Zhu Faman朱法满

Style & Daoist names

Zhu Junxu, Junxu

Period

Tang

Dates

? — 720

Role

Ritual MasterScholar of Precepts

Birthplace

Unknown

Life

Zhu Faman, whose Daoist name was Junxu, was a Tang-dynasty Daoist priest who resided at Yuqing Temple in Chang'an in the early Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong. He compiled the sixteen-scroll Digest of Essential Rites, Regulations and Precepts, drawing extensively on the Taizhen ke (太真科, Regulations of Great Perfection), the Xuandu lü (玄都律, Statutes of the Mysterious Metropolis), the Qianzhen ke (千真科, Regulations of a Thousand Perfected), the Taishang keling (太上科令, Ordinances of the Most High), and Daoist scriptures of the Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang periods such as the Benxiang jing (本相经, Scripture of Original Aspects) and the Shengxuan jing (升玄经, Scripture of Ascending to the Mystery), compiling by category the provisions on Daoist ritual protocol, precepts, and monastic rules — covering scripture recitation, fasting retreats, ritual vestments, memorials, and codes of conduct for Daoist priests, among other matters. The work preserves a large body of early Daoist precept and ritual literature otherwise lost, and is an important reference work for the study of Daoist institutions before the Tang. He died in the eighth year of Kaiyuan (720); his writings were transmitted by his disciples. Together with the works of Zhang Wanfu, this text represents the outcome of the systematization of ritual protocols and precepts carried out by the Daoist temples of Chang'an during the Kaiyuan era, reflecting the actual state of Daoist institution-building under Xuanzong's reign; the Taizhen ke and other texts it cites are also rare materials for the study of the early rites and regulations of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice.

Contributions & Influence

• Compiled the Digest of Essential Rites, Regulations and Precepts, gathering the ritual and disciplinary provisions of Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang Daoism

Works

• Digest of Essential Rites, Regulations and Precepts