Saints & Sages Part XI:
陶法真
Tao Fa Zhen (1915-2000) [excerpt 1]
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Tao Shi Fu was born in Shan Xi [陕西], An Kang [安康]. She began studying Daoism when she was only seven years old. Her aunt was an at-home practitioner of the Upright Oneness school. By the age of sixteen, she was already determined to become a nun. But destiny had a different path in store for her. When she was seventeen, her family betrothed her against her will. After arguing with her parents, she cut her throat open in refusal. Since hospitals were very bad at this time, they just sewed up the wound. Following this, her parents left her alone for some time. A few years later, when she turned nineteen, they hoped she had forgotten about the incident and tried to force her into an arranged marriage again. She slit her throat once more and did so yet again at the age of twenty. Rumours spread and no further willing husbands could be found, so her parents did not dare to bother her again. In her twenties she finally succeeded in becoming a renunciant and settled in An Kang, in Shan Xi.
During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution she was mocked and had to carry signs that derided her. Furthermore, she was forced to suffer ordeals such as holding up ice-cubes, standing on them, balancing them on her head, and walking in the streets carrying a Guan Shi Yin statue. But she was spared any further punishments when a governor with a very sick wife heard that Tao Shi Fu was an extremely talented healer. She then performed healing with talismans on the nearly dead wife, who could not even open her mouth anymore, which had to be propped open with a spoon to insert the medicine. After the wife was successfully cured, many more sick people sought Tao Shi Fu out to receive healing treatments.
Eventually, Tao Shi Fu arrived at White Horse Mountain in 1991, having been looking for a quiet place to follow the Dao. Later on, she consulted the Spirits and sent out a pilgrim to the Purple Cloud Palace in Wu Dang, in order to search for the one who was to be her disciple and successor.
At this time, Li Shi Fu resided at Purple Cloud Palace having been brought there by his journeys across China. Before finally becoming a full renunciant, he had failed to enter the religious Gate several times, as there were situations in his life which kept him at home. But he was frustrated and unhappy at Purple Cloud Temple, as he found it to be disorderly and disruptive. He decided to leave in order to seek a more serene place to cultivate and refine himself. As he was leaving the temple, with one foot inside the door and one foot outside, a man asked him:
Is your name Du?
The man had been instructed by Tao Shi Fu:
Go swiftly to Wu Dang to look for someone named Du.
She had explained:
It is Du’s destiny to come to White Horse Mountain.
At that time Li Shi Fu had never heard of White Horse Mountain. He asked that man:
How do you know my name?
The man replied:
There’s an old Daoist nun on this mountain who told me to come here, to look for someone named Du, and tell him to make his way to White Horse Mountain.
Li Shi Fu inquired:
Where is White Horse Mountain and how do I get there?
He wrapped up his belongings, left for White Horse Mountain, and has remained there ever since. When he arrived, he asked Tao Shifu eagerly, ‘How did you know my name?’ But she just laughed at him. After pressing for an answer, she disclosed that the Five Immortals had revealed his name to her.
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Post-Scriptum:
This full article will appear in last part called Book III: Book of Humanity’ in Purple Cloud Press’ forthcoming publication of 《The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao》 by Xing De/Li Shi Fu, a manual for refining one’s Inner Nature based on Liu Yi Ming’s 50 Barriers. Li Shi Fu is abbot of Five Immortals Temple (www.fiveimmortals.com).
