Zhang Jizong张继宗

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Shanshu, sobriquet Bicheng, fifty-fourth-generation Celestial Master

Period

Qing

Dates

1666 — 1715

School

Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism

Role

Celestial MasterLeader of Zhengyi Daoism

Birthplace

Guixi (present-day Guixi, Jiangxi)

Places of activity

Mount Longhu (Dragon and Tiger Mountain)

Life

Zhang Jizong, the fifty-fourth-generation Celestial Master of Longhushan, succeeded to the office in the seventeenth year of the Kangxi reign (1678), and was among the early Qing Zhengyi Celestial Masters to receive relatively favorable treatment from the Kangxi Emperor. He was repeatedly summoned to the capital to pray and perform jiao rites, and the Kangxi Emperor bestowed on him imperial calligraphy and horses and promoted him to Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, temporarily raising the standing of the Zhengyi Celestial Masters in the early Qing. He died in the fifty-fourth year of the Kangxi reign (1715). After his time, the authority of the office of Celestial Master was reduced to the fifth rank under the Qianlong reign, and the standing of Zhengyi Daoism gradually declined. Zhang Jizong left behind the Kongtong Wenda (崆峒问答, Questions and Answers at Mount Kongtong), which expounds Daoist doctrine and the essentials of practice in question-and-answer form, a concise summary of Zhengyi doctrine in the Qing dynasty. During his tenure, the Shangqing Palace at Longhushan and the Mansion of the Perfected Celestial Master received several rounds of renovation, and the Celestial Master's family maintained a considerable scale of temple property and local influence in the early Qing.

Contributions & Influence

• As an early Qing Zhengyi Celestial Master, maintained relations with the Kangxi court
• Wrote the Kongtong Wenda, giving a concise account of Zhengyi doctrine
• Renovated the temples of Longhushan, maintaining the scale of the Celestial Masters' Mansion

Works

• Questions and Answers at Mount Kongtong