Seven huge fish floated up from Jinming Pool, arranged in an order like the stars of the Big Dipper. Soon after, heavy rain fell. This is the moment that defines Xiang Juzhi 项举之's biography — a practitioner who, in response to an imperial edict during a drought, used Daoist talismans to summon the dragons of the pool, and produced a result that the court could not ignore. Xiang Juzhi, courtesy name Yansheng (延生), was a native of Chuzhou (present-day Zhejiang Province) in the late Northern Song Dynasty. He entered the Daoist order at seven, rose to lead one of the capital's major palaces, performed one of the most celebrated rain-summoning rituals of the period, and received some of the highest titles the Song court could bestow on a Daoist practitioner.
📍 Chuzhou, Zhejiang Province
🕰 Active: Daguan – Zhenghe era (1110–1117 CE)
🐉 Famous For: Dragon Summoning at Jinming Pool
🏛 Abbot: Jiucheng Palace, Northern Song Capital
🌟 Title: Zixu Dafu 紫虚大夫
Seven Years Old: Entering the Daoist Order
Xiang Juzhi became a Daoist monk at the age of seven — one of the youngest entry ages recorded in this series. He served as a Daoist priest at Ziji Palace (紫极宫) in Suichang (遂昌, present-day Zhejiang Province). Entry into the Daoist order at such a young age meant that Xiang Juzhi's entire formation — his understanding of the world, his intellectual development, his sense of what mattered — was shaped by the Daoist tradition from the very beginning. By the time he arrived at the capital decades later, he had a lifetime of formation behind him.
Abbot of Jiucheng Palace, 1110
In the fourth year of the Daguan era (1110 CE), Xiang Juzhi traveled to Bianjing (汴京 — the Northern Song capital, present-day Kaifeng, Henan Province) to take up the post of abbot at Jiucheng Palace (九成宫 — Palace of Nine Completions) in the eastern capital. He was awarded the title "Xujing Miaotong Dharma Master" (虚静妙通法师 — "Dharma Master of Vacant Stillness and Wondrous Penetration").
The title Xujing Miaotong (虚静妙通) encodes a precise description of the inner condition that genuine Daoist cultivation aims to produce: xujing (虚静 — "vacant stillness") refers to the quality of inner emptiness and quietude that allows the practitioner to perceive and respond to reality without the distortion of habitual mental patterns; miaotong (妙通 — "wondrous penetration") refers to the capacity for insight and understanding that this stillness makes possible. Together, the title describes a practitioner who has achieved the Daoist ideal of a mind that is simultaneously empty and acutely perceptive.
The Dragon Summoning at Jinming Pool
The defining episode of Xiang Juzhi's biography occurred when Jinming Pool (金明池 — the famous imperial pool in the Northern Song capital) was suffering from drought. In response to an imperial edict, Xiang Juzhi used Daoist talismans to summon the dragons of the pool.
Seven huge fish floated up on the water, arranged in an order like the stars of the Big Dipper (北斗七星). Soon after, heavy rain fell. The arrangement of the seven fish in the pattern of the Big Dipper was not incidental — it was a cosmological sign. The Big Dipper (北斗, Běi Dǒu) holds a central place in Daoist cosmology: it is the pivot of the celestial sphere, the constellation associated with the regulation of time, fate, and the distribution of vital energy across the cosmos. Seven fish arranged in its pattern was a visible manifestation of the celestial response to Xiang Juzhi's ritual — a sign that the dragons of the pool had heard and responded, and that the rain would follow.
Rain Rituals in Song Daoism: The summoning of rain was one of the most important practical functions of Daoist ritual in the Song period. Agricultural communities depended on reliable rainfall; drought was a crisis that affected the entire social order. The ability to perform effective rain rituals was therefore one of the most valued capacities a Daoist practitioner could possess — and one of the most visible demonstrations of genuine attainment. Xiang Juzhi's success at Jinming Pool established his reputation at the highest level of Song Daoist institutional life.
Imperial Recognition: Ziji Shouguang Palace, 1113
In the third year of the Zhenghe era (1113 CE), the imperial portrait was enshrined in the palace, and the palace was granted the plaque "Ziji Shouguang Palace" (紫极寿光宫 — "Palace of Purple Pole and Longevity Light") along with the land at the foot of the nearby mountain. This imperial recognition — the enshrinement of the imperial portrait and the formal naming of the palace — was a significant honor, placing Xiang Juzhi's institution within the highest tier of imperially recognized Daoist establishments.
The Titles of 1117: Zixu Dafu & Baoguang Hall
In the seventh year of the Zhenghe era (1117 CE), Xiang Juzhi was summoned to the imperial capital and received two formal recognitions:
1. Zixu Dafu 紫虚大夫 ("Grand Master of Purple Void"): One of the highest Daoist titles the Song court could bestow, combining zixu (紫虚 — "purple void," evoking the celestial realm of the highest Daoist heavens) with dafu (大夫 — "grand master," a title of the highest civil rank). The title placed Xiang Juzhi at the apex of the Song Daoist institutional hierarchy.
2. Jiaoji of Baoguang Hall 宝光殿校籍: Appointed as Textual Research Official (校籍, Jiàojí) of Baoguang Hall (宝光殿 — "Hall of Precious Light"), with a rank equivalent to that of Chaosan Dafu (朝散大夫 — a mid-level official in the Northern Song civil service). This appointment gave Xiang Juzhi a formal position within the imperial administrative structure — not just a Daoist title but a civil rank, reflecting the degree to which the Song court integrated its most trusted Daoist practitioners into the machinery of imperial governance.
Xiang Juzhi's trajectory — from a seven-year-old novice at a provincial palace to the holder of one of the highest Daoist titles in the empire, with a civil rank equivalent to a mid-level court official — is one of the more complete institutional arcs in this series. What made it possible was not just the dragon summoning at Jinming Pool, dramatic as that was, but the decades of formation and practice that had produced a practitioner capable of performing that ritual effectively. The
Daoist ritual tradition has always understood that the most visible demonstrations of attainment are the product of the least visible work.
📖 Primary Source: Xiang Juzhi's biography is preserved in Song-era Daoist institutional records and court documents. His rain-summoning ritual at Jinming Pool is one of the most detailed accounts of Daoist rain ritual in the Northern Song period, and his titles — Xujing Miaotong Dharma Master and Zixu Dafu — are documented in imperial records of the Zhenghe era.
