Title

Recognition, Self-cultivation and Spirit-writing: On the Changing Conceptions of the Immortal Lü Dongbin from the Southern Song to the Mid-Qing

Author

Lai, Chi Tim

Genre

Article  

Pages

41-76

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

beliefs regarding Patriarch Lü (Lüzu), Chungyang Lü Zhenren Wenji, Chungyang Dijun Shenhua Miaotongji, Lüzu Quanshu

Abstract

　　From the Southern Song through the Yuan, Ming, and early Qing, tales of Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓’s efforts to transform believers were recorded in a variety of textual sources. The historical and religious contexts described in these accounts reveal various changes and developments in the beliefs regarding Lü over this period. Through a study of three types of stories found in Lü’s various hagiographical collections, this article analyzes several traditional beliefs about Lü and the manner in which they changed. The compilations and stories discussed here include: 1) The seventy stories recorded in the Chunyang Lü Zhenren Wenji《純陽呂真人文集》(Collected Essays of the Immortal Lü Chunyang) written during the late Southern Song; 2) The twenty-two tales thought to have been added by Miao Shanshi 苗善時 in the Yuan, which are found in the Chunyang Dijun Shenhua Miaotongji《純陽帝君神化妙通紀》 (based on accounts from the sixty-four juan Lüzu Quanshu《呂祖全書》[Complete Writings of Patriarch Lü]); and 3) Spiritual transformation stories that focus on belief in the efficacy of immortal Lü’s spirit-writing that have been collected in four separate editions of the Lüzu Quanshu compiled since the early Qing.