Meng Anpai孟安排

Period

Tang

Dates

? — ?

Role

Daoist Scholars

Birthplace

Unknown (resided at Qingxi Abbey)

Life

Meng Anpai was a Daoist priest active under Emperor Gaozong of Tang and during the Zhou dynasty of Empress Wu Zetian, resident at Qingxi Temple; his dates of birth and death are unknown. He compiled the ten-scroll Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching, which, according to his own preface, was formed by pruning down the twenty-scroll Xuanmen Dayi (玄门大义, Great Meaning of the Mysterious Gate). It is divided into thirty-seven topics, including the meaning of the Dao and De, the meaning of the Dharma-body, the meaning of the Three Treasures, the meaning of ranks and karma, the meaning of the Three Caverns, the meaning of the Seven Sections, the meaning of the Twelve Categories, the meaning of Dao-nature, the meaning of object and cognition, and the meaning of naturalness, systematically summarizing the basic doctrines and scriptural system of Daoism. It is the most complete surviving outline of Daoist doctrine from the Tang dynasty, and its discussions of “Dao-nature,” “object and cognition,” and other topics show clear Buddhist influence. This work is of the highest value for the study of the doctrinal scholarship, scriptural classification, and Chongxuan thought of Daoism in the Six Dynasties, Sui, and Tang, and is the principal source for reconstructing the now-lost Xuanmen Dayi. The Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching cites nearly a hundred Daoist scriptures throughout, many of them now lost, giving it additional value for the recovery of lost texts and the study of scriptural catalogues.

Contributions & Influence

• Compiled the Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching, a representative work in the systematization of Tang Daoist doctrine

Works

• Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching