Zang Jin臧矜

Style & Daoist names

Zang Fashi (Dharma Master Zang)

Period

Chen

Dates

? — ?

School

Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School

Role

Shangqing PatriarchDaoist Scholars

Birthplace

Unknown

Places of activity

Mount Mao (Maoshan)

Life

Zang Jin was a Daoist priest of the Chen dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, and the teacher of Wang Yuanzhi, the tenth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing lineage (one account holds that he and Wang Yuanzhi were both second-generation disciples of Tao Hongjing). The Biography of Wang Yuanzhi in the Old Book of Tang states that in his youth Wang Yuanzhi 'studied under Master Zongdao, Zang Jin,' receiving Daoist teachings and methods from him. Zang Jin was expert in the study of the Laozi and wrote a Subcommentary on the Daodejing; Tang-dynasty scholars of Chongxuan learning frequently cited his views, and the Laozi scholarship of Cheng Xuanying, Li Rong and others was influenced by him; he is regarded as an important transitional figure between the doctrinal learning of the Southern Dynasties and Tang Chongxuan learning at the Chen–Sui juncture. Historical materials on his life are extremely scarce. Because Wang Yuanzhi, who lived through the Chen, Sui and Tang dynasties, held such an exalted position, Zang Jin, as his teacher, is also traced as an important link in the narrative of the Tang-dynasty Maoshan lineage's transmission, though the content of his own scriptural teachings can no longer be examined in detail.

Contributions & Influence

• Transmitted the teaching to Wang Yuanzhi, a pivotal figure connecting successive generations of the Shangqing lineage
• His subcommentary on the Laozi was a forerunner of Tang Chongxuan learning

Works

• Daodejing Shu (Commentary on the Daodejing, lost)