned right in the palace after realizing that in contained a destructive criticism of his cherished vision.

Still persisting in his course, he then set up the Tongdao guan (Monastery of Penetrating to the Tao) as an institute for the study of Taoism as a unifying orthodoxy, persecuted both organized Buddhism and Taoism to diminish their independence, and sponsored the compilation of various catalogs of Taoist scriptures as well as of the @I{Wushang biyao} (Esoteric Essential of the Most High, DZ 1138), the first Taoist encyclopedia and an integrated vision of the world according to the Tao (Lagerwey 1981, 8-13).FOOT[For a detailed study of these events and a translation of the @I{Xiaodao lun}, see Kohn 1995.] Defeated by the Sui, who preferred Buddhism as their unifying teaching, Emperor Wu and his vision came to naught. Nevertheless, his efforts at creating an orthodoxy under Taoist auspices not only inspired the later Tang rulers in the same direction but had also a lasting effect on the development and doctrines of the religion.

Louguan Taoists, throughout the sixth century, played an active role in this overall political situation. Wei Jie (496-569), resident of Mount Hua and first commentator to the @I{Xisheng jing} (Kohn 1991, 168), not only participated in various minor debates but also served as the Taoist master who initiated Emperor Wu in 567 (Lagerwey 1981, 19). Wang Yan (519-604) was the leading scholar in the compilation of a major catalog of Taoist scriptures, put together under imperial sponsorship in 572-578 and called @I{Sandong zhunang} (A Bag of Pearls from the Three Caverns) or @I{Zhunang jingmu} (Catalog of the Bag of Pearls; Kohn 1995, 219). It consisted of seven scrolls but is lost today; it should not be confused with the encyclopedia @I{Sandong zhunang} by Wang Xuanhe of the seventh century (DZ 1139). Yan Da (514-609), moreover, was a senior Taoist at the Tongdao guan and staunch supporter of Emperor Wu’s policies and Taoist visions (Lagerwey 1981, 13).

 

 

@I{Yin Xi’s Hagiography}

 

Yin Xi as the leading ancestral patriarch of Louguan became increasingly prominent in this political context. He not only stood at the apex of Louguan teaching in his role as first transmitter of the @I{Daode jing} and Laozi’s oral teachings but himself became a symbol for the power and integration of the Tao. His essential or inner biography,FOOT[The attribute “inner” in a title, as David Keegan has shown, is a bibliographic term that is contrasted with “outer” and, on occasion, with “miscellaneous.” It indicates a selection made by the author of valuable as opposed to extraneous materials (1987, 12). It is best rendered as “essential” versus “marginal.”] the @I{Wenshi neizhuan}, was compiled at this time and served, as Fukui has shown (1962), as a successor to the ill-fated @I{Kaitian jing}, destroyed after the debate of 520. The text is the first to link Louguan and Yin Xi with the time of King Kang, the Zhou ruler preceding King Zhao, under whose rule Laozi allegedly emigrated. It also shifted the focus of the conversion of the barbarians from Laozi to Yin Xi, establishing the Buddha as an independent figure and Laozi’s partner and thus paving the way for the depiction of Laozi and Yin Xi, or maybe Laozi and the Buddha, in statues showing two venerables seated side by side on a lion-flanked throne (Seidel 1984, 329). The @I{Wenshi neizhuan} version also created, in an extended narrative of the sages’ meeting, a new mythological model for Taoist ordination.

As an essential biography, the @I{Wenshi neizhuan} belongs to a genre of biography that, as Mugitani has argued (1982), emerged as a new type of religious literature in the fifth century. These biographies served to give adepts the proper guidance in their pursuit of the Tao, such as, for example, the @I{Huangdi neizhuan} (Essential Biography of the Yellow Emperor, lost) and the @I{Ziyang zhenren neizhuan} (Essential Biography of Ziyang the Perfected, DZ 303) on the Shangqing practitioner Zhou Ziyang (see Porkert 1979).

Technical texts on meditation and physical practices, such as the @I{Huangting jing} (Yellow Court Scripture) or the @I{Dantian jing} (Cinnabar Field Scripture), were then appended to the great hagiographies. Essential biographies linked the lives of the saints with the original cosmology of the Tao, just as the adept’s daily life of aspiration was filled with the ritual and meditation of the Tao (Mugitani 1982, 32). Thus, the @I{Wenshi neizhuan} was not only a major scripture supporting the Taoist position in the debates but also served as the leading exposition of the religious ideal of Louguan Taoism.

The text has survived only in fragments and is cited under a number of different titles:FOOT[A more detailed discussion of the textual history and narrative of the @I{Wenshi neizhuan}, together with a complete translation of all extant fragments, is forthcoming in Kohn 1997.] besides @I{Wenshi neizhuan} or @I{Wenshi zhuan}, it also appears as @I{Guanling [Yin Xi] neizhuan} (Essential Biography of [Yin Xi] the Guardian of the Pass), or as @I{[Wushang] zhenren Yin [Xi] neizhuan} (Biography of the [Highest] Perfected Yin [Xi]; see Yamada 1982, 222; ôfuchi and Ishii 1988). Its earliest citations are contained in anti-Taoist polemics, beginning with the @I{Xiaodao lun} of 570 and continuing with the @I{Bianzheng lun} (In Defense of What Is Right; T. 2110, 52.489c-550c) by the monk Shi Falin of the year 626.FOOT[The @I{Bianzheng lun} cites the @I{Wenshi zhuan} with the following passage:

@Quotation<Laozi said: “My teacher is called Buddha; he has enlightened all the people. Taking food and reciting scriptures, this way is the highest Tao of upright perfection; it is the way of the Buddha.

 

“The title ‘Buddha’ means World-Honored One. It expresses the fact that his body and spirit both wander freely and that he has received the utmost perfection the highest sages in all ten directions, thereby attaining the Buddha’s way.” (52.524a)>

This, as is the case with several citations from the @I{Huahu jing} found in the @I{Xiaodao lun} and other polemical texts, is an Taoist adaptation of the so-called counter-@I{huahu} scripture, a text created by Buddhists to counteract the conversion theory (see Kohn 1995, 144).]

In the seventh century, the text is cited by Cheng Xuanying, the noted Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) philosopher, in the introduction to his @I{Daode jing} commentary, the @I{Daode jing kaiti xujue yishu} (Supplementary Commentary and Topical Introduction to the Scripture of the Tao and Its Virtue), a Dunhuang manuscript (P. 2353; Ofuchi 1979, 461-66) that was translated and analyzed by Isabelle Robinet (1977). It then appears, in its longest and most extensive citation, in Wang Xuanhe’s encyclopedia @I{Sandong zhunang} and in a short extract in his @I{Shangqing daolei shixiang} (Taoist Affairs of Highest Clarity, DZ 1132).

In literary sources of the same period, the text is cited in the @I{Yiwen leiju} (Classified Collection of Artistic Writings) of Ouyang Xun, compiled around 620, and in Xu Jian’s @I{Chuxue ji}, dated to about 700. The early Song collection @I{Taiping yulan} (Imperial Encyclopedia of the Taiping Era) completes the sources for this lost scripture.

 

 

@I{The Structure of the Text}

 

Comparing the various citations in all these sources, three distinct kinds of materials emerge. First, the longest citation in the @I{Sandong zhunang}, taken up in many other sources, details the events of Laozi’s meeting with Yin Xi and their ensuing conversion of the barbarians–the core of the text. In addition, there are two areas of citations, found from the @I{Xiaodao lun} to the @I{Taiping yulan}, that seem at first glance extraneous: one deals with Taoist cosmology and the events at the end of a kalpa; the other describes the ecstatic excursions undertaken by the two sages after their meeting and before their journey to the west.

This multiplicity of materials, together with the fact that the text is cited under various different titles, has led Yamada to conclude that there were three different texts originally: the @I{Wenshi neizhuan}, describing the highlights Yin Xi’s career; the @I{Guanling neizhuan}, with the cosmology of the Tao as a major concern; and the @I{Wushang zhenren zhuan}, focusing on celestial excursions (1982, 232). His contestation is supported particularly by a statement from the @I{Zhenzheng lun} (To Examine What Is Right) by Xuan Yi of the early Tang:

@Quotation[The @I{Yin Xi zhuan} (Biography of Yin Xi), the @I{Laozi chuse ji} (Record of Laozi Leaving the Pass), and the @I{Wenshi neizhuan} were all fabricated by recent Taoists because they saw how Buddhism flourished over and above their own superficial and vulgar teaching. (T. 2112, 52.565a)]

Yamada moreover finds a similar division in two major versions or lineages of the @I{Huahu jing}–one centering on the conversion of the barbarians proper, the other focusing on the meeting of Laozi and Yin Xi. The three texts on Yin Xi, created in the sixth century, were then, according to Yamada, fused into one by Wang Xuanhe in his @I{Sandong zhunang}. Thus the long title he gives for the text: @I{Wenshi xiansheng wushang zhenren guanling neizhuan} (Essential Biography of Master Wenshi, the Highest Perfected and Guardian of the Pass, 9.8b; Yamada 1982, 222).

The main objection to this argument is the number and variety of citations of the @I{Wenshi neizhuan} in the @I{Xiaodao lun}, which consistently refers to the text as the @I{Wenshi zhuan}.FOOT[It also cites a work entitled @I{Yuanshi zhuan}, which is commonly considered a copyist’s variant for @I{Wenshi zhuan}. However, the content of this text is rather different–the @I{Xiaodao lun} cites it on the location of heaven and hell (sect. 3) and on the sins that merit punishment in hell (sect. 4)–and it may in fact have been a separate work. Its citations have been disregarded here.] Zhen Luan uses a large number of Taoist sources, and while he usually cites them in an abbreviated manner and on occasion twists them around to suit his polemical purposes, his attributions are overwhelmingly accurate (Kohn 1995, 42). He cites the @I{Wenshi zhuan} twelve times, including passages from all three different areas of contents. Had one or the other been available in a source of a different title, we may be sure he would have cited it appropriately.

This alone strongly suggests that the @I{Wenshi neizhuan} included all three kinds of materials even in the sixth century. This conclusion is further supported by the many identical citations after both the @I{Wenshi neizhuan} and the @I{Guanling neizhuan} found in later sources. The sages’ ecstatic excursions to the heavens and the far-off corners of the world were included as the crowning part of the sages’ meeting, showing the full celestial stature of Yin Xi and emphasizing his newly-found immortality. Cosmological statements, on the other hand, appeared as oral explanations given by Laozi on the nature of the Taoist universe. This conforms closely with the pattern established in the early Louguan texts, the @I{Xisheng jing} and the @I{Laojun jiejing}, and continues throughout later Yin Xi hagiographies. However, in later texts such as the @I{Hunyuan shengji}, Laozi’s explanations largely concern the individual’s inner nature and fate as well as the various physical and meditational techniques used to attain the Tao. This reflects the primary concerns of Tang and Song Taoists, who were more intent on inner cultivation and less concerned with cosmology than their Six Dynasties’ forebears.

The @I{Wenshi neizhuan} was therefore a sixth-century compilation consisting of the following parts:

1. Yin Xi’s supernatural birth and youth;

2. his meeting with Laozi;

3. Yin Xi’s acceptance as a disciple of the Tao;

4. Laozi’s instructions;

5. the ecstatic excursions of the two sages;

6. the conversion of the barbarians.

The first part contains standard hagiographic information, including supernatural signs at Yin Xi’s conception and birth, his unusual intelligence as a boy, his early interest and increased yearning for the Tao. The central four parts, corresponding to the four main phases of the Taoist career, deal with the structure and workings of Taoist ordination. They are:

1. Laozi meets Yin Xi on the pass and administers several tests before he agrees to teach him. This represents the ordinand’s first encounter with the Tao and its organization and shows the need to prove his inherent ability, determination, and loyalty.

2. Laozi’s retainer, a man by the name of Xu Jia, complains of ill treatment and is put in his place with the help of Yin Xi. This story impressively confronts the uneducated servant Xu Jia with the literate official Yin Xi. In terms of ordination, it symbolizes alternative choices of different levels within Taoist priesthood and ritual: the vernacular versus the classical. Any ordinand has to make his choice and undergo training accordingly.

3. Laozi transmits the @I{Daode jing} to Yin Xi and gives him oral explanations and formal precepts. This represents the classical pattern of Taoist ordination, where the new Taoist receives the three mainstays of the religion: scriptures, methods, and precepts (@I{jing, fa, jie}). The transmission of the @I{Daode jing} with its basic precepts at the same time represents an initial stage of ordination. It stands at the beginning of the Taoist hierarchy and symbolizes the ordinand’s first formal foothold in the Tao.

4. Laozi gives Yin Xi three years to perfect his Tao and agrees to meet him again in a black sheep shop in Chengdu (Sichuan). After the reunion Laozi examines his student and finds him successful. Together they set out for an ecstatic excursion to the heavens, followed by their journey to the west. This episode shows the continued training of the aspiring Taoist over several years and his attainment of the higher ordination stages. The far-off journey in the story corresponds to the ecstatic travels to the stars undertaken especially by ordinands of Highest Clarity, the highest of all Taoist ranks. Having realized the Tao, a practitioner on this level travels freely to and from the otherworld and serves as a divine officer in the heavenly hierarchy.

The sixth and last section, finally, represents the classical conversion story with Yin Xi fully on an equal footing with Laozi. Side by side the two divine figures offer a banquet to the barbarian king and his subjects to demonstrate the power of the Tao; side by side they undergo ordeals by fire and water when the king denounces them as demons; side by side they punish the barbarians for their disbelief and civilize them with the help of Buddhist precepts. They only part when Laozi leaves to convert further countries before he returns to heaven, while Yin Xi remains as the barbarian’s teacher and is then known as the Buddha.FOOT[This represents the basic conversion story as it appears in the @I{Wenshi neizhuan} and the @I{Huahu jing} (@I{Sandong zhunang} 9). In different variants it is also told in later Laozi hagiographies, such as the @I{Youlong zhuan} and the @I{Hunyuan shengji}. A mythological analysis, undertaken in @I{Creation, Miracles, and Hero’s Quest: Laozi in Taoist Myth}, forthcoming from State University of New York Press, reveals the underlying pattern of the story as the hero’s winning of his kingdom.]

PART 3: LATER DEVELOPMENTS (TANG-YUAN)

 

With the @I{Wenshi neizhuan}, the hagiography of Yin Xi reached its culmination point and since then has remained basically the same. Two further hagiographic extensions occurred, however, both carried by renowned Taoists with the family name Yin.

First, in the early Tang dynasty, Louguan attained its heyday when Emperor Gaozu made an imperial visit there and had its name changed to Zongsheng guan (Monastery of the Ancestral Sage; Qing 1988, 436). Its abbot Yin Wencao not only wrote the standard hagiography of Laozi at the time, but also stylized Yin Xi as the god’s relative through his mother and located his family firmly to Tianshui, where Wencao himself came from. The focus of the Laozi hagiography, which remains in citations, moreover shifts significantly to describe the meeting on the Pass in unheard-of detail, lauding Yin Xi’s attainments and breadth of Taoist vision.

With Yin Zhiping of the late Southern Song, the final chapter of Yin Xi’s career and Louguan’s development is rung in. The leading Taoist of his time and sixth patriarch of the Quanzhen school, he not only rebuilt Louguan after its destruction in the civil wars but made sure that it revived as a major center of the Tao and carrier of the “Yinxi pai” or “Louguan pai” within Quanzhen Taoism. In addition, he reissued the philosophical work associated with Yin Xi, the @I{Guanyinzi}, under the title @I{Wenshi zhenjing}, and spread its–and thereby Yin Xi’s–fame through the ranks of leading Taoists and philosphers.

Yin Xi, originally a philosopher of the Warring States period, through the efforts of Yin Zhiping became again known as a thinker; Louguan, by then a lesser Taoist monastery, once again was turned into a leading center of the Tao. Yin Zhiping redirected the elite’s attention back to Yin Xi and Louguan and was thus indirectly responsible for the compilation of the various Yuan-dynasty texts and inscriptions that describe the tradition and localities. His efforts ensured Yin Xi’s renown as a senior Taoist sage not just in his time but to the present day.

Yin Wencao (622-688), also known as Jingxian, was the leading Louguan Taoist of the early Tang and a great champion of Yin Xi. His life is documented in a short description in the @I{Zhongnan beiji} (16b-17a) and, more importantly, in the @I{Da Tang Yin zunshi bei} (Inscription for the Venerable Master Yin of the Great Tang Dynasty), a tomb memorial by Yuan Banqian, dated to 717 and contained in the @I{Gu Louguan ziyun yanqing jing} (1.4b-9b).FOOT[A slightly different version of the inscription is also found in Chen et al. 1988, 102-4. A note here describes the physical stele as still extant in Louguan, 1.11 m high and 0.5 m wide, containing 26 lines of 70 characters each.] According to these sources, Yin Wencao’s life can be divided into three major phases: origins and youth (622-636); Taoist practice (636-656); and court service (656-688).

A son of the Yin family of Tianshui in modern Gansu, whose noble traces go back well into the Zhou dynasty, Yin Wencao was born under supernatural auspices. His mother, Lady Yuan, once dreamt that Laozi’s mother, the Jade Maiden of Mystery and Wonder (Xuanmiao yunü), gave her a talisman of the Nine Elders, whose text she memorized and recited. Soon she began to hear a similar scriptural recitation coming from the babe in her womb and found herself enveloped in a wondrous divine radiance (@I{Gu Louguan ziyun yanqing jing} 1.5a).

After his birth, Yin Wencao could read spontaneously and never tired of reciting the @I{Daode jing} and the @I{Xiaojing} (Classic of Filial Piety), which texts he described as the essence of the universe. Later he acquired magical powers, was able to see invisible writing and walk through water and fire without being harmed. From an early age, he was a great enthusiast for the Yin family and its noble forebears, studied the @I{Xisheng jing} and the Lingbao scriptures, and gradually moved closer to his Taoist career (1.5b).

His goals clarified when he met Zhou Fa, an accomplished Taoist, who became his teacher. He was the first to introduce Yin to the arts of ecstatically flying through the universe and gave him his initial lessons in immortality techniques. With his help, even at the tender age of fifteen, Yin Wencao was ready to join the illustrious ranks of Chisongzi and Wang Ziqiao (1.6a).

The second major phase of Yin’s life began with his formal renunciation of the householder’s status when he joined the monastic community at Louguan in 636. Training seriously in the more advanced types of meditation and visualization, he soon became an accomplished master of the Tao, wandering spiritually about the five sacred mountains, through the nine heavens, and above the seven stars of the Dipper (1.6b). To develop to greatest heights, he even became a recluse in the depth of the Zhongnan mountains, where he continued his esoteric education to great accomplishments. In 649, a spiritual voice told him that his old teacher had ascended and he went into three years of mourning. After that, he went to Mount Taibai, where he had a major mystical experience–”seeing what he had never seen before, hearing what he had never heard before” (1.6b). At this time, he also had his first vision of the god Laozi, descending to him as a huge nine-colored statue through a thick layer of clouds and accompanied by the reverberation of heavenly drums.

In 656, the third and last phase of his life began. Yin Wencao left his seclusion and moved on to the capital, to spend over thirty years going back and forth and giving his service to the empire. Several times, he helped the emperor by giving interpretations to unusual heavenly phenomena, such as the comet in 668 (1.7a) and the extraordinary vision of 683 (1.8a).

Emperor Gaozong valued his counsel and rewarded him with ranks and honors. In 668, after the comet, he had the defunct residence of the Prince of Jin restored and given over to Yin as the Haotian guan (Monastery of Imperial Heaven). In 677, he made Yin abbot of the Zongsheng guan at Louguan, a piece of information only mentioned in the @I{Zhongnan beiji} (16b), not in the inscription. In 679, the emperor ordered Yin to celebrate Taoist rites in Luoyang, during which the deity Laozi descended in front of the assembled court, surrounded by celestial officers and riding on a white horse. The emperor was so taken with this impressive sign of celestial goodwill that he asked Yin to write a formal account of the deity’s exploits: the @I{Xuanyuan huangdi shengji} (Sage Record of the Emperor of Mystery Prime), a text in ten scrolls and 110 sections, each of which contained an encomium (1.7b). In addition, the emperor bestowed on him the formal title Yinqing guanglu dafu (Great Officer of Silver-Green Radiance) and offered him the position of chamberlain of ceremonies. Yin, however, refused the latter, preferring his Taoist career to active state involvement (1.8a).

In 688, Yin Wencao announced his impending transformation and ascended to the empyrean on the fourteenth day of the fourth month. Besides his Laozi hagiography, he also wrote a supplementary scroll to the @I{Louguan xianshi zhuan}, two treatises, the @I{Xiaomo lun} (On Dissolving Evil) in thirty scrolls and the @I{Quhuo lun} (On Dispersing Doubts) in four scrolls (1.8b), and is known for his catalog of Taoist scriptures, the @I{Yuwei zangjing} (Collected Scriptures of the Jade Net; Yoshioka 1959, 261).

 

 

@I{The Laozi Hagiography}

 

None of these works remain intact. The two treatises and the catalog are lost, the last scroll of the Louguan hagiographies is problematic at best, and the Laozi hagiography has survived only in fragments. It is probably identical with a text cited as @I{Benji} (Original Record) under the Tang and @I{Tangji} (Tang Record) under the Song, and as such most prominently mentioned in Le Penggui’s @I{Xichuan qingyang gong beiming} (Inscription at the Black Sheep Temple of Sichuan, DZ 964) of the year 884 and in Xie Shouhao’s @I{Hunyuan shengji} (Sage Record of Chaos Prime, DZ 770) of the year 1191 (Kusuyama 1979, 428-29). According to both texts, the basic narrative of Yin Wencao’s hagiography was an account of Laozi as teacher of emperors from the Heavenly Sovereign at the beginning of time down to the Tang dynasty. In each case called “Our Highest Sagely Ancestor” or, more briefly, “Our Highest Lord,”FOOT[Each paragraph of the narrative is so introduced. See @I{Qingyang beiming} 4b-10a and @I{Hunyuan shengji}, 1.2b-14b, commentary sections.] Laozi is said to have descended at regular intervals to transmit sacred scriptures and set the cultural evolution of the world on its proper course.

A separate section of Yin Wencao’s hagiography, cited by Xie Shouhao as the words of “Yin Wencao, abbot of the Haotian guan under the Tang,” seems to have been a more theoretical and even philosophical discussion of Laozi’s nature, giving a scholastic interpretation of his name and analyzing his qualities as a great sage (@I{Hunyuan shengji} 1.20b, 32b). A yet different part of the hagiography, which focuses in great detail on the meeting of Laozi and Yin Xi, has survived in the Taoist canon under the title @I{Hunyuan zhenlu} (Perfect Account of Chaos Prime, DZ 954) and was identified by Kusuyama as a Song-dynasty reedition of Yin’s work (1979, 403).

This text focuses exclusively, and in most explicit detail, on the meeting of Laozi and Yin Xi and the latter’s instruction in the secrets of the Tao. It begins with an introduction on Yin Xi’s supernatural stature and Laozi’s celestial nature (1a-3a), then divides the events on the pass into eleven distinct sections:

@tabset(.4 in)

@Quotation[1.  Laozi leaves the Zhou (3a-4a);

2.  Laozi arrives on the pass and is received by Yin Xi (4a-7a);

3.  Laozi transmits talismans and alchemical recipes (7a-9a);

4.  Laozi transmits the method of nourishing on energy (9a-11a);

5.  Laozi transmits the @I{Daode jing} (11a-13b);

6.  Laozi transmits the @I{Laozi jiejie} (13b-15b);

7.  Laozi transmits the @I{Xisheng jing} (15b-19b);

8.  Laozi expresses his intention to convert the barbarians (19b-20b);

9.  Laozi agrees to meet Yin Xi in the black sheep shop (20b-23a);

10.  Laozi explains how to visualize the Three Ones (23a-25a);

11.  Laozi explains how to enter the chamber of silence (25a-27b). (Kusuyama 1977; 1979, 493)]

Each section of the text, following the established model of the Louguan scriptures, is presented in question-and-answer fashion, with Yin Xi requesting to be taught more detailed explanations of the teachings. The various methods and scriptures handed over play an immediate role in the Taoist ordination that centers on the @I{Daode jing} and bestows the rank of Highest Preceptor of Lofty Mystery.

In addition, the @I{Hunyuan zhenlu} also has Laozi teach Yin Xi the alchemical refinement of the immortality elixir and the physical refinement of body and energy. For the former, Laozi transmits a number of alchemical texts, together with extensive oral explanations, concrete recipes, and the necessary spells and talismans:

@I{Taiqing bafu jing} (Great Clarity Scripture of the Eight Talismans);

@I{Taiqing guantian jing} (Great Clarity Scripture of Observing Heaven);

@I{Jiudu jing} (Nine Capitals Scripture);

@I{Shendan jing} (Divine Cinnabar Scripture);

@I{Jinye jing} (Scripture of the Golden Fluid; 7a-8a)

After the outer alchemical preparation of the drug together with its ritual purification is described as a necessary prerequisite for further refinement of the body and spiritual meditations, Laozi proceeds to explain how the body is refined by practicing avoidance of grain, breath control, gymnastics, and the ingestion of the five sprouts. These various activities will get rid of the Three Worms, demon parasites that inhabit the body and push it toward death, and restore the primordial energy to renew and extend life (10a-11a).

Beyond that, focusing the mind on the various gods in the body maintains the spirit in its pristine purity. Most particularly, the three deities in the three major energy centers or cinnabar fields must be kept firmly in their place: the Red Child in the upper cinnabar field, the Niwan Palace in the head; the Perfected One in the middle cinnabar field, the Scarlet Palace in the heart; and the Infant in the lower cinnabar field, the Palace of Life in the abdomen (23ab; Kusuyama 1979, 415). This method is part of Highest Clarity practice, where it is known as “guarding the Three Ones” (see Kohn 1989; Andersen 1980).

The @I{Hunyuan zhenlu} concludes with instructions on how to prepare for recitation and meditation by entering the “chamber of silence.” This meditation hut was either a private place attached to a family’s residence or a public religious institution. It was used first under the Celestial Masters who adapted it from solitary hut of the Confucian hermit and the Han institution of the @I{qingshi}, the “Chamber of Begging for Forgivenness,” a place of punishment and repentence.

A chamber of silence had to be constructed along certain sacred specifications that would place it in perfect harmony with yin and yang. It contained only four things: an incense burner, an incense lamp, a prayer bench, and a writing knife. To enter the chamber a practitioner had to wash his hands, comb his hair, and put on a clean robe and cap. Holding the ritual tablet with both hands, he proceeded to the door, there to rinse his mouth three times with saliva. He entered with the right foot first, then stood immovable with both feet parallel. Closing the eyes, he visualized the gods of the directions descending to assist him in his efforts. Only then did he burn incense and begin the ritual of recitation proper (Yoshikawa 1987).

The @I{Hunyuan zhenlu} is fragmentary and ends with the concrete instructions on Taoist ritual worship. It gives an integrated and comprehensive description of the various practices undertaken by Taoists who center their activities on the @I{Daode jing} and focus on Laozi as their highest deity. While we cannot be sure that the text is in fact Yin Wencao’s work, he did write a Laozi hagiography and he was very concerned with promoting the Yin family and emphasizing Yin Xi’s status. In his work, more explicitly even than in the @I{Wenshi neizhuan}, the Louguan patriarch is the prime representative of Taoist practice, the ideal follower of Laozi and first formally ordained disciple.

 

 

@I{The Laozi Lineage}

 

In addition, Yin Wencao is also responsible for an extension of the Yin family to include a blood relationship with Laozi. He located Yin Xi’s place of origin to Tianshui, his own family residence, and linked him with Laozi through his mother. He developed this new genealogy of Laozi in response to a general concern with genealogy under the Tang, who believed Laozi their original ancestor, and proceeded to expand his lineage beyond the few sons and grandsons mentioned in the @I{Shiji}.

The earliest documents on this development are cited in Du Guangting’s @I{Daode zhenjing guangsheng yi} (Wide Sagely Meaning of the Perfect Scripture of the Tao and Its Virtue, DZ 725), dated to the year 901. He uses in particular a @I{Xuanzhong ji} (Record of the Mysterious Center), otherwise unknown, which describes the immortal attainments of Laozi’s father and grandfather and describes the link with the Yin family. The text has,

@Quotation[[Laozi’s father] Li Lingfei lived under the Shang. Both he and his father attained the Tao of cultivating life. His father Qingbin maintained a youthful appearance even after he was over a hundred years old. Together they wandered around the five sacred mountains, when one day a cloudy dragon descended to their lodging and took Qingbin up to heaven in broad daylight.

 

Lingfei was deeply moved by the marvel of his father’s ascension, so he withdrew into seclusion and did not serve [in office] but only cultivated the Tao. He married the daughter of the Yin family of Tianshui. Together they lived in Lai county.

 

Once Mrs. Li took an afternoon nap. She dreamt that the sky opened several ten feet wide and a host of immortals emerged toward her, holding up the sun. After a long time she saw the sun gradually shrink and come down to her from heaven. It transformed into a five-colored pearl the size of a pill. In her dream, she reached out for it and swallowed it. Later she found herself pregnant. (2.18b-19a; see also @I{Youlong zhuan} 3.7a)]

This makes Laozi the descendant of several generations of successful immortals, parallel to the understanding of Louguan as the continued seat of active Taoists in antiquity. In addition, in this account, Laozi’s mother is the daughter of the Yin family of Tianshui, linking Yin Xi to Laozi by marriage. A more celestial version of the same family connection is found in the @I{Xuanmiao yunü yuanjun neizhuan} (Essential Record of the Goddess Jade Maiden of Mystery and Wonder), the biography of Laozi’s mother, also cited by Du Guangting. Here we have,

@Quotation[Laozi was in the Ninth Clarity Heaven. He ordered the Jade Maiden of Mystery and Wonder to descend to earth. There she should become the daughter of the Yin family of Tianshui and then marry Li Lingfei. Once this was done, Laozi strode on the essence of the sun, rode nine dragons, and transformed himself into a five-colored floating pearl… (2.20b-21a; see also @I{Youlong zhuan} 3.7b)]

This version again links the Yin family of Tianshui with Laozi through his mother, making Laozi and Yin Xi first cousins instead of only master and disciple. It gives a more mythological twist to the events by having Laozi plan his own birth and actively choosing the Yin family as his affines.

Another variant of the same theme is found in the @I{Lishi dazong pu} (Record of the Great Lineage of the Li Family), again cited by Du Guangting. Here Laozi is a descendent of the Yellow Emperor through his mother, a member of the Pei family. Her pregnancy is caused by the ingestion of plums (@I{li}) and gives her much grief. Ready to abort the child, her hand is stayed by divine intervention. Miss Pei gives birth holding on to a plum branch, then explains her predicament to the child, who takes the family name Li after the plums his mother ate (2.19a-20a).

@Quotation[When he was born, he was already old, thus he was called Laozi [Old Child]. Later he compiled seventy-two scriptures to record the names of the spirits and demons of heaven and earth and give an account of the countless ways to immortality.

 

He married the daughter of the Yin family of Tianshui and had a son named Zhenli. This was in the time of King Ding [606-586 B.C.E.]. (2.20a)]

In this version, Laozi himself rather than his father marries Yin Xi’s daughter, creating yet another variant of the affine relation between the two sages. In either case their later descendants, the Tang emperors and Yin Wencao’s clan, are thereby established as originally of closely related stock. All the various accounts serve the double purpose of enhancing the supernatural stature of the deity and yet linking him by bloodties with the Yin family, thus making him accessible to people living centuries later. The stories provide a vital link between Laozi’s divinity and his active descendants on earth, mediating the supernatural power of the god and the political reality of actually living people. Yin Xi, in this new context of Laozi’s role as ancestor of the Tang rulers, becomes a collateral relation, raising his posterity to near-divine status.

Yin Zhiping (1169-1251), also known as Dahe and later as Qinghe zhenren (Perfected of Pure Harmony), came originally from Laizhou in modern Shandong. According to his tomb memorial, contained in the @I{Gu Louguan ziyun yanqing jing} (2.3a-7b), his family was renowned for its officials and @I{jinshi} graduates in the Song but also had its fair share of recluses. Even as a child, Yin was wise and calm; precocious, he could remember classical texts even at age three (2.3b). When he was fourteen, he met the Quanzhen leader Ma Yu, also known as Danyang zhenren (Perfected of Cinnabar Yang), and decided to follow him in the Tao. His parents did not delight in this course, and he had to return home several times before he could finally cut his householder’s ties. He then lived as a reclude in Changyi district, where he practiced the Tao until an initiatory dream, in which an immortal cut off his head and wrenched out his heart, signaled his liberation (2.4a).FOOT[The same events are also described in Yin’s biography in @I{Zhongnan shang zuting xianzhen neizhuan} (hereafter abbreviated @I{Zuting neizhuan}; 3.1a-6b) and in @I{Ganshui xianyuan lu} (Record of the Origin of Immortals of Ganshui, DZ 973; 3.1a). The former also supplies details of supernatural signs during his birth and gives his age at his final departure from his parents’ house as nineteen (3.1b). A short summary of Yin’s life is moreover found in @I{Zhongnan beiji} 17b-18a.]

In 1190, he learned that Qiu Changchun (1143-1227), the leader of the Quanzhen school and famous Taoist envoy to Chinggis Khan described in the @I{Xiyou ji} (Record of the Western Journey; trans. in Waley 1963), had returned to his home temple in Qixia. Leaving his seclusion, Yin introduced himself to the leader and became his assistant. In the following, he received intensive instruction both in matters of the Tao and in the management of current religious affairs (@I{Zhuting neizhuan} 3.2a; Boltz 1987, 167).

In 1219, he influenced Qiu to comply with Chinggis Khan’s summons, saying that “the time was right to employ Quanzhen teachings to awaken the people [of Mongolia]” (Yao 1980, 128). Upon discovering that Chinggis Khan was not, as originally thought, in a camp north of Beijing, Yin urged Qiu to continue the journey despite his advanced age. He was one of the leading disciples among the eighteen men who joined Qiu on his long trek (@I{Zuting neizhuan} 3.2b).

A few anecdotes involving Yin are noted in the @I{Xiyou ji}. In 1221, when they broke the journey in Sairam, for example, the Taoist Zhao Jingu made the announcement of his impending death to Yin. “For me it is time to depart,” he said, “I had a feeling that I would not return from this journey.” A few days later he died (Waley 1963, 90). Late in 1221, the cavalcade reached Samarkand, where they were received with great honor by the Mongol governor and spent the winter (Yao 1980, 131). In the spring of 1222, Qiu left Yin Zhiping and two other disciples there to hold the fort for him while he and his other followers went to meet the Khan at his camp (Waley 1963, 99).

On their return journey, Qiu devided his entourage into three groups to make desert travel easier. Yin Zhiping was the leader of the second group, which set out some time after Qiu’s own, which went first (Waley 1963, 126). At this time, Qiu felt unwell and did not eat. His followers were concerned lest he die because of the hardships of travel. Yin Zhiping, after being reunited with the main body of travelers, had a dream, in which a divine being came and reassured him about Qiu’s health. Once they reached Chinese soil, Qiu indeed began to eat again and got better. Yin’s dream had become true (Waley 1963, 127-28).

In 1224, after their return to China, Qiu sent Yin Zhiping off on a mission to Shandong, hoping that the Taoist would be able to lessen local resistance against the Mongols and thereby save thousands of lives (Waley 1963, 130). His journey was a success and he inspired large crowds of people until Qiu called him back to the capital (Boltz 1987, 167). There he was made abbot of the Taiji gong (Monastery of the Great Ultimate) and trained as Qiu’s successor (@I{Zuting neizhuan} 3.3a; @I{Yanqing jing}, 4b).

 

 

@I{Religious Leadership}

 

Upon Qiu Changchun’s death in 1227, Yin Zhiping became the head and sixth patriarch of the Quanzhen sect and soon honored his predecessor by erecting a special hall for him in the compound of the Baiyun guan (White Cloud Monastery; Waley 1963, 151). At this time, Li Zhichang (1193-1256), his future successor, became its registrar and the abbot of the Qiu temple (Waley 1963, 17). Both these positions were of high import in religion and state, especially since Chinggis Khan in 1223 had issued an edict on behalf of Qiu that exempted all clerics under his, and only his, leadership from taxes and corvee duty (Yao 1980, 152). As a result, not only did Quanzhen followers become exceedingly numerous, with people flocking into the tax shelter by the thousands, but the rivalry with Buddhism was great exacerbated.

As early as 1225, the monk Fuyu (1203-1275), abbot of the Shaolin Monastery near Karakorum, wrote a formal protest against Taoist abuses of the edict, accusing Quanzhen followers of violently taking over Buddhist institutions and destroying Buddhist images and scriptures. Yin Zhiping was responsible for these acts. With new members flocking to Quanzhen Taoism in large numbers, he needed more space for his followers and duly founded over a hundred new Taoist institutions in north China, some of which were most likely taken over from the Buddhists (Yao 1980, 155).

The early 1230s were the heyday of Yin’s career. In 1232, he had a cordial meeting with the Mongol ruler Og@o<“o>dai (Taizong; r. 1221-1241) in Hebei, discussing the role and influence of religion in the state (@I{Zuting neizhuan} 3.3a). In the same year, the Louguan center was badly damaged in military action, and in the following year Yin Zhiping began its restoration. In addition to visiting various northern monasteries during this time, he also presided, in 1235, over a major Yellow Register rite for rain-making on behalf of the population of Qingzhou, Shansi (Boltz 1987, 168). Traveling to and from this site, his way was lined with cheering crowds and numerous young men applied for acceptance as his disciples. In 1236, he made a first visit to Louguan, then restored to new splendor, and actively promoted the restoration of other Taoist centers in the Chang’an area, such as Huaqing at the foot of Mount Li and Yuntai on the northern slope of Mount Hua (@I{Zuting neizhuan} 3.4a).

Beyond that, he was also active in scholarship and lecturing, reconstituting Yin Xi’s philosophical writings around 1233 and giving sermons to the faithful wherever he went. These sermons, in particular, form the basis for his two published works, edited by his disciple Duan Zhijian under the sponsorship of his assitant and successor Li Zhichang. They are the @I{Qinghe zhenren beiyou yulu} (Recorded Sayings of the Perfected of Pure Harmony on His Northern Journeys, DZ 1310), in four scrolls, and the @I{Baoguang zhi} (Collection of Hidden Radiance, DZ 1146), in three scrolls. While the latter contains the poems he made at various occasions during his travels and lectures, the former is written in prose and includes both sermons and records of question-and-answer sessions. Topically it discusses the distinction of Buddhism and Quanzhen teaching as well as contemporaneous interpretations of the @I{Daode jing} (Boltz 1987, 168).FOOT[A yet separate version of the same materials is found the @I{Zhenxian zhizhi yulu} 2 (Recorded Sayings of Immediate Pointers to Perfect Immortality, DZ 1256), a later compilation (Boltz 1987, 169).]

In 1238, Yin Zhiping retired from active service for reasons of old age (@I{Zuting neizhuan} 3.5a; @I{Yanqing jing} 2.5a). In the following years, he lived withdrawn in the Qinghe gong (Monastery of Pure Harmony) on Mount Dafang, where he taught Taoist thought and performed ritual ceremonies, appearing only sporadically in public, such as at the memorial ceremony for Wang Chongyang, the founder of Quanzhen Taoism in 1240 (@I{Zuting neizhuan} 3.5a). He ascended to the immortals in 1251 and was officially honored as Qinghe miaodao guanghua zhenren (Perfected of Pure Harmony of the Wondrous Tao in Its Vast Transformations) in 1261 (@I{Zuting neizhuan} 3.6a; @I{Yanqing jing} 2.6a). Several steles record his work, among them his tomb inscription and accounts of the renewal of the Louguan center.

 

 

@I{The} Wenshi zhenjing

 

Yin Zhiping, as his tomb memorial points out, was very concerned with the fame and fortune of the Yin family and saw himself as a successor of the tradition of his illustrious Taoist namesakes, if not actually forebears, through the ages: Yin Gui in the Zhou, Yin Cheng in the Qin, Yin Tong in the Wei, and Yin Wencao in the Tang (2.7b). He was also a great enthusiast of Yin Xi’s philosophical work, the @I{Guanyinzi}, which at this time was either lost or existed only in fragments. In 1233, so the tomb memorial, Yin acquired a manuscript copy of the text from the hermit Sun Ding, an otherwise unknown figure, who had allegedly obtained it in a mountain cave by divine interference. This transmission gave Yin the inspiration to make the work of his fellow Louguan patriarch accessible to the world at large (2.7a).

It is highly probable that Yin Zhiping, moved by his enthusiasm for the Tao and for Yin Xi, compiled the text himself, possibly using some earlier textual remnants, such as the @I{Guanyinzi} of unspecified length that is mentioned in You Mao’s (1124-1193) @I{Suichu tang shumu} (Catalog of Books in the Hall of the Pursuit of Beginning; Loon 1984, 166).FOOT[Another text related to Yin Xi is mentioned in a Song bibliography but it was lost before Yin’s lifetime: a @I{Wenshi xiansheng shuodao jing} (The Tao as Revealed by Master Wenshi) in one scroll appears in the @I{Bishu sheng xubian dao siku queshu mu} (Catalog of Missing Books of the Four Repositories Compiled as a Continuation [of the @I{Chongwen zongmu}] by the Imperial Library; Loon 1984, 94). The bibliography was issued in 1145 as a search list after the dynasty’s flight to the south (Loon 1984, 12).] From his position as the most influential Taoist of his time, he could easily spread the work among literati circles.

There is no question that the @I{Wenshi zhenjing} as transmitted today dates to the Song, even though the @I{Waizhi} version (DZ 728) contains a preface to the @I{Guanyinzi} attributed to Liu Xiang, the original Han-dynasty author of the @I{Liexian zhuan}, and a postface allegedly by Ge Hong. Both the text’s abstract philosophical discussions and its technical analysis of the correspondence system active in the world have a strong tinge of “harmonizing the three teachings” and smack of inner alchemy. In addition, the bibliographic record of the text does not suggest its existence before 1233.

The @I{Wenshi zhenjing} is first bibliographically apparent in Chen Zhensun’s @I{Zhizhai shulu jieti} (Catalog of Books of the Zhi Studio with Explanatory Notices), a catalog of Chen’s private collection completed in 1240 (Hervout 1978, 198; Loon 1984, 27). It names the text @I{Guanyinzi}, in nine scrolls, and says,

@Quotation[By Yin Xi, Guardian of the Pass, of the Zhou, a contemporary of Laozi who enticed him to write down his ideas and transmit [his teachings on] the Tao and its virtue. The bibliographic section of the @I{Hanshu} has a @I{Guanyinzi} in nine sections, but it is not recorded in the dynastic histories of the Sui and Tang. In my opinion it is a work long lost.

The text I have now was received by Xu Chanzi from Sun Ding of Yongjia. It begins with a preface by Liu Xiang, and ends with a postface by Ge Hong. It is not clear where Sun Ding received it; as an ancient work it is seriously disputable–neither does the preface match the text. (Loon 1984, 166)]

This version, with the preface and the postface, is today contained in the Taoist canon as part of Chen Xianwei’s @I{Waizhi} edition, which he completed in 1254. After that, Niu Daochun wrote his explication of the text in the 1260s–both well after Yin Zhiping allegedly first received it.

Yin Zhiping therefore resurrected Yin Xi as a philosopher, a thinker whose ideas closely matched the doctrines and concerns of Quanzhen Taoists. In addition, he reconstructed Louguan and established it once again as a major Taoist center, creating the Louguan or Yin Xi lineage within the Quanzhen school. It is mainly due to his efforts and his influence that the records of Louguan masters were collected and edited and that Yin Xi as a senior patriarch of the Quanzhen school has been venerated to the present day.

Yin Xi, the Master at the Beginning of the Scripture and close associate of Laozi, is a major hagiographic figure in religious Taoism. First known as a philosopher, his mythical elevation began with his role as the first recipient of the @I{Daode jing} and Laozi’s companion on his western exploits. Placed in the center of cultic attention in the fifth century with the acceptance of Louguan as the location of the @I{Daode jing} transmission, he became the archetypal disciple and ordinand of the Tao when the religion was integrated. During the Tang dynasty further linked with Laozi in an affine relationship, Yin Xi was ranked as patriarch of the Yin Xi or Louguan groups within Quanzhen Taoism under the Yuan and has been honored as such ever since.

Yin Xi’s career in Taoist history reveals various interesting aspects of the development and dynamics of the Taoist religion in medieval China. First, his changing roles and sectarian affiliations closely reflect the position of Taoism within Chinese state and culture over the centuries. From philosophy through popular movement to patriarchal religion, imperially sponsored creed, and lineage-centered organization, Taoism underwent serious transformations as it adapted to the changing climate of the times and developing needs of its followers. In all cases, its major myths and divine figures followed suit and developed in accordance with the requirements of the times. Yin Xi’s roles are therefore no accident. On the contrary, his various hagiographies, as they were compiled from age to age, stand in immediate reverberation with the historical situation, in which they were written (see Table 3).

Another observation to be made is the strong involvement of family ties and surname connections in the development of Yin Xi’s hagiographic career. First placed center-stage through his link with Yin Tong, the promoter of Louguan, he was in due course not only related to other well-known immortals named Yin, such as Yin Cheng and Yin Gui, but found his most influential backers in later Taoists of the same name, Yin Wencao of the Tang and Yin Zhiping of the Yuan. Both major political and high-ranking religious figures, they were linked geographically with Louguan and genealogically with Yin Xi. They both greatly elevated Yin Xi’s standing as patriarch and divinely-inspired personage, linking his family with the Tang imperial house in the one case, and giving him new life as a philosopher in the other. Major hagiographic and lineage developments in medieval Taoism, as documented in this case, therefore often may go back to family pride and the active sponsorship of certain places and sages by influential individuals. This reveals a dynamic of development centered in the family rather than in the religious group and inspired personally rather than politically or doctrinally.

Yet another dimension of the Yin Xi hagiography to be noted is its continuity. No part of the legend is ever lost or interpreted away. The ancient philosopher and the ideas associated with him ramain. They become invisible for a period when the demands of myth and ordination overshadow them, but reappear unbroken at intervals, such as, for example, in the @I{Sansheng jibei} (Inscription for the Three Sages). This text, placed near a newly erected hall for Laozi on Mount Mao in 826, honors Confucius and Yin Xi as Laozi’s teacher and disciple, while centering on Laozi’s biography in the @I{Shiji} biography, which it cites at length (Chen et al. 1988, 175). By the Yuan dynasty, responding to a climate more favorable to abstract thought, Yin Xi’s philosophy is fully revived through the reconstitution of his work in the @I{Wenshi zhenjing}. The same pattern holds true for the Taoist religion. The ancient philosophies of Laozi and Zhuangzi are never completely lost, although overshadowed, reinterpreted, and used for entirely unphilosophical ends. Still, the commentary tradition remained alive throughout and, as in the case of Yin Xi, the philosophical heritage was actively recovered under the Song and Yuan.

The single most fascinating aspect of Yin Xi’s story is, in addition to these overall observations, his role as the model disciple and representative in the Taoist myth of ordination. Created in the sixth century when the various Taoist traditions were integrated into one coherent system, it is the highlight of Yin Xi’s hagiographic career and at the same time represents the most vigorous and powerful phase in the development of medieval Taoism. The story is complex and intricate and shows, by taking Yin Xi step by step into a more equal relationship with Laozi, the cares and concerns, joys and delights of Taoist ordinands. The Tao as it was ideally lived and personally experienced in medieval China comes alive in the tale, making Yin Xi the paradigmatic adept, to whose example all active followers aspire. As the ideal Taoist follower and conscientious practitioner of the Tao, Yin Xi is most accessible and most popular and it is thus no accident that this part of his hagiography is the longest and this section of his story the most literary. Here Yin Xi actively and visibly serves the Tao, but he does so equally in all his various roles through history.

 

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TABLE 1

Louguan Masters after Zhu Xiangxian’s

Zhongnan shan shuojing tai lidai zhenxian beiji

(DZ 956)

 

Legendary Immortals

@I{Louguan xianshi zhuan}, ch. 1. by Yin Gui and Liang Chen

Yin Xi

Yin Gui

Du Chong

Peng Zong

Song Lun

Feng Chang

Yao Dan

Zhou Liang

Yin Cheng

Wang Tan

Li Yi

Feng Heng

Zhang Hao

Early Masters

@I{Louguan xianshi zhuan}, ch. 2, by Wei Jie

Liang Chen (247-318)

Wang Jia (300-386)

Sun Zhe (302-376)

Ma Jian (341-439)

Yin Tong (398-499)

[Niu Wenhou (457-539)]FOOT[Niu Wenhou is mentioned as Yin Tong’s disciple but does not rank as a full Louguan master; neither does his disciple Wu Shiguang. The lineage seems to have switched to the newcomer Wang Daoyin and his disciple Chen Baozhi, who in turn had three major students: Li Shunxing, Hou Kai, and Yan Da (Zhang 1991, 75).]

Wang Daoyi (447-510)

Wu Shiguang (ab. 470-540)

Chen Baozhi (473-549)

Li Shunxing (502-540)

Zhang Fale (?-662)

Great Masters

@I{Louguan xianshi zhuan}, ch. 3, by Yin Wencao)

Wei Jie (496-569)

Hou Kai (487-573)

Wang Yan (519-604)

Yan Da (514-609)

Yu Zhang (532-614)

Qi Hui (558-630)

Ju Guozhen (575-634)

Tian Shiwen (568-643)

Later Abbots

Supplemented by Zhu Xiangxian

Yin Wencao (622-688)

Liang Quan (d. 978)

Yin Zhiping (1169-1251)

Li Zhiruo (1189-1266)

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE 2

Louguan Masters and Their Biographies

 

Legendary Immortals

Xianyuan  Qunxian  Tongjian others

Yin Xi  @I{see Table 3}

Yin Gui  2.15a  7.6b  8.19a  @I{Shenxian zhuan, Han wudi waizhuan}, YJQQ 104.4b,

Du Chong  2.11a  13.19b  9.1a  @I{Xuanpin lu} 1.2a

Peng Zong  2.11a  11.8b  9.2b

Song Lun  1.7a  2.11b  9.4a,  3.6b  2.17a

Feng Chang  2.11a  13.2a  9.5a  @I{Soushen ji} 2.23a

Yao Dan  3.7b  7.6a  9.6b  @I{Soushen ji} 2.23b, 17.12b

Zhou Liang  2.12a  5.16b  9.8a

Yin Cheng  3.15a  3.9a  9.9b

Wang Tan  2.12a  13.19a  9.11b  @I{Daoji lingxian ji} 16b

Li Yi      9.12b

Feng Heng  3.14a  15.11b  21.1a  @I{Han Wudi waizhuan} 6b, SDZN 1.19b

Zhang Hao  3.15a  12.10b  21.2b

Early Masters

Liang Chen  2.22a  10.1b  30.1a, 16.11b

Wang Jia    1.12a  18.4a  SDZN 3.24b, YJQQ 85.14a, 110.17b

Sun Zhe  2.23a    30.2a

Ma Jian   2.21a  7.13b  30.3a

Yin Tong  2.24a  17.16b  30.4a

[Niu Wenhou    14.4a  30.5a]

Wang Daoyi  2.22b  3.2a  30.6a

Wu Shiguang  2.21b

Chen Baozhi  2.22b  6.10a  30.6b, 9.17a

Li Shunxing  3.12a  3.6a  30.9a,  8.14b

Zhang Fale  3.12a  10.13b  30.15b

Great Masters

Wei Jie    13.19a  29.4a  @I{Xisheng jing} commentary

Hou Kai  2.22a  4.2a  30.12a

11.5a

Wang Yan    6.1a  30.7b  @I{Maoshan zhi} 13.7a

8.16b

Yan Da  3.14b  8.16b  30.13b

11.10a

Yu Zhang  3.10b  8.16b  30.14b

9.6b

Qi Hui  2.24a  18.7b  29.7b

6.11b

Ju Guozhen  3.14b  6.11b  30.16b

Tian Shiwen  2.20a  8.17a  29.5b

Later Abbots

Yin Wencao        Inscription

Liang Quan

Yin Zhiping        Tomb inscription, @I{Ganshui xianyuan lu} 3.1a

Li Zhiruo        @I{Ganshui xianyuan lu} 7.16b

 

Abbreviations:

 

@I{Xianyuan}       @I{Xianyuan bianzhu}, DZ 596

@I{Qunxian}  @I{Sandong qunxian lu}, DZ 1248

@I{Tongjian} @I{Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian} (DZ 296)

 

SDZN                   @I{Sandong zhunang} (DZ 1139)

YJQQ                    @I{Yunji qiqian} (DZ 1032)

 

TABLE 3

Texts on Yin Xi

The Philosopher

1. @I{Zhuangzi} (3rd c. B.C.E.; DZ 670)

2. @I{Lüshi chunqiu} (225 B.C.E.)

3. @I{Liezi} (2nd c.; DZ 668)

4. @I{Wenshi zhenjing} = @I{Guanyinzi} (1233; DZ 667, 727, 728)

The Companion of Laozi

5. @I{Shiji} (90 B.C.E.)

6. @I{Liexian zhuan} (2nd c.; DZ 294)

7. @I{Huahu jing}, first version (ab. 300)

8. @I{Shenxian zhuan} (ab. 320; @I{Daozang jiyao})

9. @I{Santian neijie jing} (ab. 420; DZ 1205)

The Patriarch

10. @I{Xisheng jing} (ab. 500; DZ 726)

11. @I{Laojun jiejing} (ab. 500; DZ 784)

12. @I{Huahu jing}, second version (sixth c.)

13. @I{Wenshi neizhuan} (520-570)

— cited in @I{Xiaodao lun}, @I{Yiwen leiju}, @I{Chuxue ji}, @I{Daode jing kaiti xujue yishu}, @I{Sandong zhunang}, @I{Daolei shixiang}, @I{Taiping yulan}

Tang Sources

14. @I{Hunyuan zhenlu} (ab. 780; DZ 954)

15. @I{Sansheng jibei} (826; Chen et al. 1988, 175)

16. @I{Daode zhenjing guangsheng yi} (901; DZ 725)

17. @I{Daojiao lingyan ji} (ab. 905; DZ 590)

Song Sources

18. @I{Xianyuan bianzhu} (ab. 921; DZ 596)

19. @I{Sandong qunxian lu} (1145; DZ 1248)

Yuan Sources

20. @I{Qingwei xianpu} (1271; DZ 171)

21. @I{Zhongnan shan zuting xianzhen neizhuan} (ab. 1280;

DZ 955)

22. @I{Gu Louguan ziyun yanqing ji} (ab. 1279; DZ 957)

23. @I{Wudang fudi zongzhen ji} (1291; DZ 962)

24. @I{Zhongnan shan shuojing tai lidai zhenxian beiji}

(1293; DZ 956, Chen et al. 1988, 674)

25. @I{Xuanpin lu} (ab. 1300; DZ 781)

26. @I{Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian} (ab. 1300; DZ 296)

27. @I{Yuandai liexian zhuan} (ab. 1300)

28. @I{Xuanyuan shizi tu} (1307; DZ 163)

Ming and Qing Sources

29. @I{Xiaoyao xujing} (ab. 1400; DZ 1465)

30. @I{Liexian quanzhuan} (1652)