Ge Xuan

Ge Xuan, styled Xiaoxian, was a native of Langya during the Wu state of the Three Kingdoms period, later relocating to Jurong in Danyang. From childhood, he cherished the path of immortality and cultivated Daoist practices in famed mountains such as Chicheng Mountain and Tiantai Mountain, gathering herbs and refining elixirs. Legend holds that he received instruction from the immortal Zuo Ci in scriptures including the Taiqing Danjing (Scripture of the Grand Clarity Elixir) and the Jiuding Danjing (Scripture of the Nine Cauldron Elixirs), eventually ascending bodily into immortality in broad daylight. Sun Quan, ruler of Wu, honoured him with imperial patronage and built the Dongxuan Temple in his honour. Folklore credits him with summoning wind and rain, plucking lotus blossoms amid winter snow, and freezing water in midsummer—miraculous feats widely celebrated in oral tradition, earning him the reverent title 'Master Ge the Immortal'. His scriptural lineage passed first to Zheng Yin, then to his grandnephew Ge Hong, ultimately evolving into the Lingbao School of Daoism; Gezao Mountain in Jiangxi thus became the school’s ancestral seat, ranking alongside Longhushan and Maoshan as one of the 'Three Sacred Mountains of Daoist Talismanic Ritual'.