Zhang Liang张良（附）

Style & Daoist names

Zifang, Marquis of Liu, Zhang Liang, Marquis of Liu

Period

Western Han

Dates

? — -186

Role

Strategist and advisorPractitioner of Huang–Lao learning

Birthplace

State of Han (present-day Xinzheng, Henan, area)

Life

Zhang Liang, courtesy name Zifang, was a founding strategist of the early Han and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Liu. Originally an aristocrat of the state of Han, after Qin destroyed Han he ambushed but failed to kill Qin Shi Huang at Bolangsha, and went into hiding at Xiapi. According to legend, he met Huang Shigong (the Yellow Stone Elder) on a bridge and received from him the Taigong bingfa (Grand Duke's Art of War). After he had helped Liu Bang pacify the realm, he withdrew once his task was accomplished, declaring, "I wish to cast aside worldly affairs and follow Master Chisong (Red Pine) in his wanderings," and studied the arts of grain abstention and Daoyin for lightening the body. This episode, recorded in the "Hereditary House of the Marquis of Liu" chapter of the Records of the Grand Historian, is an early example of the Huang-Lao ideal of withdrawing once merit is achieved, combined with immortality arts. Later Daoism included Zhang Liang among the biographies of immortals, regarding him as a model of one who studied the Dao and attained immortality; Zhang Daoling, the Celestial Master, is held to have been his eighth-generation descendant (some sources say ninth or tenth generation, per the Genealogy of the Han Celestial Masters, a genealogical claim traced back by the Celestial Master lineage that cannot be verified from historical sources). This entry is an appendix figure.

Contributions & Influence

• Withdrawing once merit was achieved and following Master Chisong became an ideal model for later Daoist literati
• Later revered as an ancestor by the Celestial Master lineage

Legends

According to legend, he received a book from Huang Shigong on a bridge; he later followed Master Chisong in his wanderings and ascended to immortality; thirteen years later he found a yellow stone at the foot of Gucheng Mountain, took it, and made offerings to it.