Zhang Daoling, Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain

The Celestial Master Zhang Daoling founded Taoism. Zhang Daoling was exceptionally bright from a young age, and had mastered the Tao Te Ching by the age of seven. While studying at the Imperial Academy, he became thoroughly versed in the Five Classics and knew astronomy, geography, the Hetu and Luoshu, and books of divination and prophecy inside out. More than a thousand people studied under him. Yet he often lamented that the books he read could not solve the problem of life and death, so he abandoned Confucianism and turned to the Way of longevity. At the age of twenty-six, Zhang Daoling was appointed magistrate of Jiangzhou, in what is now Chongqing. Before long, however, he resigned and secluded himself on Mount Beimang, north of Luoyang, in what is now Henan, devoting himself to the study of the Way. Emperor Zhang of Han and Emperor He of Han successively summoned him to serve as Grand Tutor and Marquis of Jixian, among other positions, but he declined them all. Zhang Daoling then began wandering among famous mountains and rivers in search of the Way and the path to immortality. He first traveled south along the Huai River and lived on Mount Taiping in Tongbai. Later, together with his disciples Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng, he crossed the river and headed south to Mount Yunji in Guixi County, Jiangxi. With its clear waters, beautiful scenery, and peaceful surroundings, Mount Yunji was said to have been a dwelling place of ancient immortals. Zhang Daoling built a hut on the mountain and set up an altar to refine elixirs. Legend has it that three years later, when the divine elixir was complete, dragons and tigers appeared, and the mountain came to be known as Dragon-Tiger Mountain.