The Changqiu Fangyuan 阊丘方远

Changqiu Fangyuan (?–902) was a native of Susong in Shuzhou (now part of Jiangsu Province) at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and his courtesy name was Dafang.

In his youth, he had a thorough command of Confucian classics and historical records, and took a particular interest in the study of The I Ching (the Book of Changes). He received education from Chen Yuanwu at Mount Lushan. At the age of 19, he learned the art of alchemical elixir refinement from Zuo Yuanze at Xianglin. When he was 34, he studied the Taoist path of spiritual cultivation and transcendence beyond the mundane world at Yinzhen Grotto on Mount Xiandu; later, he received the Taoist ritual registers (falü) at Yuxiao Palace on Mount Tiantai.

(From Yunji Qiqian [Seven Slips of a Cloudy Satchel], Volume 3; and Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian [Comprehensive Mirror of True Immortals and Their Cultivation Through the Ages], Volume 40)