Mu Changchao牧常晁

Style & Daoist names

sobriquet Fanghu Waishi (Unofficial Historian of Fanghu)

Period

Yuan

Dates

? — ?

School

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism

Role

Quanzhen Daoist PriestInternal Alchemy Masters

Birthplace

Unknown

Life

Mu Changchao was a Quanzhen Daoist priest of the Yuan dynasty; his dates and native place are unknown, and he was active roughly from the late thirteenth to the early fourteenth century, belonging to the generation of Quanzhen Daoism after its spread into Jiangnan. His seven-scroll Xuanzong zhizhi wanfa tonggui (玄宗直指万法同归, Direct Pointers of the Mysterious Lineage: The Myriad Methods Return to the Same Source) expounds the principle of the dual cultivation of nature and life in the form of questions and answers accompanied by diagrams, arguing that the "myriad methods of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism return to the same source," and drawing on Chan huatou (话头, meditation topics) and Song Neo-Confucian terminology to explain internal alchemy. It is a representative text of the syncretic "three teachings as one" thought of Quanzhen Daoism in Jiangnan during the Yuan. The work discusses in detail the mind and nature, the Mysterious Pass, and fire phasing, and preserves the doctrinal outlook of Yuan-dynasty Quanzhen Daoism in the south. It also preserves Yuan-dynasty Quanzhen Daoists' citations of the Chan huatou and the Song Confucian doctrine of zhujing (主敬, "abiding in reverence"), making it an important case study of the interaction among the three teachings at the time.

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote the Xuanzong zhizhi wanfa tonggui, expounding the Quanzhen synthesis of the three teachings and the learning of nature and life
• Expounded the alchemical way through questions, answers, and diagrams, facilitating its transmission and study
• Drew on Chan and Neo-Confucian terminology, reflecting the interaction among the three teachings in the Yuan

Works

• Direct Pointers to the Mysterious School: The Common Return of the Myriad Methods (Xuanzong Zhizhi Wanfa Tonggui)