Xu Hui许翙

Style & Daoist names

Daoxiang (courtesy name), Yufu (Daoist name), Xu the Registrar

Period

Eastern Jin

Dates

341 — 370

School

Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School

Role

Shangqing Patriarch

Birthplace

Jurong, Danyang

Places of activity

Mount Mao (Maoshan)

Life

Xu Hui, styled Daoxiang, with the childhood name Yufu, was Xu Mi's third son, who held the offices of Accounts Clerk and Registrar, and was known to his contemporaries as "Xu the Registrar." From his youth he was devoted to the Dao, and together with his father received the Shangqing scriptural instructions transmitted by Yang Xi, copying them out diligently — "the Registrar's calligraphy was learned from Yang [Xi], yet his script was vigorous and sharp" — and his handwriting too was included by Tao Hongjing in the Zhengao. Xu Hui later withdrew to cultivate the Dao at Mount Fangyu on Mount Mao, and died in the fifth year of the Taihe era (370) at only thirty years of age; the Daoist scriptures say he "transformed and departed," and in fact many of the descended revelations of the Shangqing Perfected concern Xu Hui's cultivation and his promised rank as an "immortal official." His son Xu Huangmin preserved and transmitted the scriptural scrolls of Yang Xi and the Xus in the Shan region, a crucial link in the transmission of the Shangqing scriptures. The Shangqing school venerates Xu Hui as its fourth-generation patriarch.

Contributions & Influence

• Received and copied out the Shangqing scriptural instructions; together with Yang Xi and Xu Mi, known as the "Three Lords"
• Fourth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing school

Legends

The Zhengao states that Xu Hui achieved success in cultivating the Dao and was promised by the Perfected the rank of "Immortal Official of Shangqing"; this belongs to religious narrative.