Liu Chuxuan (刘处玄)
Liu Chuxuan (1147–1203), courtesy Tongmiao, hao Changshengzi — the Quanzhen Seven Perfected's fourth patriarch, the wall-verse convert of 1169, the prison-calligraphy years, the 'few desires, light taxes' audience with Emperor Zhangzong, and the founder of the Suishan lineage.
Who he was
Liu Chuxuan (1147–1203) was the Quanzhen disciple recruited by a wall. In the spring of 1169, in Wuguan village in Laizhou, a verse appeared in brushwork on a neighbor’s wall, in a spot no one else could reach: “Wuguan, the land for nurturing the nature, the true immortals’ place — here there must be one who lives without dying” (武官养性真仙地，须有长生不死人). Liu, struck by it, went to meet the master who had just arrived in the region. Wang Chongyang looked at him and smiled: “Do you know the ink-traces on that wall?” Liu understood at once and asked to become his disciple; the master took the wall’s phrase and gave him his names — hao Changsheng (长生, “long-living”) from the verse, hui Chuxuan, courtesy Tongmiao. The site registers the age discrepancy between the two records of the scene (21 or 23) without adjudicating — the scene itself both sources tell.
The years that made him
- The filial first stage. Liu’s father died when he was young; the sources’ first fact about him is that he served his mother with exceptional care. Like Tan Chuduan’s crutches, the biography opens with what the tradition counts as the precondition of practice.
- The Luoyang years. After Wang Chongyang’s death, Liu kept the three-year grave-watch with Ma, Tan, and Qiu, then — following the master’s recorded instruction — went west with Tan Chuduan to Luoyang, living as a wandering beggar, refining the nature amid the flower lanes and wine quarters, the same program as Tan’s red-streets discipline.
- The prison calligraphy. The tradition’s most distinctive Liu story: he built a practice hall in Wuguan, neighbors accused him of a murder, and he did not defend himself. Held in prison for nearly a hundred days, the barely-literate Liu — so the record goes — used the confinement to read and practice writing, and came out with calligraphy “like dragons and serpents in motion.” He was released because the real killer confessed. The site registers the story in its traditional layer, with the note that it is the mirror image of the usual hagiography: where others are vindicated by miracles, Liu’s vindication is simply that the truth came out on its own — which is itself the story’s point about the empty boat virtue of not contending.
- The patriarch. In 1185 Tan Chuduan died and Liu succeeded as the fourth patriarch of Quanzhen. He returned to Wuguan, built the Lingxu Abbey, and taught; the archive says the crowds at his door never slackened.
- The audience with the emperor. In the winter of 1197 the Jin emperor Zhangzong summoned him to the capital and asked what the supreme Way is. Liu’s recorded answer is the shortest political document in the Quanzhen canon: “The essential of the Way: few desires and the body is at ease; light taxes and the state is at peace” (道之要，寡嗜欲则身安，薄赋敛则国泰). The site notes the structural echo with the site’s own non-action pages: the contemplative claim translated, without loss, into a governance claim.
- Death and titles. Liu died in 1203 at his Lingxu Abbey. The titles came later, in the usual sequence: Yuan Shizu’s 长生辅化明德真人 (1269), Yuan Wuzong’s longer 长生辅化宗玄明德真君.
The lineage he left
Liu founded the Suishan (随山) lineage, one of the seven Quanzhen branches, whose tradition places its ancestral seat at the Taiqing Palace on Mount Lao. His recorded disciples include the ascetic Yu Daoxian and Song Defang (Song Piyun), who went on to supervise the compilation of the Daoist canon. His works — the Xianle ji, the Wuyi qingjing changsheng zhenren zhizhen yulu (the Zhen yu lu), a Daodejing commentary, a Yinfu exposition, and a Huangting commentary — complete the Seven Perfected’s record of the practice as text.
Boundary notes, stated plainly
The wall-verse and the prison story are traditional records, registered in the tradition’s layer, not independent historical confirmation. The succession dates differ between the site’s two main sources (1185 per the Daoist Culture Centre Database’s 大定二十五年 statement; 1189 per zh.wikipedia’s table) — the site registers both, as it does for the age at the 1169 conversion. What no source disputes: Liu Chuxuan was the fourth patriarch, the founder of the Suishan lineage, and the man whose answer to an emperor was one sentence about few desires and light taxes.
Sources
- Zh.wikipedia.org entry on Liu Chuxuan: 刘处玄（1147年8月10日—1203年3月20日），字通妙，道号长生子，金朝全真道道士，山东东莱（今山东掖县）人。幼年丧父，以谨慎侍奉母亲而闻名。大定九年（1169）在莱州拜王重阳为师（23岁），重阳取壁间语意以'长生'为之号。大定十六年（1176）返回家乡武官庄长期在山东弘道；大定二十二年（1182）兴建道观（后名灵虚观），并注疏《道德经》和《黄庭经》。大定二十五年（1185）谭处端逝世，刘处玄继任为全真教第四任掌教。承安二年冬（1197）应金章宗邀请赴燕京，章宗问何谓至道，答：'道之要，寡嗜欲则身安，薄赋敛则国泰'。泰和三年（1203）二月初六逝世。至元六年（1269）元世祖赠'长生辅化明德真人'，元武宗加封'长生辅化宗玄明德真君'
- Daoist Culture Centre Database (zh.daoinfo.org), entry 刘处玄: 大定九年从王重阳学道，游寓齐豫，乞食炼形，重阳君去世后与马谭丘守孝庐墓三年，遵师遗言随谭长真奔赴洛阳，亦如谭长真以游方乞食为生，花街柳巷炼性。创立全真随山派，门下弟子著名者有大弟子离峰老人和于道显（于道显以苦修知名），宋披云为长生子门下掌教大弟子、后主修《道藏》。主要著作：《仙乐集》《无为清静长生真人至真语录》《道德经注》《阴符演》《黄庭述》
- Zh.daoinfo.org, same entry, 典故: 刘长生至武宫筑堂修道，乡人诬之有杀人命案，长生真人并不辩白，由是羁押狱中近百日，真人识字本不多，反得以在狱中勤读苦练，翰墨绝妙，有龙蛇飞舞之形。真人之出狱，乃由于杀人者自首之故
- Zh.daoinfo.org, same entry, 拜师 scene (age discrepancy registered): 早在此年春刘长生就在邻家墙壁间看到'武官养性真仙地，须有长生不死人'二颂；与王重阳师徒相遇，重阳问'壁间墨痕，汝知之乎？'刘恍然大悟提出拜师。时刘长生年21岁（zh.wikipedia gives 23 for the same year 1169 — the site registers both without adjudicating）
- Zh.wikipedia.org entry on 全真道, succession table: 第一任王重阳、第二任马钰、第三任谭处端、第四任刘处玄（1189-1203年主教）、第五任丘处机 (zh.wikipedia's 1189 start-date vs daoinfo's 大定二十五年=1185 succession — the site registers both)