Du Guangting杜光庭

Style & Daoist names

Bingsheng, Dongyingzi, Master Guangcheng, Celestial Master Chuanzhen (Transmitter of Perfection)

Period

Late Tang and Five Dynasties

Dates

850 — 933

School

Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School, Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School

Role

Daoist ScholarsRitual MasterAuthor of historical biographiesMan of Letters

Birthplace

Jinyun, Chuzhou (present-day Jinyun, Zhejiang)

Places of activity

Mount Tiantai, Mount Qingcheng

Life

Du Guangting, courtesy name Binsheng, styled Dongyingzi, was a celebrated Daoist priest and scholar of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, a native of Jinyun. He sat for the jinshi examination during the Xiantong era without success, and entered Mount Tiantai to study Shangqing scriptural methods under Ying Yijie. Under Emperor Xizong he was summoned into the palace to compose literary pieces by imperial command at the Linde Hall and was granted the purple robe; when Huang Chao entered Chang'an in the first year of Guangming (880), Du Guangting followed Xizong into Shu and settled in Chengdu. Under the Former Shu, founded by Wang Jian, he served as Grand Master for Splendid Happiness and Vice Minister of Revenue, was given the honorific title "Master Guangcheng," and served as tutor to the crown prince; under Wang Yan he was made "Celestial Master Who Transmits the True." In his later years he retired to the Baiyun Stream on Mount Qingcheng, and died in the fourth year of Changxing (933). Deeply versed in the Three Caverns and Four Supplements, he was extraordinarily prolific: his fifty-scroll Daode zhenjing guangshengyi (道德真经广圣义, Expanded Sagely Meaning of the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue) gathers together the accumulated Tang scholarship on the Laozi; his Liturgies of the Yellow Register Retreat and Complete Collection of Daoist Ritual Protocols systematically organized the rites of retreat and offering, becoming models for later ritual practice; his Records of Daoist Miraculous Efficacy, Biographies of Encounters with Divine Immortals, Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Fortified Walled City, and Luyi ji (录异记, Records of Strange Things) belong to the genres of Daoist hagiography and tale-literature; his Record of Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Marchmounts, Rivers and Famous Mountains is the definitive summation of the system of Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands; he also left the literary collection Guangcheng ji (广成集, Collected Works of Guangcheng). Du Guangting is the great synthesizer of Tang and Five Dynasties Daoism, praised as "foremost under Heaven in upholding the tradition and establishing the teaching."

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote the Daode zhenjing guangshengyi, the culminating synthesis of Tang-dynasty scholarship on the Laozi
• Systematized the rites of retreat and offering, compiling the Liturgies of the Yellow Register Retreat and other works that became models for ritual practice after the Song
• Compiled hagiographical and miracle-tale literature such as the Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Fortified Walled City, the Biographies of Encounters with Divine Immortals, and the Records of Daoist Miraculous Efficacy
• His Record of Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Marchmounts, Rivers and Famous Mountains systematically summarized the system of Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands
• Promoted the development of Daoism under the Former Shu, bringing about the flourishing of Daoism on Mount Qingcheng

Works

• Daode Zhenjing Guangshengyi (Expanded Sagely Meaning of the Perfect Scripture of the Dao and De)
• Liturgies of the Yellow Register Retreat
• Complete Collection of Daoist Ritual Protocols
• Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Fortified Walled City
• Biographies of Encounters with Divine Immortals
• Records of Daoist Miraculous Efficacy
• Luyi ji (Records of Strange Things)
• Record of Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Marchmounts, Rivers and Famous Mountains
• Guangcheng ji (Collected Works of Guangcheng)
• Qiuran ke zhuan (Tale of the Curly-Bearded Stranger) (attributed)

Legends

The Qiuran ke zhuan (虬髯客传, The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Stranger) is traditionally attributed to him; it belongs to the genre of Tang chuanqi tale-fiction.