Zhang Wumeng张无梦

Style & Daoist names

Lingyin, Hongmengzi

Period

Northern Song

Dates

? — ?

Role

Daoshi (Daoist Priest)Disciple of Chen Tuan

Birthplace

Zhouzhi, Fengxiang (present-day Zhouzhi, Shaanxi)

Places of activity

Mount Hua (Huashan), Mount Tiantai

Life

Zhang Wumeng, style name Lingyin, sobriquet Hongmengzi, was a Daoist priest of the early Northern Song. In his youth he entered Mount Hua, where he studied together with Zhong Fang and (by one account) Liu Haichan under Chen Tuan, receiving the teaching of the Prior Heaven and methods of internal-alchemical cultivation. He later lived in reclusion at the Qiongtai Guan on Mount Tiantai to cultivate the Dao; Emperor Zhenzong once summoned him to a side hall to discuss the Dao, where he lectured on the Daodejing; he was offered a title and an official post, but declined and returned to the mountains. He wrote the Qiongtai ji (Collection of the Terrace of Jade) and the Huanyuan pian (Chapters on Returning to the Origin), among others, largely discussing the theory of nature and life in internal alchemy. His dates of birth and death are unknown; he was active roughly during the reigns of Zhenzong and Renzong. He represents the branch through which Chen Tuan's transmission of internal alchemy and the study of the Changes reached the south, at Mount Tiantai; his disciple Chen Jingyuan received the Chen Tuan lineage through him. Both the "Biographies of Recluses" (Yinyi zhuan) in the Song shi and the Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian record his life, stating that he "entered Mount Hua, and formed a friendship beyond the mundane world with Zhong Fang and Liu Haichan."

Contributions & Influence

• Received Chen Tuan's teaching and transmitted it to Chen Jingyuan and others, forming a link in the spread of the Chen Tuan school to the Jiangnan region

Works

• Huanyuan Pian (Chapter on Returning to the Source) (attributed title)
• Qiongtai Ji (lost)