Jiao Kuang焦旷

Style & Daoist names

Daoguang, Sandong Xiansheng (Master of the Three Caverns)

Period

Northern Zhou

Dates

? — ?

School

Louguan School

Role

Daoist Priest of Mount HuaFigure of the Louguan School

Birthplace

Unknown

Places of activity

Mount Hua (Huashan)

Life

Jiao Kuang, style name Daoguang, was a Daoist priest of the Northern Zhou who lived in reclusion at the Yuntai Abbey on Mount Hua, later building a hermitage on its western peak for cultivation. Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou held his teaching in high regard and often visited the mountain to consult him, granting him the title 'Master of the Three Caverns.' The Louguan Daoist priest Wang Yan studied under him and 'received the secret instructions and true scriptures of the Three Caverns.' Jiao Kuang was an important figure linking the Daoism of Mount Hua and the Louguan School in the Northern Dynasties; historical materials on his life are scarce, appearing mainly in the Stele Records of Perfected Immortals through the Ages at the Scripture Platform on Mount Zhongnan and the Huayue Zhi (Gazetteer of Mount Hua), and some older sources instead identify him as a Maoshan Daoist priest. The line of transmission from Jiao Kuang through Wang Yan and on to Yin Wencao and others in the early Tang shows that the Daoism of Mount Hua and Louguan had already become closely linked by the late Northern Dynasties. His title 'Master of the Three Caverns' also shows that Northern Zhou Daoism had come generally to regard the Three Caverns scriptural teaching as orthodox.

Contributions & Influence

• Transmitted the secret instructions of the Three Caverns to Wang Yan, a link in the transmission of Louguan scriptures and methods under the Northern Zhou
• An early representative of the Daoism of the Yuntai Abbey on Mount Hua