Wei Huacun

Wei Huacun (252-334 AD), alias Xian An, was a woman Daoist of the Jin dynasty. In Daoist books she was called the Primordial Sovereign of Purple Voidness ( 紫虛元君 Zixu Yuanjun ), or Madam Wei of the Southern Sacred Mountain ( 南嶽魏夫人 Nanyue Weifuren ). Wei was born in Rencheng and her father was Wei Shu, a state official at the time. Wei believed in Daoism when she was young, enjoying reading the books of Laozi and Zhuangzi. And she often practiced ingesting the vital breath, abstaining from grains, and nourishing life by cultivating tranquility. At the age of 24, Wei was forced by her parents to marry Liu Wen of Nanyang. She had two sons, one called Pu and the other Xia. After her sons grew up, Wei lived alone in a quiet room and devoted herself to cultivating Dao wholeheartedly. Later many perfect men and women were so moved by her devotion that they descended to transmit Daoist scriptures to her. Wang Bao, the Perfect Man of Pristine Emptiness ( 清虛真人 Qingxu Zhenren ), gave her 31 volumes of Daoist scriptures as follows: the Supreme Precious Script ( 《太上寶文》 Taishang Baowen ), the Eight Hidden Books of Simplicity ( 《八素隱書》 Basu Yinshu ), and the Perfect Book of the Great Grotto ( 《大洞真經》 Dadong Zhenjung ). Perfect Man Jing Lin sent her the Book of the Inner Landscape of the Yellow Court ( 《黃庭內景經》 Huangting Neijing Jing ). Both the 4th volume of the Seven Slips of a Cloudy Satchel ( 《雲笈七籤》 Yunji Qiqian ) and the Transmission of Daoist Scriptures and Techniques: Preface to the Commentary on the Catalogues of the Daoist Scriptures of the Highest Clarity Tradition ( 《道教經法傳授部. 上清源統經目注序》 Daojiao Jingfa Chuanshou Bu. Shangqing Yuantong Jingmu Zhu Xu ), mentioned that when she was dying, Madame. Wei passed her scriptures to her son and he transmitted them to Yang Xi, so that the scriptures of the Highest Clarity lineage began to spread. The 19th volume of the Declarations of the Perfected ( 《真誥》 Zhengao ) records that Madame. Wei descended in the second year of Xing Ning (364 AD) during the reign of Emperor Ai of the Jin dynasty, to transmit the scriptures of the Highest Clarity to her disciple Yang Xi, and Yang passed them to Xu Mi and Xu Hui. Above all, the diffusion of the scriptures of the Highest Clarity can be attributed to Madame Wei. Therefore she was revered as the first patriarch of the Highest Clarity sect. 魏華存