Rao Dongtian饶洞天

Period

Northern Song

Dates

? — ?

School

Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Method of the Celestial Heart)

Role

Founder of the Tianxin Zhengfa

Birthplace

Linchuan, Fuzhou (present-day Fuzhou, Jiangxi)

Life

Rao Dongtian was a Daoist priest of the early Northern Song, a native of Linchuan, Fuzhou, and the founder of the Correct Method of the Celestial Heart (Tianxin Zhengfa). According to the preface to the Shangqing tianxin zhengfa and the preface written by Deng Yougong of the Southern Song, he was originally a county clerk; in the fifth year of the Chunhua era (994) he dreamed that a divine being showed him a sign, and on digging into the ground at Mount Huagai he found the secret text of the "Correct Method of the Celestial Heart" (one account says a stone casket); he thereupon abandoned his clerical post to become a Daoist, transmitting the methods left by Tan Zixiao, and took as his principal techniques the "Correct Pneuma of the Three Luminaries" (sanguang zhengqi), the talismans of the "Bureau for Expelling Evil at the North Pole" (Beiji quxie yuan), the Great Sage of the Celestial Ladle, and "purging temples of evil influences," used to cure illness and exorcise ghosts. This method was transmitted through Zhu Jian, Zhu Dongyuan, Tan Zhiru, Rao Yan, Lu Shizhong, Deng Yougong, and others, forming the Tianxin school, which spread very widely in the Song and Yuan; its system of techniques was a forerunner of the new talismanic Daoist methods of the Song, such as Shenxiao and Qingwei. Rao Dongtian's dates of birth and death are unknown.

Contributions & Influence

• Founded the Correct Method of the Celestial Heart, a forerunner of the new talismanic Daoist methods of the Song

Legends

Legend: Rao Dongtian is said to have dreamed that a divine being told him there was a secret text on Mount Huagai, and that upon digging he found a golden casket containing the Correct Method of the Celestial Heart. This is a legendary account.