School of Heavenly Mentors

This school is the central school of non-monastic Taoism, which is characterized by:

• veneration of heavenly deities ( tian zun )
• liturgy
• tradition-prescribed repentance and fasting ( zhai ) and community rituals ( jiao )
• presence of hereditary clergy
• the presence of a bureaucratic hierarchy of the clergy.

The first Heavenly Mentor is Zhang Daolin. A feature of the new religion was the rejection of the sacrifice of food and animals.

In 142 , Lao Tzu personally met with Zhang Daolin on Mount Heming , telling him about the change of eras and the advent of a new era of the Great World. Lao Tzu explained to him that for this reason he had gained his next birth by forming the “True Oneness coexisting with the [higher] Forces” (“Zheng meng wei”). As a result of this, Zhang Daolin and his followers receive the support of the heavenly forces that govern the destinies of mankind.

His school was named Five Rice Buckets because he introduced an entry fee of five rice buckets, this contribution correlated with the Great Dipper (Constellation Ursa Major, abode of the immortals).

In 156, he transferred to his son Zhang Han relics (his seal, a jade mirror, two swords and sacred texts) and went to the land of the immortals. The school was run by his son Zhang Heng and his grandson Zhang Lu ( 张鲁 ).

The Heavenly Mentors School was preceded by a Yellow Bandage uprising organized by the Taipindao School in central and eastern China and supported by Five Rice Buckets in Sichuan Province. The basis of the school was the organization of Five Rice Ladles , whose patriarchs became the Heavenly Mentors. Although the leaders of the rebellion also bore the name Zhang, their relationship with the Heavenly Mentors was not established.

The Third Heavenly Mentor Zhang Lu , taking advantage of the general instability in the country and the lack of central authority, was able to create an independent Taoist theocratic state in the Hanzhong region on the territory of Shaanxi province, through which passes to Sichuan province . In 215, Zhang Lu was defeated by the "harsh master" Cao Cao , dictator of the Wei kingdom. In exchange for signing a surrender, he recognized Cao Cao in the name of Lao Tzu as the legitimate emperor, and Cao Cao approved the official title of Heavenly Mentor for Zhang Lu , which was inherited. Tradition leads the line of Heavenly Mentors to the present.

Zhang Lu's Heavenly Mentor Community

The religious practice of Heavenly Mentors was multifaceted. They formed a pantheon from the many gods of the heavenly hierarchy. They opened several registers, in particular the “register” of the heavenly army, all men from childhood were enrolled in this army under the command of heavenly generals. A peculiar system of law, ethics and morality was established. It was assumed that the deities control the actions of people, and special rituals of repentance for unrighteous acts were developed. Diseases were healed through repentance and healed by enchanted water.

Members of the community read sacred texts, in particular, Daodezin , practiced breathing exercises and refrained from cereals in order to gain immortality. Meetings and ceremonies were held led by the Heavenly Mentor and holidays, which later formed the Taoist liturgy. Three times a year during the holidays petitions were submitted to the gods for the healing of diseases.

The School of Heavenly Mentors during that period conducted carefully regulated and sexual rituals, which Buddhists called "orgies." The participants in these rituals were required to withstand a three-day post and connect with a partner indicated by the Heavenly Mentor in accordance with the rank. The ritual was accompanied by prayers, fasting, certain breathing exercises, commitments to the gods and special meditations with visualizations. The purpose of the ritual was to prolong life and make the participant in the "register of the living."

Although the School of Heavenly Mentors absorbed popular beliefs, it created a coherent religious system and negatively viewed other folk traditions as prejudices.

Later, other Taoist schools were formed, which usually recognized the dominance or authority of the Heavenly Mentors. From the 4th to the 6th centuries, the movement of the Heavenly Mentors fell into two parts, and the northern and southern Heavenly Mentors arose. The southern school was grouped around the Jiannan area in southeast China. This group, although it continued the tradition of Heavenly Mentors, did not take shape in a separate organization, and eventually dissolved in other movements (for example, Shangqing ).

The northern group settled in the Syanbi kingdom of Toba (the Wei dynasty) and gained power at the court of the emperor. Then the mentor of the northern branch of Kou Qianzhi received considerable political power, and the kingdom adopted Taoism as an official religion, and the Mentor wrote out mandates for rule. However, after the death of Kou Qianzhi, the new authorities ceased to rely on Heavenly Mentors, and their influence fell significantly.

See Shangqing , Lu Xujing , Northern Heavenly Mentors , Kou Qianzhi .

After the crisis at the end of the Six Dynasty era, there is practically no mention in the sources of the line of Heavenly Mentors, nevertheless, school works and liturgical texts are actively used and cited. Only during the Song Dynasty does the school, led by mentors from the Zhang family, and which draws on the line of continuity from Zhang Daolin , gain strength. This school manages to secure the trust of the emperor and obtain ownership of the territory of Mount Lonhushan , associated with the hereditary possessions of the descendants of Zhang Daolin . The school was called the School of the True One (Zheng), and exists to this day. During the Song Dynasty and later in the Ming Dynasty , the leaders of the Heavenly Mentor School were placed at the head of almost all Taoism schools, and the True One School remained the most active and prosperous among all other schools. Lonhushan until 1948 there was an important Taoist community, enjoyed the patronage of emperors of different dynasties.

Throughout their history, Heavenly Mentors tried to meet the interests of communities and were engaged in healing, asking gods for a good harvest, rain, etc. They developed a system of liturgical texts that can be read in various situations, intended for meditation and prayers, and allowing communication with deities . Since the correctness of ceremonies and rituals was of great importance, a class of Taoists was formed , owning the art of liturgy, whose actions were coordinated by the Heavenly Mentor.

Unlike Western religions, joint prayer and chorus singing in the School of Heavenly Mentors never played a special role, the prerogative of communication with the gods was entirely controlled by the Taoists and Heavenly Mentors.

See School of True Unity .

• Five Rice Ladles
• Inner Alchemy
• Shanqing
• Lingbao

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