Saints & Sages Part XII: 麻衣道者 The Hemp-Clad Daoist

Saints & Sages Part XII:

麻衣道者
The Hemp-Clad Daoist
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The Hemp-Clad Daoist [ma yi dao zhe 麻衣道者], who was also known by the name of Hemp-Clad Daoist Adept [ma yi dao shi 麻衣道士] and Hemp-Clad Person of the Dao [ma yi dao ren麻衣道人]. He was a master who supposedly passed on the Tai Ji map [tai ji tu 太极图] to Chen Tuan. Historical documents and classical comments about him are extremely scarce. The Hemp-Clad Daoist’s extant works include ‘The Forest of the Fire Pearl’ [huo zhu lin火珠林], ‘The Hemp-Clad [One’s] Face-Reading Methods’ [ma yi xiang fa 麻衣相法] and ‘The Core Methods to Rectify the Yi [Jing]’ [zheng yi xin fa 正易心法], which is authored by Chen Tuan based on the transmission by the Hemp-Clad Daoist.
The Hemp-Clad Daoist is described in the Complete Collection of Elder Zhang San Feng [張三丰先生全集], in the chapter called ‘Passing Down from the Ancestors [前厯祖傳]:

麻衣先生，姓李名和，道號初陽。內鄉人，隱石堂山。生而神奇，紺髮美。姿稍長，厭世濁腐，入終南靜養。遇尹文始，傳以道要並相法，命往南陽湍水旁靈堂山修煉，洞居十九年，冬夏恆著麻衣，故號爲麻衣子。靈山有水，四時常溫，名暘谷，時往沐浴。一夕，有少年十二人來拜曰：吾屬龍也，上帝以師道成，命吾等輔行大化。自是，有求雨者，皆騐。鄉民謁懇甚繁，別隱歙之黃山，卽黟山, 人稱爲黃山隱者。

The elder Hemp-Clad’s surname was Li and first name He, and his Daoist appellation Initial Yang.
He was a Nei Xiang local, secluding himself on the Mount Shi Tang. He was rather Spirited and extraordinary since birth, with beautiful dark hair with a red hue. Just by the time he grew up, he was weary of the worldly turbidity and corruption, and he entered Zhong Nan [mountains] to foster in stillness. There he encountered Yin Wen Shi, who transmitted to him the essentials of the Dao and face-reading, and ordered him to make his way towards Mount Ling Tang next to the Chuan River of Nan Yang, and to cultivate and refine there, where he lived in a cave for 19 years. Through winter and summer, he constantly wore hemp clothing, which was the reason for his appellation as ‘Hemp-Clad Master.’ On Mount Ling [Tang], there is [a body of] water that is constantly warm throughout the four seasons, thus it was called ‘the Valley of the Rising Sun.’ From time to time, he went there to take a bath. One evening, twelve young people visited and said:

We are Dragons. As you, the master, has accomplished the Dao, the high sovereign [of Heavens] command us to assist you in the dissemination of the great transformation.

From then, whenever people sought rains, they could all prove effective. As the villagers visited earnestly in extremely great numbers, he departed to seclude himself on Mount Huang in She district -namely Mount Yi-, where people called him ‘the Hermit of Mount Huang’.

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Post-Scriptum: This article will be published in full as part of a forthcoming book called ‘Arts of Daoism’ [dao shu道术]. It will deal with meditation, stillness cultivation, abstention from grains [bi gu辟谷], sleeping gong [shui gong睡功], dreams, vegetarianism and diet in Daoism, formulae for fasting and meditation incense, including several chapters from the alchemical classic The Essentials of the Shortcut to the Great Achievement [da cheng jie yao 大成捷要]. It will be a mixture of anecdotal and oral transmissions from my teacher Li Shi Fu and translations of a number of chapters from ancient texts.