Lei Shizhong雷时中

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Kequan, sobriquet Mo'an

Period

Late Southern Song–early Yuan

Dates

1221 — 1295

School

Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Method of the Celestial Heart), Hunyuan Lineage

Role

Patriarch of Daoist Ritual MethodsFounder of the Hunyuan Lineage

Birthplace

Wuchang (according to one account, Jiangxia, Hubei)

Life

Lei Shizhong, courtesy name Kequan, sobriquet Mo'an, a native of Wuchang, Hubei, was a ritual master of the late Southern Song and early Yuan. In his youth he studied Confucianism, then entered the Daoist priesthood; according to tradition he was granted the Compliant Great Rites of the Six Heavens of the Hunyuan by a divine being, and thereupon established the "Hunyuan School," in fact a branch of Tianxin Zhengfa, devoted to exorcism, healing, and the salvation of the dead. His teaching spread through Hubei, Jiangxi and the Jiangzhe region; his disciples included Lu Mingyuan and Li Shaowei, and later generations called it the "Hunyuan Teaching of Thunder Methods." No biography of him appears in the History of Yuan; his deeds are recorded mainly in the Sequel to the Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals Who Embodied the Dao through the Ages and in Daoist ritual documents. Lei Shizhong was active precisely at the transition between the Song and Yuan dynasties, and his teaching had broad influence among the people; it is also one of the various Daoist ritual traditions of Jiangnan in the Yuan dynasty. The Hunyuan School had a lasting influence on folk Daoist ritual in Jiangxi and Huguang during the Yuan and Ming, and part of its ritual texts was later incorporated into the Corpus of Daoist Ritual (Daofa huiyuan).

Contributions & Influence

• Founded the Hunyuan School, transmitting the Compliant Great Rites of the Six Heavens of the Hunyuan
• Spread the Tianxin-lineage methods of exorcism and salvation across the Jianghan and Jiangzhe regions
• Had his ritual texts partly incorporated into the Corpus of Daoist Ritual, preserving material for later ritual traditions

Works

• Great Rites of the Six Heavens of Hunyuan for According with the Will (attributed)

Legends

Tradition holds that he encountered the divine being "Perfected Lord Lu," who transmitted the methods to him — this belongs to Daoist legend.