Zhang Chonghua 张重华 — Eastern Jin Taoist of Qianshan Mountain

The Dabie Mountains region of Anhui — Qianshan Mountain (灑山) in Han-Jin Lujiang Commandery corresponds to present-day Huo’shan County, in the eastern section of the Dabie Mountains, not to be confused with present-day Tianzhu Mountain (天柱山) in Qianshan City, which received that designation only after the Sui dynasty.

Historical Context — 东晋灑山

Zhang Chonghua (张重华) was a practitioner of the Eastern Jin dynasty. In the third year of the Yonghe era (永和三年, 347 CE), he entered Qianshan Mountain (灑山) in Lujiang Commandery to practice Taoism. The Han-Jin Qianshan Mountain is located in present-day Huo’shan County (霍山县), Anhui Province, in the eastern section of the Dabie Mountains — not the same as present-day Tianzhu Mountain (天柱山) in Qianshan City, which received that designation only after the Sui dynasty (the two sites are nearly 100 km apart).

The Dabie Mountains region was already recognized as a site of Taoist cultivation before Zhang Chonghua’s time. The Han dynasty adept Zuo Ci (左慈) had practiced alchemy in this region, and Zheng Siyuan (郑思远), the teacher of Ge Hong, was also active here. Zhang Chonghua’s presence on Qianshan Mountain belongs to this broader tradition of Dabie Mountain Taoism that predates the Shangqing revelation.

The Transmission from Meng Deran — 孟德然传授

In the third year of the Yonghe era (347 CE), Zhang Chonghua encountered the immortal Meng Deran (孟德然) on Qianshan Mountain and received from him the internal cultivation formulas (内修诀). This encounter occurred approximately seventeen years before the first Shangqing revelation to Yang Xi (杨羲) in 364 CE. Zhang Chonghua’s practice of visualizing the five organ spirits and absorbing solar light thus represents an independent stream of inner cultivation that predates and anticipates the more elaborate Shangqing visualization system — evidence that the inner observation tradition was already developing in the Jiangnan region before the formal Shangqing revelation.

Four Cultivation Methods — 四种修炼

1. Guarding the Five Zang-Organs and Containing the Sun (守五脏含日法)
This is the most distinctive of Zhang Chonghua’s practices, combining two simultaneous operations. Guarding the Five Zang-Organs (守五脏) involves maintaining focused awareness on each of the five internal organs — heart (心), liver (肝), spleen (脾), lungs (肺), and kidneys (肆) — which in early Taoist physiology are each inhabited by a divine spirit. Containing the Sun (含日) involves visualizing the light of the sun entering the body and being absorbed into the internal organs, filling them with yang luminosity. This solar visualization technique anticipates the Shangqing tradition’s elaborate inner light practices, in which the practitioner visualizes celestial luminaries descending into the body and illuminating its interior.

2. Cloud-and-Mist Ingestion (服云雾)
Zhang Chonghua consumed clouds and mist — a practice of absorbing the mountain’s atmospheric qi through breath and visualization. In early Taoist cultivation theory, mountain clouds and mist are understood as concentrated manifestations of the mountain’s vital energy, and their ingestion through specific breathing techniques was believed to nourish the practitioner’s own qi. (Note: the original source character may alternatively read 云母, mica, rather than 云雾, cloud-and-mist; pending verification of the source text.)

3. Sesame Ingestion (服胡麻)
Sesame ingestion was part of the cultivation transmission Zhang Chonghua received from Meng Deran. The efficacy of sesame as a longevity food is also attested in Ge Hong’s Baopuzi Neipian (compiled c. 320 CE, approximately twenty-seven years before Zhang’s encounter with Meng Deran), which classifies it as a foundational herbal longevity practice. Sesame is also listed as a superior-grade drug (上品) in the Shennong Bencao Jing (《神农本草经》), capable of prolonging life without toxicity.

4. Mysterious Elixir (服玄丹)
He also took xuandan (玄丹, mysterious elixir) — an alchemical preparation whose precise composition is not specified in the source. Xuandan in early Taoist texts typically refers to a dark-colored mineral elixir prepared through alchemical processes, whose ingestion was understood to accelerate the refinement of the body’s vital substances toward the immortal state. (Note: the original source wording has not been independently verified.)

Zhengyi Perspective — 正一道视角

In the Zhengyi tradition, Zhang Chonghua’s integrated cultivation system represents the early synthesis of methods that the Zhengyi tradition would inherit and integrate into its own understanding of the practitioner’s body as a sacred landscape. The five zang-organ spirits (五脏神) that Zhang Chonghua’s visualization practice sought to guard are understood as continuous with the divine presences that later Zhengyi ritual texts would describe in more elaborate detail — reflecting the shared conviction that the human body is a microcosm of the celestial hierarchy.

The Zhengyi priest who performs the jiao ceremony is not only mediating between the human community and the celestial authorities — he is also, through his own inner cultivation, maintaining the presence of the divine spirits within his own body. Zhang Chonghua’s practice on Qianshan Mountain in 347 CE and the Zhengyi priest’s preparation for the jiao ceremony are two expressions of the same fundamental conviction: that the human body is a sacred space that must be cultivated and maintained as the primary site of the Tao’s presence in the world.

Related Concepts — 相关概念

• What is Taoism (道教是什么): the broader tradition What is Taoism
• What is the Dao (道是什么): the philosophical foundation What is the Dao

Source Texts — 参考文献

• Anonymous. Daoji Lingxian Ji (《道迹灵仙记》). Eastern Jin dynasty (4th–5th century CE).
• Ge Hong (葛洪). Baopuzi Neipian (《抱朴子内篇》). Compiled c. 320 CE. Eastern Jin dynasty.