道法自然
司馬承禎
Tang Imperial Preceptor
Era · 647–735 CE, Tang dynasty
Tang Imperial Preceptor
Tang dynasty patriarch whose Zuowang Lun — 'Sitting in Forgetfulness' — remains one of the clearest meditation manuals ever written. Three Tang emperors summoned him to court, and he mapped the celestial geography of China's sacred mountains.
Era · 647–735 CE, Tang dynasty
History · 史记
Sima Chengzhen (647–735), twelfth patriarch of the Shangqing line, was the most influential Taoist of the Tang. Three emperors summoned him; he advised Ruizong and Xuanzong on ruling by non-action. His Zuowang Lun — the treatise on sitting-forgetting — is a classic of Taoist meditation; his Tiandi Gongfu Tu first mapped the sacred geography of China: ten great caverns, thirty-six small caverns, seventy-two blessed grounds — the pilgrimage map of Taoism to this day.
His influence ran into poetry too: his friendship with Li Bai and his presence at court made the mountain master a permanent figure of the Tang imagination.
The Zuowang Lun teaches meditation as a ladder of seven steps: respect and faith, cutting off ties, subduing the mind, simplifying affairs, true observation, great stillness, attainment of the way. Sit until even sitting is forgotten.
When the hermit Lu Cangyuan pointed at Zhongnan Mountain and said there was great pleasure within, Sima Chengzhen replied: from my humble view, that mountain is the shortcut to officialdom. Lu blushed — and the proverb about hermits camping near the capital was born.
坐忘論
His treatise on sitting-forgetting — one of the classics of Taoist meditation.
舊唐書·隱逸傳
The Tang official history recording his summonses and his counsel to emperors.
天地宮府圖
His map of the sacred mountains — the first systematic list of caverns and blessed grounds.