1. Tao Hongjing, courtesy name Tongming, was a Chinese alchemist, astronomer, calligrapher, military general, musician, physician, and pharmacologist during the Northern and Southern dynasties.
42 Facts About Tao Hongjing
1. 2.
Tao Hongjing was born in Moling, which was near the Northern and Southern dynasties period capital Jiankang.
3.
Tao Hongjing was a prodigious reader and once his interest was aroused in a subject, he would not stop until he had learned all that he could.
4.
Tao Hongjing held several court positions under the Liu Song, Southern Qi, and Liang dynasties.
5.
Tao Hongjing's mother died in 484, and he resigned from office.
6.
Tao Hongjing received training in chanting the scriptures and drawing talismans.
7.
Tao Hongjing made his first visit to Maoshan west of Jintan.
8.
Tao Hongjing travelled eastward to Zhejiang to begin collecting the original revelatory manuscripts in 490.
9.
In 492, at the age of 36, Tao Hongjing resigned his official post at court and withdrew to focus upon scholarship and alchemical experimentation on Maoshan.
10.
Tao Hongjing began travelling to famous mountains in search of medical plants and elixirs.
11.
Note: Tao Hongjing served under two rulers named Wudi, Emperor Wu of Southern Qi and Emperor Wu of Liang; in order to avoid confusion, the latter one will be called '"Xiao Yan".
12.
In 514, Xiao Yan ordered the Zhuyang guan state-sponsored hermitage to be built on Maoshan and Tao Hongjing installed himself in the following year.
13.
The emperor kept up a regular correspondence with Tao Hongjing, often visited Maoshan to consult on important matters of state, and gave him the title Shanzhong zaixiang.
14.
In 504, Xiao Yan commissioned Tao Hongjing to undertake alchemical experiments, and provided him with the required minerals.
15.
Between 508 and 512, Tao Hongjing journeyed throughout the southeast, in the modern provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Fuzhou, in order to continue making alchemical experiments in the mountains.
16.
Tao Hongjing found Zhou's manuscripts hidden in a Maoshan grotto, and edited them into the Zhoushi mingtong ji, which he presented to Xiao Yan in 517.
17.
From about 520 until his death in 536 at Maoshan, Tao Hongjing spent much of his time trying to make alchemical elixirs.
18.
Tao Hongjing chose Tongming for his courtesy name and Huayang Yinju for his pseudonym.
19.
Tao Hongjing's contemporaries called him Shanzhong zaixiang.
20.
Tao Hongjing received the posthumous names Zhenbai or Zhenbai Xiansheng and Huayang Zhenren.
21.
Tao Hongjing was a prolific writer and had extensive knowledge of the Chinese classics, history, literature, numerology, astrology, geography, and traditional Chinese medicine.
22.
Tao Hongjing was educated in Daoist traditions associated with the Daode jing, Zhuangzi, and Ge Hong's writings on seeking immortality.
23.
Around 486, Tao Hongjing received initiation into Lingbao School of Daoism from his master Sun Youyue.
24.
Tao Hongjing advocated the synthesis of the three teachings and was initiated into Buddhism in Ningbo.
25.
Tao Hongjing continued his interests in Buddhism and formally took vows in 513.
26.
Some architectural elements from Tao Hongjing's tomb, discovered on Maoshan during the Cultural Revolution, bear an inscription calling him "a disciple of the Buddha and of the Most High Lord Lao[zi]".
27.
Tao Hongjing was effectively the founder of the Shangqing or Maoshan School.
28.
From 483, Tao Hongjing became interested in the Shangqing revelations granted to Yang Xi more than a century earlier and decided to collect the original autograph manuscripts, using calligraphy as one of the criteria to establish their authenticity.
29.
Tao Hongjing began to gather the manuscripts from Daoists living on Maoshan in 488 and his major acquisitions date from that year to 490 when he travelled to Zhejiang.
30.
When Tao Hongjing retired to Maoshan in 492 he intended to edit the manuscripts, drawing inspiration from Gu Huan's now-lost Zhenji jing, an earlier but in Tao Hongjing's view unsatisfying account of Yang Xi's revelations.
31.
Tao Hongjing's enterprise resulted in two major works, the esoteric c 493 Dengzhen yinjue and the c 499 Zhen'gao, which was intended for wide circulation.
32.
Tao Hongjing compiled a complete catalogue of Shangqing texts, which is no longer extant.
33.
Later, in 517, Tao Hongjing edited the Zhoushi mingtong ji based on his autograph manuscripts from the revelations bestowed upon his disciple Zhou Ziliang, who had committed suicide in 516 after receiving successive visions of the Perfected.
34.
In modern terms, Tao Hongjing experimented with protoscience rather than the scientific method.
35.
Tao Hongjing's preface explains that beginning in the Wei-Jin period, copies of the Shennong bencao jing text had become corrupted, and contemporary medical practitioners "are not able to clearly comprehend information and as a result their knowledge has become shallow".
36.
Tao Hongjing further explains that his commentary combines previous material from the Shengnong bencao jing and other early pharmacological sources, material from his Mingyi bielu, and information gathered from alchemical texts, notably what he calls xianjing and daoshu.
37.
For each substance in the Bencao jing jizhu, Tao Hongjing gives information on the availability, sources, alternative nomenclature, appearance, similarities and confusions, suitability for medicinal usage, effectiveness, quotations from classical and other sources, and errors in existing texts.
38.
Tao Hongjing is considered "the effective founder of critical pharmacology in China", and his editions and commentaries were "painstaking productions, using, for example, different colored inks to distinguish text, original annotations, and his own editorial additions".
39.
Tao Hongjing blamed these failures on the lack of genuine isolation, since Maoshan had a large community of permanent residents and their families as well as numerous visitors on pilgrimages.
40.
Disappointed, Tao Hongjing decided to leave Maoshan incognito and engaged in a five-year journey to the southeast, from 508 to 512.
41.
The History of the Southern Dynasties records that Tao Hongjing eventually managed to compound a white powder elixir.
42.
Tao Hongjing considered that he might succeed in achieving an elixir, but was hindered by the lack of ingredients.