Guan Yin (Yin Xi)关尹

Style & Daoist names

Yin Xi, Yin Xi, Keeper of the Pass, Guanyinzi, Perfected of the Origin of Culture, Master Wenshi

Period

Spring and Autumn period

Dates

? — ?

School

Louguan School

Role

Daoist PhilosopherPatriarch venerated by the Louguan School

Birthplace

Zhou (alternatively Tianshui)

Places of activity

Louguantai (Louguan Terrace)

Life

Guan Yin, that is, Yin Xi, keeper of the pass, was the warden of the Hangu Pass of Zhou in the late Spring and Autumn period. The Records of the Grand Historian records that when Laozi traveled west and passed through the pass, 'the pass-keeper Yin Xi said: You are about to withdraw from the world — please write a book for my sake,' whereupon Laozi composed the five-thousand-character Daodejing. The 'Below Heaven' chapter of the Zhuangzi ranks Guan Yin alongside Lao Dan as one of the 'broadly learned Perfected of antiquity,' describing his teaching as founded on 'valuing clarity,' and holding that 'if one holds to no fixed position in oneself, the forms of things reveal themselves.' The Bibliographic Treatise of the Han History records a Guanyinzi in nine chapters, now lost; the received Guanyinzi (the Wenshi zhenjing) is a Tang-Song pseudepigraphon. From the Northern Dynasties onward the Louguan School arose, taking Louguantai in Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, as the former residence of Yin Xi and venerating him as its founding patriarch, constructing a body of legend around Laozi's transmission of scripture at Louguan. He was honored in the Tang as 'Master Wenshi' and in the Song by Emperor Huizong as 'Perfected Wenshi.'

Contributions & Influence

• Requested that Laozi write the Daodejing, traditionally regarded as the origin of the transmission of Daoist scripture
• His teaching of 'valuing clarity' is counted among the precursors of Daoist philosophy
• Venerated as the founding patriarch of the Louguan School, giving rise to its lineage of transmission

Works

• Guanyinzi (the surviving text is a later pseudepigraphon)

Legends

According to legend, Yin Xi was skilled at observing celestial signs, and upon seeing a purple cloud drift from the east he knew that a sage was about to pass through the gate, and so went out to welcome Laozi; he later followed Laozi west through the shifting sands and converted the barbarians. These belong to religious legend.