Page 653 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LAOZI AND LAOJUN 6n

= £ Jl:1jj (Shrine of the Three Sovereigns) and centering its practice on reverence
to the Three Sovereigns (*sanhuang). It was later renamed Taiqing gong.
The mountain grew in importance from the Jin-Yuan period when it became
one of the centers of *Quanzhen Taoism. It was then that the majority of
the current temples and monasteries were built. *Qiu Chuji (II48- 1227) and
*Liu Chuxuan (II47-1203) resided here during the Jin period. It was, however,
only in the Ming period that the mountain gained prominence as a major
Quanzhen center, which it retains today. A number of Quanzhen sub-lineages
are associated with Mount Lao, including the Suishan branch (Suishan pai
Il.ii LlJ~) revering Liu Chuxuan, which viewed Taiqing gong as its ancestral
temple, and the Gold Mountain branch (Jinshan pai ~ LlJ~) which reveres
Sun Xuanqing ~ K~jIf (1517-69).
Quanzhen masters in Shandong still perform the "Mount Lao Tunes"
CLaoshan yin" U~ LlJ fu1) supposedly composed by Qiu Chuji. A set of twelve
poems by Qiu Chuji on Mount Lao (which he designates Mount Ao or Aoshan
~ LlJ) are preserved in the Panxi ji 1iI r~ ~ (Anthology of the Master from
Panxi; CT II59, 2.9b- 12a). Other poems and writings by Qiu and other Quan-
zhen masters are still preserved in numerous inscriptions.
GilRAZ

III Chen Zhentao 1991; Goossaert 2004; Wang Jiqin 1999; Zhan Renzhong
1998; Zhou Zhiyuan 1993

* TAOIST SACRED SITES

Laozi and Laojun

The Old Master (also known as Lao Dan ;:gIll4, Li Er *J+,
Li Boyang *18 ~) and Lord Lao (or: Old Lord)

Laozi, the alleged author of the Daode jing and ancient Taoist philosopher,
became a key deity in the Taoist religion. His first appearance, in the *Zhuangzi
under the name of Lao Dan, is as an archivist of the Zhou court who was also
the teacher of Confucius. After that he is mentioned in various philosophical
texts and has a full biography in the Shiji (Records of the Historian; 63.2139-43;
trans. Lau 1982, x-xi). Traditional recipients of the Daode jing believed the sources
and accepted Laozi as a contemporary of Confucius. Ever since Herbert A.
Giles (1906), however, text and author have been treated separately and Laozi
has come to be thought of as a largely fictional figure. Only Homer Dubs