The Tao Hongjing 陶弘景

Tao Hongjing was a native of Danyang Moling (now part of Nanjing City) during the Southern Qi and Liang dynasties of the Southern Dynasties period.

His courtesy name was Tongming, and he held the literary names "Hermit of Huayang" and "Perfected One of Huayang". He was born into a prominent aristocratic family in the Jiangdong region (the lower reaches of the Yangtze River). From childhood, he displayed exceptional moral integrity and conduct. He had an extensive command of Confucianism and was renowned for his literary works. Additionally, he was proficient in a wide range of fields: astronomy and calendar calculation, geography and the study of local products, medicine and health preservation, golden elixir refining, the Taoist practice of ingesting elixirs and abstaining from grain, divination, and omen observation. He was also skilled in cursive and official styles of calligraphy, adept at painting, and proficient in playing the qin (a traditional Chinese zither) and chess. In his early years, he served in the Southern Qi government as an imperial tutor to the princes.

In the 10th year of the Yongming era of Emperor Wu of the Southern Qi (492), he resigned from his official post and retired to Mount Juqu (now Mount Mao in Jiangsu Province). There, he studied Taoist talismans, scriptures, ritual texts, and esoteric instructions under Sun Youyue, a Taoist priest from Dongyang and the abbot of Xingshi Guan (Xingshi Temple). Later, he traveled across famous mountains, visiting scholars and practitioners from all over. He built Huayang Guan (Huayang Temple) on Mount Mao, where he transmitted the scriptures and registers of the Shangqing (Supreme Clarity) school’s Great Cavern Scripture, thus founding the Maoshan Sect of the Shangqing school of Taoism.

Though he lived in seclusion in the mountains, his "heart remained concerned with state affairs" (a Chinese idiom meaning caring about national politics despite retirement). When Xiao Yan, the Provincial Governor of Yongzhou, raised an army to overthrow the Southern Qi Dynasty, Tao Hongjing, who had a long-standing friendship with Xiao Yan, sent his disciple Dai Meng to deliver a memorial to Xiao Yan via a secret route. In the memorial, he cited Taoist prophetic texts and proposed using "Liang" as the name of the new dynasty to show his support. This earned him Xiao Yan’s trust.

From then on, he received even greater favor and respect—emissaries carrying letters between him and the court never ceased, and the imperial court frequently consulted him on major state affairs. People of his time called him the "Prime Minister in the Mountains".

Tao Hongjing’s Taoist thought was rooted in the philosophies of Laozi and Zhuangzi, as well as Ge Hong’s theories on immortality and alchemical arts. At the same time, he advocated for the convergence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. He once received Buddhist precepts at the Ashoka Pagoda in Ningbo. In his Taoist temple on Mount Mao, he built two halls—one for Buddhism and one for Taoism—and worshipped in both alternately. He compiled The Hierarchy of True Spirits, which classified immortals into various ranks. He also revised Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica, supplementing it with new medicines recorded by physicians of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and compiled this into the seven-volume Collected Annotations to the Classic of Materia Medica. In this work, he pioneered a classification system for medicines, categorizing them into eight groups: jade and stones, herbs and plants, insects, animals, fruits, vegetables, grains, and kernels.

His other works include: True Instructions, Esoteric Instructions for Ascending to Immortality, Records of Nourishing Nature and Prolonging Life, Records of Ancient and Modern Swords and Blades, Essential Collections of Various Elixirs from the Great Purity Tradition, Regulations for Various Methods of Preparing Alchemical Medicines, Essential Collection of Herbs and Plants from the Great Purity Tradition, Tao’s Effective Prescriptions, Supplementary Prescriptions for Emergency Care (The Elbow Handbook), Compendium of Medicines, and Collected Hundred Prescriptions for Golden Elixirs and Yellow [Elixirs]. He was an pivotal figure in the history of Taoism during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title "Mr. Zhenbai" (Mr. Pure and White). He had dozens of disciples, among whom Wang Yuanzhi and Lu Yichong were regarded as the most accomplished. (Sources: Biography of Tao Hongjing in Book of Liang, Original Records of Mr. Hermit of Huayang, as well as The Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns, Comprehensive Mirror of Perfected Immortals and Practitioners of the Dao, and Cloudy Satchel of the Seven Apertures)