The Liu Moran 柳默然

Liu Moran, also known by her courtesy name Xiyin, was a female Taoist priest who lived in Hedong (now part of Shanxi Province) during the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty.

As recorded in The Epitaph of Venerable Taoist Priestess Liu, the Practitioner of the Three Visions of the Supreme Pure Grotto Heaven at Wangwu Mountain in the Tang Dynasty: She was born into an official family.

At the age of 14, she married into the Zhao family. After 20 years of marriage, she suffered the great agony of becoming a widow (literally "the suffering of being left behind alive"). Soon afterward, she endured another tragedy—the loss of her siblings (literally "the calamity befalling her blood relatives"). Thereafter, she devoted herself to Taoism and embraced the supreme, primal Taoist teachings. Initially, she received the Zhengyi Mingwei Talisman and the Lingbao doctrines at Tiantai Mountain. Later, she went to Hengshan Mountain to further receive the Complete Talisman of the Three Visions of the Supreme Pure Grotto Heaven, and then took up residence at Yangtai Guan (Yangtai Taoist Temple) in the middle cliff of Wangwu Mountain.

From her youth to her old age, she diligently observed fasting rituals and strictly adhered to Taoist ethical standards. She had more than ten statues of Zhenjun (a revered title in Taoism, often referring to Taoist deities or enlightened masters) built. Among those who delved into the profound mysteries of Taoism and focused their minds on the sacred grottoes of the Five Great Mountains, none could compare to her. Her three sons all held official positions, and her two daughters both became female Taoist priests (nüguan) who resided at Wangwu Mountain.

In the fifth year of the Kaicheng era (840 CE), she moved to Shengzhen Guan (Shengzhen Taoist Temple) in the Eastern Capital (Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty). She passed away at the age of 68.