Song Wenming宋文明

Style & Daoist names

Wentong, Song Fashi (Dharma Master Song)

Period

Liang

Dates

? — ?

School

Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School

Role

Daoist ScholarsScriptural Master of the Lingbao School

Birthplace

Wu Commandery (according to one account)

Life

Song Wenming was a Daoist priest and Daoist scholar of the Liang, active during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang; his dates of birth and death are unknown. He wrote the Tongmen Lun (also known as the Lingbao Jingyi Shu, Subcommentary on the Meaning of the Lingbao Scriptures) and other works, offering extensive elucidation of Lingbao scriptural meaning and doctrinal classification, and was extensively cited by later works such as the Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching and the Yiqie Daojing Yinyi Miaomen Youqi (Origins of the Wondrous Gate, in the Combined Phonetic and Semantic Glossary of All Daoist Scriptures); he was one of the pioneers of the systematization of Daoist doctrinal learning in the Southern Dynasties. Fragments of his Lingbao Jingyi Shu survive among the Dunhuang manuscripts (such as P.2256), allowing modern scholars to understand his organization of the Lingbao scriptural catalogue and its meaning. He is ranked together with Meng Zhizhou as the most important organizer of Lingbao scriptural studies after Lu Xiujing, and his study of the scriptural catalogue is of key value for determining the authenticity of the ancient Lingbao scriptures.

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote the Tongmen Lun and the Lingbao Jingyi Shu, systematically elucidating the meaning of the Lingbao scriptures
• Advanced the systematization of Daoist doctrinal learning in the Southern Dynasties

Works

• Tongmen Lun (Treatise on the Gate of Understanding)
• Lingbao Jing Yishu (Subcommentary on the Lingbao Scriptures; Dunhuang fragment)