The Zhang Xuanbin 张玄宾
Paul PengKey Takeaways
- Zhang Xuanbin (张玄宾) was a scholar-official of the state of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, from Dingxiang (定襄, present-day Datong, Shanxi), who abandoned his official career to pursue Taoist cultivation on Maoshan
- He trained in three distinct cultivation traditions: herbal alchemy (atractylodes elixir), the arts of the Bridal Chamber (洞房术) and White Origin (白元术), and the Dao of escaping transformation received from the Perfected Man Fan Ziming (范子明真人) on Mount Shaoshi
- He is remembered for his sophisticated philosophical discourse on being (有) and non-being (无), engaging directly with the xuanxue (玄学, Dark Learning) metaphysics that dominated Wei-Jin intellectual culture
- His position - that being and non-being mutually transform, and that a ground transcending both precedes all differentiation - represents a distinctively Taoist response to Wang Bi's prioritization of non-being
- He is recorded in the Maoshan Zhi (《茅山志》) and Volume 21 of the Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian (《历世真仙体道通鉴》)
Zhang Xuanbin (张玄宾) - the Wei scholar-official who abandoned his official career for Maoshan, and whose discourse on being and non-being engaged the deepest questions of Wei-Jin metaphysics from a distinctively Taoist perspective.
Life and Official Career
Zhang Xuanbin (张玄宾) was a native of Dingxiang (定襄, present-day Datong, Shanxi Province) in the state of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. He was recommended as a Maocai (茅才, outstanding talent) during the reign of Emperor Wu of Wei (Cao Cao, r. 196-220 CE) - one of the highest scholarly distinctions of the Han-Wei period. He later returned to his hometown and abandoned his official career to pursue Taoist cultivation.
Three Stages of Cultivation
1. Herbal Alchemy and Inner Arts
He studied under Ji Gong (计公) of Xihe, receiving the methods of taking atractylodes (苍术) as an elixir, and practicing the arts of the Bridal Chamber (洞房术) and White Origin (白元术). These are early Taoist cultivation techniques associated with the regulation of vital essence (jing 精) and the refinement of the body's internal energies.
2. The Dao of Escaping Transformation
He subsequently encountered the Perfected Man Fan Ziming (范子明真人) on Mount Shaoshi (崧山, one of the peaks of Mount Song in Henan), who imparted to him the Dao of escaping transformation and hiding from sight (逃化隐形之道) - a cultivation method associated with the transcendence of ordinary physical constraints.
3. Seclusion on Maoshan
He then left Mount Tianzhu (天柱山) and lived in seclusion on Maoshan (茅山), where he devoted himself to philosophical reflection and the cultivation of the Tao.
The Discourse on Being and Non-Being
Zhang Xuanbin is remembered above all for his philosophical discourse on being (有) and non-being (无) - the central conceptual pair of Wei-Jin xuanxue (玄学, Dark Learning) metaphysics. His discourse, preserved in the Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian, engages directly with the intellectual debates of his era:
"上常谓无为大有之居，小有生小无。积小有以养小无，见大有以根大无。有之为有，亦无也；无之为无，化为有。"
(The Superior often argues that non-being is the abode of great being, and it is from small being that small non-being arises. Accumulate small being to nourish small non-being; perceive great being to root in great non-being. Being, in its being, is also non-being; non-being, in its non-being, transforms into being.)
"故吴目不见物，物亦不见无。就有以成无，就无以得无。无无所居，大虚亦无之居。未生之前，世无有无。"
(Thus, my eyes do not perceive things at all, and things do not perceive non-being either. Rely on being to accomplish non-being; rely on non-being to attain non-being. Non-being has no abode, yet the great emptiness is also the abode of non-being. Before I was born, there was neither being nor non-being in the world.)
This discourse engages the central debate of Wei-Jin xuanxue. Wang Bi's (王弼, 226-249 CE) influential commentary on the Dao De Jing had argued that non-being (无) is the fundamental ground from which being (有) arises - prioritizing the void over the manifest. Zhang Xuanbin's discourse complicates this by insisting on the mutual transformation of being and non-being: neither is prior to the other. His final statement - "before I was born, there was neither being nor non-being in the world" - points toward a ground that transcends both categories, anticipating the later Taoist and Chan Buddhist emphasis on the primordial state before conceptual differentiation.
Zhengyi Perspective
In the Zhengyi tradition, Zhang Xuanbin's philosophical engagement with being and non-being reflects the deep interpenetration of Taoist cultivation and Wei-Jin intellectual culture that characterized the formative period of organized Taoism. The Zhengyi tradition's own theological foundations - the covenant between Zhang Daoling and Taishang Laojun, the talisman as a material expression of the Tao's power - are grounded in the same conviction that Zhang Xuanbin articulates philosophically: that the visible and the invisible, the manifest and the unmanifest, are not opposites but aspects of a single reality.
Zhang Xuanbin's statement that "being, in its being, is also non-being" is the philosophical expression of what the Zhengyi talisman enacts ritually: the visible ink marks on paper are simultaneously a material object and a channel for invisible celestial power. The talisman is being that is also non-being; the ritual is form that is also emptiness. Zhang Xuanbin's discourse on Maoshan and the Zhengyi priest's talisman at Longhu Mountain are two expressions of the same Taoist insight.
Related Concepts
- Three Kingdoms Period (三国时期): the historical period of Zhang Xuanbin's life Three Kingdoms Period
- What is the Dao (道是什么): the philosophical foundation of Zhang Xuanbin's discourse What is the Dao
Source Texts
- Zhao Daoyi (赵道一). Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian (《历世真仙体道通鉴》), Vol. 21. Yuan dynasty.
- Anonymous (comp.). Maoshan Zhi (《茅山志》). Various editions.
