Xu Mi许谧

Style & Daoist names

Xu Mu, Sixuan (courtesy name), Xu Changshi (Xu the Household Steward)

Period

Eastern Jin

Dates

305 — 376

School

Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School

Role

Shangqing PatriarchOfficial

Birthplace

Jurong, Danyang

Places of activity

Mount Mao (Maoshan)

Life

Xu Mi, also named Mu, styled Sixuan, was a member of the Danyang Jurong gentry in the Eastern Jin, who rose to the offices of Protector-General's Household Steward and Attendant Gentleman, and was known to his contemporaries as "Xu the Household Steward." He was the patron of Yang Xi's revelations and the principal recipient of the scriptures transmitted through him. During the Xingning era, Yang Xi recorded the descended revelations of the various Perfected at the Xu family residence, and Xu Mi and his son Xu Hui received the scriptures and copied them out, obtaining the Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern of Shangqing (Shangqing Dadong Zhenjing) and other scriptural instructions. Though he held office, Xu Mi was a devout believer in Daoism, and in his later years retired to cultivate the Dao beneath Mount Leiping on Mount Mao, practicing the Shangqing scriptural methods together with his son; some of the scriptures he copied out in his own hand were later included by Tao Hongjing in the Zhengao. The Shangqing school venerates Xu Mi as its third-generation patriarch. The Xu family originally followed the Way of the Celestial Masters, and had marriage ties with the Ge Hong and Wang Xizhi families, making Xu Mi a typical representative of the Daoism of the Jiangnan gentry in the Eastern Jin.

Contributions & Influence

• Patronized and took part in Yang Xi's revelations, becoming one of the earliest recipients of the Shangqing scriptures
• The scriptures preserved by the Xu family provided the basis for Tao Hongjing's later organization of the Shangqing scriptures
• Third-generation patriarch of the Shangqing school

Legends

The Zhengao records that the Perfected promised Xu Mi the immortal rank of "Left Minister of Shangqing"; this belongs to religious narrative.