Page 749 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LO U JINY UA N 707

the emperor, and stayed on to embark on a career that would be even more
glorious than that of the Celestial Master of his time.
Lou's career was due to the links he forged with the Yongzheng Emperor
(r. 1723- 35) on a personal basis. During the eighteenth century, as before, the
Celestial Masters provided liturgical services for the court, either in person
or by delegating Taoist officers of their own administration. During the late
1720S, however, the Zhang * family was going through a succession crisis,
when a young heir was being dispossessed by an uncle. This succession was
only settled in the 1740S; in the meantime, it was Lou who accrued to his person
all the charisma of the Longhu institution and tradition. Lou arrived at the
capital in 1727 and in 1730 cured the emperor by performing exorcisms. He was
then granted considerable honors, and presided over a much expanded Taoist
liturgical structure at court, centered on a temple named Da guangming dian
1::. % BA ~ (Great Pavilion of Radiant Light). Yongzheng's successor, Qianlong
(r. 1735-95), was less enthusiastic than his father about Taoism, but continued
to patronize LouJinyuan, who stayed at court until at least 1744. Lou secured
a large amount of state funding for restorations at Longhu shan, and also pref-
erential treatment for its institutions during an anticlerical campaign of clergy
registration (1736-39). These events are described in a gazetteer compiled by
Lou himself, the Longhu shanzhi ~m ill ;t (Monograph of Mount Longhu;
1740). Lou also reorganized the lineages of the Longhu Taoists: he wielded the
power of a Celestial Master without the title. As befitted a liturgical expert,
he wrote authoritative versions of several rituals, notably the *Lingbao death
ritual. He also composed philosophical commentaries, and some of his poetry
is preserved in the Longhu shanzhi.
Lou brought with him, or invited to court, some forty Taoists, all young
members of the great hereditary *Zhengyi families traditionally linked to the
Mount Longhu elite (by appointment to the Taoist administration but also
by marriage). Most of these families lived in Jiangnan, some controlling the
major temples of these areas such as the *Xuanrniao guan (Abbey of Mysteri-
ous Wonder) in Suzhou. Like Lou, these Taoists usually spent several years at
the court, early in their careers as masters, before returning home to assume
leading positions in local Taoist institutions. This system established by Lou
Jinyuan whereby the elite Zhengyi priests of the Jiangnan area paid a few
years of service at court continued until the late nineteenth century, but no
other Taoist ever reached a position of personal prestige and influence over
the emperor comparable to that enjoyed by Lou.
Vincent GOOSSAERT
ID Goossaert 2000a; Hosoya Yoshio 1986; Qing Xitai 1994, I : 395

* Zhengyi