Chen Minggui陈铭珪

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Youshan, sobriquets Jiaoyou and Lianfang, Chen Jiaoyou

Period

Qing

Dates

1824 — 1881

School

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism

Role

Daoist ScholarsLiteratusResident Head (Zhuchi)

Birthplace

Dongguan (present-day Dongguan, Guangdong)

Places of activity

Mount Luofu

Life

Chen Minggui, style name Youshan, was a native of Dongguan, Guangdong, a Qing-dynasty provincial graduate (juren), man of letters, and Daoist priest, who in his later years presided over the Sulao Guan on Mount Luofu. His eight-chapter Changchun daojiao yuanliu (Origins and Development of the Changchun [Quanzhen] Daoist Teaching, prefaced in the fifth year of the Guangxu era, 1879) was the first work to systematically investigate the history of Quanzhen Daoism and the Longmen Lineage, drawing broadly on stele inscriptions, local gazetteers, and texts from the Daozang to examine Wang Chongyang, the Seven Perfected, and the generations of transmission, while also distinguishing legend from historical fact; it was regarded by later scholars such as Chen Yuan as a forerunner of the study of Quanzhen history. He also wrote the Fushan zhi (Gazetteer of Mount Fu) and the Luofu zhinan (Guide to Mount Luofu), among other works. Chen Minggui represents the beginning of the study of Daoism from a historiographical standpoint among late-Qing literati. His book draws on both stele biographies and local gazetteers, examining matters such as Qiu Chuji's journey to the west and the transmission of precepts in the Longmen Lineage, and is regarded as the turning point at which the study of Quanzhen Daoism in the late Qing and early Republic shifted from narrative within the religious community toward scholarly textual criticism.

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote the Changchun daojiao yuanliu, the pioneering work in the study of Quanzhen Daoist history
• Compiled and organized Daoist documents relating to Mount Luofu
• Presided over the Sulao Guan on Mount Luofu, combining the roles of Daoist priest and scholar

Works

• Origins and Development of Changchun Daoism
• Gazetteer of Mount Fu
• Lizhuang Shicun (Surviving Poems from Lychee Village)