Li Kuan李宽

Style & Daoist names

Disciple of Li A, Head of the Li Family Way

Period

Three Kingdoms (Wu)

Dates

? — mid-3rd century CE (approximate)

School

Fangxian Dao (Way of the Fangshi and Immortality-seekers), Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao)

Role

Daoshi (Daoist Priest)Leader of a Popular Religious Community

Birthplace

Shu (present-day Sichuan)

Life

Li Kuan, a figure of the Three Kingdoms period, is recorded in both the Shenxian Zhuan and Ge Hong's Baopuzi Inner Chapters, chapter 'Daoyi.' According to Ge Hong's account, Li Kuan was originally from Shu; because his appearance and accent resembled those of the earlier immortal Li A, after he entered the state of Wu he was mistaken by the people of Wu for a reincarnation of Li A, and was thereupon venerated as 'Li Babai.' In the region of Wu and Kuaiji he gathered followers and established 'lodges' (lushe), healing the sick with talisman water, appointing disciples as libationers, and drawing several thousand believers. Ge Hong was rather critical of him, noting that when a great plague later struck Wu, Li Kuan himself and many of his disciples died of the disease, showing that his arts were not to be relied upon, and used this to criticize the blind faith of contemporary folk Daoist practice. Li Kuan's community is called by scholars the Li Family Way (Lijia Dao), a folk Daoist lineage current in Jiangnan around the turn of the Three Kingdoms and Jin periods; its organizational forms — parishes, libationers, talisman water, and communal feasts — closely resembled those of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice in Ba and Shu, and it is regarded as an intermediary through which the Way of the Celestial Masters passed from Shu into Wu, as well as an important background to the religious landscape of Jiangnan before the rise of the aristocratic Daoism of the Ge and Xu clans in the Eastern Jin.

Contributions & Influence

• Founded the Li Family Way community, bringing the talisman-water Daoist arts and libationer system of Ba and Shu into Jiangnan
• A key link in the eastward transmission of the Way of the Celestial Masters and the formation of folk Daoism in Jiangnan
• His rise and fall are recorded in the Baopuzi, a primary source for the study of early Daoist organization

Legends

That he was taken by the people of Wu to be a reincarnation of Li A and that he could heal the sick with talisman water were claims made by believers at the time; Ge Hong himself already stated plainly that these were attributions made after the fact.