Xue Daoguang薛道光

Style & Daoist names

Xue Shi, Taiyuan, Daoyuan, Zixian, Chan Master Piling, Xue Zixian

Period

Northern Song and Southern Song

Dates

1078 — 1191

School

Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir (Nanzong)

Role

Third Patriarch of the Southern Lineage (Nanzong)

Birthplace

Langzhou (present-day Langzhong, Sichuan); one account gives Jizu Mountain, Shanzhou

Life

Xue Daoguang, named Shi (also written Daoyuan), styled Taiyuan, with the sobriquet Zixian, was the third patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal alchemy. He was originally a Buddhist monk with the Dharma name Zixian, known as "Chan Master Piling," who attained insight through Chan meditation; later, during the Xuanhe era (some say Chongning), he met Shi Tai in Mei County and received from him the oral instructions on the golden elixir transmitted from Zhang Boduan, whereupon he left the Buddhist clergy to become a Daoist. His work Restoring the Elixir and Returning to Life (Huandan fuming pian) expounds elixir methods in verse, and he also wrote a Commentary on the Wuzhen pian (some say the "Xue commentary" now in circulation is a misattribution of Weng Baoguang's commentary), elaborating on the purport of dual cultivation of nature and life. His birth and death years are given in Daoist texts as 1078–1191, a span of 114 years, which is highly implausible; his period of activity is generally placed only around the Xuanhe era. He transmitted his teaching to Chen Nan. Xue Daoguang's passage from Chan Buddhism to Daoism is an important marker of the Southern Lineage's absorption of Chan teachings.

Contributions & Influence

• Third patriarch of the Southern Lineage, transmitting the way of Shi Tai to Chen Nan
• Wrote Restoring the Elixir and Returning to Life, bringing Chan Buddhist insight into elixir practice

Works

• Restoring the Elixir and Returning to Life
• Commentary on the Wuzhen Pian (attributed title, possibly by Weng Baoguang)

Legends

Legend holds that he met Shi Tai and attained the Dao while still a Chan monk, and that he lived past one hundred years. These are legendary material.