Liu Haichan刘海蟾

Style & Daoist names

Liu Cao, Zongcheng, Zhaoyuan, Haichanzi, Liu Hai, Perfected Lord Mingwu Hongdao, Who Illuminated Awakening and Propagated the Dao

Period

Five Dynasties

Dates

? — ?

School

Zhong–Lü Internal Alchemy Tradition

Role

Internal Alchemy MastersFive Northern Patriarchs

Birthplace

Yanshan (present-day Beijing area)

Life

Liu Haichan, personal name Cao, courtesy name Zongcheng (also given as Zhaoyuan or Zongcheng), styled Haichanzi, was an internal-alchemy master of the Five Dynasties and one of the Five Northern Patriarchs of Quanzhen Daoism. According to Daoist texts, he was originally a native of the Yan region and served as chancellor to Liu Shouguang, Prince of Yan (according to another account, he passed the jinshi examination in service to the Liao). When a Daoist he encountered (according to one account, Zhongli Quan styled Zhengyangzi; according to another, Lü Dongbin) likened his perilous position to "a stack of eggs," he abandoned office to take up the Dao, wandered to Mount Hua and the Zhongnan Mountains, and received the alchemical methods of Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin. Tradition holds that he later transmitted alchemical instructions to Zhang Boduan (the lineage of the Southern school runs Zhongli Quan, Lü Dongbin, Liu Haichan, Zhang Boduan in sequence), and so both the Southern and Northern Lineages regard him as the intermediate link in the transmission of their alchemical methods. Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu of Yuan) conferred on him the title "Perfected Lord of Understanding Who Broadens the Dao," further elevated by Emperor Wuzong of Yuan to "Sovereign Lord of Understanding Who Broadens and Purely Blesses the Dao." The popular image of "Liu Hai Playing with the Golden Toad" became conflated with the child figure "Liu Hai" through later folk attribution. Works attributed to him, such as the Huanjin pian (还金篇, Treatise on the Return to Gold) and the Huandan poumi ge (还丹破迷歌, Song of the Reverted Elixir Breaking Delusion), survive, though they may have been ascribed to him by later hands.

Contributions & Influence

• Inheritor of the alchemical methods of Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, and the shared link in the transmission of internal alchemy to both the Southern and Northern Lineages
• One of the Five Northern Patriarchs of Quanzhen

Works

• Chapter on Returning to Gold (attributed title)
• Song of the Reverted Elixir Breaking Delusion (attributed title)

Legends

According to legend, he was shown a stack of coins balanced on eggs as an image of danger; and he is portrayed in folk imagery as "Liu Hai Playing with the Golden Toad." These are legendary accounts.