Page 292 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

CHEN MINGGUI 253

ture of the Great Cavern). He adds his own notes to those of WeiJie :¥ffp'
(497-559), Xu Miao 1*~ (or Daomiao mill!, ; fl ca. 630), Chongxuan zi i9=IK
.:r (Master of the Unfathomable Mystery; fl. ca. 650), *U Rong (fl. 658- 63),
and Uu Renhui fiU 1= fi (fl. ca. 800).
It is regrettable that Chen's massive Gaoshi zhuan rBJ ±f~ (Biographies of
Eminent Gentlemen; IOO j. ) and his Collected Works (Wenji )( ~ , IO j.) are no
longer extant.
Chen's exegeses were eagerly read by some Southern Song promoters of
neidan interpretations of the Daode jing such as Xue Zhixuan Wt 3& K (?-127I)
and seem to have prompted another literatus interested in inner alchemy,
Fang Bixu 7J~Ji&., to assume Chen's own nickname and to further expand
the scriptural foundations of inner alchemy.
Lowell SKAR
W Boltz J. M. 1987a, 203-5; Kohn 1991a, 23-30; Qing Xitai 1988-95, 2: 722-34;
Qing Xitai 1994, I: 309-11 and 2: I04-6

Chen Minggui

1824-81; zi: Jingyu /'R ¥Htr ; haD: Youshan bz: 3ffl (Friend of Loneliness),
Sulao dongzhu M ~ WiJ ± (Owner of the Cavern of the Essence
of Milk); also known as ChenJiaoyou ~~bz:

Chen Minggui is one of the few famous *Quanzhen masters of the late impe-
rial period. The main reason for his distinction, however, does not lie with his
religious teachings but with his historiographic work on the Quanzhen order,
the Changchun daojiao yuanliu ~;ff:m~W(ViE (Origins and Development of
the Taoist Teaching of [QiuJ Changchun; Yan Yiping 1974, vo!. 2). His criti-
cal approach is remarkable for someone writing from within the tradition:
to compile his insightful synthesis, Chen perused an impressive number of
epigraphic sources, including rubbings, literary anthologies, historical works,
and Taoist texts. In his view, the early Quanzhen masters were very much like
himself, scholars skeptical about the avenues of civil service, concerned about
the preservation of Chinese traditional society, and perfectly at home with
the more spiritual aspects of Taoism.
Chen, who came from the Guangdong province, passed the district exami-
nations for government service on the secondary list ifugong IUJ~J in 1852.
He first made himself famous leading a self-defense militia in his hometown