Yu Ji于吉

Style & Daoist names

Gan Ji

Period

Eastern Han

Dates

? — c. 200

Role

Fangshi (Master of Methods)Early Daoist figure

Birthplace

Langya (present-day Shandong)

Life

Yu Ji (also written Gan Ji), a master of esoteric arts of the late Eastern Han, was a native of Langye. The "Biography of Xiang Kai" in the Book of the Later Han records that he obtained a "divine text" of one hundred and seventy scrolls above the Quyang Spring — the Taiping qingling shu — which his disciple Gong Chong presented to Emperor Shun. The commentary to the "Biography of Sun Ce" in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, citing the Jiangbiao zhuan, records: "At that time there was a Daoist priest, Yu Ji of Langye, who had earlier lodged in the east and traveled between Wu and Kuaiji, establishing a jingshe (retreat), burning incense, reading Daoist texts, and preparing talisman water to cure illness; many people of Wu and Kuaiji served him." Sun Ce, regarding him as a deluder of the masses, had him executed around the fifth year of the Jian'an era (200); the Records of Searching for the Supernatural (Soushen ji) and other sources claim that Sun Ce soon died as a result of Yu Ji's haunting. Scholars disagree over whether this Yu Ji is the same person as the Yu Ji of Emperor Shun's time. He represents an early form of Daoism in Jiangnan at the end of the Han, curing illness with talisman water and gathering crowds to spread his teaching.

Contributions & Influence

• Transmitter of the Taiping qingling shu (the Scripture of Great Peace)
• Spread his teaching in Wu and Kuaiji by curing illness with talisman water, an early propagator of Daoism in Jiangnan

Works

• Taiping Qingling Shu (Scripture of Great Peace and Pure Guidance) (tradition)

Legends

According to legend, after Sun Ce killed Yu Ji, whenever he sat alone he would see Yu Ji at his side, and when he looked in a mirror he would see him reflected there, until he died of fright (per the Records of Searching for the Supernatural).