Zhang Shouqing张守清

Style & Daoist names

Personal name Dongyuan, Courtesy name Shouqing, Sobriquet Yuexiasou, Perfected of Embodying the Mystery and Wondrously Responding, Grand Harmony (Tixuan Miaoying Taihe Zhenren)

Period

Yuan

Dates

1254 — ? (early 14th century)

School

Qingwei (Pure Tenuity) School, Wudang Daoism, Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism

Role

Daoshi (Daoist Priest)Patriarch of WudangRitual Master

Birthplace

Yidu, Xiazhou (present-day Yidu, Hubei)

Places of activity

Wudang Mountains

Life

Zhang Shouqing, personal name Dongyuan, courtesy name Shouqing, was a native of Yidu in Xiazhou, Hubei, and the central figure of Wudang Daoism under the Yuan. He served as a minor official in his youth, then in his thirties gave up his post and entered Wudang Mountains, studying under the priest Lu Dayou of the Wulong Shrine; he also received Quanzhen elixir methods, the thunder rites of the Qingwei tradition, and Zhengyi talismans and registers, forming a Wudang system of Daoist methods that absorbed multiple traditions. He directed the construction of the Tianyi Zhenqing Gong at Nanyan, carving a hall out of the rock face over several decades, making Nanyan one of the centers of the Wudang temple complex; he also reorganized the administration of the Wudang temples and established landholdings to support the community, so that his disciples grew extremely numerous, said to number in the thousands. Under the Yuan emperors Chengzong, Wuzong and Renzong he was repeatedly summoned to the capital, Dadu, to perform offering rites to pray for rain and for heirs, all with reported efficacy, and was granted successive titles such as ‘Perfected of Embodying the Mystery and Wondrously Responding, Grand Harmony’ (Tixuan Miaoying Taihe Zhenren); through this, Wudang Daoism gained formal recognition from the imperial court, laying the organizational and religious foundation for the great building projects at Wudang under the Yongle Emperor of the Ming. The tradition Zhang Shouqing transmitted was centered on the cult of Zhenwu (Xuantian Shangdi), combined with the thunder rites of Qingwei and internal-alchemical cultivation, and he is regarded as the figure who effectively gave Wudang Daoism its settled form.

Contributions & Influence

• Combined Quanzhen, Qingwei and Zhengyi methods, establishing the doctrinal framework of Wudang Daoism
• Built the Tianyi Zhenqing Gong at Nanyan, expanding the Wudang temple system
• Was repeatedly summoned to court to perform offering rites, gaining recognition and titles from the Yuan court for Wudang Daoism
• Established the tradition of Wudang practice and ritual centered on the cult of Zhenwu

Works

• (Related records found in) Comprehensive Collection of the Perfected of the Blessed Land of Wudang
• Gazetteer of Mount Taihe, the Great Marchmount (stele inscriptions collected therein)

Legends

Accounts of his prayers for rain, snow and heirs being immediately answered appear in Yuan-dynasty stele inscriptions and mountain gazetteers; these are religious narratives, though their historical core is that he was indeed repeatedly summoned to perform offering rites.