Sun Youyue孙游岳

Style & Daoist names

Xuanda

Period

Song and Qi of the Southern Dynasties

Dates

399 — 489

School

Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School, Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School

Role

Shangqing Patriarch

Birthplace

Dongyang (present-day Jinhua, Zhejiang)

Places of activity

Mount Mao (Maoshan)

Life

Sun Youyue, styled Xuanda, was a Daoist priest of the Southern Dynasties and, according to one account, the eighth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing school (though some accounts instead identify him as Tao Hongjing's teacher, with differing views on his exact rank). According to the Daoxue Zhuan and the Huayang Tao Yinju Neizhuan, he studied under Lu Xiujing, receiving the Shangqing scriptural methods and the scriptures of the Three Caverns; in the early Qi he resided at the Xingshi Belvedere in Jiankang, where he was treated with great respect by Emperor Wu of Qi. In the sixth year of the Yongming era (488) Tao Hongjing took him as his teacher and received talismanic charts and scriptural methods from him. He played a crucial role as a link in transmission between Lu Xiujing and Tao Hongjing, allowing the Shangqing scriptural methods to pass from Lu Xiujing's tradition into Mount Mao. He died in the seventh year of the Yongming era (489) at the age of ninety-one. Because sources on him are scarce, his biography relies largely on materials from the lineage of Tao Hongjing's own biographical tradition. His inclusion in the genealogy of Shangqing patriarchs reflects the effort of the Southern Dynasties Shangqing school to construct its own line of transmission.

Contributions & Influence

• Received the scriptural methods of Lu Xiujing and transmitted them to Tao Hongjing, an important link in the transmission of the Shangqing school