Chen Tuan陈抟

Style & Daoist names

Tunan, Fuyaozi, Master Baiyun (White Cloud), Master Xiyi, Chen Xiyi

Period

Five Dynasties and Northern Song

Dates

871 — 989

Role

Daoist ScholarsInternal Alchemy MastersScholar of the Book of ChangesRecluse

Birthplace

Zhenyuan, Bozhou (present-day Luyi, Henan; some accounts give Bozhou, Anhui)

Places of activity

Mount Hua (Huashan), Wudang Mountains

Life

Chen Tuan, style name Tunan, self-styled Fuyaozi, was a renowned Daoist priest and recluse of the Five Dynasties and early Song. In his youth he failed the jinshi examination, and thereafter lived in seclusion at Jiushi Cliff on Wudang, practicing breath ingestion and grain abstention for over twenty years; he later moved to the Yuntai Guan on Mount Hua and the Shaohua stone chamber, where "whenever he lay down to sleep, he often would not rise for over a hundred days." Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang bestowed on him the title "Retired Scholar of Clarity and Emptiness"; Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou summoned him to ask about the arts of ascension and of transmuting metals (huangbai), to which he replied, "Your Majesty is lord of the four seas, and should devote your thoughts to good governance — why concern yourself with the arts of alchemical transmutation?" and was given the title "Master of White Clouds." Emperor Taizong of Song received him in audience twice during the Taiping Xingguo era, and in the first year of the Yongxi era (984) bestowed on him the title "Master Xiyi." He died in the second year of the Duangong era (989) in Zhangchao Valley on Mount Hua, at the age of one hundred and eighteen (as reckoned from the Song shi). Chen Tuan was expert in the study of the Book of Changes, and transmitted the Xiantian tu (Diagram of the Prior Heaven), the Taiji tu (Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate), the Hetu (River Chart), and the Luoshu (Luo Writing); these passed through Zhong Fang, Mu Xiu, and Li Zhicai to Zhou Dunyi and Shao Yong, becoming the source of the Song-dynasty Neo-Confucian tradition of diagrammatic learning (tushu zhi xue). In internal alchemy he wrote the Zhixuan pian (Chapters Pointing to the Mystery) and the Wuji tu (Diagram of the Limitless), among others, advocating the dual cultivation of nature and life, and was revered jointly by later generations of both the Southern and Northern Lineages of internal alchemy. Remains associated with him, such as the Xiyi Shrine and the Sleeping Immortal Cave, survive on Mount Hua to this day.

Contributions & Influence

• Transmitted the Xiantian tu, the Taiji tu, and the Wuji tu, an important source of Song-dynasty diagrammatic studies of the Changes and of Neo-Confucianism
• His theory of internal-alchemical cultivation (sleeping practice, the dual cultivation of nature and life) was a forerunner of Song–Yuan internal alchemy
• Was treated with honor by successive emperors of the Five Dynasties and early Song in his persona as an eminent recluse-Daoist

Works

• Zhixuan Pian (lost; fragments survive scattered in other texts)
• Wuji Tu (Diagram of the Ultimate of Nonbeing) (attributed)
• Xiantian Tu (Diagram of the Prior Heaven) (attributed)
• Longtu Xu (Preface to the River Chart) (attributed)
• Yin Zhenjun Huandan Ge Zhu (Commentary on the Song of the Reverted Elixir of the Perfected Yin) (attributed title)
• Mayi Daozhe Zhengyi Xinfa (Correct Mind-Method of the Changes, by the Hemp-Robed Daoist) (attributed title)

Legends

Legend: Chen Tuan is said to have once slept for over a hundred days at a stretch; to have won Mount Hua from Zhao Kuangyin in a game of chess; and, on hearing that Zhao had ascended the throne as the founding emperor of Song, to have fallen off his donkey laughing and exclaimed, 'The realm is settled from now on!' These are legendary accounts.