Zhang Lu张鲁

Style & Daoist names

Gongqi (courtesy name), Lineage Master, Lineage Celestial Master, Governor of Hanning, Marquis of Langzhong

Period

Eastern Han

Dates

? — 216

School

Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao)

Role

Third-generation Celestial MasterLeader of a theocratic regime

Birthplace

Feng, Pei Kingdom

Places of activity

Mount Heming (Crane-Call Mountain)

Life

Zhang Lu, courtesy name Gongqi, was the grandson of Zhang Daoling and son of Zhang Heng, and the third-generation leader of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice; Daoism calls him Xishi ("the Linking Master"). In the second year of the Chuping era (191) he was sent by the Governor of Yi Province, Liu Yan, together with Zhang Xiu, to attack Hanzhong; he later killed Zhang Xiu and absorbed his followers, and held Hanzhong for nearly thirty years, establishing a regime that united religious and political authority. He styled himself "Master-Lord" (Shijun); new converts were called "demon soldiers" (guizu), and those who had received instruction and shown faith became Libationers, who led the community. He set up "charity lodges" (yishe) stocked with free rice and meat for travelers to take as they needed; offenders were pardoned three times before punishment was carried out; the sick were made to reflect on their faults and perform the rite of the Handwritten Confessions to the Three Officials, and "the common people, Han and non-Han alike, found this agreeable." In the twentieth year of the Jian'an era (215), when Cao Cao campaigned against Hanzhong, Zhang Lu sealed the treasuries and storehouses before surrendering; he was made General Who Pacifies the South and enfeoffed as Marquis of Langzhong, and his family and followers were relocated north to Ye and other cities, through which the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice spread into the Central Plains and the north — the turning point by which the Way of the Celestial Masters came to spread across the whole country in later generations. He died in the twenty-first year of the Jian'an era (216). One tradition holds that the Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi was written by him.

Contributions & Influence

• Established a regime uniting religious and political authority in Hanzhong for nearly thirty years
• Developed the institution of Libationers, charity lodges, the Handwritten Confessions to the Three Officials, and other organizational structures
• After surrendering to Cao Cao, his community relocated north, spreading the Way of the Celestial Masters nationwide
• May have been the author of the Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi

Works

• Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi (according to one account)