Zhao Guizhen赵归真

Period

Tang

Dates

? — 846

Role

Court Daoists

Birthplace

Unknown

Life

Zhao Guizhen was a Daoist priest active under Emperor Jingzong and Emperor Wuzong of Tang. He entered the palace with Daoist arts during Jingzong's Baoli era, and was recalled to court after Wuzong's accession (840). He argued that the Buddhist teaching should be "utterly rejected, disparaged, and denounced as not a religion of China, sapping the life-force of the people," and together with the Mount Heng Daoist Liu Xuanjing and Chancellor Li Deyu, promoted the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism (845). Wuzong made him "Instructor of the Daoist Communities of the Left and Right Streets," built the Watching-for-Immortals Terrace within the palace, and consumed the golden elixir Zhao compounded for him. In the sixth year of Huichang (846) Wuzong died of poisoning from the elixirs he had ingested; when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 846–859) took the throne, Zhao Guizhen was beaten to death, and Liu Xuanjing and others were executed at the same time. Zhao Guizhen is a representative case of a Tang-dynasty Daoist priest becoming involved in politics and precipitating a persecution of Buddhism, and his fate also reflects the harm caused by court alchemy in the late Tang.

Contributions & Influence

• Helped bring about the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism, a celebrated case of Tang Daoist priests interfering in politics