Wang Yan王延

Style & Daoist names

Ziyuan

Period

Northern Zhou and Sui

Dates

520 — 604

School

Louguan School

Role

Patriarch of the Louguan SchoolCompiler of the Daoist Canon

Birthplace

Shiping, Fufeng (present-day Xingping, Shaanxi)

Places of activity

Louguantai (Louguan Terrace), Mount Hua (Huashan)

Life

Wang Yan, style name Ziyuan, was a renowned Daoist priest of the Louguan School from the Northern Zhou to the Sui. He entered the Daoist order in the third year of Datong of the Western Wei (537), studying under Chen Baochi of Louguan and befriending Li Shunxing; he later went to the Yuntai Abbey on Mount Hua to study under Jiao Kuang, receiving the secret instructions and true scriptures of the Three Caverns. Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, hearing of his reputation, summoned him to the capital, after which he returned to reside at the Yuntai Abbey on Mount Hua, and an imperial edict ordered the abbey to be expanded. After Emperor Wu abolished Buddhism and Daoism in the third year of Jiande (574) and built the Tongdao Guan (Abbey for Communicating the Dao), he ordered Wang Yan to collate more than eighty juan of Three Caverns scriptures and charts, and Wang Yan also compiled the seven-juan Sandong Zhunang (Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns; a different work from the identically titled compilation of Wang Xuanhe of the Tang), which was presented and stored at the Tongdao Guan — an important achievement in the organization of Daoist scriptures in the Northern Dynasties. Under Emperor Wen of Sui he was ordered to reside at the Xuandu Guan (Abbey of the Mysterious Metropolis) in the capital, and he died in the fourth year of Renshou (604). Wang Yan made important contributions to the scriptural corpus of the Louguan School and to the official organization of Daoism in the Northern Dynasties.

Contributions & Influence

• Collated the Three Caverns scriptures and charts for the Tongdao Guan under the Northern Zhou, and compiled the seven-juan Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns
• A central figure of the Louguan School between the Northern Zhou and Sui

Works

• Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns (seven fascicles, lost)