Fan Changsheng ( Fàn Chángshēng) (died 318) was a

Taoist priest A ''daoshi'' () or Taoshih, translated as Taoist priest, Taoist monk, or Taoist professional is a priest in Taoism. The courtesy title of a senior is ''daozhang'' (, meaning "Tao master"), and a highly accomplished and revered is often cal ...

and leader who was instrumental in the establishment of the

Cheng-Han Cheng-Han (; 303 or 304 – 347) was a dynastic state of China listed as one of the Sixteen Kingdoms in Chinese historiography. Ruled by the Li clan of the Ba-Di people, its territory was based in what is modern-day Sichuan Province, China. The ...

state during the

Sixteen Kingdoms The Sixteen Kingdoms (), less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states. The majority of these states were founded b ...

era in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He led a Taoist community of over one thousand families on

Mount Qingcheng Mount Qingcheng () is a sacred Taoist mountain in Dujiangyan, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It is considered one of the birthplaces of Taoism and one of the most important Taoist religious sites in China. In Taoist mythology, it was the site of the ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

. During a critical famine, Fan Changsheng provided

Li Xiong Li Xiong (李雄) (274 – 11 August 334), courtesy name Zhongjuan (仲雋), also known by his posthumous name as the Emperor Wu of Cheng (Han) (成(漢)武帝), was the first emperor of the Ba-Di-led Cheng-Han dynasty and commonly regarded as ...

's army with food from his community's bounty. With Fan's help, Li Xiong achieved victory over Luo Shang's army during Li Xiong's siege of

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

. After Li Xiong's victory, he offered Fan the throne. Fan declined, claiming that the year 304 would be an auspicious date (being a ''jiazi'' year) for someone from the Li family to take the throne. Fan Changsheng then served as the Chancellor of Cheng-Han under

. Fan later helped to persuade

to take the title of emperor. After Fan's death, his son

Fan Ben Fan Ben (; died 349), was a politician and emperor of the Cheng-Han dynasty during the Sixteen Kingdoms. He was the son of Fan Changsheng, and after the fall Cheng-Han to the Jin dynasty (266–420) in 347, he led a restoration of the state, bri ...

succeeded him as the Chancellor of Cheng-Han. Fan was the author of the lost work, ''Shucai'' (), a ten volume commentary on the

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...

. He was later considered to be one of the Eight Immortals from Sichuan.

References

* Kleeman, Terry F., ''Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial Kingdom'', {{DEFAULTSORT:Fan Changsheng 318 deaths 4th-century Taoists Jin dynasty (266–420) Taoists Taoist religious leaders Year of birth unknown Taoist immortals