Yu Daoxian于道显

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Weizhong, sobriquet Lifengzi, Perfected Lifeng

Period

Jin–Yuan

Dates

1168 — 1232

School

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism

Role

Eminent Quanzhen DaoistInternal Alchemy Masters

Birthplace

Ninghai (present-day Muping, Shandong)

Places of activity

Mount Kunyu

Life

Yu Daoxian, a native of Ninghai in Shandong, was a renowned second-generation Quanzhen priest and a disciple of Wang Chuyi. In the late Jin he preached in the area of Shandong and Hebei, later living in seclusion in Yunzhou, where he became known for austere cultivation and ascetic practice; among his disciples was Qi Zhicheng, who later became head of the Quanzhen order. His work Collected Works of the Old Man of Lifeng (Lifeng laoren ji) is an important collection of poetry and prose from the early Quanzhen period, largely expounding the purport of clarity, stillness and the cultivation of the mind. He died in 1232. He was an important transmitter who spread Quanzhen Daoism from Shandong to northern Shanxi. His poems and prose mostly describe life dwelling in the mountains of Yunzhou and the experience of inner cultivation, in a plain, unadorned style consistent with the early Quanzhen ethos of exalting asceticism and quiet cultivation; later Quanzhen genealogies list him as an important transmitter within the Yushan Lineage descended from Wang Chuyi. Accounts of his birth and death years differ slightly among sources; this entry follows the dates given in the Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui.

Contributions & Influence

• Spread Quanzhen Daoism to northern Shanxi
• Wrote the Collected Works of the Old Man of Lifeng, an important document of the second Quanzhen generation
• Trained Qi Zhicheng and others, becoming teacher to a future tenth-generation head of the order

Works

• Collected Works of the Old Man of Lifeng