Wu Yun's Way: Life and Works of an Eighth-Century Daoist Master 9004121366, 9789004121362

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WUYUN'SWAY Life and Works if an Eighth-Century Daoist Master BY

JAN DEMEYER

BRILL LEIDEN · BOSTON 2006

Cover illustration: The Palace of the Cavernous Empyrean (Dongxiao gong) as found in the 1910 Lin'an xian ;:,hi Research for this book was sponsored by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISSN 0169-9563 ISBN 90 04 12136 6

© Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers, Martinus NijhrffPublishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part qf this publication mqy be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in arry form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission .from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 91 0 Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

CONTENTS

Prologue ....................................................................................... VII Part One. Biographical and intellectual orientations Chapter One. The life ofWu Yun .................................................. 3 Chapter Two. Wu Yun and the three teachings ........................... 103 Part Two. In defense of reclusion Chapter Three. The Daoist master's history lesson ..................... 149 Chapter Four. Rhapsody on the recluse ....................................... 177 Chapter Five. Cleansing the mind ............................................... 206 Part Three. Longevity and immortality Chapter Six. Frequently asked questions .................................... 231 Chapter Seven. Immortality and the usefulness of cosmology ..... 258 Chapter Eight. Immortality can be studied .................................. 280 Chapter Nine. A mobile body and a quiet mind ........................... 320 Part Four. An itinerant priest Chapter Ten. A pair of inscribed stones ..................................... .385 Chapter Eleven. Wu Yun, Celestial Master of Upper Clarity ..... .421 Appendix: TheNantongdajun neidanjiuzhangjing ................. .459 Bibliography ............................................................................... 464 Index ........................................................................................... 488

PROLOGUE The Tang~ dynasty (618-907) stands out as one of the most illustrious periods in the history of Daoism. The Tang saw the integration of the different traditions ofDaoism into a complex, hierarchical structure, in which initiation and ordination were linked with the transmission of parts of the Daoist canon. The foundation of this structure was that of the Way of the Celestial Master (Tianshi dao :;;:~ffi')rt also known as Zhengyi IE-, the Orthodox and One), whereas at its pinnacle stood the Shangqing l:rf!f or Upper Clarity school. It was also during the Tang dynasty that the interest in operational or proto-chemical alchemy reached its peak, while the groundwork of what in later dynasties would become known as "inner alchemy" (neidan P'Jft) was being laid. Among the dynasty's rulers - who, as is well known, claimed descent from Li Er 11=, or Laozi ::f5-T -none supported Daoism more energetically than Xuanzong ~* (r. 712-756), the longest-reigning of all Tang sovereigns. By overseeing the compilation of the first veritable Daoist canon, by promoting the state cult of Laozi through a variety of measures, by encouraging the study of the Daoist classics, by granting all Daoist priests and priestesses throughout the realm the status of relatives of the imperial clan, and by surrounding himself with a host of Daoist advisors, Xuanzong's contribution to the advancement of Daoism indeed exceeded anything seen before. The present study examines the life and works ofWu Yun !ffi1:~ (d. 778), without any doubt one of the most remarkable figures of eighth-century Daoism. A scholarly hermit who was later ordained as a Daoist priest and appointed Hanlin Academician in Attendance, Wu Yun was a privileged witness to Xuanzong's Daoist experiment. Forced to leave the capital area around the time of Xuanzong's downfall, Wu Yun thereafter lived an exiled life in China's Southeast, travelling widely among the region's numerous "renowned mountains," defending his faith against what he perceived as Buddhism's inroads and exerting his priestly functions whenever required to. Over the past few decades, a series of articles - modest in number but generally of more than average quality- have rescued Wu Yun from oblivion. Apart from a growing number of Chinese scholars, we

*

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should think here in particular of Yoshiko Kamitsuka ;f$ ~~ -T, the first to devote an article to Wu Yun's life and thought; Edward H. Schafer, who studied Wu Yun's 'Songs on Pacing the Void' (buxu ci tiT ~~iil) and the 'Wandering Immortal' poems (youxian shi ~{UJ~); Paul W. Kroll, who translated the 'Rhapsody on Roosting in the Cliffs' (Yanqi fu IHilllEt); and Livia Kahn, who devoted a study to the Discourse on the Mind and the Eyes (Xinmu lun 1L' ~ iliiU). Thanks to these scholarly efforts, we got to know Wu Yun as a mystic 1 and as a visionary writer of poems on metaphysical topics. As Wu Yun' s literary compositions, clearly meant to be read by a hyperliterate elite, share much of their language, imagery and professed ideals with the sacred scriptures of Shangqing Daoism, it has become customary to consider Wu Yun one of Upper Clarity's major representatives, an opinion voiced concisely in the following appreciation by Edward Schafer: "What Wu Yiin has done, I believe, is to congeal, refine, and distill the essence of Highest Clarity- that is, of T'ang Taoism- into skilfully constructed verses." 2 In the course of this book, it will become obvious that our picture of Wu Yun in particular, and, to a certain degree, of Tang dynasty Daoism in general, is in need of further refinement. My original aim in writing this book, apart from providing a detailed account of Wu Yun's life and determining Wu Yun's position in the ideological landscape ofthe Tang (which I undertake in Part One), was to focus predominantly on the two major themes that permeate Wu Yun's remaining works. The first is that which we, limited as we are by our Western vocabularies, designate most often as "reclusion," "eremitism" or "disengagement." "Recluses," "hermits" or "disengaged persons" -labels we apply to a large and heterogeneous crowd of men who qualified for government service but, for varying reasons, chose to refrain from taking up government employment - abound in Tang dynasty written materials. Obviously, the tension in Late Medieval China between the demand to engage in government service 1

In the context ofWu Yun's life and works, the term "mystic" is best understood as designating a person who, having experienced the divine, engages upon a quest that will strengthen his bond with the divine, and, in an effort to communicate his experiences to others as well as to remind himself of the goal of his quest, provides a literary outline of the various ways (in this particular case, physical as well as spiritual) supposed to bring one closer to the divine. 2 Schafer, Edward H., "Wu Yiin's 'Cantos on Pacing the Void'," Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies 41 (1981), p. 414.

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IX

and the wish to devote one's life to the pursuance of other goals was such that it prompted countless literati to comment upon or justify their chosen lifestyle. The necessity to defend the ideal of reclusion was certainly felt very strongly by Wu Yun, who devoted a sizeable amount of poems as well as some of his rhapsodies (ju Jlit) to it. It is these writings, in particular the poems on 'Investigating the Past' (Langu shi 'tlr!l~), the 'Rhapsody on the Recluse' (Yiren fu ~AJlit) and the 'Rhapsody on Cleansing the Mind' (Xixin fu 7J'(;,l.,Jlit), which we examine in Part Two. 3 This will not only enable us to understand the different dimensions of Wu Yun's "philosophy of reclusion," it will also reveal the degree to which reclusion was perceived as an indispensable ingredient ofthe process of"cultivation and refinement" (xiulian filf~) which was to elevate the Daoist adept to more exalted modes of being, far beyond this mortal coil. The second major theme is that of longevity and of the problematic term xian {UJ. Recently, it has become somewhat unfashionable to render xian as "immortality," many scholars now preferring to render it as "transcendence." This is due to the emergence of divergent ideas concerning the role of physical death in the refinement of the human persona, as well as about the ultimate goal of the Daoist adept. In Part Three of this book, I hope, among other things, to demonstrate that, in the case of Wu Yun, "immortality," viewed as the consolidation of body and spirit into a stable and enduring unity, is indeed an adequate rendering ofxian. Though the attainment of immortality, to Wu Yun as well as to countless other Daoists, did not represent the most complete and total realization of man's inherent potential- it was an intermediate stage en route to perfection (zhen ~) and the spiritual or the divine (shen 1$)- Wu Yun treated it profusely in his prose writings, in the Discourse on the Feasibility of Studying Immortality (Shenxian kexue fun tlf!{UJRJ *~), the Discourse on the Feasibility of Consolidating Body and Spirit (Xingshen kegu fun ~tlf!RJfi'il~illi) as well as in the Mystic Mainstay (Xuangang ::tl~). Here again, as in Part Two, we get to know Wu Yun as an indefatigable defender of ideals, a rhetorician who used the power of the word to convince his contemporaries that the attainment oflongevity and immortality was a distinct possibility for all 3

I have refrained from providing a translation ofWu Yun's series of fifty 'Eulogies on Eminent Scholars' (Gaoshi yong ~±Wk) in this study because it shares so much material with Wu Yun's longestfo, the 'Rhapsody on the Recluse,' which has been rendered in its entirety.

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those who chose to dedicate their lives to the practising of a wide variety of techniques, among them mental quietude, embryonic respiration, sexual hygiene and sleep deprivation. What Nathan Sivin once said about Ge Hong's :@i :?;It Baopuzi neipian :J§ :fr pq it, namely, that it sought "to convince [... ] his readers, that immortality is a proper object of study and is attainable," 4 fully pertains to Wu Yun's writings. In the course of my research into Wu Yun's life, in particular his activities as a priest, I became aware of the existence of numerous elements (cultic or liturgical as well as therapeutic) that linked Wu Yun to the Way of the Celestial Master. When I started to stumble across fragments ofliturgical formulae normally used by Zhengyi priests in all of Wu Yun's prose treatises, I realized that Wu Yun's traditional characterization as a typical Shangqing representative is far too simplistic to be tenable. A sizeable portion of Part Four is therefore devoted to reviewing the relevant evidence pertaining to Wu Yun's religious affiliation. As there is so much of Celestial Master Daoism in Wu Yun's thought and practice, I have labelled our priestly poet "Celestial Master of Upper Clarity." Inevitably, Part Four is also an exploration ofthe dissemination of Medieval Celestial Master practice in Southeast China, as well as a challenge to the commonly held view that the Way of the Celestial Master was only passed on among the lower strata of Tang society. I conclude this book with a preliminary inquiry into the diffusion of the bipolar religious profile that was Wu Yun's, hoping that it will encourage others to delve deeper into the fascinating world of Late Medieval Daoism. In all of this, it has been my foremost concern to do justice to the complexity ofWu Yun the man as well as to the multilayered nature of his religious profile. In the light ofWu Yun's literary accomplishments, it seemed logical to me to accord to Wu Yun's writings the most prominent role, and to attempt, as free as possible of any preconceived images or theories, to grasp what is really being said in them. Rather than using portions ofWu Yun's works as illustration or corroboration of whatever story it is that I would like to tell, I have chosen to let Wu Yun's works tell their own story. Moreover, as Wu Yun in his literary compositions may have addressed different audiences, or, more

r

4

Sivin, "On the Word 'Taoist' as a Source of Perplexity. With Special Reference to the Relations of Science and Religion in Traditional China," History of Religions 17.3-4 (1978), p. 325.

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XI

specifically, different segments of the literate elite, and as most ofWu's works demand to be read from start to finish, I have presented these works in their entirety wherever possible, interspersing my translations with elucidations or summaries where necessary. Thus, our chapters 2, 4, 5 and 9 contain full translations of four of Wu Yun's eight rhapsodies, chapter 3 is built around the series of fourteen poems on 'Investigating the Past,' chapters 6 and 7 contain the essence of the Mystic Mainstay, chapter 8 has a translation ofthe entire Discourse on the Feasibility ofStudying Immortality, chapter 9 carries the major part of the Discourse on the Feasibility of Consolidating Body and Spirit, and chapter 10 contains renditions of Wu Yun's two memorial inscriptions. In this manner, close to two thirds ofWu Yun's remaining writings have been made accessible in the present volume. And from these writings emerges the multifaceted portrait of Wu Yun the anti-Buddhist, Wu Yun the defender of reclusion, Wu Yun the champion of the quest for immortality and Wu Yun the wandering Celestial Master priest. That I have given comparatively little consideration to that part of Wu Yun's oeuvre which we know best- those writings that have been shown to betray the clearest influence of Shangqing mysticism - is entirely a matter of priorities and must in no way be understood as meaning that I judge these writings somehow lacking in interest. On the contrary, even a re-examination of some of Wu Yun's writings that have already been translated and subjected to serious scrutiny may yield interesting results. In his concluding remarks to his study ofWu Yun's 'Wandering Immortal' poems, for instance, Edward Schafer voiced his frustration at being unable to detect the overarching structure that would give the entire series of24 poems a deeper sense. Schafer had the impression - and on this point his intuition did not cheat him -that the reshuffling of the individual poems during transmission had destroyed the links that connected them, rendering it impossible to comprehend the ultimate scenario. Had Schafer not based his translation of the 'Wandering Immortal' poems on the Quan Tang shi ~nlf~ but on the Daoist canon, he would have obtained quite a different sequence, and he would have come closer to the series' orginal scenario. Allow me to provide but one concrete example. A set of four poems suggestive of what Schafer described as "a ritual circumambulation of the sublunary world" has obviously been one of the victims of the reorganization of the original sequence. Whereas, in the Quan Tang shi edition, the

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eighth poem corresponds to the East, the ninth to the South and the tenth to the West, the poem that would complete the set by corresponding to the North is - frustratingly - no. 19. Had Schafer's translation been based on the Daoist canon, the impression of a disturbance of the original order would in this particular case never have arisen: in the Daozang J!!Jii, the four poems in question neatly stand shoulder to shoulder (no. 10: East, no. 11: South, no. 12: West, and no. 13: North). A critical comparison ofthe different schemes of mystical ascent as found in the 'Wandering Immortal' poems, the 'Songs on Pacing the Void' and the hitherto unstudied 'Rhapsody on the Ascent to Perfection' (Dengzhen fu ~;~.]it), which is highly akin in language and imagery to the 'Songs on Pacing the Void,' combined with a more profound analysis of the relevant data introduced in the pages to come, demands to be undertaken. Even if such an investigation were not to yield a single, consistent scenario transcending the boundaries of the individual works, it would nonetheless considerably enrich our knowledge of Tang dynasty Daoist mysticism. As such an endeavour would easily fill another booklength study, it must fall outside the scope of the present~ already rather bulky- volume.

* The groundwork for this book was laid during a three-year period (1997-2000) as postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University's Sinological Institute, in charge of the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). I hereby wish to express my gratitude once more for their support. During these years, early versions of parts of the chapters One and Three of the present book were published in Sanjiao wenxian: Materiaux pour l 'etude de Ia religion chinoise 2 (1998), T'ang Studies 17 (1999), and De Meyer, J. & Engelfriet, P. (eds.), Linked Faiths. Essays on Chinese Religions & Traditional Culture in Honour of Kristofer Schipper (Leiden: Brill, 2000). The bulk of the book, however, was written between 2000 and 2004, a period largely spent outside of the academic world. Dividing my time between literary translations, childcare, household chores and Wu Yun, I worked in relative isolation, without institutional affiliation and at considerable distance from a decent sinological library. Under the circumstances, occasions to acquaint myself with the most recent

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secondary literature were few. This is one of the shortcomings of this study, for which I beg the reader's lenience. For their help, advice, comments or encouragement, I extend heartfelt thanks to Kristofer Schipper, Wilt Idema, Peter Engelfriet, Achim Mittag, Paul W. Kroll, Vincent Goossaert, Franciscus Verellen, Wang Ka, Barend ter Haar and Oliver Moore. I dedicate this volume to my wife, Mieke, for her unflagging support, and to my children, Anton, Elena and Eugenie, for being there. Lemberge, December 2005

PART ONE BIOGRAPHICAL AND INTELLECTUAL ORIENTATIONS

CHAPTER ONE THE LIFE OF WU YUN

The Problem ofSources As China's dynastic histories have always emphasized the secular at the expense of the religious, the two Tang shu~- do not provide separate space for biographical chapters devoted to the lives of the dynasty's most renowned Daoist priests. Some of these, such as Li Hanguang '$ f!;::Jt (683-769), leading disciple of Sima Chengzhen 'E'J~if(:f:~ (647735) and later "patriarch" of the Shangqing J:.rf!f school of Daoism, 1 were simply denied a standard biography. Those fortunate enough to have their lives outlined in the Tang shu can be found among the astrologers, healers, thaumaturges and other possessors of specialized skills or recipes, collectively designated as fangji JJtt, or among the recluses (yinyi ~~).We should thus feel grateful that at least some of the key facts ofWu Yun's life have been preserved for posterity in the chapters on reclusion of both the Jiu Tang shu fi~il and the Xin Tang shu~~-On the other hand, we should bear in mind that these dynastic historical writings are of rather limited value for the present-day scholar who attempts to recreate the Tang dynasty's religious landscape. Wu Yun's biographies in particular may serve as warnings not to place too much confidence in dynastic histories. For more than a millennium now, nearly all accounts ofWu Yun's life have contained a significant amount of inaccuracies. Indeed, the first dynastic account ofWu Yun's life, injuan 192 of the Jiu Tang shu, is so untrustworthy that it should 1

The Shangqing school ofDaoism is often- and somewhat inaccurately- referred to as Mao shan 5t !lJ Daoism. Not all of the Daoists who resided on Mao shan were Shangqing adepts. Moreover, some ofthe early Tang dynasty Shangqing masters had little or no physical connections with Mao shan, but rather with Song shan ii !lJ, Tiantai shan :::Ril' !lJ or Wangwu shan ::E~!lJ. To some Mid-Tang literati, it seems to have been only since Li Hanguang's days that Mao shan became a leading Daoist centre. Cf. Yan Zhenqing's M~9Jlll (709-785) commemorative inscription for Li, Quan Tang wen :@:}l!jfj( (compiled 1814 by Dong Gao 'if~ et al., Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 340.3446.

WU YUN'S LIFE

5

chronology: in the beginning of the Tianbao J(Jf era (742-756), Wu Yun was summoned to the capital, where he requested ordination as a Daoist. Thereupon he became a disciple of Pan Shizheng and later travelled southward. Regarding Wu Yun's stay in the capital, his career as a Hanlin Academician in Attendance (Hanlin gongfeng **~*) and the events surrounding An Lushan's rebellion, both of our dynastic accounts present a fairly identical picture. They both quote Wu Yun's statement that "As to the essence of the Way and its methods, nothing equals Laozi's five-thousand words (i.e., the Daode jing m~!U~); all the rest is a mere waste of paper." Both sources also refer to Wu Yun's unwillingness to inform emperor Xuanzong :!2:* (r. 712-756) about the cultivation of immortality, his anti-Buddhist sentiments and his friendship with Li Bai B (701-762). As to Wu Yun's death, the Jiu Tang shu merely states that it occurred in the Yue region ~ (roughly corresponding to Zhejiang province). The Xin Tang shu, on the other hand, provides the exact year (Dali 13) and the posthumous title privately conferred on Wu Yun by his leading disciple: Zongyuan :7C (read: Zongxuan * :!2:) xiansheng )'[;1:., or 'Master Who Honours the Mystery.' The first important question to be answered here is: what has caused the divergences in the two Tang dynastic presentations of Wu Yun's life? An answer to this question has been supplied by Russell Kirkland, the first to devote a comparative study to Wu Yun's biographies. Whereas the Jiu Tang shu account would seem to reproduce a Biography of Venerable Master Wu (Wu zunshi zhuan 9UI~ilHW, D 1053,3 hereafter called Biography), attributed to Quan Deyu ;fi~~J!. (759818), the Xin Tang shu derives part of its information from another work which bears Quan Deyu's name, the 'Preface to the Collected Works of Venerable Master Wu, the Master who Honours the Mystery, from the Central Marchmount' (Zhongyue Zongxuan xiansheng Wu zunshi ji xu Jt:l~*:!l)'G1:.9UI~i!i~J¥:, hereafter called Preface). 4

*

*

3

Numbers in the Daozang lEi: iii are given according to K.M. Schipper, Concordance du Tao-tsang. Titres des ouvrages (Paris: Ecole Fram,:aise d'Extreme-Orient, 1975). 4

See J. Russell Kirkland, "Taoists of the High Tang: An Inquiry into the Perceived Significance of Eminent Taoists in Medieval Chinese Society" (Ph. D. diss., Indiana University, 1986), esp. pp. 96-111 and 324-342. An earlier account of Wu Yun's life by Edward Schafer, who has done so much to rekindle the interest in Wu Yun' s poetry and mysticism, is not critical, being a mere patchwork of fragments from

6

CHAPTER ONE

The data in the Xin Tang shu concerning Wu Yun's hailing from Huayin, his reclusive life on Yidi shan, his first visit to the capital in the early Tianbao era and his subsequent ordination, all derive from Quan Deyu's Preface. This leads to an even more important question: why would Quan Deyu have written two different accounts of Wu Yun's life? In proposing an answer to this question, Russell Kirkland has suggested that Quan's "two treatments ofWu's life themselves present two distinct images ofWu Yiin," both having been crafted for different audiences: the Biography was supposedly written for Confucian scholars "in active government service," whereas the Preface was written for Confucian scholars "whose interests were more literary."5 Whereas, theoretically speaking, Kirkland's suggestion might be a highly plausible one, I believe that in this specific case our answer should be somewhat more radical. We have sufficient reasons to conclude that the Biography attributed to Quan Deyu is in fact a later forgery, and that Quan's Preface is the only trustworthy early document on Wu Yun's life. A first indication of the dubious origin of the Biography is provided by Quan Deyu's collected works. Presented in 837 by Quan's grandson to Yang Sifu ~Hi!ii.Jf!i (783-848), who then wrote a preface to it, the original Quan Zaizhi wenji tftGZX~ in fifty juan was long considered lost. At the time of the compilation of the Siku quanshu 1m fil[ ~ ;;:, only a truncated edition dating to the first half of the sixteenth century was available. Thus, the Siku quanshu edition ofQuan Deyu's 'collected works' amounts to no more than tenjuan of poetry andfo Jit. In the Jiaqing ._!lera, however, a complete fifty:iuan edition was discovered by Zhu Gui *3;E, who had it published in 1806. It is this edition that has been reprinted in the Sibu congkan 1m 'lfBjlflj .6 the Biography and the Preface attributed to Quan Deyu. See E. H. Schafer, "Wu Yiln's 'Cantos on Pacing the Void'," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 41 (1981), pp. 377-415. Edward Schafer's other major study ofWu Yun's mystical poetry is his "Wu Yiln's Stanzas on 'Saunters in Sylphdom'," Monumenta Serica 35 (1981-83), pp. 309-345. A biography of Wu Yun in the fourteenth-century Xuanpin lu ~J'p$l (D 781, 4.21b-22b), written by Zhang Tianyu ~::Rffi (1277?-1348?), presents a mixture of data deriving from the Jiu Tang shu and the Xin Tang shu accounts, including their errors. It has been translated by Alan J. Berkowitz, "Record of Occultists," in Lopez, DonaldS., Jr. (ed.), Religions ofChina in Practice (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1996), p. 465-66. 5 Kirkland, op. cit., pp. 96-101. 6 The Preface is found in the Quan Zaizhi wenji, 33. 9b-11 b. It differs on a few points from its Daozang version. The title, e.g., here reads Tang gu Zhongyue Zongyuan xiansheng Wu zunshi ji xu, 'Preface to the Collected Works of the Late

WU YUN'S LIFE

7

It is quite likely that the original collected works in fifty juan was not a posthumous product but had been compiled by Quan Deyu himself. We know from Yang Sifu's preface that Quan Deyu personally compiled a fifty-juan collection of writings. Like Yu Xianhao :fmlfR-\lf, I believe that the Quan Zaizhi wenji discovered and printed in the Jiaqing era was quite close to the original fifty:iuan collection of the early ninth century. 7 Significantly, the Biography is not to be found in the fifty:iuan Quan Zaizhi wenji. It was later added to Quan Deyu's prose works in the Quan Tang wen ~n!f)C, and possibly copied from the Daozang edition ofWu Yun's remaining works. Another point of interest concerns the approximate dates of Preface and Biography. The Preface, which precedes Wu Yun's collected works in the Daozang (D 1051, Zongxuan xiansheng wenji *~9G1:. )(~),was apparently written when Quan Deyu was Vice Minister in the Ministry of Rites (libu shilang ffittl'IH~.M), between 802 and 805. The Biography, which in the Daozang is inserted between Wu Yun's Xuangang lun ~~mill (D 1052) and the spurious Nantong dajun neidanjiuzhangjing iti;fi!E:::k~P':I:TJ-n~r~ (D 1054), is dated to the time when Quan Deyu was Minister in the Ministry of Rites (libu shangshu ffittffi ~ ~), between 81 0 and 813. As I shall demonstrate, the Preface, although it too is not entirely free of inaccuracies, is the most reliable source on Wu Yun's life and literary activities. If Quan Deyu was so well informed about Wu Yun's life between 802 and 805, why did he change so many correct data into erroneous ones when he wrote the Biography less than a decade later? Surely there must be more to it than the mere shift from one Confucian audience to another. The solution to this riddle has been offered by Jiang Yin Jii!ii, who, in his impressive study of the poetry of the Dali era provides one of the more lucid analyses to date ofWu Yun's life and poetical works. Jiang has noticed that Wu Yun's biographical sketch in Jiu Tang shu 192 indicating that its sources were far from fails to mention Wu's zi complete. The spurious Biography, however, does mention Wu's zi, Zhenjie ~NP. Similarly, whereas the Jiu Tang shu states that Wu Yun went to Song shan to study with Pan Shizheng, the Biography adds Pan Shizheng's posthumous religious title, Tixuan xiansheng R~9G1:.

*·

Venerable Master Wu of the Tang, the Master who Honours the Mystery, from the Central Marchmount.' Yu Xianhao, "Wu Yunjian Li Bai shuo bianyi" ~~11$ S ~Uf~, in his Li Bai congkao $ S ~~ (Xi'an: Shaanxi Renmin chubanshe, 1982), pp. 65-78, esp. p. 73. 7

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CHAPTER ONE

(the Master Who Embodies the Mystery), to his name. Thirdly, a passage in Wu Yun's Jiu Tang shu biography stating that Wu was ridiculed by "men of understanding" (tongren imA) because of his anti-Buddhist writings, has been omitted in the Biography. Obviously, the Biography attributed to Quan was not the source of the Jiu Tang shu biography, as has been commonly assumed, but rather a copy of it. The forger of this Biography was in all likelihood a Daoist believer, who knew Wu Yun's zi and Pan Shizheng's posthumous title and who, out of reverence for Wu Yun, excised the only critical remark from the Jiu Tang shu biography. 8 As the spurious Biography is to be found neither in the Wenyuan yinghua )(~*¥ (comp. 987), nor in the Tang wencui r.!f Jt ;Jf$ (comp. 1011 ), both of which do contain Quan' s Preface, 9 this forgery may be a product of the eleventh century. Youth: From the Shadows of Hua shan to Yidi shan

So far, no one has raised the question of Wu Yun's ancestry, probably assuming that no relevant data have survived. There exists one source, however, which does provide a few scant facts not found in any other work. This source is the Dongxiao tuzhi Willlflllit, compiled in 1305 by Deng Mu m5!t;c (1247-1306) and overlooked by nearly all students ofWu Yun's life and works. 10 Besides offering a wealth of information about Daoism on Dadi shan ::k7(~ ~, one of the sacred mountains of northern Zhejiang, the Dongxiao tuzhi contains more than a dozen references to Wu Yun. Apparently, Deng Mu was in possession of more detailed information on Wu Yun than we have now. This is not surprising, as Wu Yun was more than a passing guest, having spent a sizeable part of the last decade of his life on Dadi shan. Thanks to Deng Jiang Yin, Dali shiren yanjiu ::k~~ A :fiJFJE (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1995), pp. 312-322. The reader will also find many pertinent critical remarks about Wu Yun's biography in Fu Xuancong 1~Wf~ (ed.), Tang caizi zhuanjiaojian /llf::t-T«!it:t~, vol. 1 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987), pp. 148-156 and vol. 5 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1995), pp. 24-26. 9 Wenyuanyinghua Jtzm~• (Taipei: Hualian chubanshe, 1967 repr.), 704.6b-8a and Tangwencui /l!f)C;j$ (Sibu congkan ed.), 93.7a-8a. 10 In this book, I shall refer to the Congshu jicheng flt:JI:~.Ilt edition of the Dongxiao tuzhi, which reproduces the Zhibuzu zhai congshu ~>F.IE~itltif ed. The Siku quanshu ed. ofDeng Mu's work is incomplete, as it omits no less than ten texts from the last, sixth juan. An abbreviated version ofthe Dongxiao tuzhi is also present in the Daozang under the title Dadi dongtian ji ::k~W!:::R~C. (D 782). 8

WU YUN'S LIFE

9

Mu, we know that Wu Yun's grandfather, Wu Yuan ~ :7G, was recommended as Filial and Incorrupt (xiaolian :;:~). 11 Wu Yun's father, Wu Yuanheng ~5C-T, once occupied the post ofPrefect (cishi i!iiJ51:!) ofXiazhou ~ 1'1'1, on the banks ofthe Changjiang in present-day Hubei. Sadly, nothing else is known of either of them. As to Wu Yun's place of origin (not necessarily his place of birth, but the place where his family was registered), the biographical sketch in the Jiu Tang shu and the Wu Zunshi zhuan and Mao shan zhi which copy it, state that it was the region of Lu f1. (present-day Shandong province), the cradle of Confucianism. Nothing in Wu Yun's writings, however, can substantiate this claim. We have every reason to assume that Huayin, north of Hua shan, in mid-distance between the two capitals Chang'an ffi::tc and Luoyang ~~~' was indeed Wu Yun's place of origin, as is agreed upon in most sources on Wu Yun's life. Accidentally or not, Wu Yun's writings reveal his sympathy for a number of earlier literati who had in some way or another been connected with Huayin. Wu Yun, for instance, liked quoting the poems of Zhang Xie i}ftihh (fl. 295), who, after having been District Magistrate (ling or 'Palace ofthe Dragon Omen.' It was believed that on the same spot the Yell ow Emperor had once erected the Houshen guan f'* tt¥ if;, the 'Temple for Awaiting the Divinities.' Renamed Huaixian guan :!f! {UJ if; ('Temple where Immortals are Cherished') under the Qin, it evidently fell in disuse, but was rebuilt in Shenlong tt¥!~ 1 (705). The temple was again renamed in Kaiyuan 2 (714), after ajiao ritual performed by Celestial Master Ye Fashan had caused a dragon to appear there. 212 The fifteenth day of the seventh month (zhongyuan ri), one of the san yuan -=.]G or three "days of origin," had long been a day of religious festivities. Originally an important Daoist religious festival, it was later also integrated into Buddhist practice. 213 It is the day when a festival is held in honour of the Official of Earth (Diguan t-113'§'), one of the Three Officials to whom every Daoist is accountable, as if they were his "big brothers," to borrow John Lagerwey's description. 214 In Tang times it was not unusual to commemorate this day in the form of a 210

Jiatai Kuaiji zhi, compiled 1201 by Shi Su 1$1§ (c. 1150-1213), (Song Yuan fangzhi congkan ed.), 15.29a-34a. 211 On Emperor Xuanzong's decision to rename all prefectural Laozi temples throughout the realm as Ziji gong, see Quan Tang wen, 24.281. 212 Jiatai Kuaiji zhi, 7.lb-6a and the remaining fragment of He Zhizhang's 'Longrui gongji' li~l'lffi'§"~, in Chen Yuan, Daojiajinshi liie, p. 145. 213 For a discussion of different views on the Buddhist or Daoist origins of the zhongyuan festival, see Yoshioka Yoshitoyo sli'i'iJ~~. Dokyo to Bukkyo, vol. 2 (Tokyo: Toshima shobo, 1970), pp. 229-285 and Stephen F. Teiser, The Ghost Festival in Medieval China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 35-42. 214 John Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987), p. 21.

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poem. The Quan Tang shi contains individual poems by emperor Dezong fl!t* (r. 780-804), Lu Gong Jam (a contemporary of Bai Juyi 8 ,@- £ ), Linghu Chu ~ W~ (766-837), Li Shangyin $ fffi ~~ (813?-858), Li Qunyu $tW::E (c. 813 -c. 860), Yin Yaofan n~~fl (jinshi 814), Lu Guimeng ~~-~ (died c. 881) and Li Ying $¥~ (jinshi 856). No less than six poems by Luo Yin commemorating zhongyuan days have been preserved. Of special significance to students ofDaoism are Yin Yaofan's poem 'Observing Daoist Priests Pacing the Void on the zhongyuan Day' t:j:ljC 1=1 fi~J!!±?VJ.l and three poems by Linghu Chu and Lu Guimeng dedicated to Daoist priests. 215 Interesting to note, moreover, is that under Xuanzong, scholars from the Chongxuan College "!£. lectured in the Daode jing, the Zhuangzi and the other Daoist classics, with all court dignitaries present, on all three days of origin. 216 Wu Yun, it will be noted, is addressed as 'Celestial Master Wu' in the title of our lianju. This, of course, does in no way imply that he had any relation with the Celestial Master lineage of Longhu shan fl~!]E W (Jiangxi). In Wu Yun's day, it is highly unlikely that any Celestial Master centre existed at Longhu shan, and the Zhang's who claimed descent from the original Celestial Master Zhang Daoling lived scattered over the empire.217 As Russell Kirkland has remarked, addressing Daoists of some renown as Celestial Masters (a term first found in the Zhuangzi) was not at all uncommon in Tang times. 218 In the Tianzhu guan ji :Rttflfc, a record of the Daoist temple where Wu Yun spent some of the last years of his life, Daoist priests as varied as Ye Fashan, Wu Yun, Ji Qiwu ~~t!W, Sima Chengzhen and Xiahou Ziyun ~ ~-T~ are all given the title of Celestial Master. 219 However, whether a good measure of public regard alone can explain why some

**

215

Quan Tang shi, 334.3751, 492.5566 and 626.7197. It is mentioned in Zheng Chuhui's ~Jii&$J Minghuang zalu, p. 55. 217 The first unmistakable evidence of the Zhang Tianshi centre at Longhu shan is certainly not older than the ninth century. Cf. T.H. Barrett, "The Emergence of the Taoist Papacy in the T'ang Dynasty," Asia Major, Third Series, Vol. VII.1 (1994), pp. 89-106. 218 "Dimensions of Tang Taoism: The State of the Field at the End of the Millennium," T'angStudies 15-16 (1997-98), p. 96. 219 Dongxiao tuzhi, 6.71-74 and Quan Tang wen, 130.1304. This record was written in Guanghua :J't;{~ 3 (900) by (or rather for) Qian Liu ~~ (852-932), first ruler of the Hangzhou-based kingdom ofWu-Yue ~~216

WU YUN'S LIFE

67

Tang Daoists were addressed as tianshi is a question that deserves closer scrutiny and to which we shall return in the final chapter of this book. Let us take a more detailed look at Wu Yun's thirteen literary companions. Seven of them have left no trace in either of the two Tang dynastic histories. Of Fan Yan ffi:t1tt, Du Yi f±~, Zheng Gai IHi and Fan Xun ~Eu, as good as nothing is known. Their contribution to posterity has shrunk to one or two poems, an occasional prose piece or a few lines in a lianju. Liu Fan itl?l was ajinshi graduate from Tianbao 6 (747). Chen Yuanchu ~jG:fJJ (whose name is sometimes given as Chen Yunchu ~ftfJJ), a resident ofMayuan !.ffllJA, must have been a man of some literary promise, having once held the office of Editor (jiaoshulang ~-ll!~). Qiu Dan, a native of Suzhou, apparently alternated stints as Prefect of Zhuji ~:I: and Secretarial Court Gentleman (shangshu lang [i!i]:S:ll!~) with periods of reclusion on Linping shan~ .lJZJlJ. From the titles of the dozen or so remaining poems ofhis, we can infer that he must have been on close terms with Wei Yingwu. Li Qing $r]lf was ajinshi graduate of Tianbao 12 (753). The Xin Tang shu mentions one Attendant-in-ordinary (changshi ~1~) named Li Qing, but whether he is the same person is not certain. 220 Xie Liangfu, who passed thejinshi examination in Tianbao 11 (752), would be murdered in 783 by mutinous soldiers in Shangzhou itl'1 ~·1·1, of which Xie was then Prefect. 221 Of Xie Liangbi, possibly Xie Liangfu's brother, no individual poems have been preserved. Together with men such as the guwen precursor Dugu Ji ~RL\& (725-777), he is mentioned in Li Hua's Xin Tang shu biography as having been among Li's proteges, a privilege thanks to which he later rose to high office. 222 As we shall see, Xie Liangbi would be of special significance in the context ofWu Yun's religious activities. The Tang dynastic histories contain no biography ofYan Wei. Only the Xin Tang shu mentions the existence of his collected poems in one juan. 223 This one volume of verse earned him a place in the Yuan dynasty Tang caizi zhuan m::t-1-fi and a few mentions in local gazetteers. Hailing from Yuezhou, or Kuaiji (he was thus at home when

*•

220

Xin Xin 222 Xin 223 Xin 221

Tang shu, Tang shu, Tang shu, Tang shu,

72A.2537. 7.190. 203.5776. 60.1610.

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the linked verse was written), Yan Wei passed thejinshi examination in Zhide ~~! 2 (757), having failed at an earlier attempt in the Tianbao period. When he was made Defender (wei .W) of Zhuji, he was already in his forties. The poverty of his family and the old age of his parents did not allow him to stray far from his native place. Poems exchanged with contemporaries indeed confirm that Yan Wei stayed in or around Kuaiji at least until 776. Later he was appointed Assistant in the Palace Library (bishu lang f. Mf R~ ). He died sometime between 779 and 784. 224 Thanks to the biographies ofLii Wei and Bao Fang we can date our lianju with certainty. In Dali 7 (772), Lii Wei (735-800), native of Hezhong, whose father's last appointment had been that of Military Commissioner (jiedushi 11fi 13t f!l:!) of Zhedong, acted as Commissioner's Agent (zhishi :X f!l:!) to Li Han ¥lti (d. 784 ), then Surveillance Commissioner (guancha shi) ofZhexi WfW. From Li Han's Jiu Tang shu biography we know that Li concurrently acted as Prefect of Suzhou, Censor-in-chief (yushi dafu 1&il 5e. :k) and Surveillance Commissioner between 771 and 776, when he was called back to court. 225 From Guangde JJH! 1 (763) to Dali 5 (770), Lii Wei had been Administrator of the Military Service Section (bingcao canjun ~ill~$) of Yuezhou, the place where our lianju was written. This would give the end of 770 as terminus ante quem for the writing of our linked verse. Lii Wei was reappointed Palace Censor (dianzhong shi yushi ~ r:p {=iff&p 5e.) and Administrative Assistant (panguan *U'B) before the end of the Dali period. Later he would occupy a number of important posts in the central government, including that of Vice Minister in the Ministry of Rites (libu shilang) and Surveillance Commissioner ofHunan.226 Bao Fang (722-790), a native of Xiangyang ~ ~~ (or Luoyang, according to some sources), passed the jinshi examination in 753 and consequently joined the staff of Xue Jianxun --~)11, Surveillance Commissioner of Zhedong from 762 to 770. 227 After Xue had been

* *

224

On Yan Wei's life, see Fu Xuancong (ed.), Tang caizi zhuanjiaojian, vol. 1, pp. 604-9 and vol. 5, pp. 135-7. 225 See Wu Tingxie :!R~~. Tang fangzhen nianbiao n\i'JJ~:!f.~ (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), p. 746 for detailed dates. 226 Ui Wei's biographies are in Jiu Tang shu, p. 3768 and Xin Tang shu, p. 4966. For details about his appointment as Examination Administrator from 795 through 797, see Xu Song, Dengkejikao, pp. SOl, 505 and 515. 227 Wu Tingxie, Tangfangzhen nianbiao, pp. 771-3.

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69

reappointed in Hedong, Bao Fang was promoted to Palace Censor and would therefore have left Zhejiang for the capital in the course of 770. In the title of our lianju, Bao is addressed as 'Very Honorable' (duangong tcffif 0 ), an unofficial reference to executive officials of the Censorate. Our lianju must thus have been written in 770, shortly after Bao's appointment. As we shall see, this is borne out by the first lines of the linked verse. Later, Bao Fang would be reappointed Vice Director of the Bureau of Operations (zhifang yuanwailang ~~jj ~:71-~~) and then Vice Governor (shaoyin 1/~) ofTaiyuan :;.t\:)]j( in 776 or 777. Bao Fang was Examination Administrator from 784 to 786. 228 Interesting in the context of this linked verse is that Bao Fang's Xin Tang shu biography mentions his close friendship with the abovementioned Secretariat Drafter (zhongshu sheren l:f:S:* A) Xie Liangbi. 229 Though less well known than the group of literati and writers of linked verse around Yan Zhenqing, 230 the majority of our group of fourteen left plenty of traces indicating that they also made their contribution to the eighth-century revival of the linked verse. Four lianju by Yan Wei, Bao Fang and their circle have been preserved. 231 Apart from the one in honour of Wu Yun, one deals with drunk talk, and a third one is formally interesting as it consists of couplets of lines the length of which gradually increases from one to nine characters. The fourth one, written on the occasion of a visit to the famous Lanting IIi~, mentions Liu Quanbai ~tl~B as one ofthe contributors, a name that, like Wu Yun's, is also connected to a group of literati around Yan Zhenqing, whom we shall meet again when discussing another linked verse. 232 In addition to these four lianju, two series of twelve poems 228

Dengke jikao, pp. 422, 431, 441. Xin Tang shu 159.4950. 230 See Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'ang (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 295-8 and infra, pp. 83-84. 231 Quan Tang shi, 789.8888-9 and Quan Tang shi waibian ~jl!f~;rj-~ (comp. by Wang Zhongmin ::£:1:~, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1982), p. 411. 232 There are indications that also Wu Yun was part of the group that composed the Lanting lianju. The Song dynasty Xiqi congyu 2§'~~~. written by Yao Kuan ~lsj'; (1105-1162) (Hanfon lou biji ed., l.lOb), mentions what must have been the introduction to one of SuShi's ~ilii\:; (1036-1101) numerous poems following Tao Yuanming's (365-427) rhyme schemes. This introduction states that in 773 a visit to the Orchid Pavillion was celebrated with a linked verse to which thirty-seven people contributed verse, among them Wu Yun and Lii Wei. This information is corroborated 229

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each, titled 'Remembering Chang'an' 'it~~ and 'Describing Jiangnan' AA:riP-Ji:j, testify to the poetical activities of part of the group around Bao Fang. The initiative to compose these series seems to have been Xie Liangfu's, the only one to contribute two poems to each series. Apart from Bao Fang and Xie Liangfu, also Qiu Dan, Du Yi, Zheng Gai, Chen Yuanchu, Li.i Wei, Fan Xun and Liu Fan wrote poems for one or both of the series. Of considerable importance is the poetical series on 'Describing Jiangnan.' In its appreciation of the beauties of southeast China, it set an example later followed by famous writers such as Liu Yuxi Jtl~~ (772-842), Bai Juyi (772-846) and Wei Zhuang ~itt (836-910), to name but a few Tang dynasty examples. Moreover, it bears witness to one of the key developments in China's transition from a medieval to a premodern society, to wit, the shift of China's cultural and economic centre from the old heartland to the Lower Yangzi region. The simple fact that our group of poets clung to their memories of Chang' an, all the while developing a taste for the scenic beauties of the Jiangnan region, epitomizes the tension experienced by the first generation of literati who left the old capital after An Lushan's rebellion, and who, in more than one case, would never return. 233 So far, we have found little or no evidence of Wu Yun's thirteen companions' involvement with Daoism. Only one anecdote from a Late Tang collection has been preserved, indicating that one member of our group had close contacts with Daoism. Li.i Wei, who, according to some traditions, was the grandfather ofLi.i Dongbin §:(liiJ~, is mentioned as an intimate friend ofTian Xuying 00 ~/!!, who is perhaps better known under his zi Liangyi ~~. This Daoist priest, rainmaker and exemplary filial son from Heng shan 1ti!ll (the southern of China's five sacred peaks, in central Hunan), gained quite a reputation for his Daoist techniques around the beginning of the Yuanhe period (806-820). The by Jiatai Kuaiji zhi, 19. 19a-b. 233 On the poetical activities of Bao Fang and his circle, see Jia Jinhua li it¥, "Dali nian Zhedong lianchangji kaoshu" «*~fF-Wf.Jii[JIWP~~))~~. Wenxue yichan zengkan ::lO~H~:~:tf!ffU 18 (1989), pp. 99-107, Jiang Yin's Dali shiren yanjiu, pp. 146-64 and Ichikawa Kiyoshi II rff"~. "Ro Shigen ni tsuite- Ryfi An oyobi An-Shi no ran chokugo no Kaikei shijin shfidan to no kanren ni oite", Nippon Chilgoku gakkai h6 48 (1996), pp. 148-163. The twelve Jiangnan poems have been studied by Zheng Xuemeng ~¥f,i!, "Cong 'Zhuang Jiangnan' zushi kan Tangdai Jiangnan de shengtai huanjing" 1:£ ((J!;ll:t[jij)) *li~~n§'~t[jij~1:_1@l:fll~. Tangyanjiu P;!fii}f~ I (1995), pp. 377-384.

m)

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71

Nanyue xiaolu i¥HiVJ'~ (D 453), compiled in 902 by Li Chongzhao *f!PEIR, contains several references to Tian Liangyi, who alledgedly attained immortality on Heng shan in February of Yuanhe 6 (811). Another important source on the life of Tian Liangyi is the Dongxuan lingbao sanshi ji :iliil ::Q,:!f)l .=_gijj~t, (D 444), which outlines the scriptural transmission later inherited by the great Du Guangting HJ\::~ (850-933). According to the Sanshiji, Tian Liangyi received the "great method of Upper Clarity" J:.r'flfjcy~ from Xue Jichang iW~~ (died 759), a tradition ultimately reaching back to Tao Hongjing, via Wang Yuanzhi, Pan Shizheng and Sima Chengzhen. 234 The hagiographic account of Tian Liangyi' s life in the Sanshi ji seems to border on the fantastic: Tian is supposed to have been alive under the Sui dynasty already, which makes him at least two centuries old by the time of his friendly relations with Lii Wei. That these relations did exist has not to be doubted, our source of information being the reputedly trustworthy Yinhua lu. 235 When Lii Wei, so Zhao Lin inform us, was Surveillance Commissioner of Hunan, i.e., between 797 and his death in 800, his admiration for Tian Liangyi was such that he even treated Tian as his master ~tii)giff*· Tian later expressed his fondness ofLii when he was visited by Lii's son Wen~ (775-814), then prefect ofHengzhou. That not only Lii Wei but our whole group of fourteen was well versed in Daoist lore is evident from the linked verse they wrote. Following is a translation of the 'Linked Verse [Written at the Occasion of] Meeting Celestial Master Wu at the Residence of the Very Honorable Bao on the Fifteenth Day of the Seventh Month,' accompanied by a running commentary. The follower of the Way being an archivist, Religious precepts descend from the Perfected Immortal. (Yan Wei) When confronted with the term "archivist" (zhushi 1±.51::, short for zhuxia shi tl:r 51::), one automatically thinks ofLaozi, who since Han times has been credited with this function. However, the post of zhushi has another meaning. It is an archaic reference to the post of Censor, more specifically to an Attendant Censor (shi yushi f~~~ 51::) or a Palace Censor (dianzhong shi yushi ~ 'i=' f~ ~ 5I:: ), the latter of which 234

On the Dongxuan lingbao sanshiji, see Franciscus Verellen, Du Guangting, pp. 17-27 and T.H. Barrett, "The Emergence of the Taoist Papacy in the T'ang Dynasty", pp. 99-100. 235 Yinhua lu (Zhongguo xueshu mingzhu ed.), 4.26.

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functions was precisely the one Bao Fang had been appointed to. It is thus clear that the "follower of the Way" in the first line cannot denote anyone but Bao Fang. 236 Just as Bao Fang is likened to Laozi himself, Wu Yun, the Daoist priest in residence responsible for handing down religious precepts, is called a Perfected Immortal (zhenxian ¥Hili). Bonded together on this zhongyuan gathering, We set out cultivating the Book of the Inner Prospects. (Bao Fang) The neijing pian pq~if, as it is called here, is of course short for Huangting neijing jing ~ ~ pq :il'H~, the work which, recited ten thousand times, was supposed to confer immortality. 237 As the Scripture of the Yellow Court was a very popular text among Shangqing adepts, it is often forgotten that it not only predated the Shangqing school but was also warmly recommended by the early Celestial Masters. 238 Wu Yun attached great importance to this classic and quotes it throughout his writings. The reading of both Huangting neijing and Huangting waijing ~~Ji-~ is furthermore advocated in the sections on qi absorption (juqi R~*t) and sexual practice (shoushen ~;f$) ofWu Yun's Discourse on the Feasibility ofConsolidating Body and Spirit (Xingshen kegu lun %;f$PJI1li!mil!). T.H. Barrett, in his study ofDaoism under the Tang, has stated that "By the ninth century ... there is plenty of evidence that even the longer version (the Huangting neijing jing) was widely read by persons with a very superficial knowledge of Taoism."239 Thanks to Bao Fang's contribution to this lianju, we can ascertain that one century earlier, the Huangtingjing was studied by groups of laymen under the guidance of Daoist priests. Though our wanderings take place in secluded spots, In selecting a house, we like it to be our neighbour's. (Xie Liangfu) 236

Yan Wei used the same zhushi in a poem to another Censorate official, see 'Shanzhong zeng Zhang Qing shiyu,' Quan Tang shi, 242.2719. 237

See the entry on Wei Huacun in Taiping guangji, 58.357. Zhen gao, 15.l0a describes a method of a Master Meng :it. ;t; 1:: whereby one recites the entire Huangting neijing jing once before going to sleep every evening. When practised regularly, one achieves immortality after 21 years. It is even better to recite the text three or four times each evening. If one does not manage to practise this for the full number of years, it will still guard against disease, and is therefore a way to no-death (busi zhi dao >F:9EZJ!!). 238 Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, pp. 172, 175. 239

T.H. Barrett, Taoism under the T'ang, p. 82.

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Many medieval Daoists have stressed the importance of physical separation from the world of ordinary mankind for anyone engaging in Daoist practices. Although we have no precise data concerning the place of origin of Xie Liangfu and Xie Liangbi, there's a fair chance they belonged to the powerful Xie clan of Kuaiji, which had age-old ties with the Celestial Master movement. They might thus have literally been Bao Fang's neighbours. Out of its precious box emerges the Golden Register, The Flowery Pond is rinsed by the Jade Spring. (Du Yi) The first line suggests that on this day Wu Yun performed a Retreat of the Golden Register (Jinlu zhai ~~~),a ceremony destined to avert disaster, protect the emperor and bring prosperity to the realm. It was not at all unusual to hold a Retreat of the Golden Register on the zhongyuan day; we even possess a Tang dynasty example of the ritual text a Daoist master could be heard to intone on this specific occasion. 240 At first sight, Du Yi' s second line (huachi shu yuquan ¥i!t!?lliX3.5JR) would seem to refer to two legendary ponds in the Kunlun Mountains, mentioned in the Shiji, which quotes the Basic Annals ofYu, and the chapter 'Tan tian' ~.:R in the Lun heng fllil1i". 241 The line is also reminiscent of Sun Chuo's f*-*'1! (ca. 314- ca. 371) You Tiantai shanfu Vff..:R-a UJ«W:?42 However, rather than referring to geographical locations, Du Yi is in all likelihood hinting at the purification rites held before every retreat. The Flowery Pond corresponds to the mouth, more specifically the part of the mouth under the tongue. "Jade Spring" denotes the saliva formed underneath the tongue. 243 A wonderful dragon goes where its wings take it, Green banners descend from the mists. (Li Qing) See the 'Zhongyuan zhongxiu jinlu zhai ci' "P:lGXRf~~ilm'i"J by Du Guangting, Quan Tang wen, 935.9731-2. 241 Shiji, 123.3179; Lunheng zhushi IDfii1l'T?±~ (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979), p. 611. 242 Wen xuan, 11.166. David Knechtges, 'Wen xuan' or Selections of Refined Literature, vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1987), pp. 250-1, translates: "Rinse my mouth in Floriate Pond springs." 243 See Sandong zhunang (D 1139), 10.2a and Sun zhenren beiji qianjin yaofang f*~.A.-Dm~=f~~JJ (D 1163), 81.8b for descriptions ofthe wholesome effects of rinsing the mouth with saliva. For a short description of the rinsing of the mouth before conducting worship in the oratory, see Yunji qiqian, 45.11b. 240

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The reference to dragons and banners is reminiscent of the hagiographies of Wang Yuan ::E.~ and Cai Jing ~U~ in the Shenxian zhuan tlJlfu.J{t, where the arrival of Wang Yuan and his supernatural officials at Cai Jing's home is described in detail. 244 Where formerly the Cinnabar Furnace was left behind, It has now been transformed into seas and fields. (Liu Fan) The Cinnabar Furnace ::JSH± (which would become a neidan term for the physical body) occurs in Jiang Yan's 'Rhapsody on Separation' (Bie fu }jljJJit), where the alchemical exploits of a Daoist master of Huayin, who in the end "reverted to immortality" ~{Ill, are described.245 This in itself is already an allusion to Wu Yun, who hailed from Huayin. As David Knechtges246 has noted, furthermore, Jiang Yan's evocation of the Daoist may also contain an allusion to the immortal Wangzi Qiao, who took leave of this world on Mount Goushi, an act celebrated by Wu Yun in his poem 'The Temple on Mount Gou. ' 247 Liu Fan's mention of the Cinnabar Furnace would thus twice allude to Wu Yun. Liu Fan, moreover, continues quoting from the source first tapped by Li Qing. The "transformation of seas and fields" ~~ IH refers to the female immortal Magu's ~M words, when she visits Wang Yuan at Cai Jing's home. 248 Cultivating the form, one courses the two luminants, Refining the bones, one lives a thousand years longer. (Xie Liangbi) The "two luminants" (er jing =:i!:, which some prefer to render as "radiances" or "phosphors") are the sun and the moon. Visualizing sun and moon as part of the practice of conducting the qi through the body,

244

Liexian zhuanjinyi, Shenxian zhuanjinyi, p. 248. On Wang Yuan's position in Shangqing Daoism, see S. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, p. 351. The green banners (qingjie ilritn) are also found in a 'Preface Taking Leave of Two or Three Perfected ofthe Central Marchmount' J.llj9Jffi.=.:=.~AI¥ by Chen Zi'ang lli!FfEf!J, dated 695, which, among other things, mentions Chen's meeting with Sima Chengzhen, who had studied with Pan Shizheng on Song shan (Quan Tang wen, 214.2164). 245 Jiang ,. rr; . h u, p. 39 . rrentong)l•• h uzz 246

Knechtges, 'Wen xuan' or Selections of Refined Literature, vol. 3 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 208. 247 248

Cf. supra, p. 49. Liexian zhuan jinyi, Shenxian zhuan jinyi, p. 249.

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= ),

is at least as old as the Huangting jing. 249 A convenient source for the practice of "coursing the two radiances" (ben er jing ~ ~ translated by Isabelle Robinet as "rejoindre les deux astres," 250 is the Taishang yuchen yuyi jielin ben riyue tu :t:J:::=li.~~f~U~fA~ B11111 (D 435), which incorporates early Shangqing materials on convoking the divinities of sun and moon. In the Zhen gao, Tao Hongjing also mentions "the way to course the two radiances" ~=~J!!, otherwise known as the method of Yilin f*lfA. 251 Erjing also alludes to certain sexual techniques described in Zhen gao 2.2a, whereby there is no physical but only spiritual contact between the male and female partners. However, it is highly doubtful that this latter technique would be referred to in the specific context of this poem. One point which needs to be stressed here is that, of the Daoist technical vocabulary in our linked verse, "coursing the two radiances" is the most specialized term. One would not expect someone totally uninitiated in Daoist practice to use this technical term. As we shall see, it is definitely no coincidence that Xie Liangbi is the contributor of these lines. Riding a bamboo staff, I throw it into [Lake Ge]bei, Carrying a gourd, I suspend it beside the window. (Zheng Gai) The gourd and the bamboo staff which is ridden and then thrown into the lake are of course all references to the well-known story of Fei Changfang Jt-Rm meeting the old man in the gourd, Hugong ]i0, as told in both the Hou Han shu :f&¥JH!f and the Shenxian zhuan. 252 The bamboo staff served a double function: besides being used as a replacement for Fei Changfang's body in order to fool his relatives, it also served as a means of transport. Thrown into Lake Gebei :1 ~El, the staff changed into a dragon. Needless to say, Zheng Gai is being very courteous here. Assuming for himself the role of Fei Changfang, who 249

See, e.g., Huangting neijingjing 2.4, l±ll=l.i\Jl 11¥1!&1'¥, rendered by Paul Kroll as "With emergent sun and retreating moon, exhale, inhale, actualizing them." See DonaldS. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Religions ofChina in Practice (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1996), p. 152. 250 Isabelle Robinet, "Randonnees extatiques des taorstes dans les astres," Monumenta Serica 32 (1976), pp. 159-273, in particular p. 206. Yuji and Jielin occur in several ofWu Yun's works, such as the Dengzhenfo and the third and seventh of his buxu ci. 251 D 1016, 18.12a. 252 Hou Han shu, 828.2743-5 and Liexian zhuanjinyi, Shenxian zhuanjinyi, pp. 334-6.

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came close to obtaining the Way but failed the final test, Wu Yun is likened to Hugong, a true immortal banished only temporarily to this world. 253 Inside the cavern, you experienced entering into quietude, On the river bank, we talked long ofthe Mystery. (Chen Yuanchu) As no subject is mentioned, Chen Yuanchu's lines of verse are rather ambiguous. A word-for-word translation would read: "Inside cavern experience entering into quietude I On river bank talk long ofMystery." Could Chen Yuanchu have been suggesting that the whole group of fourteen actually gathered inside a cavern to "experience entering into quietude"? This may seem somewhat unlikely. Not because Kuaiji lacked caverns. Mount Kuaiji, which housed the Longrui gong, was also the home of the tenth of the so-called Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens, called Jixuan yangming dongtian t~iL!l~~ijFJ?IiiJ~. 254 "Entering into quietude," my literal translation of rujing }\.~ (also written as Aliff) denotes the act of entering the "quiet chamber" or oratory (jingshi ~*), the purified and sacred space to which the Daoist adept retreats so as to conduct meditation and worship, and - in the context of Celestial Master Daoism - the place from which the priest sends up his petitions to the gods. The term, of course, was also used to indicate a condition of profound mental and physical rest, whereby the adept is simultaneously aloof from the outside world and in a heightened state of consciousness, or, as Lu Xiujing expressed it, "in a state of extreme sincerity."255 One would thus expect Wu Yun to 253

In Wushang biyao, 83.10b, Hugong, whose real name is said to have been Shi Cun :li!!!f¥, is listed among those who have obtained the rank of earthly immortal. 254 According to Jiatai Kuaiji zhi, 11.8a-b, Yangming dongtian was not the tenth but the eleventh of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens. The same text states that Yuan Zhen .:7[; fl (779-831 ), Surveillance Commissioner of Zhedong in the midtwenties of the ninth century, offered at this cave. The long poem Yuan wrote to commemorate this event has been preserved, cf. Yuan Zhen ji j[;fl~ (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1982), pp. 313-14. 255 Early references to rujing and descriptions of the jingshi can be found in Lu Xiujing's Lu xiansheng daomen keliie ~)t1:.i!!r~f-J.Ilij't (D 1127, 4b-5a) and Tao Hongjing's Dengzhen yinjue ~JHiliJc, which devotes an entire subsection of the thirdjuan to the 'Method of entering into quietude' (Rujingfa). See Dengzhenyinjue (D 421), 3.5b-11b. Translations by Peter Nickerson, "Abridged Codes of Master Lu for the Daoist Community," in Donald Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Religions ofChina in Practice, p. 355; Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, "Das Ritual der Himmelsmeister im Spiegel fiiiher Quellen," Ph.D. diss., Julius-Maximilians-Universitiit, Wiirzburg, 1987, pp. 63-65, 107-122. The importance ofthejingshi as a place of worship, exorcism and expiation

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have been the sole occupant of the quiet chamber, where he prepared for the retreat he was going to hold on the zhongyuan day. However, in Celestial Master practice it seems to have been quite common for (probably restricted numbers of) disciples and faithful of both sexes to be present in the jingshi. Yunji qiqian 45, e.g., contains excerpts from the Zhengyi lu IE- 5 detailing the ritual procedures for all persons entering the oratory. We learn about the number of prostrations which all students who were about to receive instruction were supposed to make. And the following rule confirms that persons who had not yet achieved priesthood may have been present in the quiet chamber while the priest himself was absent: "If the Master is in a faraway place, those who enter the oratory should most earnestly and repeatedly do obeisance with their faces turned in the direction their Master has taken."256 Perhaps Wu Yun did in fact enter the oratory accompanied by his thirteen poetical partners - of which at least one was a genuine disciple. . Rujing is often found in Tang poetry, such as in Wang Jian's .:E.~ (c. 751- 830) 'Seeing off a Palace Lady who is entering upon the Way' *'8 A./\5!!. 257 Another poem, by Wang Jian's friend Zhang Ji ~ft (c. 767- c. 830), entitled 'Looking for Daoist Priest Xu' ~~)!!±, suggests that entering into quietude could entail a significant amount of time. This is how it reads: of sins in early Celestial Master practice is referred to in the early eighth-century Yaoxiu keyi jielii chao ~{~'f-l-{#111iXW:t) (D 463 ), 10.2a. The Zhengyi weiyi jinglEm!Gf#11~~ (D 791), an eighth-century compilation, 6a-b, contains four sets of ritual prescriptions related to the entering of the oratory. Zhen gao, 7.9b-10a, 9.13a, 10.20b-21b, 10.25a-b, 18.3a, 18.6b-7a contain references to the meditative visualization of the Shangqing gods in the quiet chamber. Besides describing the jingshi, Michel Strickmann has also illustrated how the jingshi functioned as a refuge in times of crisis, c£ Le taoisme du Mao Chan: chronique d'une revelation (Paris: College de France, 1981), pp. 149-152. Wu Yun himself has left us a description of the particular state of mind that may inspire the individual to retreat to his quiet chamber. C£ Xuangang 16, translation pp. 213-15 of this book. The reader may also consult Taishang yuanbao jinting wuwei miaojing ::tJ:::lC Jl ~~~~tl'..H~ (D 1399) 15a-b and the study by Yoshikawa Tadao sJIIfi\':,;k, "Seishitsu ko" K$~~. T6h6 gakuh6 59 (1987), pp. 125-162. 256 .. qzqzan, . . 45 .4a-b . 1"'un}l 257 Quan Tang shi, 300.3412. The poem has been translated by Suzanne Cahill, "Performers and Female Taoist Adepts: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China," Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986), p. 162. On the role of Daoism in Wang Jian's poetry, see Chi Naipeng :l& JJ.Illll, Wang Jian yanjiu conggao :E.Jl.JiJf~ltffi (Chengdu: Ba-Shu shushe, 1997), pp. 224-237.

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Looking for the master I came from afar to the Temple of Radiant Heaven, The courtyard is overgrown with bamboo blocking the medicine room. I learn that since entering into quietude seven days have passed, Under the eaves the immortal's boy servant is alone burning incense. 258 An interesting occurrence of rujing, illustrating the possible dangers of entering into quietude, is in the Zizhi tongjian, where the death in 887 of LU Yongzhi 8 ffl Z, the Daoist traditionally held responsible for "misguiding" Gao Pian r'i'D~ during the last years of the latter's life, is described. Hours before LU Yongzhi was cut in two at the waist by the local strongman Yang Xingmi ti1i~, it was discovered that LU had been plotting to murder Gao Pian, Military Commissioner ofYangzhou t!HI'I, in the following manner. On the night before the zhongyuan day, he would invite Gao Pian to hold a Retreat of the Yellow Register (Huanglu zhai fi~Jf). Taking advantage of Gao Pian having entered the oratory, LU would proceed to strangle Gao to death, spread the word that Gao had ascended to Heaven and have himself installed as the new Military Commissioner. Besides drawing attention to the vulnerability of one who has entered the oratory, this passage is interesting because of how it connects the zhongyuan day, the holding of a Daoist retreat and the practise ofrujing. 259 "On the river bank" (heshang :fJiJ 1::) is of course a reference to Heshang gong :fJiJ 1::0 and his Daode jing commentary - the most influential Daode jing commentary in Tang times. It should also be noted that under the Tang, the expression "talk of the mystery" (tanxuan ~ ::tz:), was explicitly linked to the Zhuangzi. The "three mysterious ones" (sanxuan .::::.. ::tz: ), i.e. Yi jing, Daode jing and Zhuangzi, were also known respectively as Zhenxuan Ji::tz:, Xuxuan l!!fijz,: and Tanxuan. 260 258

Quan Tang shi, 386.4353. Zizhi tongjian, 257.8370. See also the twenty-sixth of Wang Jian's series of one hundred gongci '§i"J (Quan Tang shi, 302.3441), where the zhongyuan zhai is mentioned, and Xuantan kanwu tun $:11lfij~~ (D 1280) 1b-3a, for two additional discussions of rujing. 260 Lti Cheng §~, Zhongguo Foxue yuanliu liiejiang 9JwlHI!l~7!ll51CPJt!t~ 259

(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979), p. 261.

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Far away is the mouth organ's music ofYi and Luo, On Penghu, the sun and moon stand slantways. (Fan Xun) This second allusion to Wangzi Qiao almost quotes verbatim the poem appended to the immortal prince's Liexian zhuan hagiography. 261 The original 'shengge Yi Luo' ~®\{jt~ has now become 'Yi Luo shengge yuan' {jl-~~®\)8!, indicating that Wu Yun has strayed far from the region where he lived before being forced south by An Lushan's rebellion. Wangzi Qiao, as is well known, liked to imitate the song of the phoenix on his mouth organ, the instrument so eloquently evoked by Pan Yue rlffi (247-300) in his Shengfu ~Ji. When travelling between the rivers Yi and Luo, Wangzi Qiao met a Daoist master, a certain Fuqiu gong f¥.1i0, whom he followed up Song shan. 262 Penghu ~~ is better known as Penglai ~~.one of three mythical islands off China's eastern coast reputedly shaped like a gourd. I have translated the 13 A illii in the second line literally. The image of sun and moon standing slantways might of course be understood as meaning that, on Penglai, where immortality rules, time (days and months) evolves in a way unknown to ordinary men. A black mule is pulled along by Ji Xun, A white dog is led by Boyang. (Qiu Dan) Both references are to animals brought back to life by immortals after having apparently died. The earliest mention of Ji Zixun raising his donkey from the dead is in Ji's Hou Han shu biography. However, Qiu Dan seems to have in mind the Shenxian zhuan here, where, contrary to theHou Han shu, the colorofJi Zixun's donkey is specified as black. 263 261

Liexian zhuanjinyi, Shenxian zhuanjinyi, p. 74. The meeting between Wangzi Qiao and Fuqiu Gong is also evoked in Li Bai's poem ~~~[.L.J~:;R;j±;p"ifl·f~~~113KilhLJ, Li Taibai quanji, 19.907-9. On the latter topic, the reader may consult Xia Xiaohong ~~!liT, "Tantan Li Bai de 'hao shenxian' yu congzheng de guanxi" ~Wk$ B fii,J"~tf!l!flll"W1~I§(ci¥-J!imf*, Wenxue yichan zengkan X*iiiiitfifU 14 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1982), pp. 196-211; Paul W. Kroll, "Li Po's Transcendent Diction," Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986), pp. 99-117 (which also contains a critical analysis of older studies on Li Bai and Daoism); Kong Fan 1U~, "Li Bai he daojiao" $8fo*Wc, Shijie zongjiao yanjiu 1991.4, pp. 19-27; Luo Zongqiang ~!*5~, "Li Bai de shenxian daojiao xinyang" $ B 1¥-Jf!l!flll*!i&f~frp, in Zhongguo Li Bai yanjiu hui 9=' WEI$ B11Jf ~fr (ed. ), Zhongguo Li Bai yanjiu 9=' WEI$ B 11Jf~ (Jiangsu Guji chubanshe, 1991 ), pp. 20-33. 263 Hou Han shu, 82B.2745-6 and Liexian zhuan jinyi, Shenxian zhuan jinyi, p. 316. 262

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Wei Boyang, traditionally credited with the authorship of the Cantong qi $1RJ~, was followed by a white dog as he went into the mountains. 264

Again, the origin of this story goes back to the Shenxian zhuan. Wei Boyang poisoned first his dog and then himself in order to put his three disciples to the test. After one disciple had followed his master's example, the two others decided to refrain from any further attempts at becoming immortal. As soon as they had left the scene, Wei Boyang revived himself, his faithful disciple and his dog, after which they all became immortal. Besides likening Wu Yun to an immortal who can raise others from the dead, the reference to Ji Zixun and Wei Boyang also hints at the place where our linked verse was written. According to Ji Zixun's Hou Han shu biography, he was seen in Kuaiji selling medicine by a centenarian, when that old man was still an adolescent. Wei Boyang, on the other hand, was believed by some to have hailed from Kuaiji. 265 We received the methods after the Grand Councilor, But our minds visualize "what predated the phenomenal ruler." (Lii Wei) The first line contributed by Lii Wei (¥t5H§tt1~) is a puzzling one. Xiangjun t§ tt normally is a title of respect for a Grand Councilor (zaixiang $;t§). However, whom this appellation should allude to in the context of this poem is a mystery. There is a possibility that xiang should be understood as the Buddhist laksana, and then xiangjun could be taken to mean something like "the Lord of External Appearances," which, admittedly, is not a standard term in Buddhism. Xiang di xian ~W)t; refers to the problematic conclusion of Daode jing 4, where the following is said about the dao: "I do not know whose child it is, it seems to have existed before the gods." Xiang has variously been explained as "to seem" (as in the Heshang gong commentary) and as pertaining to the formation of things phenomenal (as in Wang Anshi's ::E.:t2:;p" commentary). Whereas Heshang gong explains di as the Heavenly Ruler (tiandi .:R'it), Wang Anshi explains it as the 264 265

Liexian zhuan jinyi, Shenxian zhuan jinyi, pp. 235-6. C£ Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, 13.14a.

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ancestor of all living things (shengwu zhi zu 1:~Ztll). Whatever the implications of the phrase xiang di xian, it is obvious that Lii Wei makes clear that the minds of those present were centered on the dao. Once the Way is achieved, one is able to contract space, When merit is abundant, one will rise up to heaven. (Fan Yan) Contracting space (suodi ~±-@)was one of the things Fei Changfang was said to be capable of. 266 In Tang poetry, the expression was often used to indicate the meeting of two intimate friends normally separated by considerable distance. Why should I be led astray by my solitary nature? Restraining my emotions, I think fondly of you virtuous men. (Wu Yun) Accidentally or not, the expression "restraining the emotions" (hanqing -2;-·~l!f) also occurs in a poem on Mt. Lu by Jiang Yan (a poet much admired by Wu Yun), replete with images pointing at the wish to give up all worldly affairs and devote one's efforts to the obtainment of immortality?67 Wu Yun's message is thus ambivalent: whereas the poet first suggests that he would rather forget his own reclusive tendencies, the allusion to Jiang Yan's poem- well-known to all present, because included in the Wen xuan -hints at the opposite. Was this linked verse nothing but polite talk or casual flattery? Definitely not. From the references or allusions in the poem to the Huangting neijing jing, the Daode jing, Baopuzi, Heshang gong and the Liexian zhuan, and the use of technical terminology such as "flowery pond," "cinnabar furnace," "two luminants" and "entering into quietude," it is obvious that most of the participants had more than just a superficial knowledge of Daoism. The repeated references to the Shenxian zhuan might generate the impression that a number of Wu Yun's literary companions were merely acquainted with what some consider to be the "vulgar" side ofDaoism. It is, after all, convenient to consider the Shenxian zhuan primarily a work of fiction. However, one should not overlook the fact that in Wu Yun's eye, the Shenxian zhuan was as serious a source as any Daoist classic. In Wu Yun's Discourse 266

Baopuzi neipianjiaoshi, 12.228 and Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, 20.9b. ~nsti!i1T•.lJZ.±:~arlrw:ll!ill!, Wenxuan, 22.318-319 and Jiang Wentongji huizhu, p. 103. Paul W. Kroll (personal communication) has suggested that "full of emotions" would have been the most common sense of hanqing in Tang poetry. 267

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on the Feasibility of Consolidating Body and Spirit, for instance, Wu Yun illustrates his views on Daoist sexual techniques with quotes from the Shenxian zhuan, the Yinfu jing and Baopuzi. What should also be noted is that the participants in our lianju knew Wu Yun well enough to insert in their verse several references to immortals or Daoists that clearly allude to the life ofWu Yun himself. Our linked verse is thus a valuable indication of the degree to which Daoism penetrated the literati class of mid-Tang times. Testifying to Wu Yun's renown as a representative of the Daoist community is his role in a Buddho-Daoist confrontation initiated sometime between 770 and 773 by Chen Shaoyou ~yjQf (725-785), then Surveillance Commissioner of Zhedong (and, interestingly, an ex-student of the Daoist academy, the Chongxuan guan). Our source on this confrontation is the Song Gaoseng zhuan ?RJWjf~{t biography of Shenyong (710-788) f$ ~, a Buddhist monk of Yuezhou's Dali Monastery *~~, who was invited by Chen Shaoyou to decide on the question whether Buddhism or Daoism was to be considered the superior practice. Directly responsible for the confrontation were the anti-Buddhist treatises which Wu Yun had written earlier in the Dali era. Not surprisingly, Wu Yun's arguments are portrayed as utterly invalid against the refutations made by Shenyong. 268 From around the same time must date Wu Yun's correspondence with the Buddhist-oriented writer and thinker Liang Su W::Ji (753-793). One volume of their letters, now lost, was taken back to Japan by the monk SaichO ~~ (766-822). 269 Despite his aversion to Buddhism, Wu Yun was not loath to be seen in the company ofBuddhists. In the early spring of774, he took part in the writing of another linked verse. 270 This time the occasion was a visit 268

SongGaosengzhuan (T2061, 50.816a). Chen Shaoyou's biographies are inJiu Tang shu, 126.3562-66 and Xin Tang shu, 224A.6379-81. Shenyong later compiled his arguments into a three juan work, now lost, known under the titles Fanxie lun 1Im $~ and Podao fanmi lun 1ilffi!Jllffl~~. Shenyong, it will be noted, was on good terms with a number ofWu Yun's literary companions: he is said to have exchanged poetry with Lii Wei, Yan Wei, Qiu Dan and Chen Yunchu. 269 See the Dengy6 daishi sh6rai Esshu roku W~::7dlfill~*it!!1+1 ~ (T 2160, 55. 1058c.) 27 For the dating of this linked verse, see Jia Jinhua J( H~, Jiaoran nianpu llXM :kf.~ (Xiamen: Xiamen daxue chubanshe, 1992), p. 69. According to Amy McNair, "Draft Entry for a T'ang Biographical Dictionary," T'ang Studies 10-11 (1992-93), p. 138, the lianju was written in 773. The poem is in Quan Tang shi, 788.8880.

°

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*iiz

to the "stone goblet" ofLi Shizhi (died 747) on Xian shan ilil LlJ (south ofWuxing). Li Shizhi, a member of the imperial clan, was appointed chief minister in 742 but later fell victim to the power struggle that raged during the later years ofLi Linfu's administration. Accused of factionalism, he was banished and later committed suicide by poison 271 in order to avoid being executed. The Jiatai Wuxing zhi ·~~-it recounts how Li, when he was administrative aide to the prefect of Huzhou (during the Kaiyuan era), would often take along friends to a goblet-shaped rock on Xian shan. There they would drink and look off in the direction of the capital. When Li was appointed chief minister after a bout of drinking, the local population started calling the rock 272 Councilor Li's Stone Goblet **13~-. The linked verse in honour of Li Shizhi was initiated by Y an Zhenqing and is one of more than fifty connected with Yan Zhenqing and Jiaoran (730-799), the Buddhist poet and painter, and scion of the great Xie clan that had earlier produced Xie Lingyun. Apart from Yan Zhenqing, Jiaoran and Wu Yun, the twenty-six other participants in the lianju included a number of local officials from neighbouring counties, five more or less obscure relatives of Yan Zhenqing, Liu Bing's younger brother Dan, the Lunyu exegete and recluse Qiang Meng 5!l~, and a number of well-known literary figures, such as Lu Yu ~_m~~ (733-804), author of the Chajing AH-¥. Far less famous than Jiaoran and Lu Yu but worth mentioning in this context is Wei Qumou ¥~.$,a minor poet who was directly influenced by Wu Yun. Now chiefly remembered as the author of nineteen buxu ci, Wei Qumou started out as a Daoist - he was once a disciple of Li Hanguang - but later switched his allegiance to Buddhism. By the time the linked verse in honour ofLi Shizhi was written, Wei no longer wrote under his original name, using his Buddhist name Chenwai ~:11instead. 273 Of interest also is the presence of Zhang Jian iJN 11

axM

271

The downfall ofLi Shizhi and his associates is described in D. Twitchett (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3, pt. I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 420-24. 272 Jiatai Wuxing zhi, in Song Yuan fangzhi congkan, vol. 5, 18.21 a. Interestingly, the same work (j. 4.10b) also mentions that both Wu Jun of the Liang and Wu Yun of the Tang once resided on Wu shan ~ IlJ, a hill situated 43 li south of Wuxing. 273 Wei Qumou's initial interest in Daoist matters was probably informed by his being a scion of a clan with age-old ties to the Celestial Master movement, the Wei's of Jingzhao Jj(~~ (the western capital region). C£ Jiu Tang shu, 135.3728-29 and Xin Tang shu, 167.5109-10. Apparently, life as a Buddhist did not entirely satisfy Wei

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(744-804), who was much admired by Yan Zhenqing for his historical erudition and who would later embark upon a distinguished official career. Zhang Jian is the author ofthe Lingguaiji !1'1~~. a now only partially preserved collection of ghost stories in 2 juan. At least a dozen poems survive indicating that he was also quite close to Quan Deyu, the author of our Preface and of Zhang Jian' s funeral inscription. Of special significance to us, because it hints at another aspect of Wu Yun's activities in the Jiangnan area, is the presence ofLiu Quanbai, who in 794 would serve as prefect of Chizhou 7ID.1'1'1 and Wuxing. He wrote a commemorative inscription for Li Bai - it is his only surviving prose piece274 -and acted as an informant to Dai Fu j\t$ (jinshi 757), author of the Guangyiji }jf~fE:l.. An anecdote from the mid-ninth century Yinhua lu demonstrates that Wu Yun had more than just superficial ties with Liu Quanbai's family. The Yinhua lu was written by Zhao Lin, the grandson of Zhao Zongru Jl:f!!*fii, a minister at the time of Tang Dezong. Zhao Lin was also a distant relative of one of Emperor Xuanzong's concubines, the Lady of Handsome Fairness Liu (Liu Jieyu fmltift!Yf), the mother of Xuanzong's twentieth son, Li Bin ::$ f6t. As Zhao Lin had access to firsthand information passed on among family members, it is not surprising that the Yinhua lu is considered one of the most trustworthy of all Tang dynasty collections of anecdotes. The wife of the Director in the Ministry of Justice (xingbu langzhong lflj:tffi~~ r:fl) Yuan Pei ~fr!J, nee Liu ~IJ, was [Liu] Quanbai's younger sister. Besides being ofthe highest character, she was well versed in literature. She wrote a book called Female Deportment (Niiyikfl), which was also known as Straightforward Admonishments (Zhixun @:~}11). After the lady had been widowed, she became a believer in the teachings of Xuanyuan (i.e., Xuanyuan huangdi). She received Daoist registers from master Wu Yun and remained a devoted and assiduous practitioner of the faith throughout all of her long life. Her eldest son Gu ~ had been appointed to distinguished office early in life and consequently held the office of Gentleman in a[n unnamed] Qumou either: after some time spent as as a Buddhist monk, Wei embarked upon an official career. On the relation between Wei Qumou and Li Hanguang, see Yan Zhenqing' s commemorative inscription for Li, Quan Tang wen, 340.3447. Zhen gao, 14.7a-b contains an interesting remark about the Buddhist penchant of a number of disciples ofShangqing divinities. Of the 74 disciples of the Perfected Lords Pei, Zhou and Tongbo, no less than 30 "studied the Way of the Buddha" Jj!{?!Ji§:. 274 Quan Tang wen, 619.6247.

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Department (shenglang 1~f Jl!~ ), Prefect (cishi) and Director of Studies in the Directorate of Education (guozi siye mr'§'J~). The second son Cha ~ passed the jinshi examination and held the office of zuoshifu f;£f!Wf (exact meaning uncertain). Later he went into seclusion on Lu shan. Cha's eldest son Lin~ delighted in the Way and did not take office. His second son Chong )f. passed the jinshi examination and also held the Numinous and Mysterious !! ""!Z. (i.e. Daoism) in esteem.275 Short though this notice may be, it illustrates how Daoism - and the Way of the Celestial Masters in particular - acted as a refuge to widows, 276 besides containing useful information about Wu Yun's activities as a Daoist priest. Such was his teaching that it influenced three consecutive generations of the same family in their veneration for the Daoist faith and stimulated two family members to assume a reclusive lifestyle. Yuan Cha even chose Lu shan as his abode, perhaps in imitation ofWu Yun. Yuan Pei's widow was not the only female disciple ofWu Yun. Du Guangting's Yongchengjixian lu jjj~~{U!~ (D 783) formerly contained a hagiography of a woman nee Wang :±. from Kuaiji. The present-day edition ofDu Guangting's collection lacks this hagiographical account, but it is preserved thanks to its inclusion in both the Yunji qiqian and the Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian houji ltftlt.{U!ftJ!Iim~ 277 ~~ (c. 1400). As the Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian and its sequel are reputed to quote their sources verbatim, I translate this version instead ofthat in the Yunji qiqian, which, though older, has a tendency to summarize. Mrs. (nee) Wang was the wife of Secretariat Drafter (zhongshu sheren) Xie Liangbi. A descendant of the General to the Right Wang Yishao of the Eastern Jin, 278 she hailed from Kuaiji. Liangbi passed 275

Yinhua lu, 3.25. On this topic, see C. Despeux, "L'ordination des femmes taoistes sous les Tang," Etudes chinoises V.1-2 (1986), pp. 53-100, esp. pp. 63-67. 277 See resp. D 1032, 115.8a-9b and D 298, 5.11b-13a. 278 None other than the famous calligrapher Wang Xizhi .:E~;Z (303-361), whose clan (the Wang's from Langye :EN$ in southern Shandong) had close ties with Celestial Master Daoism. See Jin shu, 80.2103 and Chen Yinke ~-·~, "Tianshidao yu binhai diyu zhi guanxi" :::R8fflJ!i:~~~:b!B~zimf*, in Chen Yinke xiansheng lunwen ji ~-·~)'[;1:.a~Jt~ (Taipei: Sanrenxing chubanshe, 1974), vol. 1, pp. 379-82. I wonder whether there is any relation between this Mrs. Wang and a female 276

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the jinshi examination, was appointed Retainer (congshi 17f*) in Zhedong and married there. After more than a year Liangbi went to Chang' an at the command of the emperor.279 He was successively appointed Secretarial Court Gentleman (shangshu lang [S]ftll!~) and Secretariat Drafter. When young, Mrs. Wang had been fond of the Way and frequently recited the Huangting jing. At the time [of Liangbi's absence?] she was confined to her bed because of an illness. As no efficient cure was found, the disease kept getting more serious. In those days, Celestial Master Wu Yun was roaming [the mountain ranges] Siming and Tiantai, Lanting and Yuxue ~1\. and had taken up temporary residence in Shanyin.28 Clan members of Mrs. Wang paid him a visit and begged for relief. [Wu Yun] prepared for her charmed water and talismans for ingestion and after two or three days the disease was cured. 281 Moved by her salvation through the

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disciple ofWu Yun called Wang Zhenyi .:£~-.referred to in Dongxiao tuzhi, 5.41. Not attested in any other source, Wang Zhenyi is said to have abstained from cereals at the age often and to have been fond of reciting the Huangtingjing. 279 There exists a Preface, written on this very occasion, by Liang Su, who also corresponded with Wu Yun. C£ Quan Tang wen, 518.5264. 280 All located in the same comer of eastern Zhejiang, south ofHangzhou Bay. 281 The drinking of talisman water (water mixed with the ashes of burnt talismans) as a method of healing was one of the mainstays of Celestial Master practice. See Masayoshi Kobayashi, "The Celestial Masters under the Eastern Jin and Liu-Song Dynasties," Taoist Resources 3.2 (1992), pp. 22-23 and Stephen Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, pp. 33, 35. On the different talismans used by Tang dynasty Zhengyi Daoists, see Ren Jiyu f:HI1W: (ed.), Zhongguo daojiao shi 9=J i!~Wc~ (revised edition, Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2001), pp. 414-434. Apparently, Wu Yun's remedies were not always effective. If we may believe the following anecdote from Dai Fu's Guangyi ji, neither Wu Yun's talismans nor his other techniques were able to prevent a man from being visited in his dreams by a semen-wasting female divinity. The translation is adapted from that of Glen Dudbridge, Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 157. "In days gone by Zhu Ao, now vice-prefect of Hangzhou, lived in reclusion on Shaoshi Mountain. Early in Tianbao Li Shu, an administrator from Yangdi county who was at the monastery of Mount [Song], sent over a rider to summon him. Zhu Ao mounted and rode off, with the attendant behind him. A little way along they came up below the Temple of the Younger Aunt. At the time it was high summer. He caught sight of a girl in a green robe, aged fifteen or sixteen and very pretty. Zhu Ao presumed that she was someone's bondmaid and felt surprised that she should be wearing warm clothing in summertime. He urged on his horse and questioned her. She smiled, said nothing, and walked into the temple. Zhu Ao accordingly dismounted, but found no sign of anyone there. Then he looked at the paintings on the walls and saw in them a girl in a green robe- the girl he had seen on the road. Lingering on with sighs of regret,

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force of the Way, Mrs. Wang thereupon visited the Celestial Master and received (unspecified) registers. She practiced with utmost sincerity, burning incense, chanting in quietude, while staying alone in her quiet chamber. It was her ambition to "fly away at daybreak." Therefore she abstained from cereals and practiced qi ingestion. Her spirit became harmonious and her body light. At a certain moment, there was a strange fragrance; bizarre clouds drew near and spread their glow over her residence. It looked as if perfected beings had descended, and she herself was very near to becoming immortal. Other people, however, were unaware of this. One day, she suddenly said to her maidservant: "It will soon be ten years since I relied on the Celestial Master for relief of my old disease. However, it was nothing but a supplement to an already terminated lifespan. As I became aware of the Way too late, I have cultivated and served it in an unrefined manner. I have not wholly repented the charges brought against me in previous lives and the mistakes I made in the past. My whole life I have harboured quite some envy because of my vulgar affliction. Even today my mind is obstructed and a storehouse of darkness. I have not reached communication with the Way. It is absolutely necessary to refine my physical fonh in a tenebrous place, to cleanse my mind ~'L' and 'change my innards.' Only after twenty years will I obtain liberation through exuviation !I!.!UJt. When I die, do not use a coffin; you can make a tent out of cedar wood and put my corpse in the wild. 282 Periodically charge someone to examine it." he eventually moved on to the monastery, where he told the whole story, winning admiring comments from Li Shu and company. That night while he slept he dreamed that the girl came to him. And as he seized the blankets in an access of pleasure his semen poured out. This happened several nights in a row. Wu Yun, a Daoist priest of Mount Song, wrote out for him a talisman to drive her away, but this proved impossible. Wu then used Daoist techniques Ji:fiffi' to control her, but that too failed. Another time he lodged in the cell of a Daoist priest called Cheng, whose performance of ritual was clean and pure. The goddess now stopped her visits." We do not know what precisely the relation was between Dai Fu's informant Zhu Ao and Wu Yun (if there was any relation at all beyond the few encounters mentioned here), but by presenting the facts in this manner it is suggested that Wu Yun's ritual was "unclean and impure." Whether this was an attempt at blackening Wu Yun's reputation has become impossible to ascertain. 282 This is similar to the last moments of the Daoist priestess Huang Lingwei :J:~ ~. who enjoined her disciples not to nail her coffin shut but to cover it with crimson gauze instead. Also the thunderclap at the moment of transformation from corpse to immortal is found in both accounts. See Yan Zhenqing's commemorative inscription, Quan Tang wen, 340.3444 and R. Kirkland, "Huang Ling-wei: A Taoist Priestess in T'ang China," Journal ofChinese Religions 19 (1991), pp. 47-73.

*='Jill

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That evening she passed away. The family members who took charge of her funeral did as she had told them. Everything was conducted in a frugal manner. She was placed in her garden, lying quietly as if soundly asleep. Moreover she did not change. Twenty years later a robber opened her grave and threw her body onto the ground. It was the coldest winter month; suddenly by the side of the tent the sound of thunder was heard. The whole family was alarmed and ran out to have a look at what had happened. When they lifted up the corpse, the body was as light as if it were an empty shell. The flesh and skin, nails and hair had not in the least disintegrated. On her right flank there was a scar, more than a foot in length. A new burial was made for her. The Lady of the Southern Marchmount (Wei Huacun) once said: "Of those who obtain [union with] the Way, the highest class ascends to heaven in broad daylight; their body and bones all flying upwards, they fill a vacancy as a Perfected Official. Next are those who exuviate like snakes and cicadas; their body and bones also rise up; their fleshy essence ascends to heaven. They all become immortal humans and reside on magic mountains!" Liangbi also became Wu Yun's disciple and personally waited upon the Celestial Master. Together with the Celestial Master he established an account in which these facts are recorded in detail. 283 Our biggest problem with this piece of hagiography is chronology. The story is not very clear as to when exactly Mrs. Wang fell ill and was consequently cured by Wu Yun, but one would assume this to have taken place while Xie Liangbi was active in the capital. We know that Xie Liangbi was Secretariat Drafter in Dali 11 and 12 (776-777), i.e., one or two years before Wu Yun's death in Dali 13.284 If Mrs. Wang became Wu Yun's disciple around 776, then Wu Yun could not have been around thirty years later to write the account of what had happened together with Xie Liangbi, unless of course the account mentioned at the end of our text would bear upon Wu Yun's activities in general and not the ailment of Mrs. Wang, her death after ten years and her becoming immortal another twenty years later. Aside from this problem, our story confirms the close ties between Wu Yun and Xie Liangbi and, more importantly, sheds further light on 283

A fragment of this hagiographical account has been translated by Suzanne Cahill, "Practice Makes Perfect: Paths to Transcendence for Women in Medieval China," Taoist Resources 2.2 (1990), p. 30. 284 Fu Xuancong, Tang caizi zhuanjiaojian, vol. 5, p. 100.

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Wu Yun's activities as a healer. Of particular significance is the fact that age-old healing practices originating in the early Celestial Master movement were still being upheld in Tang times. In the fifth century, Lu Xiujing prescribed that Celestial Masters maintain their opposition to the healing of sickness through drugs and acupuncture: they should have recourse solely to the use of talisman water, repentance of sins and written petitions addressed to the otherworldly authorities. 285 Another three centuries later, Celestial Master Wu Yun would remain faithful to these methods when healing believers in the Way. That we are relatively well informed about Wu Yun's female disciples (the only male disciples known to us being Xie Liangbi and the shadowy Shao Jixuan) is not at all surprising. As Catherine Despeux has remarked, the Tang dynasty, and the eighth century in particular, represents the apogee of feminine Daoism, more than a third of the Daoist clergy consisting ofwomen. 286 The final sentence of our story also allows us to solve a minor bibliographical problem. In Late Tang and Song times there existed an 'Inside Account (or: Intimate Biography) of Celestial Master Wu' (Wu tianshi neizhuan 5ii!:7Cgjjj pg {i). Its existence is confirmed in the Xin Tang shu, the Tong zhi imi0, the Chongwen zongmu *:::i'I:JJ!t § and the Song shi -*5!::. In the Xin Tang shu, the Tong zhi and the Song shi (205.5190), this Wu tianshi neizhuan is attributed to a certain Xie Liangsi ~;j" .&ooi!J, about whom nothing else is known (the Chongwen zongmu makes no mention of an author). The compilers of the Song shi add in a note that originally the name ofXie Liangbi was given, but that bi 5li5 was changed into si lffllt] in order to maintain conformity with the Xin Tang shu and the Tong zhi. 287 Had the compilers of the Song shi read the above hagiographic account ofWu Yun and Mrs. Wang, they would have understood that Xie Liangbi and not Xie Liangsi wrote the Wu tianshi neizhuan. Wu Yun's extensive travels in the Dali era also brought him to the Taihu region. Sometime between 773 and 777, while Yan Zhenqing 285

See Lu xiansheng daomen ke!Ue (D 1127), I b-2a, transl. Peter Nickerson, in Donald Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Religions ofChina in Practice, p. 352. 286 C. Despeux, "L'ordination des femmes taoYstes sous les Tang," p. 55. 287 SeeXin Tang shu, 59.1523, Tongzhi(Shanghai: Shangwuyinshuguan, 1935), 67.9a, Chongwen zongmu (Siku quanshu ed.), IO.lla, and Song shi, compiled by Toghto Jmjffl; (?-1311) et al. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 205.5190 and 5216, n. 34.

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was Prefect of Wuxing (another name for Huzhou), Jiaoran wrote a poem on the occasion of seeing off a certain Refined Master Wu ~~ 288 ~ijj, who was returning to Linwu Cavern #~?liiJ. Contemporary scholars agree that the Refined Master Wu in the poem's title could only have been Wu Yun. 289 Linwu Cavern, located on the island of Dongting Xi shan ?liiJ~[l§" !11 in Taihu, was a place of considerable importance in Tang Daoism, ranking as the ninth of the so-called Ten Major Grotto-heavens. 290 The Final Journey It was on one of his journeys through the LowerYangzi region that Wu Yun, in the thirteenth year of the Dali era (778), passed away. Quan's Preface recounts how Wu Yun, while halting at a Daoist monastery in Xuancheng 113~ (in souheastern Anhui), apparently felt that his end was near. Burning incense, he "reverted to perfection (janzhen )g~) inside an "empty room" (xushi JIHf~), i.e., a room where meditation is practised. Today's Xuancheng xian zhi 113~!'1-*-~ suggests that Wu Yun died in the Yuanmiao guan :lCt< the leading Daoist establishment in Xuancheng, which in Tang times was called the Ziji gong ~ti '&; .291 Although Wu Yun breathed his last in Xuancheng, he was not buried there. Quan Deyu remarked that Shao Jixuan, the disciple said to have been "most generously endowed with the Way of his master," urged his fellow disciples to transport Wu Yun's body back to the western foot of Mount Tianzhu, and that this was in accordance with 288

'Fengtong Yan shijun Zhenqing Qingfenglou fu de Dongting ge song Wu Lianshi gui Linwu dong' :$:11"1J.&if5!!tl"Ji!iRPrJ!fJ!ltlJ!it~~rliil%HJ?\*~~8ilil!ffi1*~Wll. Quan Tang shi, 821.9259. In this poem, the Refined Master is said to have come from Zhong shan 9" JlJ, 'the Central Mountain,' which may be understood here as referring to Mt. Song. On the identification of Zhong shan and Mt. Song, see Yunji qiqian, 60.14a. See, e.g., Fu Xuancong's Quan Tang shi renming kaozheng ~~~A~ ~m (Xi'an: Renminjiaoyu chubanshe, 1996), p. 1026. 289 29

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For a description of Linwu Cavern, see Thomas Hahn, "The Standard Taoist Mountain and Related Features of Religious Geography," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 4 (1988), pp. 145-156. See Xuanzhou shi difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui ~if 1+1 mi1!t/J~jl-~ ~ fl (ed.), Xuancheng xian zhi (Nanjing: Fangzhi chubanshe, 1996), p. 712; Xuancheng xian zhi (Xijian Zhongguo difangzhi huikan ffff~9=JWJQ±Il!:iJ~IHffiJ ed., vol. 24) 10.16a-b. In j. 23.1b of the latter work (compiled in 1805), the date of Wu Yun's demise is erroneously given as Tianbao 13 instead ofDali 13. 291

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the Master's will. Deng Mu, in his biographical sketch of Wu Yun, adds the following details: Previously, the Celestial Master had once addressed his followers with these words: "When I die, it is befitting to move my remains to the [Cavern of the] Stone Chamber on [Mount] Tianzhu. I assume this to be the spot where Taishang [Laojun] will allow me to conclude my refinement by exuviation i!U}t." Therefore his wish was complied with. 292 Shao Jixuan, states Deng Mu, was also responsible for privately conferring on Wu Yun the posthumous title of Zongxuan xiansheng *::t2:)'[;1:.. A passage from an old Lingbao text, the Taiji zhenrenfu Lingbao zhaijie weiyi zhujing yaojue .:;t~JtAlfcJ!.)ljf:fflG.@Gf~Ufr,¥ ~[k:, indicates that the title of xiansheng was aptly chosen. "Those scholars," says our text, "who are able to abandon any worldly cares and have the ambition to travel widely amidst mountains and streams," are worthy of being called xiansheng. The same source also states that being a xiansheng equals being a "scholar of the Way" Ji±, i.e., a Daoist priest, and that it eventually enables one to become a Perfected Person lt A, on the condition that the master in question has studied immortality and has established union with the Way. 293 How old was Wu Yun at the time of his death? Judging from Wu Yun's poem 'Expressing My Innermost Feelings on New Year's Day so as to Encourage Myself, to be Handed Down to My Brethren' :lG S i3 't.JIZ9 0- § lh~~g IRJ it, he must have been older than fifty, but that is the only thing we know with certainty. Time -that fleeting glow - has no moment of rest, Fifty years have been added to my count. Acknowledging my faults, I admire Boyu,294 Reading the Changes, I honour Wenxuan. 295 292

Dongxiao tuzhi, 5.41. The Shishi dong is also known as Cangshu dong iilit:rlllJ, i.e., the cavern where Wu Yun collected his books and writings. 293 D 532, 17 a-b. See also Daodian fun J!!A~ (D 1130), 2.2a. 294 Qu Boyu )i{s 3S. was a disciple of Confucius who, at the age of 50, realized that during 49 years he had been in the wrong. Wu Yun is quoting Huainanzi 7ti¥ir here, see Liu Wendian ~tl::lCA, Huainan honglie jijie 7twHf~?.'!l~:f41j: (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989), p. 25. 295 Confucius, canonized in 739 as Wenxuan wang )(W::E (Prince Proclaimer of Refinement), knew what Heaven had in stock for him at the age of fifty and studied the Yi jing at the same age.

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The government of the world is not my concern, But rather this: to keep the Way intact. Who says that the [Celestial] Emperor's Realm is far away? From of old, genuine immortals have been legion. Defilements can be cleansed away perpetually, The mind contained: that is carefree wandering. Can anyone be without companions? My traces erased, all fish traps are forgotten. 296 What's the use of being affected by time's changes? 297 When my moment has come, I shall ascend the nine heavens. One scholar has argued that the "time's changes" a~~ in this poem may well refer to An Lushan's rebellion (which started in 755/756), concluding from this that Wu Yun was born in 705 and thus died at the age of 73. 298 Nothing, however, permits such a conclusion. Like Russell Kirkland, I assume that Wu Yun was in his sixties when he died, 299 and I believe that the above poem corroborates our assumption. The poem- one ofWu Yun's typical declarations of intent- is undated and refers to no identifiable place. Yet I am quite convinced that it dates back to Wu Yun's Lu shan years. Its tone resembles that of the 'Rhapsody on Cleansing the Mind' (Xixin fu), which was written around 765, and, more important, comparison with another poem that was undoubtedly written while living on Lu shan, yields some interesting similarities. The poem in question was composed while Wu Yun, accompanied by an otherwise unknown Assistant Magistrate (zhubu :::Eft) Liu Chengjie ~tl:lJ(j('·, was sailing the Jianchang ~~ river, close to the western shore of Lake Pengli, south of Mt. Lu. 300 In no less than three places, the vocabulary is identical to that in Wu Yun's fiftieth birthday poem: both poems speak of the "carefree wandering of 296

"The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you've gotten the fish, you can forget the trap," said Zhuangzi at the end of the chapter 'External things' (Guo Qingfan, Zhuangzijishi 26.944, trans!. B. Watson, p. 302). Zhuangzi was wondering where he was going to find someone who had forgotten words, so that he might have a word with him. 297

Quan Tang shi, 853.9661.

See Li Shenglong *1:.1J~, "Li Bai yu Wu Yun jiujing youwu jiaowang" * 8 ~!~J~~Jt:ff~~tt, Li Bai yanjiu xuehui 81ilf~~'t" (ed.), Li Bai yanjiu luncong 81ilf~ru1Uit vol. 2 (Chengdu: Ba-Shu shushe, 1990), pp. 251-259, esp. p. 253. 298

*

299 300

*

Kirkland, "Taoists ofthe High T'ang," p. 330.

IRJll'itl:±?filz1r~~¥I¥Z.f.Hr, Quan Tangshi, 853.9661.

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the mind," the "being without companions" and the "forgetting of the fish traps," and they even do so in the same sequence. If Wu Yun celebrated his fiftieth birthday around the years 760-765, he would indeed have been in his mid-sixties in 778. Although Wu Yun in one of his youthful Yidi shan poems once stated that "his mind was not amidst the mountains," 301 the pattern of Wu Yun's life reveals a definite consistency as to his choice of places to reside. The Shangqing houshengdaojun lieji l:¥~~~J!lt\~U*2, a hagiography of the Shangqing deity Li Hong *5.L., advises "those who study immortality to travel widely among the famous mountains." 302 Wu Yun's entire life can indeed be viewed as a sequence of visits to sacred Daoist mountains and the grotto-heavens they housed. They would provide our adept with everything he needed on his quest for perfection: withdrawal from the so-called civilized world and its defilements, materials for alchemical experiments, medicinal herbs, life-prolonging plants and the possibility of meeting and receiving instructions from immortals or emissaries from heaven. IfWu Yun not only hailed from Huayin county (which he certainly did), but also lived there as a youngster, he would have been lucky enough to benefit from the vicinity of both the fourth of the Ten Major Grotto-heavens and the fourth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens. Wu Yun's peregrinations took him to Song shan (home to the sixth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens), Lu shan (which contained the eighth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens), Dadi shan (home to the thirty-first of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens), Kuaiji (which housed the tenth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens), Linwu Cavern (ninth of the Ten Major Grotto-heavens), Siming shan (home to the ninth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens) and Xiandu shan in Jinyun county, twenty-ninth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-heavens. 303 Yidi shan, close to Nanyang, Zhongnan shan and Goushi shan, may seem less sacred from a Daoist perspective, yet, as we have seen, they 301

Quan Tang shi, 888.10038. D 442, 4b. The text has been translated by Stephen Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, pp. 339-362. 303 On this topic, see Franciscus Verellen's insightful "The Beyond Within: Grotto-heavens (dongtian) in Taoist Ritual and Cosmology," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 8 (1995), pp. 265-290 and Li Fengmao $'1!~,f;, Wuru yu zhejiang. Liuchao Sui Tang daojiao wenxue lunji ~A~ mNi ~. /-\ iM ~nit J!i: ~X*~~ (Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1996), pp. 93-141. 302

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also had age-old traditions of reclusion and immortality. The latter two mountains, moreover, figure among Daoism's seventy-two "blessed places" (judi f;!-!B). 304 Ge Hong, finally, had singled out Nanyang, Zhongnan shan and Goushi shan for special mention as belonging among the best places for immortality seekers. 305 The Literary Legacy At the time ofWu Yun's death, his collected writings numbered some four hundred fifty pieces. Today, only one hundred thirty poems, eight rhapsodies, three discourses mill, one memorial~. two inscriptions (one on Zhejiang's Tianzhu guan and one for Lu Xiujing) and theXuangang in 33 chapters survive. 306 Possibly, more than two thirds of Wu Yun's considerable literary output has thus been lost. Of the five series of poems singled out for special mention in Quan's Preface, only the buxu ci and the youxian poems have come down to us. 307 Of the other three series, titled Zigu wanghua shi § "i!l.±. {t~ (Poems on Kingly Civilizing Influence from of Old), Daya yin :.k¥1~ (Chantings to the 304

C£ Du Guangting, Dongtianfodi yuedu mingshanji Wilxmi±IMIHI45 Wtc (D 599), lOb. 305 Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.85 and 11.204-207. 306 The Quan Tang wen edition of Wu Yun's prose works (j. 925-926) also contains a 'Xi Jiangshen ze Zhou Muwang bi' ffOI*I!J!t)l!(J ~:±~ (925.9647), which, as it is already included in the seventh-century Yiwen leiju (j. 84), must be the work ofWu Jun and not Wu Yun. This is only one example ofthe carelessness and disinterest or even disdain displayed by the Quan Tang wen editors in dealing with Daoist writers. The spurious Postface (houxu) to the equally spurious Nantong dajun neidanjiuzhangjing(D 1054, a forgery incorporating fragments of authentic Wu Yun material) is presented uncritically as a postface to the Yuan (read: Xuan) gang lun (925.9647). Inj. 926, the preface and the five chapters that together constitute Wu Yun's Xingshen kegu lunare presented as six separate texts. Of the Xuangang, only chapters 8, 1, 31, 29 and 28 are reprinted as separate texts. The text presented by the Quan Tang wen under the title Yuangang lun in fact consists of pieces from the Xuangang chapters 6, 7 and 13, and the central part of the Shenxian kexue lun! Moreover, the number of copying errors and misprints is appallingly high, rendering entire paragraphs of the full Quan Tang wen version of the Shenxian kexue lun virtually unintelligible. 307 Apart from the aforementioned contributions by Edward Schafer and Jiang Yin, Wu Yun's poetry has been studied most thoroughly in Zhan Shichuang :l!':PtiD', Daojiao wenxue shi ll[~Jt¥.5l: (Shanghai: Wenyi chubanshe, 1992), pp. 206-217 and Yan Jinxiong ;m51Ut, Tangdai youxian shi yanjiu ~{i;iQf{llJ~:fi)fJE (Taipei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1996), pp. 225-247.

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Greater Odes) and Zagan ~~(Sundry Sentiments), no trace is left. The same goes for the Qi xingshen song 9@ W f$ 1.~ (Hymns on Harmonizing Body and Spirit). 308 Of a poem or series of poems, entitled Huayuan Luxian guan ~)Jj!]f{UJ~, only Quan Deyu's preface is extant. 309 The Zhusheng lun ~1:.fiill (Discourse on Life's Manifestations), mentioned, among others, in the bibliographic sections of Xin Tang shu and Song shi, is now considered lost. 310 However, juan 720 of the Taiping yulan .::t .lJZ~ ~ contains a fragment of some three hundred characters of what may well have been Wu Yun's Zhusheng lun. Dealing with four types of qi inherent within the human body, the interdependence of qi, spirit (shen f$) and essence (jing ~), and the correlations between yin, yang, death and life, the fragment shares many similarities with Wu Yun's other discourses. The Xuanmen lun Yl.:F~iiill! (Discourse on the Gateway to the Mystery), listed only in the Song shi, has entirely vanished. To these losses, Wu Yun's six, possibly seven anti-Buddhist discourses (we will return to them in the following chapter) must be added. The destruction of these polemical works, which were apparently considered laughable by men of the world, 311 was in all probability completed under the Yuan dynasty. This is hardly surprising, as no effort was made to facilitate their survival. It is useful to have one more look at Quan Deyu's Preface, the final section of which not only contains valuable information concerning the compilation ofWu Yun's collected works, but also demonstrates how Wu Yun's admirers and editors simultaneously acted as his first censors. 308

Unless, of course, the Qi xingshen song would be identical to the Xingshen kegu lun, as Edward Schafer assumed ("Wu Yun's 'Cantos on Pacing the Void'," p. 385). 309 Wenyuanyinghua, 716.12b-13a and Quan Tang wen, 490.5005. We cannot be entirely certain that the 'Venerable Master Wu' ~-giji in the title ofQuan's piece is in fact Wu Yun. Instead of giving his entire name, Quan Deyu addresses him as 'Immortal Master Lord Wu' {U18i!i~~. without further specifications. Quan Deyu himself had once been a disciple of a Daoist priest called Wu Shanjing ~~~ (732-814). Huayuan was the name of a district north ofChang'an. As both Wu Yun and Wu Shanjing spent time in the vicinity of the Tang capitals (according to Du Guangting's Shenxian ganyu zhuan ;p.jl{UJ~~ft [D 592], 5.17a., Wu Shanjing had also studied the Way on Mount Song, as Wu Yun had done before him), this particular Venerable Master Wu may well have been Wu Shanjing and not Wu Yun. 310 Xin Tang shu, 59.1523, Song shi, 205.5190. 311 Jiu Tang shu, 192.5130.

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Wang Yan ::EM of Taiyuan :*rnt formerly enjoyed the Master's style. In the twenty-fifth year after the Master's transformation (802), Yan was appointed Vice Censor-in-chief (yushi cheng ~&IJ5e :7R) and classified [Wu Yun's] remaining writings into thirty sections. These he offered to the throne, together with a memorial [requesting they be] stored in the Palace Library. Some time later, [Shao] Jixuan obtained this edition and handed it to me, inviting me to write a preface to it. I introduce [Wu Yun's writings] in all their diversity, so that they may be transmitted perpetually. As to other discourses explaining popular fallacies, I exclude them from this compilation. Regarding the mysterious or miraculous feats that he performed, the anomalies that he dispelled, the anouncement of the place where he would conclude his 'refinement by exuviation' and the talismans granting union with the supernatural and the invisible, these are all sayings that have been reserved for those who manufacture inscriptions on metal or stone. At present, I limit myself to making a selection from these writings in order to preface and summarize them, thereby also ensuring that later generations who want to grasp the Way through study, will know [the Master's] opinions. Several points are worth noting in this passage. Although Wu Yun had collected his own works in four hundred fifty pieces, the collected works transmitted to posterity were given their final shape one generation after Wu Yun's demise. The editor was not a disciple ofWu Yun, but a high official with strong Daoist sympathies. Toward the end of a long and distinguished career which, apart from the abovementioned appointment to Vice Censor-in-chief, included the posts of Vice Director in the Ministry of W arks (gongbu yuanwailang I$~ 5i- ~~ ), Magistrate of Luoyang, Prefect of Hangzhou and of Guozhou ~LHI'I (halfway between the two Tang capitals), Wang Yan took up residence in a Daoist establishment on Zhongtiao shan 1=P {~ lli (situated where the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan meet), called Jingyuan daotang )$ ~JG Ji ~ or Daojing yuan Ji )$ ~JG , depending on the source, and spent the last six years of his life there. 312 312

Two interesting documents have been preserved in Chen Yuan, Daojiajinshi liie, pp. 169, 171-72. One is Wang Yan's own inscription on Mt. Zhongtiao's Jingyuan daotang, dated 798 (it is not found among Wang Yan's remaining writings in Quan Tang wen, 545.5527-31). The other is Wang Yan's memorial inscription, dated 807, written by Zheng Yunkui 1):13;~ (biographies inJiu Tang shu, 137.3770-71 and Xin Tang shu, 161.4983-84). The latter document is particularly worth reading, as it contains speculations about the historical roots of the Wang clan of Taiyuan. These

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More important is Quan Deyu's remark as to the deletion of Wu Yun's "discourses explaining popular fallacies" (bianxi shihuo zhi lun ~HJTt!t~ztifU). Quan's wording clearly indicates that he has Wu Yun's anti-Buddhist polemics in mind, which included one Bianfang zhenghuo lun ¥;1$:/JIE~tifU. We know from Quan Deyu's remaining correspondence and occasional poetry that he was as conversant with Buddhism as he was with Daoism, and that he regarded China's three major worldviews as equals. 313 There is therefore little doubt that Quan Deyu will have been among those "men of understanding" who could not accept Wu Yun's flat denial ofthe value of Buddhism. Hence his decision to exclude Wu Yun's anti-Buddhist writings from the collected works. Noteworthy is also Quan's remark pertaining to those elements of Wu Yun's biography which one would expect to find in hagiographical sources: the miraculous healings performed, the communications with the unseen and, of course, the Master's ascent to immortality. Quan's mention ofWu Yun's announcement of the place where he would shed his mortal husk ~~.lUi::ZJI!! prefigures Deng Mu's rendition of Wu Yun's advice to his disciples (cf. supra), where the same term ~tt is used. Quan Deyu's reference to Wu Yun's hagiography being the subject of an inscription "on metal or stone" was no empty talk. One decade before Quan's Preface was written, a stela for Wu Yun had already been placed inside the Tianzhu guan on Dadi shan. The only details we now have are that the stela was titled Tang nei gongfeng daoshi Wu Yun bei n!ffklf3t*J!!±~~~$ and that it was erected in Zhenyuan ~:JG 10 (794). 314 purportedly reached all the way back to Heir-apparent Jin, son of Zhou king Ling (Jl!iJ ti::E:t:-Tfi"), who was later identified as the immortal Wangzi Qiao and enjoyed huge popularity in Tang times. Additional corroboration for Wang Yan's identity can be found in a poem by Li Shangyin, written after a visit to the Daojing yuan. The title of the poem confirms that the late Vice Censor-in-chief (zhongcheng, short for yushi zhongcheng) Wang Yan had taken up residence there. Annotated edition in Liu Xuekai ~ti~- and Yu Shucheng ~?'~~ (eds.), Li Shangyin shigejijie '$Pii1Ki~~ ~14~ (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1988), pp. 452-56. 313 Cf. infra, p. 109. 314 Our sole source is Chen Si's lll!t,~ (c. 1200-after 1259) Baoke congbian )lf~rj j!Hi (Congshu jicheng ed.), 14.359. The difference in wording between Hanlin

gongfeng (the title used by Wu Yun when signing some of his writings) and nei gongfeng (as on the stela) is interesting, as it seems to suggest that Wu Yun may have occupied a purely religious function while being at the service of the emperor. See the pertinent remarks by F. Verellen, Du Guangting (850-933), pp. 37-39.

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Throughout the Song, Wu Yun's collected works circulated in a 10 juan edition which carried Quan Deyu's Preface. Possibly, this Wu Yun ji contained mostly rhapsodies, poems and other texts of predominantly literary (as opposed to doctrinal) interest. The Discourses, including the Xinmu fun 'L' § ~, 315 the Shenxian kexue fun and the Xingshen kegu fun, which are now part of the Zongxuan xianshengwenji, all circulated as separate texts. 316 Due to the destructions inflicted upon Daoism under the Yuan, Wu Yun's works had become so scarce that the Discourses were later included in the edition of Wu's collected works that has been preserved in the Daozang. Only the Xinmu fun continued to circulate separately and is therefore found twice in the Ming canon (as D 1038 and inj. 2 of D 1051). As to Wu Yun's poetry, its influence was mainly felt in the Late Tang and Wudai periods. More influential than Wu Yun's buxu ci, of which Wei Qumou produced a series of second-rate imitations, were perhaps the Langu poems ('On Investigating the Past') and the series offifty Gaoshiyong('Songs on Eminent Scholars'). The latter series in particular, explains Jiang Yin, seems to have sparked off the late Tang fashion for large groups of poems on historical topics, such as Hu Zeng's i!iJ.I it (fl. 877) 150 Yongshi shi illftf~, zi Zixu -Tl!M, originally a disciple ofZhu Junxu at the Yuqing guan, followed his master to Dadi shan. There he collected several thousands ofbooks and spent most of his time writing. He disappeared without leaving a trace. See Dongxiao tuzhi, 5.43. Sandong qunxian lu, 13 .4b-5a contains a lengthy quote from the Zhenjing lu, the predecessor of the Dongxiao tuzhi, illustrating Ji Qiwu' s views on the relation between Daoism and Buddhism. The Zhenjing lu, it will be noted, addresses Ji Qiwu as Celestial Master. According to the Lishi zhen xian tidao tongjian, 39.5a (based on the Gaodao zhuan ), Ji Qiwu was one ofYe Fashan's most trusted disciples: "The master had more than one hundred disciples, but only Ji Qiwu and Yin Yin were judged worthy to enter his room." This again suggests that Ji Qiwu, like Ye Fashan, was a Zhengyi priest. Indeed, Deng Mu states that Ji, after having received a number of registers, talismans and secret formulae, "was never remiss in bringing relief to other beings," a description often occuring in the lives of Celestial Master priests. In some sources, such as the Yuhang xian zhi (30.9a), Ji Qiwu is erroneously placed under the rubric 'Wu-Yue', suggesting that he was still alive in the early tenth century. 115 According to Deng Mu's account in Dongxiao tuzhi, 5.42, Celestial Master Xiahou Ziyun ~ ~ -T ~ came from Emei shan and became a disciple of Sima Chengzhen, who reputedly loved him as a son. When Sima Chengzhen died, Xiahou Ziyun moved to Dadi shan, where he spent a considerable amount of time tending his medicinal plants garden. Fond of writing poetry, he threw away most of what he had

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exceptional men here. Some have passed through; others have stayed, forgetting to return in length of years. During the Baoying -~era (762-63), hordes of bandits flocked 6 together like ants and burnt down cities and towns.U In the whole area everything was reduced to ashes. Only this spot escaped unharmed. How could this have been so without divine support? Prefectural Governor Xiangli Zao and District Magistrate Fan Yin have established a rule based on the civilizing influence of teaching; they have brought about order without having to rely on harshness. 117 Those of the population who have survived the plundering feel attached to them like a shadow to an object and have quietly resumed their occupations. Together with the recluse Li Xuanqing, I have found peace and pleasure in this place. To part with it would be highly disagreeable. Fearing that gentlemen oflater ages would be uninformed about this abbey's origins, I have examined into it thoroughl~ and described it, 11 so it can be displayed on pure white, hard stone. Recorded by Wu Yun, Daoist priest of the Central Marchmount, on the fifteenth day of the first month 119 of the thirteenth (read: fifth) year of the Dali era.

committed to paper, so that only a few lines have been transmitted. He is rumoured to have disappeared, riding an extraordinary animal, during the Tianfu J( 1;![ era (901-904). Also the Zhenjing lu, quoted in Sandong qunxian lu, 14.18b, designates him as a Celestial Master. 116 Wu Yun is referring to the popular uprising led by Yuan Chao, which erupted in 762 as a result of a combination of excessive drought, floods and discontent with heavy taxes. After having ravaged substantial parts of eastern Zhejiang, Yuan Chao, who had as many as 200.000 followers, was defeated in the fourth month of763. See Zizhi tongjian, 222.7132-43 and Glen Dudbridge, Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China, pp. 137-153. 117 Xiangli Zao tiH~~. zi Gongdu 0~, was Director in the Ministry of Revenue (hubu langzhong P $~~9J) in Dali 3 (768) and ended his career as Vice Governor (shaoyin &71") of Henan. He gained his fellow courtiers' respect by standing up against the mighty eunuch Yu Chao'en ~li!JL!gl (executed 770). See Jiu Tang shu, 184.4764; Xin Tang shu, 207.5864 and the excellent annotation to Bai Juyi's 823 'Account of Cold Source Pavilion' (Lengquan tingji riHJl:.~~C.) in Zhu Jincheng ~;9tZ, Bai Juyi ji jianjiao 8 .@-£~~~ (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 1988), pp. 2765-66. Fan Yin seems to have left no traces except for the mention of him in the Yuhang xianzhi. 118 More than five centuries after the stela inscription had been crafted, the "pure white, hard stone" was still present at Dadi shan, as Deng Mu mentioned at the end of his biographical entry on Wu Yun, Dongxiao tuzhi, 5.41. 119 The completion ofWu Yun's inscription will certainly have been accompanied by Daoist ritual. The fifteenth day of the first month is the shangyuan l::JI; day, the first of the so-called "three days of origin" (sanyuan). An important Daoist festival in

*

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417

With its references to both dynastic historical writings and Daoist sacred geographical knowledge, its vivid descriptions of the wholesome character of the natural surroundings, its attention to factual matters pertaining to the lives of recluses and Daoist priests, and its mentions of instances of divine protection, Wu Yun's inscription is a beautiful piece of religious topography. The first point worth noting in the inscription is the absence of any reference to the erection of a Han dynasty altar on Dadi shan or Tianzhu shan. Had any such cultic site been installed by a Han emperor, Wu Yun, thorough in his research as always, would undoubtedly have mentioned it. Since he did not, we may conclude that Ying Shao's statement as to the location of the Tianzhu shan visited by Han Wudi is correct. The story ofHan Wudi's visit to the mountains near Yuhang originated not long after Wu Yun's day: in the 'Tianzhu guanji' written for Qian Liu and completed on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the year 900 (again a zhongyuan day!), it makes its first appearance. 120 Several passages in the inscription are somewhat puzzling. One of these concerns the "pure palace" (qinggong), viewed by Wu Yun in the course of his first visit to Dadi shan. Normally the term qinggong refers to a building where the emperor is allowed to find peace and quiet while touring the empire. What could have been the edifice which met Wu Yun's eye? Certainly not the shrine erected at the occasion of Han Wudi's visit to Tianzhu shan, as that particular Tianzhu shan was not Wu Yun's Tianzhu shan. And even if such a shrine had ever been present on Zhejiang's Tianzhu shan, no trace of it was left by the time Master Pan pleaded with the Tang court to establish a temple there. After Guo Wen's death, which apparently occured not on Dadi shan but in the nearby town ofLin'an, where the recluse had been lodged by the local prefect, 121 it is quite likely that a shrine or other edifice in Guo Wen's honour was erected on the hermit's former place of reclusion on

honor of the Officer of Heaven (tianguan .:R'§"), it was frequently commemorated in poetry. Among the c. 50 extant Tang poems on the shangyuan day, Zhang Zhongsu's 5JH$* (fl. c. 800) 'Shangyuan ri ting Taiqing gong buxu' may be of some interest to students ofDaoism. See Quan Tang shi, 367.4135. In the mid-eighth century, it was customary for the scholars of the Chongxuan Academy to lecture on the Daoist classics in presence of the highest court officials on all three days of origin. Cf. Minghuang zalu, p. 55. 120 Dongxiao tuzhi, 6.71. 121 See A. Berkowitz, Patterns ofDisengagement, p. 240.

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Dadi shan. This is what Wu Yun suggests when he mentions "the old temple" that was the precursor of the Tianzhu guan of 683. This old temple would not have been a Daoist temple strictly speaking, but a sanctuary dedicated to the local cult of a deceased prominent figure. However, to the best of my knowledge, no imperial visit to an old temple for Guo Wen or to the later Tianzhu guan has ever been recorded before the tenth century. The first ruler to visit the Tianzhu guan seems to have been Qian Liu, who at the time of the 900 inscription bore the title of Prince of Pengcheng Commandery ~~W 3::. 122 and would become the first ruler of the semi-autonomous kingdom ofWu-Yue after the Tang dynasty ceased to exist. Wu Yun's use of qinggong thus remains mysterious. The most puzzling passage in Wu Yun's inscription (in its versions in Dongxiao tuzhi and Dadi dongtian ji) is the one concerning the "gentleman Xu, called Mai" (~.$t;1: 13 ~) who was said to have lived a life of leisurely reclusion on Dadi shan around the beginning of the Zhengguan IEB era. Xu Mai is sufficiently well known as one of the members of the Xu clan connected with the birth of Shangqing Daoism in the first half of the fourth century. Zhengguan, however, is unknown as a reign period throughout all of Chinese history, unless, of course, we have to read zheng as a taboo for zhen ~. In other editions, such as Wenyuan yinghua, Quan Tang wen and Yuhang xian zhi, the reign period is indeed given as Zhenguan ~- (627-49), which of course does not match with Xu Mai's dates (301- c. 355). It is beyond doubt that Xu Mai did indeed travel widely in the Yuhang area. According to Xu Mai's Jin shu biography, his first place of reclusion was the obscure Mt. Xuanliu ~'.fil-l! near Yuhang. Xu Mai chose this place because at that time his parents were still alive and he did not want to stray too far from them. As Mt. Xuanliu had the advantage of being close to Jurong 1D$ (Xu Mai's native district) and its famous Mao shan, and of being secretly connected with the five sacred marchmounts, this was a fortunate choice. Later, when his parents had died and his wife had been sent back to her family, Xu Mai travelled to Mt. Huan fli!-LI in Tonglu ;ffiiJJ.il district (southwest of Hangzhou) and to Lin'an Xishan ~*@1-LI (or the mountains west ofLin'an, probably corresponding to Tianmu shan). 123 Interestingly, however, the Wenyuan yinghua 122

Dongxiao tuzhi, 6.74. , Jin shu, 80.2106-2107. Also in the remaining fragments of Xu Mai's biography in the relatively early Daoxue zhuan (Chen Guofu, Daozang yuanliu kao, p. 457), Xu 123

A PAIR OF INSCRIBED STONES

419

suggests that the Daoist concerned was not Xu Mai at all but an otherwise unknown gentleman with the family name Su *9c1:EJ;Jk. Whatever the true identity of our Master Xu or Su, to Deng Mu there was no doubt that Xu Mai passed away, or rather, "obtained the Way," on Dadi shan. In Deng Mu's day, traces of the Shengtian tan ~ ;R:ll: (Altar of the Ascent to Heaven) were still extant on the middle peak of the Dadi mountain range, known as Bailu shan 8 HE llf (White Deer Mountain) in remembrance of the fact that Heaven sent down a white deer to welcome Xu Mai as he was about to become immortal. The traces in question seem not to have been highly material. Deng Mu reported that the altar had purportedly been round on top (so as to match with heaven), square at the base (so as to match with earth) and that its middle section had been octangular (so as to correspond with the eight trigrams of the Book of Change). In early Yuan times, nothing was left of all that. On the peak ofBailu shan, however, there was a spot surrounded by pine trees where no grass or shrubs grew. As late as the Zhenghe era i§flf!J (1111-1117), auspicious clouds had been observed there, and the sound of a flute being played had been heard. 124 The memory of Xu Mai also lived on in stories transmitted by Deng Mu, such as the one about Dadi shan's "boneless bamboo." 125 One final point of interest in Wu Yun's inscription concerns his list of earlier Daoists who had inhabited Dadi shan. The list was copied into several later sources, such as the 'Tianzhu guan ji' attributed to Qian Mai is said to have moved to the mountains west ofLin'an during the last decade of his life. See also Xu Song, Jiankang shilu, 8.167. 124 Dongxiao tuzhi, 2.15, 4.27, 5.38-39 and 6.93. 125 On the mountains surrounding the Dongxiao gong, a particular kind of violet bamboo was said to grow profusely. When Xu Mai was about to make his ascent to perfection, he said to his disciples: "In my possession is one dose of Gold Cinnabar. As none of you has already completed his meritorious actions, you are not allowed to ingest it all of a sudden. I have hidden the elixir on this mountain, underneath some boneless bamboo 1!!ii1t~. At a later date, he who is predestined will obtain it." A servant who had been gathering firewood, later returned home with some bamboo. He found the elixir while sitting by his stove. When he had been gathering his firewood, he had not noticed there was boneless [bamboo] among it. There was also a busybody who had been clambering all over the mountain and searching every nook and cranny. He, however, died before he succeeded in finding the elixir. What has been hidden by an immortal, concludes Deng Mu, will not be found by chance by someone who has not been predestined to do so during a former lifetime. Cf. Dongxiao tuzhi, 4.33-34. In 1217, Bai Yuchan 8 ::E~ (1194-1229), southern China's major specialist in Thunder Ritual, imagined how he went searching for boneless bamboo in the company ofLi.iqiu Fangyuan, Sima Chengzhen, Guo Wen and Xu Mai. Cf. Dongxiao tuzhi, 6.88.

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Liu, 126 with Zhang Zheng's name deleted and that of Wu Yun added. The remarkable thing is that, with the exception of Zhu Junxu, who is addressed as Ritual Master (jashi), all are given the title of Celestial Master. Four hundred years after the composition of the Qian Liu inscription, in the biographical chapter of the Dongxiao tuzhi, Ye Fashan, Wu Yun, Sima Chengzhen, Xiahou Ziyun and Ji Qiwu would still be designated as tianshi. 121 One might object that Deng Mu was perhaps merely copying his information from the Qian Liu account. Yet, in other commemorative texts included in the sixth juan of the Dongxiao tuzhi, the designation of Wu Yun as Celestial Master is maintained. Interestingly, the oldest of these documents is the 'Account of the New Pond by the Banquet Hall,' written by Li Xuanqing in 770. Wu Yun was thus already addressed as Celestial Master Wu during his own lifetime, by a fellow hermit who accompanied Wu on his quest for Perfection. Likewise, in the title ofXie Liangbi's account of his Daoist teacher, Wu Yun is designated as Celestial Master. 128 And in one ofDu Guangting's works on sacred geography, we read the following words about Bailu shan: "White Deer Mountain is part of Hangzhou's Tianzhu shan; it was Celestial Master Wu's reclusive spot." 129 Also Ye Fashan, whose ties with the Celestial Master movement have already been remarked upon, was invariably addressed as Celestial Master in the works of Du Guangting and in many later, Song dynasty, materials. 130 Why some Daoist priests were designated as Celestial Masters during the Tang dynasty, and why they were commemorated as such in later ages, is one of the questions I shall attempt to answer in the final chapter. 126

Dongxiao tuzhi, 6. 72. Dongxiao tuzhi, 5.40-43. Deng Mu mentions Wu Yun seven times in j. I through 5 of his work, each time as 'Wu tianshi.' The remaining fragments of the Zhenjing lu, which was later superseded by the Dongxiao tuzhi, indicate that also in this early twelfth-century text our Dadi shan priests were designated as Celestial Masters- again with the exception of Ritual Master Zhu Junxu. See Sandong qunxian lu, 13.4b, 13.20b, I4.I8b. 128 C£ supra, p. 64. 129 Dongtian judi yuedu mingshan ji, I Ob. 130 See, e.g., Du Guangting's Daojiao lingyan ji, I4.8b, Du's Shenxian ganyu zhuan, I.I5b, and his Xianzhuan shiyi, quoted in Sandong qunxian lu, I 0.9a; see also Gaodao zhuan, quoted in Sandongqunxian lu, 5.13a, and the Sandong xiudao yi (cf. supra). In Dao shu, 31.5 ff., Ye Fashan is called Guangbian tianshi J't~J\:Bili, the Celestial Master of Splendid Argumentation. 127

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WU YUN, CELESTIAL MASTER OF UPPER CLARITY Wu Yun as Perceived in Some Song Dynasty Daoist Sources To deny that a significant number of elements of what we consider to be the typical Shangqing profile are conspicuously present in Wu Yun's works, would be absurd. There is the professed belief in the sacred nature and precosmic origin of the Daoist scriptures. There is the repeated advice to rely on the Declarations of the Perfected in the pursuit of immortality and union with the Way. There are also the references to the absorption of solar and lunar florescences and to the meditative visualization or actualization of the divinities that inhabit both the microcosm of the human body and the macrocosm. Most notably, there is Wu Yun's proficiency in the language of Shangqing mysticism, evident both in his poetry (the youxian poems and the buxu ci), his rhapsodies (the Dengzhenfu and the Xixinfu) as well as in his prose treatises. And yet, when we turn away from Wu Yun's writings and focus instead upon what is known about his ecclesiastical practice and social circle, it is not hard to find an equal amount of elements connecting Wu Yun to the Celestial Master heritage. Wu Yun's views on sexual practice can only be fully understood when seen against the background of the Tianshi dao tradition. Wu Yun's way of healing through the use of talisman water recalls old Celestial Master practice. While being in the Kuaiji region, Wu conferred registers upon Lady Wang, scion of a clan that had age-old ties with the Celestial Master movement. Even in the Xuangang, written for the emperor, and in the Shenxian kexue lun, a discourse meant to be read by a non-specialist elite audience, we have repeatedly come across traces of ancient Celestial Master formulae. And what is more, these links with Zhengyi Daoism are not the only ones. As we delve a bit deeper into the history of Tang dynasty Daoism, we are bound to be surprised. In all of this, it is of the utmost importance to keep in mind the basic structure of Tang dynasty Daoism. The trend towards the unification of

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all Daoist traditions, initiated in the fifth century by scholarly priests such as Lu Xiujing, reached its completion under the Tang. Rather than picturing Tang dynasty Daoism as a collection of parellel "sects," we should picture it as a pyramidal, hierarchical structure consisting of different layers corresponding to consecutive levels of ordination, linked with scriptural transmission. Wu Yun himself gave a clear indication of the graded and integrated nature of Tang Daoism in one of the chapters of his Xuangang. 1 Whether the process of unification and integration caused the different traditions, schools or movements of Medieval Daoism, each of which had its own set of revealed scriptures, talismans, registers and ordination protocols, to lose their distinctive identities, is another matter. We shall return to this question at the end ofthis chapter. At the same time, we must not forget that - whatever differences separate the Celestial Master ecclesia and the Shangqing school - the influx of Tianshi dao elements in Shangqing Daoism was quite considerable. 2 Michel Strickmann's remark to the effect that the incorporation of old southern beliefs and practices within the social and liturgical framework provided by the Way of the Celestial Master found its most comprehensive testimony in the Mao shan texts, 3 aptly characterizes the degree to which Tianshi Daoism contributed to the formation of the Way of Upper Clarity. Very superficially, the connection between the two traditions is of course symbolized by the figure of Wei Huacun, Celestial Master libationer and first and only matriarch of the Shangqing school. Also the Xu clan from Danyang, which stood by the cradle of Shangqing Daoism, had originally been followers of the Celestial Master movement. The true founder of the Shangqing school, Tao Hongjing, who had received his teachings from Sun 1

Cf. p. 318 of this book. In her monumental study of the Shangqing scriptures, Isabelle Robinet argued that the influence which the Celestial Masters exerted upon the Shangqing school always remained highly superficial, limiting itself to some fragmentary borrowings of names of bodily divinities and ritual formulae. The points of convergence, in Isabelle Robinet's view, were dwarfed by the huge dissimilarities between the Celestial Master movement and the Shangqing school. These dissimilarities were organizational as well as doctrinal, and found their reflection in the Celestial Masters' and the Shangqing adepts' views pertaining to their pantheon, their respective ways of communicating with their divinities, and their views on sickness and healing. See Robinet, La revelation du Shangqing dans l'histoire du taolsme, vol.l, pp. 59-74. 3 Strickmann, "On the Alchemy ofT'ao Hung-ching," p. 169. 2

I

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Youyue f*Ji~ (399-489), himself a disciple of Southern Celestial Master Lu Xiujing, must originally have been ordained as a Zhengyi priest. Had he not, he would not have been privy to the Celestial Master documents he quotes so abundantly in the remaining pages of the Dengzhen yinjue, and, more important, he would not have been able to transmit to later generations the tallies, contracts, registers, talismans, protocols, petitions and writs that together constituted the Zhengyi canon. 4 Commenting upon the indebtedness of Shangqing Daoism to the Way ofthe Celestial Master, Maeda Shikegi Ml!l~W therefore quite appropriately described the Shangqing lineage as "a particular metamorphosis of the Way of the Celestial Master." 5 It therefore comes as no surprise that some renowned Early and High Tang Daoist masters, whom we now tend to exclusively link to the Shangqing school, were once percieved as affiliated to the Zhengyi movement. Thus, when Wei Ping {Wf.! (eighth century) composed his memorial inscription for Sima Chengzhen, he did not hesitate to trace back Sima's spiritual filiation to Southern Celestial Master Lu Xiujing, to Zhang Daoling- the original Celestial Master, and, ultimately, to Laozi -whose appearance to Zhang Daoling in 142 AD marks the official inception of the Celestial Master movement. 6 And what is more, these same Daoists themselves did not disdain mentioning their initial - Zhengyi - ordination. Thus, Pan Shizheng, who had earlier conferred a number of talismans and registers upon the young Sima Chengzhen, and who had been impressed by his disciple's ability to master the life-prolonging techniques he had taught him, once addressed Sima with the following words: 4

We shall return to some of the Celestial Master documents in the Dengzhen yinjue at the end of this chapter. For Tao's transmission of the Zhengyi canon to his disciples, see the remark by Pan Shizheng translated on the following page. 5 Maeda, "The Evolution of the Way of the Celestial Master: Its Early View of Divinities," Acta Asiatica 68 (1995), pp. 54-68, esp. 57-58. See also Chen Guofu, Daozang yuanliu kao, pp. 275-76. The same may perhaps be said about the Lingbao canon, cf. Wang Chengwen, "Zaoqi Lingbao jing yu Han-Wei Tianshi dao," esp. p. 35. 6 C£ Chen Yuan, Daojia jinshi liie, p. 120. In his translation of Wei Ping's inscription, Russell Kirkland ("Ssu-ma Ch'eng-chen and the Role of Taoism in the Medieval Chinese Polity," p. 127) fails to link the appellations Xuanyuan (Mysterious Prime), Tianshi (Celestial Master) and Jianji (Simplicity and Quietude) with Laozi, Zhang Daoling and Lu Xiujing (whose posthumous title was Jianji xiansheng). Thus, the sentence "It was completed by [the Master of] Simplicity and Quietude" is rendered as "They prepared the various screeds."

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I was transmitted the method of the Orthodox and One (Zhengyi zhi fa IE.-z¥t) by Tao-the-Recluse ~Willi.@- (Tao Hongjing). You are now the fourth generation [in that line oftransmission]. 7 This fact alone suffices to seriously challenge the view, still held by a number of students of Daoism, that under the Tang, the Shangqing teachings were disseminated among the upper class of society, whereas the ways of Zhengyi were transmitted among the populace. 8 Pan Shizheng, who issued from a family that had produced several consecutive generations of government officials, and Sima Chengzhen, scion of a clan that had once spawned emperors, can hardly be considered as belonging to society's lowest strata. It will be obvious that, whatever one's final ordination rank would be, every Tang dynasty priest was supposed to have a certain mastery of the Tianshi heritage, and it was therefore not uncommon for priests belonging to the highest (Shangqing) echelon of the hierarchy to perform rituals connected with the basic (Zhengyi) tradition. 9 The question we should be asking here is thus not whether Wu Yun was a Celestial Master priest. There can be not a shadow of a doubt that Wu Yun indeed was a Celestial Master priest. Having received the Zhengyi ordination from Feng Qizheng, disciple ofPan Shizheng, Wu Yun most certainly qualified to exert the functions of a Zhengyi priest. 10 The question that fascinates me is whether the historical interdependence of the Ways of the Celestial Master and ofUpper Clarity on the one hand (whereby the Celestial Master liturgy fused with southern meditational and immortality practices), and the Tang system of ordinations on the other hand (in which the Celestial Master liturgy occupied the fundamental position), are sufficient in explaining why we find so 7

Cf. Gaodao zhuan, p. 46, in Yan Yiping, Daojiao yanjiu ziliao, vol. 1; Jiu Tang shu, 192.5127 and the remarks of Qing Xitai, Zhongguo daojiao shi (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1992), vol. 2, pp. 122-123. Later examples include that of Zhang Qizhen *~~ of Hangzhou (tenth century; Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, 48.1a) and Liu Congshan ~H)£~ (990-1070; Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, 48.17a). 8

Cf. Hu Fuchen & Lii Xi chen, Daoxue tonglun, p. 3 18 and Ren Jiyu (ed. ), Zhongguo daojiao shi 9=' ~if!~~ , vol. 1 (revised edition, Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2001), p. 434. 9

An example of the kind of hybrid title used by Shangqing priests who performed Tianshi rituals is provided in K. Schipper, "Taoist Ordination Ranks in the Tunhuang Manuscripts," p. 142. 10

Whether Wu Yun was also a Shangqing priest cannot be determined, as we have no information on any subsequent ordinations.

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many Tianshi dao elements in the ecclesiastical practice and even in the written works ofWu Yun. In order to better understand the position of Wu Yun within the Daoist landscape of the Tang, we shall first look into three Song dynasty Daoist works, that, each in their own way, shed some light on how Wu Yun's contribution to Daoism's cause was perceived in the centuries subsequent to his death. These works illustrate not only the prestige once enjoyed by Wu Yun, they also reveal his affiliation with the Way of the Celestial Master. First, there is the Daomen tongjiao biyong ji m~~)ffi~£,ffl~. Right from the first line ofLii Yuansu's 8::7G* preface (dated 1201), it is clear that this 9-juan work has a strong Celestial Master penchant. Lii, a Daoist priest of present-day Chongqing, praises Sichuan as the place where "the Celestial Master (Zhang Daoling) established the faith" and where Du Guangting came to rest in his old age. The contents of the Daomen tongjiao biyongji, compiled by Lii Taigu g 11 ~'a disciple ofLii Yuansu, are predominantly liturgical. The major part of juan 1, however, consists of a series of sixteen biographies of Daoist masters deemed particularly important in the transmission of the faith. These sixteen accounts, all taken from Jia Shanxiang's now fragmentary Gaodao zhuan, again reveal an unmistakable preference for Tianshi Daoism. The series starts with Celestial Master Zhang Daoling ~;R~ijj and includes Celestial Master Lu Xiujing ~.mx~iP, Celestial Master Kou Qianzhi lt!x~iP, the Master of the Orthodox and One (Zhengyi xiansheng lE -)'c1:, better known as Sima Chengzhen), Wu Yun (he is called Wu Zongxuan ~*52: here) and Celestial Master Du Guang- ting :t±x ~ijj Y Our second Song source is Chen Baoguang' s 20-juan Sandong qunxian !u (comp. 1154). Near the end of the first chapter ofthis study I already pointed out the influence Wu Yun exerted upon Chen Baoguang, who may have felt partial toward Wu as he himself was a Zhengyi Daoist of present-day Jiangsu province. Wu Yun's immortality theories served as a major source of inspiration for Chen, whose Sandong qunxian lu attempts to offer proof of the correctness of Wu Yun's view that immortality can be obtained by studying. Chen Baoguang furthermore quotes Wu Yun's Xianzhuan shiyi and Gaodao

*

11 12

Judith M. Boltz, A Survey ofTaoist Literature, pp. 49-50 and p. 271, n. 9. D 1226, 1.4a-18b.

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zhuan biographies (the latter of which designates Wu Yun as a tianshi), besides a fragment from 'Celestial Master Wu's Discourse on the Mystic Mainstay' (Wu tianshi Xuangang lun ~:;R~ijL:tc,:M~1ll!). Offering clearest evidence concerning Wu Yun's position within Tang dynasty Daoism is the Sandong xiudao yi ..::..:?liil{~mfi (D 1237). This short but highly informative work provides details concerning ordination ranks, transmission of scriptures, clerical vestments and attributes for all classes of male as well as female Daoist priests, ranging from the basic level (Zhengyi mengwei dizi IE-Mm\G#J-1-) to 71ill ill± and the the highest levels (that of the Sandong daoshi Dadong daoshi ::k:?liilm±), besides a few others, such as that of the Jushan daoshi JiS-~m± and Jushan nil daoshi JiS-~:km± (Daoist priests and priestesses residing on a mountain). The date of this text has been the object of debate, as the cyclical characters mentioned in the preface may indicate 943 as well as 1003. 13 What little we know about the authors of the text cannot settle the issue. Liu Ruozhuo ltl~W:I, the Zhengyi priest who orally transmitted the contents of the Sandong xiudao yi, has an entry in Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, 47.15a, which mentions the date Kaibao OOW 5, or 972. Sun Yizhong f*'~ 9=', who committed Liu's oral transmission to writing, is otherwise unknown, but at the end of the prefatory statement he is called Baoguangzi i*:lt-1- and he is said to have hailed from Jingnan (ffUffl, in Wudai times a military governorship north of present-day Lake Dongting). Interestingly, Baoguangzi happens to be the name by which Sun Guangxian f*':lt]J (d. 968) styled himself. Sun Guangxian is well known as the author of the famous early Song dynasty biji -~c collection Beimeng suoyan ~t~:Ejt g, but he also acted as Military Vice Commissioner (jiedufushi ~Jj]!j!Jfl!) of Jingnan. Is Baoguangzi to be understood literally as "the son of [Sun] Baoguang," alias Sun Guangxian? 14 Whatever the precise date of the Sandong xiudao yi, there can be no doubt about the fact that both Liu Ruozhuo and Sun

.=

13

Daozang tiyao, p. 978 posits the year 1003. T.H. Barrett, "The Emergence of the Taoist Papacy in the T'ang Dynasty," p. 102, n. 64, seconds that opinion. Ozaki Masaharu, "The Taoist Priesthood: From Tsai-chia to Ch'u-chia," p. 104 and Lowell Skar, "Ritual Movements, Deity Cults and the Transformation ofDaoism in Song and Yuan times," Kohn (ed.), Daoism Handbook, p. 418, prefer 943. 14 Song shi, 483.13956 mentions two of Sun Guangxian's sons, Sun Wei 1il!J and Sun Dang~. both of whom werejinshi graduates. I have not been able to ascertain whether Yizhong was the zi of one of them.

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Yizhong were active in the late Wudai and early Song periods, and that their direct motivation was the sad state of the Daoist communities at the end of the Wudai period. Sun Yizhong's preface contains precious information regarding the damages inflicted upon Daoism during the upheaval of the Five Dynasties. Only the Taiqing gong in Bozhou, Laozi's native place, was still standing as it always had. A number of abbeys on Beimang shan ~t L$ rl1 (the easternmost of the original twenty-four Celestial Master dioceses) had escaped relatively unharmed. In Jiangxi and Zhejiang, damage was still repairable, but Shandong, concludes Sun, had the appearance of one gigantic ground zero. 15 Of particular relevance to us here is Sun Yizhong's sketch of the origins and history of the Daoist teachings. After having emphasized the historical role of Zhang Daoling in subduing the demonic forces originally at work in Sichuan, Sun continues in the following fashion: Of the descendants of the Celestial Master, one member every generation assures the transmission [of the teachings]. They are the Zhang clan from Mt. Longhu in Xinzhou 1~1'1'1. Stated in general terms, their teachings thrived in the kingdoms of Wu ~ and Shu .;j. Under the [Tuoba] Wei dynasty there was Celestial Master Kou Qianzhi from Mt. Song, who again greatly developed it. As to the period through the Tang dynasty, Daoism's cause has been furthered most prominently by men such as the Master of Simplicity and Quietude, Sir Lu Xiujing (1fi~;t;1:.~m~f~if¥) of the Lower Yangzi area, while in the central regions there have been Master Zhao Yinzhen (Ki~JI:Il!;t;1:., unidentified), Celestial Master Pan 0-i::RBIP, presumably Pan Shizheng), Master Li Chengyuan (~lt$;t;1:., unidentified), Celestial Master Sima ( E) .~ ::R Bili , i.e., Sima Chengzhen), the Master Who Honours the Mystery, Celestial Master Wu ( ""!£. ;t; 1::. ~ ::R Bili, i.e., Wu Yun), Master Niu ( .tj:: ;t; 1::., unidentified), the two Celestial Masters Ye Guyun andY e Guanghan (~1Jli~~·*=::RBIP, the;' may be tentatively identified as Ye Fashan and Ye Jingneng) 1 and Master Li Xihe ( $ fo $ ;t; 1::. , unidentified). All of them have been most illustrious in transmitting the teaching. 17

*

15

D 1237, 2b.

16

This, at least, is the opinion of Ding Huang, "Ye Fashan zai daojiao shishang diwei zhi tantao," p. 12. 17

D 1237, 2a.

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What a contrast with Wu Yun's treatment in the early fourteenthcentury Mao shan zhi, our most comprehensive source on the history and organization of Shangqing Daoism! There, apart from an isolated reference in a memorial inscription for Zhu Ziying § ~ (977-1029), twenty-third Shangqing patriarch, 18 Wu Yun is mentioned but once, in the section where those who passed through the Mao shan area in their search of perfection are listed. 19 The Mao shan zhi entry on Wu Yun is actually a digest of the anything but reliable biographical account in the Jiu Tang shu- the one that groundlessly claims that Wu Yun already roamed the Jiangnan region during the Kaiyuan era, before being summoned to Xuanzong's court. Perhaps inspired by Deng Mu's Dongxiao tuzhi, Wu Yun's ordination is changed from Zhengyi to Shangqing. In the Mao shan zhi chapters that collect the poetry written on Mao shan by visiting literati, not a trace ofWu Yun is to be found, although there was a fair chance that such poems survived into the 1300s, had they effectively been written. All this seems to indicate that Wu Yun was granted a place in the Mao shan zhi solely on the ground of some highly questionable bits of information. As the Song dynasty Daoist works quoted above evinced, Wu Yun was originally perceived as belonging to the Zhengyi current rather than to Shangqing.

*

A Title that Invites Confusion With Sun Yizhong' s list of transmitters of the Celestial Masters teaching in mind, it may be worthwhile to return to the question, raised at the end of the previous chapter, why a sizeable number of Tang dynasty Daoists were addressed as tianshi and remembered as such in subsequent centuries. Could it be that the title tianshi was not just applied "to anyone whom someone wished to honor as a great Taoist" - as Russell Kirkland has suggested - but specifically to those renowned Daoist priests with demonstrable ties to the Celestial Master movement? This may seem extremely unlikely, as tianshi in Tang times was not a title normally used to indicate members of the Celestial Master clergy. 20 The latter would be designated as Scholars of the Way 18

D 304, 25.12b. Reference is made to the imperial honours bestowed upon Wu

Yun. 19 20

D 304, 15.10b. The history of the title 'Celestial Master' remains to be written. Any such future

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of the Covenantal Authority of the Orthodox and One (Zhengyi mengwei daoshi JE-MWX:Ji±), as Libationers (jijiu ~~), or as Inspectors of Merit (dugong t[B:;b) - the highest rank in the Tang dynasty Celestial Master hierarchy. 21 Yet it is precisely what Sun Yizhong seems to be suggesting by stating that the Celestial Masters Kou Qianzhi, Pan Shizheng, Sima Chengzhen, Wu Yun, Ye Guyun and Y e Guanghan were among the most illustrious transmitters of the Celestial Master teaching. In all probability, Daoist priests of the Period of Disunion and the subsequent Tang dynasty, who were unrelated to the original Zhang Tianshi lineage but were designated as Celestial Masters belong to one of at least three different categories. Most conspicuously, there were those who had received the title from the hands of an emperor, after having themselves conferred an ordination upon that emperor. This category would include Kou Qianzhi, from whose hands emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei had received talismans and registers around the year 440; 22 Sima Chengzhen and his leading disciple Li Hanguang, who both conferred ordinations upon Tang Xuanzong; 23 Liu Xuanjing study must include the scathing remarks of the Qing dynasty historian Qian Daxin ~ :kPJT (1728-1804), who found it impossible to stomach the fact that, from the Jin shu onwards, a "fallacious and preposterous" appellation such as that of Celestial Master found its way into orthodox historiography. Cf. Qian's Shijia zhai yangxin lu +l!jj'f lUJT~ (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1957), 19.459-60. See also Chan Wingtsit's denigrating remarks on the "Heavenly Teacher," the "presumptuous title invented for himself by the founder of the Taoist religion," in Religious Trends in Modern China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1953), p. 150. 21 One possible exception may be found in a stela inscription, presumably of the late eighth century, on the Daoist Abbey of the Dai Marchmount (Daiyue guan 11i~ if/., Tai shan). There, Bian Axiu JIJliiJ3%= and-Zhang Youchao 5lt&¥JJ are designated as tianshi xia xingguan :::RBi!irf'f'§", an enigmatic appellation otherwise unattested, which we may tentatively render as "Itinerant Functionaries Reporting to the Celestial Master". See Chen Yuan, Daojiajinshi liie, p. 168. 22 Cf. Mather, "K'ou Ch'ien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy," p. 118 and Verellen, Du Guangting, p. 178. 23 On Sima Chengzhen's initiation of Xuanzong into the Shangqing canon, see Kirkland, "Ssu-Ma Ch'eng-chen and the Role of Taoism in the Medieval Chinese Polity," p. 130. Among the numerous examples where Sima Chengzhen is addressed as Celestial Master, see Du Guangting's Daojiao lingyanji, 14.4b and Du's Dongtian .fodi yuedu mingshan ji (D 599), 9a. Sima Chengzhen is also called Celestial Master in the Nanyue xiaolu- as are most other Daoists in that late Tang work on Heng shan - and in the Shenxian zhuan, quoted in Sandong qunxian lu, 11.8a. The same goes for Qian Yi's ~£ (?-after 1023) Nanbu xinshu r-l!ffl'fll~:C:, (Congshujicheng ed.), p. 23. Li Hanguang felt highly uneasy about the imperial attention lavished upon him and

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~tl12: ~ (d. 851) of Heng shan, who received the title of Celestial Master from emperor Wuzong lit* and ordained Wuzong's successor Xuanzong 1§'*;24 and, finally, Du Guangting, who received the title "Celestial Master, Transmitter of Perfection" (chuanzhen tianshi {W~ 7( ~iff) in 923 after having ordained Wang Yan ±1lr, emperor of the Former Shu i¥1,11; dynasty. 25 It must be noted here that numerous Daoist priests belonging to the milieu where Du Guangting received his spiritual education were thoroughly steeped in Celestial Master practice. They include Liu Xuanjing, Ye Cangzhi, Liu Xiuran ~tlf~~ and Ying Yijie B!~1W. The latter received the Zhengyi zhi fa in 824 and was ordained Grand Inspector of Merit (da dugong :k~;h) by the eighteenth Celestial Master, Zhang Shaoren ~&11:, in 827. 26 Interestingly, not all Daoists who conferred an ordination upon a member of the imperial family were given the title of tianshi. When Wu Fatong ~l~Jm (825-after 907), who would later be revered as the seventeenth Shangqing patriarch, conferred upon Xizong fl* (r. 873-888) the Register of the Great Cavern (dadong lu :k¥1ii1~) in 875, he received the title of Master of Initiation (dushi JlJiP) and a religious name, but not the title of tianshi. 21 Accidentally or not, Wu Fatong seems not to have had any overt links with the Celestial Master movement. Of other Daoist priests designated as tianshi - and it is to this category that Wu Yun belongs - it is known that they responded to imperial summonses in order to be questioned about the relationship between the Daoist faith and the management of the state and the individual body, the Daoist arts of immortality etc. As these priests acted as teachers to the Son of Heaven (tianzi shi 7(-=f~iP), it is not at all improbable that this earned them the title tianshi. Thus, Pan Shizheng is alternately called Venerable Master (zunshi) and Celestial Master in the Daomen jingfa xiangcheng cixu (D 1128), the work repeatedly excused himself on grounds of ill health, but apparently agreed to become the emperor's teacher in 748. In Li Bai's inscription for the Master of Purple Solarity, preserved in Mao shan zhi, 24.17a-19a, Li Hanguang is addressed as tianshi. 24 Dongxuan lingbao sanshiji, 3b and Verellen, Du Guangting, p. 22. 25 Cf. Verellen, Du Guangting, p. 178. 26 Cf. Verellen, Du Guangting, pp. 13-25. In the Han tianshi shijia (D 1463), 2.15b-16a, the eighteenth Celestial Master is not Zhang Shaoren but Zhang Shiyuan ijft± :JI;. 27

Mao shan zhi, 11.7a-b and Verellen, Du Guangting, pp. 29, 178.

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thought to reflect Pan's conversations with Tang Gaozong. And in a memorial inscription for Pan Shizheng, erected in 699, Gaozong is said to have treated Pan with the ceremonial due to a Celestial Master ft.~

:X ~ilL:Z. /Pl. 28 An interesting case is that of Celestial Master Wan Zhen ;I;~ (died 661), zi Changsheng *1:., who appeared at court in 657 upon having been invited by Gaozong. The emperor inquired ofhim about the Ways of governing the country and nourishing life, and, so we are told, he treated Wan as a teacher and a friend. 29 Similarly, Celestial Master Hu Huichao tJHi~J~ (died 703), zi Basu t.&:m, an important figure in the development of the Way of Filial Piety (xiaodao ), is known to have accepted Wu Zetian's invitation to appear at court so as to answer the empress' queries about the attainment of immortality and the preparation of elixirs. 30 All the while, we must not overlook the fact that, like Pan Shizheng and Wu Yun, Wan Zhen and Hu Huichao were not solely "teachers of the Son of Heaven," but also had clearly demonstrable ties with the Celestial Master movement. In their respective hagiographical accounts, we read that Wan Zhen and Hu Huichao combatted so-called "excessive cults," healed sickness through the use of talismans and incantations, and refused to accept any remuneration, all elements typical for Celestial Master practice. A final and unequivocal example of an imperially appointed Celestial Master who spent some time in the imperial entourage is that of Xue Jichang. Having rejected an official career in favour of a life devoted to the Way, this disciple of Sima Chengzhen and resident of Qingcheng shan (Sichuan) and Heng shan, the Southern Marchmount, was summoned to the capital and earned Xuanzong's admiration. When Xue expressed the wish to return to his mountain retreat, the emperor himself composed a poem for Xue before sending him off. And thereafter, states our Late Tang source, Xue Jichang was bestowed the title of Celestial Master 1.&M:X~iP. 31 Yet another category of Daoist priests were addressed as Celestial Masters without ever having made their appearance in the imperial 28

Chen Yuan, Daojiajinshi lUe, p. 84. Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, 31.9a-1 Oa. 30 Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, 27.13a-16b and Schipper, "Taoist Ritual and Local Cults," p. 815. 31 Nanyue xiaolu, 6a-b. 29

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entourage or conferred Daoist ordinations upon members of the ruling clan. In this category belongs Ji Qiwu of Dadi shan, the disciple of Y e Fashan who received a number of registers, talismans and secret formulae and thereafter "was never remiss in bringing relief to other beings," to borrow Deng Mu's words. Even more informative is the case of an otherwise unknown Celestial Master Hou 1~.::R~ffi, about 32 whom Du Guangting writes in his Shenxian ganyu zhuan. Celestial Master Hou seems to have had no contacts with the rulers of his day but lived a humble life in his native Jiulong ::tL!li (home to the fifth of the twenty-four Celestial Master dioceses, not far north of Chengdu). The single reason why he was called Hou Tianshi was that he bestowed a Celestial Master talisman .::R~ffi;f:-4 that was said to cure all afflictions. This is not the place to conduct an in-depth study of the Tang dynasty Daoist nomenclature. However, the above evidence does allow, I think, two conclusions. First, though Russell Kirkland is essentially correct in suggesting that the title of Celestial Master was applied to members of the Daoist clergy whom one wished to honour as religious figures of superior accomplishment, it is all the while necessary to differentiate between the various motivations underlying the application of the title. Second, it cannot be denied that the majority of Tang dynasty tianshi had direct links with the practices of the Celestial Master movement. In the following pages, I shall examine some of the remaining evidence - often of epigraphic nature - of Celestial Master activity under the late Period of Disunion and the Tang. This will not only enable us to further refine our picture of Medieval Daoism in general, it will also yield a more precise religious profile ofWu Yun.

Traces of Celestial Master Daoism qre relatively well informed about the early stages of development '--~:tial Master movement. The organization of the Late Han 1 "0 communities, their worldview and religious prac. ~l)ntinue to be intensively studied. The same - ·n developments related to the Celestial .td fall of the state of Cheng-Han JJ)(;7:l J), the reforms attempted by Kou Qianzhi

I

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in the north and Lu Xiujing in the south, as well as the relations of the Tianshi dao with the Wei, Tuoba Wei and Liu-Song dynasties have met with varying degrees of scholarly attention. As far as the Tang dynasty is concerned, however, information is extremely scarce and diffuse. 33 Studies on the Celestial Masters under the Tang have tended to focus on the activities of the Zhang clan on Longhu shan, although this would seem to be one of the less relevant aspects of Tang dynasty Daoism, at least as far as the first two centuries of Tang history are concerned. Reliable information about the presence of a Zhang Tianshi centre on Longhu shan is absent before the ninth century, and there can be little doubt that a large percentage of the pre-Song dynasty data on the Zhang lineage contained in the Han Tianshi shijia t~::R~illt!t* (D 1463, compiled between the fourteenth and the sixteenth century), belongs to the realm of"pious fiction," as Russell Kirkland has observed. 34 The paucity of trustworthy descriptions of Tang dynasty Celestial Masters has led Masaharu Ozaki to conjecture that "the T'ien-shih during the T' ang did not have much power, let alone the power to unify the T'ien-shih Tao sects all over China, and was merely a local power among many." 35 Others, such as Russell Kirkland, have stated that "there was in fact no continuous 'Tianshi lineage' during Tang times." 36 The same author has even gone one step further by declaring that "the Celestial Masters organization died out during the Six Dynasties."37 Of course it cannot be denied that the Celestial Master organisation underwent dramatic changes as the original Hanzhong community was 33

Some of the available data have been collected in Qing Xitai, Zhongguo daojiao shi, vol. 2, p. 145-151. See also K. Schipper, "Taoism: The Story of the Way," in Stephen Little, Taoism and the Arts of China (The Art Institute of Chicago & Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), p. 48. 34 Kirkland, "Dimensions of Tang Taoism: The State ofthe Field at the End of the Millennium," T'ang Studies 15-16 (1997-98), p. 96, n. 14. 35 Ozaki, "The Taoist Priesthood: From Tsai-chia to Ch'u-chia," p. 105. 36 Kirkland, "Dimensions of Tang Taoism," p. 96, repeated in Kohn (ed.), Daoism }{andbook,p. 349. 37 Kirkland, "Person and Culture in the Taoist Tradition," Journal of Chinese Religions 20 (1992), p. 85. In a more recent publication, Kirkland has stated that the Tianshi "eventually died out as a separate tradition, though some of its institutions were preserved in 'Organized Taoism'." See Kirkland, "The Historical Contours of Taoism in China: Thoughts on Issues of Classification and Terminology," Journal of Chinese Religions 25 (1997), p. 78.

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entourage or conferred Daoist ordinations upon members of the ruling clan. In this category belongs Ji Qiwu of Dadi shan, the disciple of Y e Fashan who received a number of registers, talismans and secret formulae and thereafter "was never remiss in bringing relief to other beings," to borrow Deng Mu's words. Even more informative is the case of an otherwise unknown Celestial Master Hou f~3CmJJ, about whom Du Guangting writes in his Shenxian ganyu zhuan. 32 Celestial Master Hou seems to have had no contacts with the rulers of his day but lived a humble life in his native Jiulong 1Lilft (home to the fifth of the twenty-four Celestial Master dioceses, not far north of Chengdu). The single reason why he was called Hou Tianshi was that he bestowed a Celestial Master talisman 3C~i!l~lf that was said to cure all afflictions. This is not the place to conduct an in-depth study of the Tang dynasty Daoist nomenclature. However, the above evidence does allow, I think, two conclusions. First, though Russell Kirkland is essentially correct in suggesting that the title of Celestial Master was applied to members of the Daoist clergy whom one wished to honour as religious figures of superior accomplishment, it is all the while necessary to differentiate between the various motivations underlying the application of the title. Second, it cannot be denied that the majority of Tang dynasty tianshi had direct links with the practices of the Celestial Master movement. In the following pages, I shall examine some of the remaining evidence - often of epigraphic nature - of Celestial Master activity under the late Period of Disunion and the Tang. This will not only enable us to further refine our picture of Medieval Daoism in general, it will also yield a more precise religious profile ofWu Yun.

Traces ofCelestial Master Daoism We are relatively well informed about the early stages of development of the Celestial Master movement. The organization of the Late Han dynasty Tianshi dao communities, their worldview and religious practices have all been and continue to be intensively studied. The same obtains for a number of post-Han developments related to the Celestial Master movement. The rise and fall of the state of Cheng-Han PX:r~ (first half of the fourth century), the reforms attempted by Kou Qianzhi 32

D 592, 1.6a-b.

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dispersed and relocated throughout various regions in the third century. 38 From a "sect," consisting of groups of lay followers guided by male and female priests and closely bound to the original twenty-four dioceses, Tianshi Daoism evolved into a guild of ordained priests, possessors of registers, specialized in the performance of rituals. 39 Naturally, the Celestial Master diaspora entailed a drastic reduction of the unifying authority exerted by the descendants of Zhang Daoling. This,· in its tum, was partly responsible for the perceived laxity and disrespect of religious discipline that prompted Kou. Qianzhi and Lu Xiujing to launch their reformative attempts. Another consequence of the diaspora was that the original Celestial Master teachings came into contact or collision with other cults and rituals, forcing Zhengyi priests to compete with these. This continuous process of conflict and accommodation both enriched and transformed Tianshi dao practice. However, certain key elements of the original Celestial Master practice (petitioning rituals, healing through talismans, aspects of sexual practice) would remain relatively unaffected by the altered social and cultural contexts. One of the main reasons of the "invisibility" of Celestial Master priests during the Tang period must, I believe, be sought in the nature of the very tools these priests worked with. Because of their primarily "administrative" or "bureaucratic" character, the Zhengyi registers, lists of names of demons and ghosts, liturgical presciptions, talismans and models for the writing of petitions were entirely devoid of literary appeal. They were unable to inspire writers to compose, for instance, the highly sophisticated type of visionary poetry which contributed to 38

In this context, more research will be needed in order to assess the significance of the so-called Celestial Master "chapels" (jinglu if¥!\l, ~!\l). According to Yunji qiqian, 28.2a, the original number of jinglu was nineteen, but no information is provided as to their location. By Lu Xiujing's time, the number of chapels had increased to thirty-six (see Lu xiansheng daomen keliie, lb), but again their precise location remains unknown. The oldest detailed list of the thirty-six jinglu is in Du Guangting' s Dongtian judi yuedu mingshan ji, 5a-6b. This is a very interesting list, as it reveals the Celestial Masters' preference for the Jiangnan region: no less than nine chapels were situated in Hongzhou ¥:#