Chen Tuan

Chen Tuan
Chen Xi Yi Asleep by Hasegawa Tōhaku, Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum
Native name	Family name: Chén () Given name: Tuán () Courtesy name: Túnán ()
Born	Luyi County, Henan
Died	25 August 989(989-08-25)
Other names	Chén Xīyí () Fúyáozǐ ()

Chen Tuan 陳摶 (d. 989) was a legendary Taoist sage credited with creation of the kung fu system Liuhebafa ("Six Harmonies and Eight Methods"). Along with this internal art, he is also said to be associated with a method of Qi (energy) cultivation known today as Taiji ruler and a 24 season Daoyin method (er shi shi ssu shih tao yin fa) using seated and standing exercises designed to prevent diseases that occur during seasonal changes throughout the year.

The character "Tuan" (摶) is sometimes confused with the very similar-looking character "Bo" (搏), thus the name is sometimes incorrectly romanized as Chen Bo or Chen Po. In Chinese, he is often respectfully referred to as "Aged Ancestor Chen Tuan" (陳摶老祖 Chén Tuán Lǎozǔ) and "Ancestral Teacher Xiyi" (希夷祖師 Xīyí Zǔshī).

Chen Tuan, styled Tunan, titled himself Fuyao Zi (one soaring upward in the high sky, from Nan Hua Jing written by Zhuangzi)

Known as the "Sleeping Immortal", he is credited with using and creating sleeping qigong methods of internal alchemical cultivation.

Little is certain about his life, including when and where he was born. He was born around the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907 AD - 960 AD) and the start of the Song Dynasty (960 AD - 1279 AD), possibly in what is now Luyi in Henan Province. By another account, he was born in Zhenyuan of Haozhou (Anhui Province nowadays).

Chen is said to have been astonishingly intelligent and erudite in his childhood.

According to certain Taoist schools who claim him as a founder, he lived two decades of a secluded life in the Nine Room Cave on Mount Wudang, though traveled frequently. On the 1st year of Xiande Period of Later Zhou Dynasty (one of the Five Dynasties) he is known to live on the Mount Hua, one of the five sacred mountains of China.