Lu Xiujing
During his pilgrimages to the various mountains where eminent Taoists had lived, Lu had the chance to collect the scriptures of various currents.
Although Lu attributed a lot of importance to the rituals, he put them in second position in the Taoist Canon, that is in the second cavern.
He was very highly regarded in his lifetime but, after his death, his attempt at unifying the Taoist practices into one canon encountered a lot of criticism.
Lu Xiujing was born in 406 in Wuxing, a district of the historical Dongqian 東遷, modern Zhejiang province.
[1] Whether based on a true event or not, this story illustrates the detachment of Lu Xiujing from earthly concerns and the seriousness of his spiritual quest.
[2] Emperor Wendi, who had heard of Lu's growing influence, had him called to the palace, where he made an impression on the Dowager Empress Wang.
He arrived at Mount Lu where tradition holds that he met Huiyuan and Tao Yuanming, although their differing dates of birth make such a meeting an impossibility.
[4] Summoned by the court, he eventually returned to the capital Jiankang in 467, where he participated in many brilliant debates with Buddhist masters.
In his honr, the Emperor Mingdi built the Temple for the Veneration of the Void (Chongxuguan 崇虛館), the construction of which required considerable effort and the participation of many eminent Daoists.
Among his disciples, Sun Youyue 三会日 in turn became a teacher of the prominent Taoist scholar Tao Hongjing.
In 437, Lu Xiujing annotated and structured the book to produce the catalog of Lingbao Scriptures (Lingbaojingmu 灵宝经目).
He specified its details in numerous works describing "the nine observations and twelve rules" of the ceremonies (jiu zhai shi'er fa 九齋十二法).
He modeled part of his practice of Taoism after Confucian rites, and adopted the three main requirements inherent in the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path: right thought, right speech and right action.
[13] Lu set the codes for the ritual music performed by the high priest gaogong and the chief cantor dujiang.
He reinstated the three days of reunion (sanhuiri 三会日), during which the followers had to go to their libation masters to take stock of their past actions and review the rules.
His classification of the scriptures into three caverns, four auxiliaries and twelve categories (Sandong sifu shi'erlei 三洞四輔十二類), will be taken up by the Daozang (the later Taoist canons) from the Tang dynasty on.
The first cavern contained the Shangqing texts which focused on meditation, and constituted, according to Lu, the ultimate level of Taoist masters' training.
In the 12th century, Song emperor Huizong honored him with the title of danyuan zhenren 丹元真人, meaning "true being", a title reserved to deified Daoists[19] A legend born under the Song to promote the syncretism of the three main currents of thought, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism brought together on Mount Lu the Buddhist monk Huiyuan (334-416), who had established his residence there, the poet Tao Yuanming (365-427), and Lu Xiujing who visited frequently.
