Pu Shanyuan was from Guanxi (now the northeast of Lingbao County, Henan Province or the area west of Tongguan). A prominent student of Qiu Xuanqing and a granddisciple of Zhang Sanfeng, he was a renowned Taoist priest on Wudang Mountain in the Ming Dynasty. According to the "Great Mountain Taihe Mountain Annals" of the Ming Dynasty, Pu Shanyuan became a monk on Wudang Mountain at the beginning of the Hongwu reign and studied the way of Zhuanglie under Qiu Xuanqing. The Taoist name is quite high. In the 15th year of the Hongwu reign (1417 AD), he was appointed by the imperial court as the governor of Junzhou (the main official in charge of Taoism under the jurisdiction of the prefectural government). During the Yongle period, the imperial court granted Pu Shanyuan a special edict, allowing him to travel around the world in search of the true and eminent Taoist masters. Later, he passed away peacefully at the Xuanmiao Temple in Zhanggong (now northwest of Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province). He was buried in the Black Tiger Gorge on Wudang Mountain after his death. The details of birth, death and the time of passing are all unknown.