Page 733 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LIU YIMING

In 1760, or slightly earlier, Uu encountered a master whom he calls the
Old Man of the Kangu Mountains (Kangu laoren a~~~ A) in Jincheng -lZ:
:f}JX (present-day Yuzhong fIltr r:p, Gansu). In 1772 he met his second and most
important master, the Great Man Resting in Immortality (Xianliu zhangren
{ill f'il J:: A), who initiated him in both alchemy and the *Yijing. Uu's under-
standing of these subjects and his combination of the two form the core of
most of his writings.
In 1780, Uu visited the Qiyun f~,* mountains in Jincheng and settled there
to practice self-cultivation as a recluse. His residence, the Den of Freedom
(Zizai wo §11'F. ~), was within the precincts of an abbey. A disciple describes
a meeting with him in the Jintian guan ~ 7( III (Abbey of Golden Heaven),
which could be the abbey in question. Uu himself, however, states that he
reopened a dilapidated abbey, the Chaoyuan guan ljI)J TI: Wl. (Abbey of the Au-
dience with the [Three] Primes) on Mount Qiyun. The conversations he held
with another disciple on the summit of the mountain in 1782 are recorded in
the Xiuzhen biannan f~ ~ *)1: ft (Discussions on the Cultivation of Perfection;
1798).
Uu's commentaries draw on various sources, including the Confucian or
Neo-Confucian thought of Mencius (Mengzi £i+, ca. 37o-ca. 290 BCE), Wang
Yangming I IlWJ fI)j (1472-1529), and Yan Yuan ~ri Jl: (1635-1704). This influence
is evident, for instance, in his frequent use of the terms liangzhi l:;' XII (intuitive
l knowledge) and liangneng ~ ~~ (intuitive ability), both of which Uu explicates
as synonyms of Golden Elixir (*jindan). Ch an Buddhism also figures promi-
nently in his thought, as shown by his commentaries to alchemical texts such
as the *Zhouyi can tong qi, the *Wuzhen pian, and the *Jindan sibai zi. Moreover,
he makes use of the Yijing and cosmological diagrams to illustrate his point.
Uu also interpreted in alchemical terms the popular late-Ming novel Xiyou
ji [ltj jJff ~c (journey to the West; Yu Anthony 1991; this novel should not be
confused with the identically-titled work by U Zhichang :$ it 'M", on which
see the entry *Changchun zhenren xiyou ji).
Liu Yiming's books were published independently during his lifetime by
various disciples including Zhang Yangquan '* ~~ and Zhou Jinxi J-lIfJ ~ m,
and by friends. They were later reedited in the *Daoshu shi'er zhong (Twelve
Books on the Dao; 1819).
Farzeen BALDRIAN-HUSSEIN

W Miyakawa Hisayuki 1954; Qing Xitai 1988-95, 4: 156-83; Qing Xitai 1994, I:
396-97
~ Daoshu shi'er zhong; neidan; Longmen