Fan Changsheng范长生

Style & Daoist names

Fan Yanjiu, Fan Jiuchong, Fan Xian, Changsheng (courtesy name)

Period

Western Jin–Cheng Han

Dates

? — 318

School

Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao)

Role

Leader of the Way of the Celestial MastersChancellor of Cheng Han

Birthplace

Danxing, Fuling (present-day Qianjiang, Chongqing)

Places of activity

Mount Qingcheng

Life

Fan Changsheng, also named Yanjiu or Jiuzhong, style name Yuan, was the leader of the Way of the Celestial Masters in the Cheng-Han state during the Western Jin, a native of Danxing in Fuling. Tradition holds that he was broadly learned and multi-talented; he lived on Mount Qingcheng as the head of over a thousand households of Celestial Masters believers in the region, being 'of established reputation and virtue, esteemed by the people of Shu.' In the first year of Yongxing (304), when Li Xiong attacked Chengdu and faced a shortage of grain, Fan Changsheng supplied him with provisions and military supplies; after Li Xiong proclaimed himself King and then Emperor of Chengdu, he wished to make Fan Changsheng ruler, but Fan firmly declined and was instead appointed Chancellor, honoured as 'Fan the Worthy,' enfeoffed as Marquis of Xishan, and exempted from military levies and taxation on his own household troops and estates. As a result the Cheng-Han state had 'few corvée duties and light labour service, and the people were prosperous.' Fan Changsheng is thus regarded as a typical figure combining the Way of the Celestial Masters with local political power; Mount Qingcheng preserves a shrine to him and the tomb of Fan the Worthy. He died in the first year of Daxing of the Eastern Jin (318), reportedly at over a hundred years of age.

Contributions & Influence

• Supported and assisted the Cheng-Han state as leader of the Way of the Celestial Masters
• Sustained the Way of the Celestial Masters in Sichuan through the chaos of the late Western Jin

Works

• Shucai's Commentary on the Book of Changes (according to one account authored by Fan Changsheng)

Legends

Tradition holds that Fan Changsheng lived to over one hundred and thirty years of age, having attained the way of long life, whence his name.