the various grasses grow. Later, when autumn arrives, the myriad fruits ripen. And how could it not be like this? The Way of Heaven is already moving. I have heard that the utmost person dwells like a corpse in a four-walled room (huandu zhi shi ). He leaves the various clans to their wild and reckless ways, unknowing of their activities.” (Zhuangzi, Chapter 23)
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Yuan Xian [a disciple of Kongzi] lived in the state of Lu. He resided in a four-walled room (huandu zhi shi ). It was thatched with living grasses, had a broken door made of woven brambles and mulberry branches for doorposts. Jars with the bottoms out, hung with pieces of coarse cloth for protection from the weather, served as windows for its two rooms. The roof leaked and the floor was damp, but Yuan Xian sat upright (kuangzuo), playing the zither and singing. (Zhuangzi, Chapter 28; see also 2, 11, 14 and 24)
and disengagement from wealth, reputation, and social status. Many of the stories are also framed as critiques of political power and social position, with various rulers and officials visiting Daoist adepts only to be rebuffed. The Zhuangzi also documents Daoist recluses associated with particular physical places such as Chu (present-day Hubei, Hunan, Henan, etc.; Chapter 4), the Hao and Pu rivers (Jiangsu; Chapter 17), the Liao river (Liaoning; Chapter 7), Lu (present-day Shandong; Chapters 20 and 28), Mount Gushe (Chapter 1), Mount Kongtong (possibly in Pingliang, Gansu; Chapter 11), Mount Kunlun (Chapters 6, 12, and 18), Mount Tai (Tai’an, Shandong; Chapter 29), Mount Weilei (Chapter 23), Mount Zhong (Chapter 28), and the Ying river (Chapter 28), a tributary of the Huai river (Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu) (see also Mair 1998). Interestingly, the Zhuangzi utilizes physical places and non-physical places as symbolic of Daoist commitments and spiritual states. Certain passages of the Zhuangzi also highlight the eremitic qualities of certain humans and animals, including fishermen (Chapters 17 and 31), firewood-gatherers and wood-cutters (Chapters 20, 26, and 29), warblers and moles (Chapter 1), as well as turtles (Chapters 17 and 26).
In the early medieval period, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (zhulin qixian) are often associated with Daoist eremitic withdrawal, with the members Ji Kang (Xi Kang; 223–262) and Ruan Ji (210–263) being among the most prominent. However, these individuals are better understood as disillusioned literati with Daoistic interests. They are probably best characterized as “Daoist sympathizers” (see Chapters 3 and 16) with particular interest in classical Daoist texts as opportunities for cosmological speculation as well as philosophical reflection and conversation.
In terms of actual early medieval Daoist hermits and recluses, one important repre- sentative is Yan Zun (Junping [Noble Peace]; ca. 83 bce-ca. 10 ce), who was originally named Zhuang Zun. Yan Zun was an urban recluse and Fangshi who spent his days in the markets of present-day Chengdu engaging in divinization and prognostication and his nights teaching cultured elite the intricacies of the Chinese literati tradition. For instance, he taught Yang Xiong (53 bce–18 ce), a famous Han poet and philosopher. Yan Zun wrote the Laozi zhigui (Essential Meaning of the Laozi; a.k.a. Daode zhenjing zhigui; DZ 693), which is the earliest surviving Daoist commentary on the Daode jing in the Daoist Canon. He was later bestowed with the honorific imperial title Miaotong zhenren (Perfected Subtle Pervasion) during the Shaoxing period (1131–62) of the Song dynasty (Berkowitz 2000: 93).
Eremiticism remained a primary model for Daoist community in later organized Daoism and even in modern Daoism. During the Song-Jin period, one relatively unknown recluse exerted an unexpected influence on the emerging Quanzhen movement. This was Liu Biangong (Gaoshang [Exalted Eminence]; 1071–1143), who lived as a solitary ascetic with a small group of disciples in Bingzhou, Shandong (Goossaert 1997: 47–54; 1999). Liu Biangong began his lifelong self-confinement at the age of fifteen. While mourning his father’s death, he encountered an “extraordinary person” and received secret teachings. He then dedicated himself to intensive and prolonged ascetic practice in a meditation enclosure (huandu) near his family home. He observed silence, wore a simple cloth robe, and maintained a vegetarian diet. He
Here we find one source of inspiration for early Quanzhen practice, especially with respect to the practice of meditation enclosure. Liu emphasized the importance of solitary meditation as the path to spiritual realization. In Ma’s description, Liu’s training is informed by classical Daoist values, as evident in the allusion to Chapters 3 and 19 of the Daode jing. At the same time, meditation enclosure allowed one to undertake intensive internal alchemy, which might culminate in immortality (see Chapters 7 and 11).
Moving back to a slightly earlier moment in the emerging Quanzhen community, Wang Zhe, at the age of 48, completely embraced the life of a Daoist renunciant and moved to Nanshi village, near present-day Huxian, Shaanxi. There he dug himself a “grave” that he named “Tomb for Reviving the Dead” (huo siren mu), often translated as “Tomb of the Living Dead.” This was a mound of dirt several feet high, with a ten-foot high ceiling dug under it. Near the entrance to this underground enclosure Wang placed a plaque that read “Wang Haifeng” (Lunatic Wang). Wang spent three years in this enclosure, most likely engaging in ascetic practices, practicing internal alchemy, and exchanging poetry with those who came to visit him. One account of Wang’s solitary training appears in his ten-poem cycle titled “Tomb for Reviving the Dead.”
also never married and practiced sexual abstinence. Following his death, his brother searched his hut and discovered a short treatise on cultivating clarity and stillness through meditation and within one’s daily life.
Liu’s commitments influenced the early Quanzhen community, which inhabited the same region of Shandong as Liu and his disciples. Ma Yu (1123–84) explicitly mentions the Shandong hermit.