Liu Mingrui刘名瑞

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Xiufeng, styled Panchanzi, also Qiaoqiao Daoren, Twentieth generation of the Nanwu Lineage

Period

Late Qing–early Republican era

Dates

1839 — 1933

School

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, Nanwu Lineage of Quanzhen

Role

Internal Alchemy MastersPatriarch of the Nanwu Lineage

Birthplace

Beijing (according to one account, Shuntian)

Life

Liu Mingrui, sobriquet Panchanzi, was the twentieth-generation transmitter of the Nanwu Lineage of Quanzhen in the late Qing and early Republic, a native of Beijing. In his youth he practiced martial arts, and later took up the Daoist life, residing at the Taoyuan Guan on the outskirts of Beijing, teaching disciples methods of quiet-cultivation alchemy. He wrote the Qiaoqiao dongzhang (Chapters on Knocking at the Cavern), the Panshan yulu (Recorded Sayings of Panshan, by one account), and the Daoyuan jingwei ge (Song of the Subtle Essentials of the Source of the Dao), among other works, together forming the Panchanzi daoshu sanzhong (Three Daoist Books of Panchanzi), expounding the oral formulas and fire phasing of internal alchemy in plain language, with illustrations alongside text, and exerting considerable influence in northern alchemical circles in the late Qing and early Republic. His disciple Zhao Bichen founded the "Qianfeng (Thousand Peaks) School," further making his methods public, and Liu Mingrui is thus regarded as one of the sources from which the Qianfeng School traces its transmission. He was versed in both martial arts and medicine, and continued taking on disciples and teaching his methods into his later years; his writings were reprinted in the 1980s, and are regarded as a forerunner of the "going public" of internal alchemy in the north during the late Qing.

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote the Panchanzi daoshu sanzhong, making public the alchemical methods of the Nanwu Lineage
• Trained Zhao Bichen, a source of the Qianfeng School
• Versed in both martial arts and medicine, a forerunner of the 'going public' of internal alchemy in the north during the late Qing

Works

• Qiaoqiao dongzhang (敲蹻洞章, Cavern Chapters of Knocking on the Stilts)
• Daoyuan jingwei ge (道源精微歌, Song of the Subtle Essentials of the Source of the Dao)
• 瀊熻易考