This volume, part of the New Daoist Studies series, presents a comprehensive institutional history of the Heavenly Masters (Tianshi), or Right and Unitary Way (Zhengyi dao), the first organized Daoist community, which still plays an important role in China today. Founded in 142 CE by the semilegendary Zhang Daoling upon a revelation from the Highest Lord Lao, the early community was centered in Sichuan but dispersed after it submitted to the warlord Cao Cao in 215. Merging with other, newly arising Daoist schools, it underwent a series of reformations and renewals, and by the Tang dynasty, it formed the lay-priest foundation of a complex ordination hierarchy supported by the court. The Zhang family at this point had proliferated, but there was no clear single-line transmission of patriarchs.
That changed in the ninth century. Inspired by the efforts of the growing Chan school to establish orthodoxy by creating a clear patriarchal lineage—in this case, from the Buddha through the first Bodhidharma to the Sixth Patriarch—various Daoists named Zhang laid claim to the inheritance of the first Heavenly Master. The group at Longhushan (Dragon Tiger Mountain), a range of gentle peaks in eastern Jiangxi Province, emerged as the most successful and in due course came to dominate Daoist organization throughout the empire.
In Heavenly Masters, Vincent Goossaert outlines how exactly Longhushan Daoists established themselves as the direct heirs of Zhang Daoling, what institutions they developed, and how they related to the imperial court, the local government, other religions, Daoist groups, and various kinds of popular practitioners. It is divided into nine chapters after a general introduction.
The first chapter examines the legends surrounding Zhang Daoling, noting that he was highly popular and widely worshipped in the Tang. Chapter 2 looks at the early stages of the Longhushan organization based on its relation to the local Zhang Daoling temple and the claim that the early descendants had settled there. Chapter 3 places the tradition in the context of Daoist ordinations and points out just how Longhushan adopted and standardized traditional forms, while chapter 4 focuses on the ritual components of the school. Its development under the Song and Yuan is the subject of chapter 5, followed by a detailed discussion of its role under the Ming and Qing in chapters 6 and 7. The last two chapters outline its development from the nineteenth century to the present day, with the sixty-fifth Heavenly Master residing in Taiwan. In several cases, major representatives, such as the forty-third patriarch, Zhang Yuchu (1361–1410), are presented in great detail, providing a vivid picture of the lives and roles of high-ranking Daoist masters in traditional China.
Overall, it turns out, the Heavenly Master was a multifaceted figure: not only highly venerated among the general populace, he was also a celestial official empowered in the otherworldly hierarchy and the key representative of a central institution that served the imperial government by standardizing practices, registering ordinations, licensing priests, tithing lay followers, and taming ecstatic and demonic cults by either suppressing or integrating them. As such, he was the core of a deep state, an encompassing bureaucracy that continued to adapt to the changing social and political context over the centuries, in all cases parallel to, and closely interacting with, the popular ranking of gods (Earth God, City God, Jade Emperor) and the imperial administration. Like the latter, the Heavenly Masters strove to establish and maintain monopolies, such as over the issuing of official documents, the performance of essential rites, and the appointment of key officials. However, being a religious organization, much of their authority was symbolic rather than concrete and their legitimation came from the realm beyond rather than from this world. Today, after many tribulations in the twentieth century, the institution continues, with its leader in Taiwan and the mountain undergoing renovation and expansion.
Goossaert succeeds admirably in presenting the complexity of the institution as it developed over the centuries. He relies on a vast array of sources, ranging from established documents found in Daoist collections through stele inscriptions to local manuscripts and personal records. His research is meticulous throughout, bringing together textual expertise, in-depth historical examination, sociological evaluation, and anthropological awareness. He builds his work on previous studies, which he acknowledges frequently. However, after the first chapter (which covers a rather well-examined topic), he moves into largely uncovered ground. His work is awe-inspiring, pathbreaking, and breathtakingly comprehensive, raising the understanding of the Heavenly Master tradition and the role of leading Daoists in traditional Chinese society to a completely new level. It is at the forefront of the current trend in Daoist studies that increasingly works more with hands-on, real-life anthropological fieldwork, but it also continues the established approach of historical and textual research. Without any doubt, this most excellent work is a new classic in the field.
