Page 296 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

C HEN TUAN 257

Chen Tuan

ca. 920-89; zi: Tunan 1Ei11¥i; hao: Fuyao zi ttlt.:r (Master of the
Whirlwind), Baiyun xiansheng B ~7t~ (Elder of the White
Clouds), Xiyi xiansheng ;ffl-~7t~ (Elder of the Inaudible and
Invisible)

Chen Tuan was an important Taoist master, thinker, and fortune-teller who
lived in the tenth century and became the legitimizing saint of the Song
dynasty. His life and legend are described below under three headings: solid
historical facts known about him, the classical Taoist story of his life, and his
posthumous associations and activities.

Historicalfacts. There are six solid facts known about Chen Tuan, all gleaned
from a variety of sources and not found together in anyone text, neither in
the devotional literature, nor in the collections of miscellaneous notes, or biji
1ttic, of the literati, and most surely not in the official history of the Song
dynasty (Songs hi 457; trans. Kohn I990C).
In 937, as shown in the Danyuan ji fJ-7Jilj tiC (Records of Cinnabar Well; I05I),
Chen Tuan leaves an inscription at the Tianqing guan *mu (Abbey of Celes-
tial Blessings) in Qiongzhou r~ j'H (Sichuan), praising the *qi-control methods
of the local masters. This either places him in an itinerant phase of his career
or makes him a local Sichuan monk, depending on whether one believes the
overwhelming majority of sources that claim he came from Henan (close to
Laozi's birthplace), or relies on research by the Sichuan scholar Li Yuanguo
(I985b) who finds much evidence for a southwestern origin of the master.
ext, sometime around the 940S, as most sources agree, Chen settles on
Mount Hua (*Huashan, Shaanxi), where he restores the Yuntai guan ~,1'f.:tm
(Abbey of the Cloud Terrace) and its smaller cloister Yuquan yuan 3£iR IlfG
(Cloister of the Jade Spring) which had fallen into disrepair in the late Tang.
These two places become his main residence until his death. They remain
to the present day closely associated with him, especially the Yuquan yuan,
which is located right at the mouth of the mountain gorges and still functions
partly as a Taoist temple. It also has a tall (and very recent) stele devoted to
Chen Tuan in its Taoist section, the other part now serving as a preschool.
The main railway to Xi'an, which runs right through it, has brought the place
right into the midst of the modern world.