The Sima Chengzhen 司马承祯

Sima Chengzhen was a native of Wen County in Henei (now part of Henan Province). His courtesy name was Ziwei, and he adopted several literary names: Baiyunzi (Master of White Clouds), Tiantai Baiyunzi (Master of White Clouds of Tiantai Mountain), Baiyun Daoshi (Taoist Priest of White Clouds), and Chicheng Jushi (Hermit of Chicheng Mountain). His Taoist religious name was Daoyin.

He was born into an official family. From a young age, he was eager to learn and had a profound mastery of the Confucian classics and poetry. He had little interest in becoming a government official and preferred to travel beyond the secular world.

At the age of 21 (668), he became a disciple of Pan Shizheng and formally became a Taoist priest at Mount Song. He studied diligently—using tiles to count the number of times he read Taoist scriptures—and thus won Pan Shizheng’s special appreciation. He received the transmission of The Golden Root Classic, the esoteric talismans of the Three Grottoes (a core classification of Taoist scriptures), as well as the profound essentials of Taoist cultivation such as ingestion of nourishing substances and daoyin (qigong-like physical exercises). Later, he became the 4th patriarch of the Shangqing School (a major Taoist school focusing on meditation and inner alchemy).

Subsequently, he lived in seclusion on Zixiao Peak of Tiantai Mountain in Zhejiang Province.

Empress Wu Zetian summoned him to the imperial capital, where he formed close friendships with prominent officials and scholars of the time, including Chen Zi’ang, Lu Zangyong, Song Zhiwen, Wang Shi, Bi Gou, Li Bai, Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, and He Zhizhang. People of that era called this group the "Ten Friends of the Immortal Sect."

In the second year of the Jingyun era (711), he was ordered to enter the imperial palace. Taking Taoist ideas such as "following the natural way of all things" and "being indifferent and acting without striving (wuwei)" as his guiding principles, he expounded Taoist teachings to Emperor Ruizong, which won him high praise. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, he was summoned multiple times, and the emperor received the Shangqing scriptures, doctrines, and ritual talismans from him in the imperial palace.

He was skilled in seal script and official script (two ancient Chinese calligraphic styles), proficient in music theory, and well-versed in pharmacology. He advocated the cultivation method of bigu (abstaining from grain) and qifu (absorbing vital energy), supplemented by Taoist talisman water and herbal medicines.

His Taoist philosophical thoughts centered on the following core ideas: taking the "Dao" (the Ultimate Reality) as the origin of all things, regarding "qi" (vital energy) as the foundation of the universe, and focusing on the mutual protection of the physical body and the spirit in cultivation. He also incorporated the Buddhist concepts of zhiguan (concentration and insight) and dhyana (meditation). He advocated a Taoist cultivation theory of "calming the mind and being free from desires"—which involved ridding oneself of material cravings, cutting off worldly attachments, eliminating physical and mental ailments, and simplifying secular affairs. His thoughts exerted a significant influence on the formation of inner alchemy (neidan) theory in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was an important Taoist scholar in the history of Taoism during the mid-Tang Dynasty.

After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title "Mr. Zhenyi" (Sincere and Unified). During the Zhenghe era of the Song Dynasty, he was conferred the title "Zhenren Danyuan" (Immortal of the Cinnabar Origin).

His works include:

He had more than 70 disciples, among whom Li Hanguang and Xue Jichang were the most renowned. Accounts of his life and deeds can be found in Old Book of Tang · Biography of Hermits and New Book of Tang · Biography of Hermits.