Sima Chengzhen司马承祯

Style & Daoist names

Ziwei, Daoyin (Hidden in the Dao), Baiyunzi (Master of the White Clouds), Zhenyi Xiansheng (Master of Chaste Unity)

Period

Tang

Dates

647 — 735

School

Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School

Role

Shangqing PatriarchDaoist TheoristCalligrapher

Birthplace

Wenxian, Henei (present-day Wenxian, Henan)

Places of activity

Mount Tiantai, Mount Wangwu, Mount Mao (Maoshan)

Life

Sima Chengzhen, style name Ziwei, Dharma name Daoyin, sobriquet Baiyunzi, was the twelfth patriarch of the Tang-dynasty Maoshan Shangqing School, a descendant of Sima Kui, brother of Emperor Xuan of Jin. Fond of learning from youth, he studied under Pan Shizheng, receiving the Shangqing scriptural methods, talismans, and techniques of Abstention from Grains and Daoyin, and afterward traveled widely among the famous mountains, living for a long time in reclusion at Yuxiao Peak on Mount Tiantai. Empress Wu Zetian, Emperor Ruizong, and Emperor Xuanzong successively received him in audience: in the second year of the Jingyun era of Ruizong's reign (711), asked about yin-yang numerology and the way of governing the state, he replied with “non-action”; in the ninth year of the Kaiyuan era (721) of Xuanzong's reign, Xuanzong personally received a ritual register from him, and in the fifteenth year (727) Xuanzong ordered by decree the construction of Yangtai Temple on Mount Wangwu for him to reside in, commanded that the Daodejing be inscribed on stone in three calligraphic styles, and, at his petition, established shrines to the Perfected Lords at each of the Five Sacred Peaks. He associated with Chen Zi'ang, Li Bai, Wang Wei, He Zhizhang, and others, and was counted among the “Ten Friends of the Immortal Lineage.” He died in the twenty-third year of the Kaiyuan era (735) and was given the posthumous name “Master Zhenyi.” His writings include the Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion, the Master of Heavenly Seclusion (Tianyinzi), the Treatise on the Essential Meaning of Ingesting Qi, and the Xiuzhen Miaozhi (修真秘旨, Secret Purport of Cultivating Perfection), among others; he advocated “gathering in the mind” and “Sitting in Oblivion,” “ruling in stillness and eliminating desire,” systematizing the Zhuangzi's teaching of Sitting in Oblivion into seven stages: reverent faith, cutting off entanglements, gathering in the mind, simplifying affairs, true contemplation, great stability, and attaining the Dao. He stands as a representative of Tang Daoist theories of cultivation, and also influenced the Song–Ming Neo-Confucian doctrine of “abiding in stillness.”

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote the Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion, establishing the seven-stage theory of cultivating the Dao through gathering in the mind and Sitting in Oblivion
• Received the favor of Emperor Xuanzong, presided over Yangtai Temple on Mount Wangwu, and promoted the establishment of shrines to the Perfected Lords at the Five Sacred Peaks
• Produced a calligraphic and engraved stone edition of the Daodejing, known as the “Golden Scissors Script”
• Linked past and future by transmitting the teaching to Li Hanguang, becoming patriarch during the most flourishing period of the Tang Shangqing School

Works

• Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion
• Master of Heavenly Seclusion (Tianyinzi)
• Treatise on the Essential Meaning of Ingesting Qi
• Secret Essentials of Cultivating Perfection (Xiuzhen Bizhi)
• Chart of the Sword and Mirror Embodying the Images of Highest Clarity (Shangqing Hanxiang Jianjian Tu)
• Eulogy on the True Portrait of the Perfected of Tongbai, Attendant-in-Waiting to the Celestial Emperor, of Highest Clarity

Legends

Legend holds that at his death a pair of cranes circled the altar, white clouds issued from his chamber, and a strange fragrance lingered all day; Li Bai's “Rhapsody on Encountering the Rare Bird of the Great Peng” was said to have been composed in response to his praise.