It was not until Zhang Daoling, the patriarch of Taoism, recognized Lao Tzu as Taishang Laojun, on the concept of ghost worship in ancient China, based on the ideas of Huang and Lao Taoism, inherited the magic of immortals, pursued the purpose of immortality, becoming immortals, and saving the world, and formally established the Tianshi Taoist organization, and Taoism was officially established.

Zhang Daoling founded the Tao of Heavenly Masters with Laojun "imparting the correct law and being appointed as the Heavenly Master", which is the first sectarian organization of Taoism, and it is also recognized as a line of Taoist orthodoxy.

As for Zhang Daoling, he is the first generation of Taoist heavenly masters.

The folk have always circulated the legend of his etheric Laojun sword and the ghost soldier of the Great Ghost King.

It seems to be said that in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Daoling, the patriarch of the Heavenly Master and Taoism, practiced for many years, and the Taoism was profound, killing demons and catching monsters, subduing demons and eliminating demons, and eliminating harm for the people, and made many contributions.

Taishang Laojun praised him for his firm heart, so he personally went down to earth to pass on to him the secret of the Zhengyi League, a pair of male and female swords for slaying evil spirits, and a seal of Yangping Zhidugong, and gave him a flat crown, gossip clothes, Fang Qun, and Zhu Lu, which is also the prototype of Taoist Taoist clothing in later generations.

After the teaching, Taishang Laojun said to him: "Recently, there are six ghosts and gods in Shuzhong (now Sichuan), who are cruel to the people, and you can rectify them for me, so that people and ghosts are different, day and night, in order to bless the living beings." ”

Zhang Daoling hurriedly claimed to be ordered, and led his apprentices Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng all the way to Shuzhong.

However, it is said that there are eight ghosts and gods who are strange in Shu: Liu Yuanda specializes in miscellaneous diseases, Zhang Yuanbo specializes in dispensing with plague, Zhao Gongming spreads dysentery, Zhong Ziji sows sores, Shi Wenye spreads malaria, Fan Juqing makes people sore, Yao Gongbo sprinkles five poisons, and Li Gongzhong brings madness.

They have hundreds of millions of ghost soldiers under their command, and they have harmed the people everywhere, and countless people have been killed by their atrocities.

Zhang Daoling arrived in Shuzhong and chose Qingcheng Mountain as the battlefield. He first set up a high glass seat and lined it up as an altar.

The eight ghost commanders led their troops to attack, and for a while they flew sand and rocks, and arrows flew like rain in the air. The ghost soldiers lit countless torches, rushed up, and Zhang Daoling pointed with his hand, and the fire burned to the ghost soldiers.

The ghost marshals looked at the situation from afar and shouted loudly: "You originally lived in Mount Emei to cultivate immortals, why did you come to invade our territory?" ”

Zhang Daoling replied: "You have mutilated living beings, and I have come to crusade on the orders of Lao Jun. ”

Liu Yuanda and the others were furious when they heard this, and led the ghost soldiers to attack again and surrounded Zhang Daoling.

Zhang Daoling hurriedly drew a formation into the air with a pen, and the ghosts were trapped by this invisible formation, and they couldn't afford it. The eight ghost handsomes kowtowed and begged for mercy, Zhang Daoling waved his pen upside down, and the ghost soldiers came to life one by one.

Zhang Daoling said to the ghosts: "Come and obey the orders, from now on quickly stay away from this place, and don't spread diseases in the world." ”

The ghost marshal quibbled: "It is our original duty to bring disasters to the world, how can we deprive all of this right?" It's better to leave half of the land for us to enjoy freely. ”

Zhang Daoling didn't agree, and drank and told them to avoid it.

The ghost marshals were not convinced, and on the second day, they gathered the six demon kings, led millions of troops, and attacked again.

Seeing this, Wang Chang was shocked and said, "The ghost army is strong, how can you resist it?" ”

Zhang Daoling said: "There is no need to panic, see that I will retreat from the enemy immediately. ”

With a stroke of the pen again, the ghosts still died on the spot, only the six demon kings did not die, but they also fell to the ground, couldn't get up, and kowtowed to save the sparing.

Zhang Daoling didn't allow it, so he slashed vertically with a pen and split the mountain peak in front of him in half.

The Demon King could no longer fly over the mountain, and pleaded loudly: "We dare not do anything wrong again, and beg for mercy, and we will definitely live in the Western world from now on, and never come here again." ”

Zhang Daoling let them go back, and the remaining ghosts also said that they were restrained.

Zhang Daoling was still afraid that they would not be convinced, so he said to them: "It seems that you are not convinced, and I will give you another chance to compete, if you can beat me, I will let you be free." ”

Liu Yuanda waited for a while, and replied: "Okay, just do it!" ”

Zhang Daoling ordered someone to burn a fire and threw himself into the fire, but the soles of his feet gave birth to green lotus, and he stepped on the lotus flower and slowly came out, and the ghost handsomes also took out their magical powers and jumped into the fire.

Zhang Daoling walked freely in wood, water, earth and stone, but the ghost handsomes ran into walls everywhere, and in a fit of anger, the eight ghost handsomes turned into eight big tigers and pounced.

Zhang Daoling turned into a giant lion and drove the Eight Tigers away.

The ghost handsome turned into eight flying dragon paths to catch people.

Zhang Daoling turned into a Dapeng golden-winged bird that specializes in eating dragons, and came to peck at the dragon's eyes, and the eight dragons had to flee in a hurry.

Zhang Daoling pointed with his hand, turned into a boulder weighing more than 10,000 catties, hung it with lotus silk, hung it above the ghost soldier camp, and turned into two rats to run up to gnaw lotus silk, and the boulder saw that it was about to fall immediately, and the ghost commanders begged in unison: "Please spare us, we must stay away from here, and we dare not abuse the people again." ”

Zhang Daoling then ordered the five directions, eight departments, and six ghost kings to all ally in Qingcheng Mountain.

Zhang Daoling made people live in the yang, ghosts dwelled in the netherworld, the six ghost kings returned to the capital, and the eight ghosts and gods were exiled to the Western Regions.

Some ghosts are reluctant to take advantage of the good territory of Sichuan, and they still don't want to leave. Zhang Daoling was angry, painted a talisman and sent it to the sky, and in a moment, the wind, rain, thunder and lightning roared, and countless knives and arrows flew in the air, and the ghost soldiers fled without a trace.

Zhang Daoling's battle against millions of ghost soldiers on Qingcheng Mountain is really thrilling! So far, there are still relics left in Qingcheng Mountain: there is a boulder more than ten zhang high behind the Heavenly Master Cave, which is split into two halves, and the legend is that the Heavenly Master punished the demon and opened it with a pen.

In fact, from this legend, we can also judge that at the beginning, there was no distinction between people and ghosts, and the three worlds were mixed into one, regardless of yin and yang.

This also explains the reason why Zhang Daoling is revered by Taoism as the "Ancestral Heavenly Master".

Heavenly Master Taoism takes Lao Tzu as the leader and the highest faith, Fulu Zhai Jiao as the mode of transmission, and the pursuit of immortality and immortality as the highest realm, all of which are the morals pursued by various sects of Taoism in the past dynasties.

Moreover, before the emergence of the Heavenly Master, there was no so-called "Taoist", and the title of "Taoist" was also created by Zhang Daoling.

Zhang Daoling stipulated that the Heavenly Master was the supreme leader of the whole diocese, and those who had just entered the Tao were called Taoists, and those who could perform prayer ceremonies for Taoists and patients were called Taoists, and this title has been used by later generations to this day.

Because of Zhang Daoling's merits, the Jade Emperor sent a messenger to hold the jade book, and sealed Zhang Daoling as a true person, so the Heavenly Master Dao is also known as Zhengyi, he gave his eldest son Heng two swords before his death, telling him to drive away evil and punish demons, Zuo Guo and the people, and inherit his position as the head of the sect by an heir. After the instructions were completed, Zhang Daoling ascended to heaven with his disciples Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng, and the Heavenly Master Dao he founded has been passed down among the people to this day.

However, the inheritance of the position of Heavenly Master Dao Heavenly Master adopts the hereditary heir system, and after the ancestral Heavenly Master Zhang Daoling is gone, he is succeeded by his son Zhang Heng, who is known as the heir of the Heavenly Master. After Zhang Heng died, he was succeeded by his son Zhang Lu, who was the Heavenly Master.

When the fourth generation of Sun Zhang Sheng, he returned and moved to Longhu Mountain, Yingtan, Jiangxi, and his descendants passed on his business from generation to generation, generally known as the first generation of heavenly masters, collectively referred to as Zhang Tianshi.

Therefore, the title of Heavenly Master Dao is Zhengyi, and they are all from the Zhang family.

In the early days of the Republic of China, it has been passed down to the sixty-third generation of Zhang Enbo.

After the sixty-third generation, due to historical reasons, the next generation of Heavenly Masters could not be certified, so that the position of Zhang Tianshi was suspended. At the beginning, the sixty-third generation of Zhang Enbo Heavenly Master followed ****** and left the mainland (when liberation, he was designated by the state as a cow, ghost, snake god and big landlord), and fled to Taiwan in embarrassment.

Zhang Enbo was supposed to pass it on to his eldest son, but the eldest son died young. Whether the Zhang family has elected a new candidate, so the position of the division is vacant to this day. The mainland Taoism said it did not recognize any 64th or 65th generation of heavenly masters.

Therefore, after the Heavenly Master Dao was passed down to the earth for sixty-three generations and lasted for many years, because no one inherited it, the Heavenly Master Dao could be regarded as existing in name only.

(End of chapter)