Tan Zixiao谭紫霄

Style & Daoist names

Feathered Guest of the Golden Gate, Master Zhengyi

Period

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Dates

? — ?

School

Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Method of the Celestial Heart)

Role

Daoshi (Daoist Priest)Forerunner of the Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Method of the Celestial Heart)

Birthplace

Quanzhou (some accounts give Jianzhou)

Places of activity

Mount Lu (Daoist heritage)

Life

Tan Zixiao was a Daoist priest active in the Min kingdom and the Southern Tang during the Five Dynasties. He became a Daoist priest in his youth, and King Wang Chang of Min (Emperor Kangzong) welcomed him to Fuzhou, bestowing on him the titles "Feathered Guest of the Golden Gate" and "Master of Orthodox Unity," treating him with great favor. After the fall of Min he moved to the Southern Tang, living in reclusion in the Qiyin Cave on Mount Lu; Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang, summoned him, bestowed on him the title "Feathered Guest of the Golden Gate," and built a temple for him to reside in. According to the Song shi and the Nan Tang shu, he "was well versed in the classics and histories, and skilled at judging people's character," and was especially expert in talismans and registers, having "obtained the Register of Ghost Names from Celestial Master Chen (Zhang Daoling)," enabling him to cure illness and exorcise evil spirits. The talismanic methods transmitted by Tan Zixiao are regarded as a forerunner of Rao Dongtian's Correct Method of the Celestial Heart (Tianxin Zhengfa) of the early Northern Song, and later genealogies of the Tianxin school often count him as one of its patriarchs. His dates of birth and death are unknown; one account holds that he died during the Kaibao era of Emperor Taizu of Song, at over one hundred years of age.

Contributions & Influence

• Became renowned for his talismanic and ritual arts at the courts of Min and the Southern Tang
• Regarded as a forerunner of the Correct Method of the Celestial Heart

Legends

Legend: Tan Zixiao obtained the Register of Ghost Names, enabling him to summon ghosts and spirits; he reportedly lived beyond a hundred years.