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- Title
Debating what Lü Dongbin Practiced: Why did the Yuan Daoist Miao Shanshi Denounce the Zhong-Lü Texts?
- Authors
Eskildsen, Stephen
- Abstract
Miao Shanshi (fl. 1324), in his Chunyang dijun shenhua miaotong ji, a large collection of stories about the legendary immortal Lü Dongbin, denounces as spurious and fallacious the three so-called “Zhong-Lü texts” (Zhong-Lü chuandao ji, Lingbao bifa, and Xishan qunxian huizhen ji) that claim to convey the inner alchemical teachings learned and practiced by Lü Dongbin. So why did Miao Shanshi, who saw himself as a champion of Quanzhen Daoist orthodoxy and defender of Lü Dongbin’s true legacy, so disdain these texts? Clues for answering this question are to be found in the dialogue between Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin recorded in the Miaotong ji’s sixth episode. Miao Shanshi’s editorial comments provide further hints as to what he objected to in the Zhong-Lü texts, as well as to how he himself may have arrived at his notion of what Lü Dongbin learned, practiced, and later taught. Attention is here also paid to another work of his, entitled Xuanjiao dagong’an. Miao Shanshi’s inner alchemical methods, which he considered the true teachings of Lü Dongbin, compared to those advocated in the Zhong-Lü texts, are much less complicated and seem to essentially consist of making the mind clear and calm while slowing down one’s breathing.
- Subjects
CHINA; QUANZHEN Taoism; MIAO Shanshi; LU Dongbin; ZHONGLI Quan; TAOISM &; literature; TAOISM; TAOIST doctrines; TAOIST sacred books; TAOISM -- History
- Publication
T'oung Pao, 2016, Vol 102, Issue 4-5, p407
- ISSN
0082-5433
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/15685322-10245P04