Page 678 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

Li Daoqian

1219-96; zi: Hefu fr:Iffi; haG: Tianle A:~ (Heavenly Bliss)

Li Daoqian is the foremost historiographer of the early *Quanzhen order.
Although Quanzhen has produced many hagiographic works paying attention
to the reliability of their accounts, Li Daoqian's work stands apart in terms of
both quality and quantity. Educated in the Confucian tradition in a prominent
family from Kaifeng (Henan), Li converted to Taoism after the demise of the
Jin state. In 1242, he became the disciple ofYu Zhidao Tit)]! (U66-1250), the
most eminent Quanzhen master in the Shaanxi area at that time. His talents
helped him climb quickly through the Quanzhen hierarchy: he held various
posts in Shaanxi and eventually became abbot of the Chongyang gong 1!I ~ '§
(Palace of Double Yang) in 1277. In those same years, he compiled a chronology
of the lives of Quanzhen patriarchs, the *Qizhen nianpu (CT 175); a collection
of biographies of thirty-seven Quanzhen masters who lived at the Chong-
yang gong, the Zhongnan shan Z uting xianzhen neizhuan ~ l¥J LlJ f.EI. M {ill J! I*J
1w (Inner Biographies of the Immortals and Real Men of the Ancestral Court
in the Zhongnan Mountains; 1284; CT 955); and an anthology of inscriptions
related to the history of Quanzhen, the *Ganshui xianyuan lu (Accounts of the
Immortals Who Appeared [After the Revelation] at Ganshui; CT 973).
Li seems to have spent most of his religious life working for the glorification
of the Quanzhen order, at a time when Quanzhen was facing harsh criticism
for the instant and widespread success of its proselytism. His works appeared
around the time when, after the Buddhist accusations of impropriety that led
to condemnations without much effect in 1255 and 1258, Emperor Khubilai
(Shizu, r. 1260-1294) reopened the trial and, in 1281, ordered the Taoist Canon
compiled four decades earlier by the Quanzhen order to be burned (see *Xuandu
baozang). One can read in Li's writings an apology of the benign intentions
of Quanzhen; his works are devoid of any direct attack on the Buddhists, in
sharp contrast to the vilification of Taoism in the notorious Buddhist work,
the Bianwei lu ¥;\¥'~l~ (Accounts of Disputation of [Taoist] Falsehood; T. 2u6)
by the monk Xiangmai H Jffi (fl. 1286-91). Us important responsibilities and
his friendship with many famous literati of the time, whose contributions to
Quanzhen eulogy appear in the Ganshui xianyuan lu, surely influenced his bal-
anced approach to such delicate aspects of recent and contemporary religious
history.