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Songs of Her Spirit: Poetic Musings of a Song Daoist Nun

The Song dynasty (960–1279) marked a period of significant Daoist development and innovation owing to the tremendous support of successive Song governments among others. To be sure, several Song emperors patronized Daoism, but Daoist worship reached its acme in the Song dynasty under the reign of Emperor Huizong 徽宗 (r. 1101–1119), who referred to himself as Emperor, Patriarch and Sovereign of Dao (Jiaozhu daojun huangdi 教主 道君皇帝). Being a Daoist, Cao Xiyun 曹希蘊 (1040–1115), also known as Cao Wenyi 曹文逸, was therefore fortunate to live during Huizong’s era. As Russell Kirkland comments, “The emperor Hui-tsung (Huizong) heard of her, summoned her to court—just as emperors had, for centuries, summoned eminent male Taoists—and honored her as “the Perfected One of Literary Reclusion.”2 In fact, not only did Huizong three times bestow on her honorific titles, but also ordered the construction of temples in her honor. Of the advances in Daoist theory during the Song period, by far the most important was the development of “internal alchemy” (neidan 內丹), as opposed to “external alchemy” (waidan 外丹). Isabelle Robinet explains, “the fundamental difference [between the two] is that interior alchemy does not seek to produce a particular physical substance and is above all a technique of enlightenment including a method of controlling both the world and oneself and a means of fashioning (zaohua 造化) and hence understanding