Tang Shangqing Daoist master of Mount Tiantai, honoured by three sovereigns and skilled in seal and clerical calligraphy.
Mural guide
In a temple courtyard at dusk, a great bronze bell hangs at the right and incense smoke rises from a bronze urn; monks in orange robes and plainly dressed visitors walk toward a lamplit hall, lotus flowers bloom in a stone basin, and a gold prayer wheel stands at the left.
Sima Chengzhen, courtesy name Ziwei and styled Baiyunzi, came from Wen county in Henei. Drawn to Daoism early, he studied under Pan Shizheng on Mount Song, inheriting the Shangqing tradition, and later lived as a hermit on Mount Tiantai. Empress Wu, Emperor Ruizong and Emperor Xuanzong all summoned him; Xuanzong received Daoist registers from him and built him a monastery on Mount Wangwu. A distinctive calligrapher in seal and clerical scripts, he also wrote the Treatise on Sitting in Forgetfulness. He was posthumously titled Master Zhenyi. In the preface to his Rhapsody on the Great Peng, Li Bai recalls meeting him at Jiangling and being told he had the bearing of an immortal.
Studied under Pan Shizheng and gave Xuanzong the Daoist registers
From 711 to 721, Tang
The Old Tang History says Sima Chengzhen, courtesy name Zizhi, came from Wen in Henei. He served Pan Shizheng, who passed on to him the talismans and the methods of fasting, breath guidance and elixirs, and after wandering famous mountains he settled on Mount Tiantai. Empress Wu summoned him to the capital; in 711 Emperor Ruizong sent his elder brother Chengwei to Mount Tiantai to bring him to the capital; in 721 Emperor Xuanzong sent an envoy to receive him at the capital and personally took the Daoist registers from him, and made his residence on Mount Wangwu into the Yangtai Temple.
Wrote the Laozi in three scripts by imperial order
In Xuanzong's reign, Tang
The Old Tang History says Sima Chengzhen was quite skilled in seal and clerical script, and Emperor Xuanzong had him write the Laozi classic in three script styles. In his later years he lived on Mount Wangwu and died there at eighty-nine, and after his death a decree granted him the title Master Zhenyi.
Tang