The Xue Shi 薛式

Xue Shi, also known as Xue Daoguang and Xue Daoyuan, with the courtesy name Taiyuan, was a native of Langzhou (present-day Langzhong County, Sichuan Province) during the Northern Song Dynasty. There is another account that claims he was from Jizu Mountain in Shaanxi Prefecture.

He once became a Buddhist monk, with the Dharma names Zixian and also Pilin Chan Master. Later, he abandoned Buddhism and converted to Daoism; in Daoist circles, he was known as "True Person Zixian". In the 5th year of the Chongning era of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty (1106), he met Shi Tai, who passed on to him the esoteric secrets of internal alchemy taught by Zhang Boduan. Later, Xue Shi became famous for his skills in golden elixir cultivation and guidance techniques, and he was the third patriarch among the Five Patriarchs of the Southern Sect of Daoist Internal Alchemy.

He authored works such as Song of the Elixir Marrow, On Returning the Elixir and Restoring Life, and Annotations on the Book of Realization, which have been handed down to later generations.

(From The Golden Cover and the Lamp of the Heart and Comprehensive Mirror of Real Immortals Who Embodied the Dao Through the Ages, Volume 49)