Lu Xixing陆西星

Style & Daoist names

Style name Changgeng, Styled Qianxu, and Unofficial Historian of Fanghu, Lay Practitioner Yunkong

Period

Ming

Dates

1520 — c. 1601 (alternatively 1606)

School

Eastern Lineage of Internal Alchemy (Dongpai), Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir (Nanzong)

Role

Internal Alchemy MastersPatriarch of the Eastern LineageLay PractitionerLiteratus

Birthplace

Xinghua, Yangzhou (present-day Xinghua, Jiangsu)

Life

Lu Xixing, courtesy name Changgeng, sobriquet Qianxuzi, was a native of Xinghua, Jiangsu, and the founder of the Ming-dynasty Eastern Lineage of internal alchemy. In his youth he studied for the civil examinations but failed nine times, and thereupon abandoned Confucian scholarship for the Dao, claiming that in the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign (1547) Lü Dongbin descended to his thatched hut and transmitted alchemical methods to him. His teaching takes the "dual cultivation of nature and life" as its core, advocating the paired cultivation of yin and yang ("same-kind yin and yang") while condemning bedchamber techniques as deviant, and re-expounding the Southern Lineage alchemical methods descended from Zhang Boduan; he wrote the fifteen works of the Unofficial History of Fanghu, and produced commentaries on the Zhouyi cantong qi, the Wuzhen pian and the Jindan jiuzheng pian, among others. Widely learned in the Three Teachings, he wrote the Fumo of the True Scripture of Southern Florescence as a commentary on the Zhuangzi, and also the Shuzhi on the Shurangama Sutra; his thought takes the Dao as its foundation while drawing together Confucianism and Buddhism. Because Li Xiyue of the Qing founded the rival Western Lineage, Lu's tradition came to be called the "Eastern Lineage" in contrast. An older tradition holds him to be the author of Investiture of the Gods, though this remains disputed among scholars.

Contributions & Influence

• Founded the Eastern Lineage of internal alchemy, expounding the doctrine of paired cultivation through "same-kind yin and yang"
• Wrote the Unofficial History of Fanghu, one of the most systematic bodies of alchemical writing of the Ming dynasty
• His Fumo of the True Scripture of Southern Florescence became an important Ming-dynasty commentary on the Zhuangzi

Works

• Unofficial History of Fanghu (Lu Xixing)
• Treatise on Rectifying the Golden Elixir
• Treatise on the Superficial Aspects of the Mystery
• Supplementary Ink on the Nanhua Zhenjing
• Investigative Subcommentary on the Cantong Qi
• Short Preface to the Wuzhen Pian
• Exposition of the Purport of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra

Legends

The tradition holds that Lü Dongbin descended and transmitted alchemical methods to him; he is also traditionally said to be the author of Investiture of the Gods, though this remains unresolved.