Zhang Guoxiang () was the fiftieth

Celestial Master This is a list of the Celestial Masters, leaders of Zhengyi Dao, continuing Wudoumi Dao (Way of the Five Pecks of Rice). After the death of the 64th Celestial Master Zhang Yuanxian in 2008, controversy arose over the legitimate succession, with ...

, who was the head of the Daoist Zhengyi School based at Longhu Shan in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

province.

Life

Zhang Yongxu, the fiftieth Celestial Master, designated Zhang Guoxiang, his nephew, as successor due to the premature death of his son. The

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

court led by the

Longqing Emperor The Longqing Emperor (; 4March 15375July 1572), personal name Zhu Zaiji (朱載坖), was the 13th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1567 to 1572. He was initially known as the Prince of Yu (裕王) from 1539 to 1567 before he became th ...

(1567–72) did not look favourably upon the Zhengyi Taoists, and stripped Zhang Guoxiang of his title. The

Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (; 4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), personal name Zhu Yijun (), was the 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1572 to 1620. "Wanli", the era name of his reign, literally means "ten thousand calendars". He was the ...

(1573–1620), however, was more favorably inclined towards the Zhengyi School, and restored Zhang Guoxiang's title. Zhang spent thirteen years in Nanjing, where he got married, and was given a residence by the emperor. In 1607, the emperor ordered Zhang to compile a supplement to the

Taoist Canon Daozang (), meaning 'Taoist Canon', consists of around 1,400 texts that were collected (after the ''Daodejing'' and ''Zhuangzi'' and Liezi which are the core Taoist texts). They were collected by Taoist monks of the period in an attempt to brin ...

that was to include important texts written during the emperor's reign and was known as the ''Wanli Xu Daozang'' (Supplementary Taoist Canon of the Wanli Reign Period). Misfortune fell upon Zhang in 1609, when a flood destroyed the main temple at Longhu Shan. The emperor supplied finances to assist in the temple's restoration, but Zhang died before completion in 1611.

References

Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang Guoxiang Ming dynasty Taoists Way of the Celestial Masters 16th-century births 1611 deaths