Lüqiu Fangyuan闾丘方远

Style & Daoist names

Dafang, Master Miaoyou (Wondrous Being), Master Xuantong

Period

Late Tang and Five Dynasties

Dates

? — 902

School

Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School

Role

Shangqing PatriarchDaoist Scholars

Birthplace

Susong, Shuzhou (present-day Susong, Anhui)

Places of activity

Mount Tiantai

Life

Lüqiu Fangyuan, courtesy name Dafang, was a Daoist priest of the late Tang and Five Dynasties. As a young man he mastered the classics and histories, received instruction from Chen Yuanwu on Mount Lu, and later went to Mount Tiantai to study Shangqing scriptural methods under Liu Chujing, becoming an important transmitter in the Shangqing lineage. During the Guangqi era (885–888) he resided at the Tianzhu Temple on Mount Dadi in Yuhang, where he attracted a great many disciples — "scholars from every quarter came in an unbroken stream of boats and carriages" — and was honored by Qian Liu, King of Wuyue; Emperor Zhaozong of Tang bestowed on him the title "Great Master of Wondrous Being, Master Xuantong." He compiled the ten-scroll Digest of the Scripture of Great Peace, abridging the one-hundred-seventy-scroll Scripture of Great Peace into a digest version, which survives today in the Daoist Canon and is a key source for the content of that scripture after its original text was largely lost. He died in the second year of Tianfu (902). Among his notable disciples was, according to one account, Nie Shidao.

Contributions & Influence

• Compiled the Digest of the Scripture of Great Peace, preserving the essential content of the Scripture of Great Peace
• A leading master of the Shangqing transmission at Mount Tiantai and Mount Dadi in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, honored by the King of Wuyue

Works

• Digest of the Scripture of Great Peace

Legends

According to legend, at his death his countenance remained as if alive, and a strange fragrance filled the room.