Stele Records of Perfected Immortals through the Ages at the Scripture Platform on Mount Zhongnan终南山说经台历代真仙碑记

Also known as

Stele Records of Louguantai

Author / transmission

Zhu Xiangxian (Yuan)

Period

Yuan · Compiled by Zhu Xiangxian of the Yuan dynasty, composed roughly in the Yuan (13th–14th century); one juan.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Records and Biographies category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongshen Section, Records and Biographies category

Category

Mountain Gazetteers

Fascicles

One Fascicle (Juan)

Synopsis

The Zhongnanshan Shuojingtai Lidai Zhenxian Beiji (Stele Records of Perfected Immortals through the Ages at the Scripture Platform on Mount Zhongnan), in one juan, records the history and eminent Daoists of Louguantai in Zhouzhi, Shaanxi — traditionally the place where Laozi, at the request of the pass-keeper Yin Xi, expounded the Daodejing. The Louguan School arose during the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, honouring Yin Xi as its founding patriarch and taking the legends of 'Laozi's conversion of the barbarians' and 'the exposition of the scripture and transmission of the Dao' as the core of its teaching; in the Sui and Tang it rose to prominence because the Tang imperial house of Li honoured Laozi as its ancestor, and it was called 'the source from which all Daoist lineages under Heaven took their origin.' This compilation gathers together the stele inscriptions and accounts of eminent immortals of the Scripture Platform through successive generations, from Yin Xi, Yin Gui, Liang Chen, Wang Jia, Wang Daoyi, Chen Baochi, Wei Jie, Qi Hui and Yin Wencao among the eminent Daoists of Louguan, down to the patriarchs of the Jin and Yuan after Quanzhen took over Louguan — in effect a concise history of Louguan Daoism verified through stele inscriptions. Because much of the old literature of Louguan has been lost, this stele record, together with the surviving fragments of the Louguan Benqi Neizhuan (Inner Biography of the Origins of Louguan) and the Hunyuan Shengji (Sacred Chronicle of Hunyuan), form the basic materials for reconstructing the transmission of Louguan Daoism, and are also important sources for studying the sacralization of the cult of Laozi.

Key Ideas

• A compilation of stele records from Louguantai (the Scripture Platform)
• The transmission of Louguan Daoism with Yin Xi as founding patriarch
• The sacred memory of Laozi's exposition and transmission of the Dao
• The Tang imperial house's veneration of Laozi and the prominence of Louguan
• A record of Quanzhen's takeover of Louguan in the Jin and Yuan

Structure

One juan, compiling stele texts and biographical accounts in chronological order.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Zhonghua Daozang edition

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT search
• Wikipedia: Louguantai

Related scriptures

Related figures