Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.s2.t3.9

v1.c6.s2.t3.9

Tao Hongjing lived in three dynasties of Song, Qi and Liang and was an expert in both Buddhism and Taoism, thus being widely recognised as the “Prime Minister in the Mountain”. Most of his life stories are recorded in *Book of Liang*, Volume 51, *History of Southern Dynasties*, Volume 76, *Recording of Huayang Hermit* and *Biography of Huayang Hermit Tao*, etc. He was very fond of reading *The Tales of Immortals* by Ge Hong in his childhood and then in his adulthood, he became an official but later he unexpectedly chose to live in seclusion in the prime of his life by retreating to Maoshan to explore Taoism for years during which he created the Maoshan Fraction, and eventually grew into a leading authority in the development of Shangqing Taoism. Tao was also very interested in Buddhism and maintained a very close personal relationship with Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, a firm believer in Buddhism. As a very excellent thinker proficient in medical science, Tao Hongjing made the 86-chapter *Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies* by Ge Hong (living in the Eastern Jin Dynasty) into a great medical book totalling 101 chapters which he renamed as *Supplement of Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies for One Hundred and One Diseases*. And in the foreword, he quoted one saying from Buddhist texts that a man’s body is made up of four greatest elements, “earth”, “water”, “fire” and “wind” and the disharmony and imbalance of one of them will cause 101 kinds of diseases. It is based on the theory of 404 kinds of diseases in *Sutra of Medicine*. We can recognise how deeply Tao was influenced by the Buddhist theories of medicine by the book’s name in which he added *One Hundred and One*.