Zhang Yulong张遇隆

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Futian, sobriquet Linggu, fifty-sixth-generation Celestial Master

Period

Qing

Dates

? — 1752

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 Yulong, the fifty-sixth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office during the Yongzheng era (because his father died young, the office was for a time administered on his behalf by a great-uncle). Between the fourth and twelfth years of the Qianlong era (1739–1747), the Qianlong Emperor, on the grounds that the title "Celestial Master" overstepped proper bounds, successively suspended the Celestial Master's court audiences and reduced his official rank from First Grade Primary (by one account Second Grade) to Fifth Grade Primary; the standing of Zhengyi Daoism at the Qing court thereby markedly declined, retaining only local authority at Mount Longhu. Zhang Yulong's tenure marks precisely this turning point. He died in 1752. Thereafter, although the office of Celestial Master remained hereditary, it no longer enjoyed the ceremonial honors of the early Qing, and the influence of Zhengyi Daoism at the court level came to depend mainly on Daoists resident in the capital such as Lou Jinyuan. The office of Celestial Master was subsequently passed down through Zhang Cunyi and Zhang Qilong in succession.

Contributions & Influence

• Lived through the Qianlong-era reduction in the Celestial Master's official rank, a Celestial Master of the turning point in the standing of Zhengyi Daoism
• The system of the Celestial Master's court audiences changed during his tenure
• Mount Longhu thereby became a Daoist center of merely local standing