Yinxian (Hidden Immortals) Lineage / Old Huashan School隐仙派（陈抟老华山派）
- Also known as
- Old Huashan School, Chen Tuan School, Xiyi School, Yinxian (Hidden Immortals) Lineage
- Type
- School
- Period
- Five Dynasties–Northern Song
- Founded
- Chen Tuan (d. 989) of the Five Dynasties and Northern Song lived in reclusion on Mount Hua
- Founder
- Chen Tuan
- Region
- Mount Hua and Wudang Mountains
- Ancestral seat
- Mount Hua (Huashan)
- Status
- Absorbed into Other Lineages — It had no independent religious organization; its internal-alchemical and Yijing concepts were absorbed into the Southern Lineage, Quanzhen Daoism, and the Wudang Sanfeng Lineage. The Ming–Qing notion of a “Yinxian Lineage” was mainly a retrospective claim of ancestry made by the Wudang school and the Sanfeng Lineage.
Overview
The Yinxian (Hidden Immortals) Lineage is a name later applied to the internal-alchemy and Yijing-study transmission descending from Chen Tuan in the Five Dynasties and Northern Song. It is so called because its figures mostly lived in reclusion and did not serve in office, prizing “seclusion” (yin) as a mark of distinction; it is also called the “Old Huashan School” because Chen Tuan resided long at Mount Hua, to distinguish it from the Huashan Lineage of Quanzhen founded by Hao Datong in the Jin–Yuan period. Chen Tuan, styled Tunan, sobriquet Fuyaozi, failed the civil examinations in his youth after studying the Confucian classics and lived in reclusion for over twenty years at Jiushi Rock on Mount Wudang, later moving to Yuntai Temple on Mount Hua; he was summoned for audience by both Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou and Emperor Taizong of the Song, who bestowed on him the title “Master Xiyi.” He was renowned for sleep cultivation, ingesting qi, and abstention from grains, and transmitted the study of diagrams including the Wuji Tu (Diagram of the Limitless), the Xiantian Tu (Pre-celestial Diagram), and the Hetu and Luoshu; this study passed through Zhong Fang, Mu Xiu, and Li Zhicai to Shao Yong and Zhou Dunyi, becoming the source of the diagram-based school of Song Neo-Confucian cosmology. His internal-alchemical thought is found in the (now lost) Zhixuan Pian (指玄篇, Chapters Pointing to the Mystery), and later compilers attributed to him works such as the Commentary on the Song of the Reverted Elixir of the Perfected Yin. Chen Tuan's disciples included Zhang Wumeng, Jia Desheng, and Zhong Fang; Zhang Wumeng in turn transmitted the teaching to Chen Jingyuan. Zhang Boduan and Liu Haichan are also traditionally said to be connected with Chen Tuan's lineage. From the Ming and Qing onward, the Wudang school, Zhang Sanfeng, and the Huashan Shier Shuigong (华山十二睡功, Twelve Sleep-Cultivation Diagrams of Mount Hua) all claimed Chen Tuan as their founding ancestor, so that by the Ming the lineage of the “Yinxian” school had roughly taken the form: the Hemp-Robed Daoist → Chen Tuan → the Perfected Huolong (Fire Dragon) → Zhang Sanfeng. This lineage is largely a later retrospective construction, difficult to verify from historical sources, but Chen Tuan's importance as a key figure who reconciled Confucianism and Daoism and interpreted alchemy through the Yijing should not be underestimated. The Yinxian Lineage had no actual religious organization; it is a concept of scholarly and alchemical transmission centered on Chen Tuan.
Core Doctrine
The lineage explains cosmogony and the reverse cultivation of internal alchemy through the imagery and numerology of the Yijing; the Wuji Tu marks out, from bottom to top, five stages — “Attaining the Aperture,” “Refining the Self,” “Harmonizing,” “Obtaining the Medicine,” and “Delivering the Embryo” — and forms a complementary pair with the Xiantian Tu. It holds that form and spirit should be united and that the elixir is formed by reversing the ordinary course of generation; it prizes reclusion, clarity and stillness, and sleep cultivation for nourishing the spirit, and advocates the reconciliation of Confucianism and Daoism. Chen Tuan is credited with combining Han–Tang Yijing scholarship, Lao–Zhuang thought, and internal-alchemical cultivation, and the cosmological diagrams of Song Neo-Confucianism are held to derive in part from his work.
Practice & Ritual
Practices include sleep cultivation (the “Hibernating Dragon Method”), ingesting qi, abstention from grains, Sitting in Oblivion, internal-alchemical cultivation, and Yijing-based divination of the seasons; the later Huashan Shier Shuigong Tu (Twelve Sleep-Cultivation Diagrams of Mount Hua), attributed to Chen Tuan though not by his own hand, circulated widely. Chen Tuan was famed for sleep cultivation, said in legend to sleep for months at a stretch; his “Hibernating Dragon Method” is regarded as a distinctive technique combining Sitting in Oblivion, Embryonic Breathing, and sleep-based health cultivation. Sleep-cultivation charts attributed to him circulated widely in Ming and Qing regimen literature.
Transmission
The Hemp-Robed Daoist (legendary) → Chen Tuan → Zhang Wumeng, Jia Desheng, Zhong Fang, and others → Zhang Wumeng transmitted the teaching to Chen Jingyuan; the Yijing-study branch passed through Zhong Fang, Mu Xiu, and Li Zhicai to Shao Yong. A later retrospective lineage of Chen Tuan → the Perfected Huolong → Zhang Sanfeng gave rise to the name “Yinxian Lineage.” In addition, legendary connections between Zhang Sanfeng and Chen Tuan also appear in Ming- and Qing-dynasty Wudang Daoist texts, further extending the scope of the Yinxian lineage.