Sun Huaidao

Sun Huaidao is recorded as Sun Daoyun in the "Brief History of Taoism in Wudang" based on the "Biography of Liu Huaishen" in the "Book of Song" and as Sun Huaidao in the "History of the Southern Dynasties". This person was a Taoist priest of Wudang during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The matter is unknown. The "Biography of Liu Huaishen" in the "Book of Song" and the "History of the Southern Dynasties" record that at that time, there was a grandson named Liu Liang who was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Shunyang County for his achievements and later served as the governor of Liang and Yi Prefectures. In Liangzhou, he suddenly developed a desire to practice Taoism and achieve immortality. He specially invited the Wudang Taoist Sun Huaidao and asked him to refine a golden elixir for him to consume. In the first year of Taiyu (472 AD), when Sun Liuliang was transferred to Yizhou, Sun Huaidao finally refined the external elixir. But the newly formed elixir had too much fire poison, and Sun Huaidao did not allow it to be taken. Sun Liuliang was eager to become an immortal and couldn't wait to take it. When the city gate was opened at dawn, Liu Liang hurriedly took well water to dissolve it into medicine and took it. After taking it, my heart ached as if pricked by steel needles, and I died shortly after. Later generations saw him riding a white horse and leading dozens of troops out of the pass to the west. Taoism refers to this as the death of a corpse and the passing of an immortal. According to the records in the two Histories, Sun Huaidao was proficient in the art of burning external elixirs. This was very popular during the Han and Wei Dynasties and even the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Based on the existing historical records, the practitioners of external alchemy in Taoism were mostly on Wudang Mountain before Emperor Tangzong, but there were almost no systematic Taoist schools left behind.