Zhang Xilin张锡麟

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Renzhi, sobriquet Tieya, fifty-fifth-generation Celestial Master

Period

Qing

Dates

1699 — 1727

School

Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism

Role

Celestial Master

Birthplace

Guixi (present-day Guixi, Jiangxi)

Places of activity

Mount Longhu (Dragon and Tiger Mountain)

Life

Zhang Xilin, the fifty-fifth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office in the fifty-fourth year of the Kangxi era (1715). In the fifth year of the Yongzheng era (1727) he was summoned to the capital to perform prayers, taking the ritual master Lou Jinyuan with him; he died of illness en route (by one account, after reaching the capital), at only twenty-nine years of age. The Yongzheng Emperor granted him a state sacrifice, and placed great trust in Lou Jinyuan, through whom Zhengyi Daoism gained a relatively elevated status at the Yongzheng court. There is little recorded of Zhang Xilin's own life, but his journey to the capital directly led to the situation in which Lou Jinyuan came to oversee Daoist affairs at the Qing court. Celestial Masters of the Qing dynasty often did not live long, and the office frequently had to be administered by relatives in the family's stead; actual power at the Celestial Master's Mansion gradually shifted into the hands of the local clan and its ritual masters, and Zhang Xilin's death is one example of this. After his death, the office of Celestial Master passed to his son Zhang Yulong.

Contributions & Influence

• Summoned to the capital, bringing Lou Jinyuan into the Qing court
• His early death reflects the difficulties faced by the Celestial Master lineage in the Qing
• Contributed to a brief revival of Zhengyi Daoism during the Yongzheng reign