Page 293 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

254 THE EN YCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A- L

during local rebellions in I854. Already a mature man, he became a *Long-
men Taoist at the Sulao guan ~U~WI. (Abbey of the Essence of Milk) in the
Luofu Mountains (*Luofu shan) near Guangzhou (Canton). Sometime after
I865, he was chosen as the abbot of that monastery, which he had helped to
rebuild along with the other six monasteries located in the Luofu Mountains,
after the havoc caused by the rebellions. The Sulao guan had been the center
of Longmen activity in that prestigious Taoist mountain range since the early
eighteenth century. The story of these communities is best described in a gaz-
etteer, the Fushan zhi 1~ LlJ ;t (Monograph of the Luofu Mountains), to which
Chen himself contributed substantially. Although Chen's extant works and
the very few available biographical elements tend to portray him as a Confu-
cian hermit, he also took seriously his liturgical responsibilities. The Sulao
guan was famous during thi period for the attention its community paid to
monastic rules, and Chen's successors edited a new version of the standard
Longmen monastic rules under the title Xuanmen bidu "R P' £, tf. (Required
Reading for the School of Mysteries).
Chen's life was a rare example of the involvement of a member of the
scholarly elite in Taoism at a time when the links between the two were being
completely severed. Chen was also renowned as a poet, painter and calligra-
pher. An anthology of his poems, the Lizhuang shicun ~M~H (Remaining
Verses from the Lichee Estate; I858), is still extant. His son, Chen Botao Il* fs
~~ , had an honorable career and cultivated a friendship with the great scholar
Miao Quansun ~~I* (I844- I9I9), whose research on *EPIGRAPHY and Yuan
history contributed much to our knowledge of Quanzhen history.

Vincent GOOSSAERT
W Tsui I99I
* Longmen; Quanzhen

ChenNan

?-I2I3; zi: Nanmu l¥J:t:; hao: Cuixu weng ~m~ (Gentleman of
Emerald Emptiness), Niwan xiansheng rJE :tL %~ (Elder of the
Muddy Pellet)

Chen an, the fourth patriarch of the Southern Lineage (* anzong) of *neidan,
was a native of Huizhou ~j+1 (Guangdong). He was known for his combina-
tion of alchemical practices and healing techniques: his biography in the *Lishi