Bai Yuanfu

Bai Yuanfu, styled Zhufeng. Originally named Xuanfu, it was changed to Liufu to avoid the taboo of Emperor Kangxi Xuanye. He was from Yanchuan in the Jinming period of the Western Qin Dynasty (now Ansai County, Shaanxi Province). According to the "Great Mountain Taihe Mountain Annals" of the Qing Dynasty, Bai Yuanfu had achieved fame and held an official position before giving up his post and entering the Taoist path. When entering Wudang Mountain, he lived in the Seven True Caves to practice and was the 17th generation successor of the Quanzhen Longmen School. Because of his high moral standing, he was publicly recommended as the head of the temple. He lived up to expectations and donated funds from all directions to restore the temple and bridge, as well as the Mingzhen Nunnery. After the nunnery was completed, he gathered disciples here to teach the Tao. Together with Yang Changxuan, he cultivated a group of well-known outstanding disciples for the Wudang Temple. Because he had achieved fame and fortune in the mundane world, he was also called Bai Bang Yuan and was a revitalizer of the Longmen School in Wudang during the Qing Dynasty. When Bai Yuanfu was in his seventies, one day he composed a poem saying, "The nature returns to clarity and the energy returns to emptiness. The vast void is different from me, only because I can grasp some of my inner thoughts. Let go and break through the chaos." Having said that, he sat upright and passed away.