Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景 (zì Tōngmíng 通明; hào Huáyáng yǐnjū 華陽隱居; posthumous sobriquet Zhēnbái xiānshēng 貞白先生; 456–536) was the founding patriarch of the Máoshān 茅山 Shàngqīng 上清 tradition and one of the most consequential Daoist masters of early-medieval China. A polymath — physician, alchemist, pharmacologist, editor, calligrapher, and imperial adviser — he served as a minor courtier under the LiúSòng 劉宋 before retreating to Máoshān 茅山 in 492, where for the next forty-four years he reorganised, edited, and commented upon the great corpus of the Shàngqīng revelations of Yáng Xī 楊羲 and the Xǔ family.
Táo maintained an extraordinary intellectual relationship with the Liáng 梁 emperor Wǔ 武帝 (r. 502–549), serving him as consultant in political and occult matters from his hermitage — “the prime minister within the mountains” (shān zhōng zǎixiàng 山中宰相). He systematised the Daoist canon, organised the Shàngqīng pantheon in hierarchical form (Dòngxuán língbǎo zhēnlíng wèiyè tú 洞玄靈寶真靈位業圖), and produced foundational works in pharmacology (Shénnóng běncǎo jīng jízhù 神農本草經集注), bibliography, and biography.
His principal Daoist works in the Dàozàng include:
- Zhēn’gào 真誥 (DZ 1016) — the “Declarations of the Zhēnrén,” his documentary edition of the YángXǔ revelations.
- Dēngzhēn yǐnjué 登真隱訣 KR5b0105 (DZ 421), 3 juàn extant of an original 24–25 — the practical counterpart of the Zhēn’gào, a manual of Shàngqīng exercises with Táo’s commentary.
- Dòngxuán língbǎo zhēnlíng wèiyè tú 洞玄靈寶真靈位業圖 (DZ 167) — the canonical hierarchical chart of the Daoist pantheon.
- Commentaries on the Guǐgǔ zǐ 鬼谷子, Sānhuáng nèiwén 三皇內文, and numerous other works.
Táo’s death in 536 was canonised by Emperor Wǔ of Liáng as the ascension of a Perfected. Standard study: Michel Strickmann, Le taoïsme du Mao Chan: Chronique d’une révélation (Paris, 1981).