Zhao Guangxin 赵广信 — Three Kingdoms Taoist of Xiaobai Mountain Inner Vision

Zhao Guangxin (赵广信) — the Taoist practitioner who spent seventy-eight years on Xiaobai Mountain practicing qi absorption and Guarding the Mysterious Center, then compounded the Jiuhua Elixir and ascended to heaven in broad daylight in 345 CE.

Historical Context: Sheng County and the Pre-Shangqing Jiangnan Tradition

Zhao Guangxin (赵广信) was a native of Yangcheng (阳城, present-day Dengfeng County, Henan) during the Three Kingdoms period. At the end of the Wei dynasty (c. 265 CE), he crossed the Yangtze River and entered Xiaobai Mountain (小白山) in Sheng County (嵊县, present-day Shengzhou, Zhejiang) — located approximately sixty li west of the county seat, according to the Jiata Kuaiji Zhi (嘉泰《会稽志》). Note that Sheng County and Shanyin County (山阴县, present-day Shaoxing) were distinct counties within Kuaiji Commandery, approximately sixty li apart.

The Kuaiji region was one of the most important centers of early Taoist cultivation in the Jiangnan area. It was in this same region that the Shangqing revelation would take root through Yang Xi (杨羲) and the Xu family (徐氏) in the 360s CE. Zhao Guangxin's presence on Xiaobai Mountain places him in the pre-Shangqing hermit tradition of the Kuaiji region, approximately two decades before the formal Shangqing revelation.

Two Transmissions: Li Facheng and Zuojun

1. Qi Absorption Method (行气法) from Li Facheng (李法成)
Zhao Guangxin met Li Facheng (李法成), from whom he received the method of absorbing qi (行气法, xingqi fa). Xingqi — the practice of circulating and absorbing vital breath through focused intention and breath control — is one of the foundational techniques of early Taoist cultivation, documented in texts ranging from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts to Ge Hong's Baopuzi. The Taiping Yulan corroborates this transmission: "授李法服气，又授左君守玄中之道" (He was transmitted Li Fa's qi-absorption method, and also transmitted Zuojun's Dao of Guarding the Mysterious Center).

2. Dao of Guarding the Mysterious Center (守玄中之道) from Zuojun (左君)
From Zuojun (左君, Lord of the Left) — a Taoist immortal whose honorific title appears in the Zhen Gao (《真诰》) alongside Li Facheng — he received the Dao of Guarding the Mysterious Center (守玄中之道). The philosophical root of "Guarding the Center" (守中) lies in the Dao De Jing, Chapter 5: "多言数穷，不如守中" (Many words lead to exhaustion; better to guard the center). The "Mysterious Center" (玄中) is not a specific anatomical location but the formless, unbiased void at the axis of the Tao — the state of empty stillness in which spirit and qi naturally unite. To "guard" it is to maintain this condition of void-stillness without grasping or scattering, allowing the spirit to settle and the qi to consolidate.

Seventy-Eight Years of Practice: Inner Vision and Selling Medicine

Zhao Guangxin practiced these methods for approximately seventy-eight years. During this period he attained inner vision of his internal organs (内视五脏) — the ability to perceive the divine spirits inhabiting each organ directly through meditative awareness. He then left Xiaobai Mountain and traveled through the commanderies (周行郡国), selling medicine among the people (卖药人间) and frequently visiting the capital to purchase cinnabar (市丹砂).

This pattern — inner cultivation followed by itinerant medicine-selling — reflects the integrated vocation of the Wei-Jin Taoist practitioner: the sale of medicine was simultaneously an act of healing service to the community and a practical means of accumulating the cinnabar needed to compound the ultimate alchemical preparation. Zhao Guangxin's medicine-selling was not a departure from his cultivation path but its outward-facing expression.

The Jiuhua Elixir and Ascension in Broad Daylight

After accumulating sufficient cinnabar through his travels, Zhao Guangxin compounded the Jiuhua Elixir (九华丹, Nine Florescence Elixir). Upon taking a single dose, Taiyi (太一, the Supreme One) dispatched a cloud-carriage to receive him: he ascended to heaven in broad daylight (白日登天), borne by clouds and dragons, and was received in the Eastern Florescence Palace (东华宫). The Shaoxing Fuzhi, citing the Dengzhen Yinjue (《登真隐诀》), records: "受服气法，守玄中之道，七十八年。后合九华丹，一服，太一遣云驾下迎，在东华宫" (He received the qi-absorption method and the Dao of Guarding the Mysterious Center, practicing for seventy-eight years. He then compounded the Jiuhua Elixir; upon taking a single dose, Taiyi dispatched a cloud-carriage to receive him, and he was placed in the Eastern Florescence Palace).

His formal death date is recorded as the sixth month of the first year of the Yonghe era (永和元年六月, 345 CE) — the same year as fellow Kuaiji-region practitioner Yin Qianzi (尹蒔子).

Zhengyi Perspective

In the Zhengyi tradition, Zhao Guangxin's three-stage cultivation path — qi absorption, Guarding the Mysterious Center, and the Jiuhua Elixir — represents the complete integration of inner cultivation and outer alchemy that the Zhengyi tradition also holds as the ideal of the accomplished practitioner. The Dao of Guarding the Mysterious Center reflects the same foundational principle that underlies the Zhengyi priest's inner preparation: the concentration of awareness on the formless void-center as the prerequisite for effective ritual action. Before the Zhengyi priest ascends the altar, he must gather his scattered spirit into this mysterious center — the same act that Zhao Guangxin practiced for seventy-eight years on Xiaobai Mountain.

Zhao Guangxin's medicine-selling also reflects a dimension of the Zhengyi tradition's social vocation: the Zhengyi priest who performs healing rituals for the community, who writes talismans for the sick, who mediates between the human world and the celestial authorities on behalf of those who suffer — is enacting the same integration of inner cultivation and outward service that Zhao Guangxin embodied in his decades of itinerant medicine-selling across the Jiangnan commanderies.

Related Concepts

• Three Kingdoms Period (三国时期): the historical period of Zhao Guangxin's origin Three Kingdoms Period
• What is Taoism (道教是什么): the broader tradition What is Taoism

Source Texts

• Zhao Daoyi (赵道一). Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian (《历世真仙体道通鉴》). Yuan dynasty. [Primary source; volume number requires verification.]
• Li Fang (李昆) et al. (comp.). Taiping Yulan (《太平御览》), Daoist section 13 (道部十三). Song dynasty. [Corroborates both transmissions and the Zuojun identification.]
• Tao Hongjing (陶弘景). Dengzhen Yinjue (《登真隐诀》). Liang dynasty. [Cited in the Shaoxing Fuzhi; records the seventy-eight years of practice and the Jiuhua Elixir ascension.]
• Anonymous (comp.). Shaoxing Fuzhi (《绍兴府志》). Ming-Qing dynasty. [Preserves the Dengzhen Yinjue citation on Zhao Guangxin's ascension.]
• Ge Hong (葛洪). Baopuzi Neipian (《抱朴子内篇》). Eastern Jin dynasty (c. 320 CE). [Documents the xingqi and jindan traditions providing context for Zhao Guangxin's practice.]