The Xu Mai 许迈

A native of Jurong in Danyang (now part of Jiangsu Province) during the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

He was also known by the given names Ying and Xuan, and styled himself Shuxuan and Yuanyou.

The Xu family had produced government officials for generations, yet Xu Mai was innately drawn to the Taoist path, embracing a life of purity, tranquility, and devotion to Daoist teachings.

He learned the art of divination from Guo Pu, and later studied under Bao Jing—mastering the Shangqing Zhongbu Method (a core practice of the Shangqing School of Taoism), the Three Emperors’ Inner Text (a classic Taoist scripture), as well as techniques of fuqi (absorbing vital energy) and bigu (avoiding grains). He also consumed Chinese atractylodes (a medicinal herb) as an elixir.

Erudite and skilled in literary composition, he maintained close friendships with Xu Xun and the father-son pair Wang Xizhi and his son.

In his early years, he lived in seclusion on Xuanlu Mountain in Yuhang and Huan Mountain in Tonglu. In the second year of the Yonghe era (346), he moved to Xishan in Lin’an, where he renamed himself Xu Xuan and adopted the style name Yuanyou. Devoting himself entirely to Taoist cultivation, he excelled particularly in practices such as neiguan taixi (inner observation and embryonic breathing, a Taoist meditation technique) and budou yunqi (a ritual involving movements synchronized with celestial constellations and vital energy flows).

Later, he went to Chishan in Linhai, where he studied under Wang Shilong and was taught the Dao of Unbinding and Reversing Circulation (a specialized Taoist cultivation method). He collected medicinal herbs to ingest, aiming to nourish his brain and restore essence.

After three years, his Daoist attainments advanced significantly—his face took on the appearance of a young boy, and his body became light and robust. He composed twelve poems, most of which discuss topics related to immortality and the practice of fuqi.

(Source: The History of the Jin Dynasty·Biography of Xu Mai, Sandong Zhunang [The Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns, a major Taoist encyclopedia])