Tan Qiao谭峭

Style & Daoist names

Jingsheng, Perfected Zixiao, Tanzi

Period

Five Dynasties

Dates

? — ?

Role

Daoist thinker

Birthplace

Quanzhou (present-day Quanzhou, Fujian)

Places of activity

Zhongnan Mountains, Mount Song (Songshan)

Life

Tan Qiao, courtesy name Jingsheng, was a Daoist priest and thinker of the Five Dynasties, a native of Quanzhou and son of Tan Zhu, who served as Vice Director of the Directorate of Education under the Tang. Precocious and intelligent from childhood, he read widely in the classics and histories, and was especially fond of the Huang-Lao philosophers as well as works such as the Mu tianzi (穆天子传, Chronicle of Mu, Son of Heaven), the Esoteric Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han, and the Maojun liexian (茅君列仙, Biographies of Lord Mao and the Assembled Immortals). Unwilling to pursue an official career, he traveled to the Zhongnan Mountains, Mount Taibai, Mount Taihang, Mount Wangwu, Mount Song, Mount Hua, and Mount Tai, and studied for more than a decade under a Daoist of Mount Song, from whom he obtained the arts of abstaining from grains and nourishing the breath. His six-scroll Huashu (化书, Book of Transformations) — comprising the chapters "Transformation through the Dao," "Transformation through Technique," "Transformation through Virtue," "Transformation through Benevolence," "Transformation through Food," and "Transformation through Frugality" — takes "transformation" (hua) as its central category, arguing that the myriad things transform out of emptiness in an unceasing process of generation, while also offering critiques of society, politics, and ethics; it is a representative work of Five Dynasties Daoist philosophy. Tradition holds that Song Qiqiu once appropriated the work as his own, under the title Qiqiuzi (齐丘子, Master Qiqiu). The dates of Tan Qiao's birth and death are unknown; he was a contemporary of the Southern Tang. Later tradition holds that he attained the Dao on the Southern Peak, and he is honored as "the Perfected Zixiao."

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote the Huashu, proposing a cosmology and social critique centered on the concept of "transformation" (hua), a representative work of Five Dynasties Daoist philosophy

Works

• Book of Transformation (Huashu)

Legends

According to legend, Tan Qiao was fond of wine, wore summer cloth in winter and fur in summer, and would sometimes lie in frost and snow; he is said to have later been unharmed by fire or water, and to have undergone bodily transcendence on Mount Qingcheng (according to another account, on the Southern Peak). These are legendary accounts.