Tʾao Hung-ching

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Tʾao Hung-ching (452–536). Taoist mediator of Mao Shan (see TAOISM), and follower of Ko Hung who did much to consolidate Ko Hung's great achievements in systematizing Taoism and making it widely acceptable. His use of religious Taoist techniques to predict the future was sufficiently accurate for the emperor to invite him to live in the imperial court, but he refused to leave Mount Mao, where the emperor used to consult him—for which reason he became known as ‘the prime minister of the mountains’. His major work was Chen-kao (Declarations of the Perfected), which gathered the Supreme Purity scriptures and gave an account of their revelation.