Verification of the Origins and Period of Activity of the Balhae Taoist (道士) Lee Gwang-hyeon (李光玄): Focusing on Daozang (道藏) Sources

Recently, the Taoist scholar Lee Gwang-hyeon, originally from Balhae, has garnered attention in China and is gradually becoming a subject of study among Korean scholars. Lee Gwang-hyeon engaged in cross-border trade between China, Korea, and Japan during the late Tang Dynasty. He is known to have led a monastic life in the Balhae region and the Songshan Mountain (嵩山) area of China, leaving traces as a person of global significance. It is known that the Zhengtong-era Daoist Canon (正統道藏), a collection of Taoist scriptures compiled in the late Ming Dynasty, includes four works authored by Lee Gwang-hyeon. In addition to these existing writings, the author discovered one more work, bringing the total number of his texts preserved in the Daozang to five. This finding suggests that Lee Gwang-hyeon was a notable practitioner and Taoist scholar during the Tang and Song Dynasties, with significant status in Chinese Taoist history. Since 1983, when Chinese scholars first began examining Lee Gwang-hyeon, several studies have emerged. However, there remains ambiguity concerning his nationality and period of activity. Some Chinese scholars have posited that he was of Mohe or Liao (遼) origin, with varying claims regarding his period of activity, ranging from the late Tang (7th century) through the Five Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty (10th century), thus leading to misunderstandings about his Taoist philosophy. In this study, careful attention has been given to this context, analyzing Lee Gwang-hyeon’s scope of activities, timeline, origins, and disciple-master relationships, with a focus on materials from the Zhengtong-era Daoist Canon. Through this, it has been verified that his nationality was Balhae and his period of activity corresponds to the mid-9th century. Although Balhae has become a forgotten nation, seldom addressed in the history of Korean philosophy, the gradual uncovering of Lee Gwang-hyeon’s life and work is anticipated to lay a foundation for expanding the scope of Korean Taoist history.