The Ren Shouyi (任守一)

Ren Shouyi (? - 1190) was a native of Huxian County in Jingzhao Prefecture (now part of Shaanxi Province) during the Jin Dynasty.

His Taoist title was Ziranzi (Master of Naturalness). He studied under the Taoist master Ma Danyang, who taught him to "endure humiliation to subdue one’s ego and regulate and refine one’s vital energy and spirit." After years of practice, he achieved enlightenment in Taoism and then traveled across the Heshuo region (a historical area covering parts of present-day Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong provinces). His reputation and influence in spreading Taoism grew steadily over time.

When Ma Danyang passed away, Ren Shouyi built a thatched hut near his teacher’s tomb and observed a three-year mourning period there. In the fourth month of the first year of the Mingchang era (1190), Ren Shouyi died of illness.

Accounts of his life can be found in the middle volume of Zhongnanshan Zuting Xianzhen Neizhuan (Inner Biographies of Immortal Sages from the Ancestral Court of Zhongnan Mountain).