Who Are the Four Great Taoist Celestial Masters in the Classic Novel Journey to the West?

Yin Zhihua

The classic Chinese novel Journey to the West mentions the four great Celestial Masters of Taoism in many places. Who are they?

For example, chapter 6 of Journey to the West reads: “When they reached the front of the Hall of Universal Brightness, the four great Celestial Masters, the Barefoot Immortal, and others were already there to greet the Bodhisattva, and told her that the Jade Emperor was troubled, had dispatched heavenly soldiers, and that they had not yet returned from capturing the monster. The Bodhisattva said, ‘I wish to see the Jade Emperor; please be so kind as to report it for me.’ The Celestial Master Qiu Hongji at once entered the Hall of Divine Mists, reported, and she was summoned in.” “In a moment (the Mighty Demon King and Prince Moksa) came straight to the foot of the Hall of Universal Brightness, where they met the four great Celestial Masters, who led them to the Hall of Divine Mists to present the memorial.”

Chapter 31 reads: “Already the four great Celestial Masters, Zhang, Ge, Xu, and Qiu, asked, ‘Great Sage, why have you come?’”

Chapter 51 reads: “(Pilgrim) went straight to the outside of the Hall of Divine Mists, and indeed again saw the four Celestial Masters Zhang Daoling, Immortal Elder Ge, Xu Jingyang, and Qiu Hongji, together with the Six Officers of the Southern Dipper and the Seven Primes of the Northern Dipper, all before the hall to greet him.”

Chapter 58 reads: “Marshal Ma, together with the four Celestial Masters Zhang, Ge, Xu, and Qiu, reported to the throne …”

Chapter 87 reads: “Qiu Hongji, Zhang Daoling, and the two Perfected Ge and Xu led (Pilgrim) to the foot of the Hall of Divine Mists and reported to the throne …”

From the descriptions in Journey to the West we can see that the four great Taoist Celestial Masters Zhang, Ge, Xu, and Qiu are close attendants of the Jade Emperor, on duty at the Hall of Universal Brightness, responsible for passing on memorials, leading audiences with the throne, and proclaiming edicts. So what are the origins of these four Celestial Masters?

1. Celestial Master Zhang Daoling

Celestial Master Zhang Daoling, also called the Founding Celestial Master and the Dharma Master of the Three Heavens, is the Celestial Master who founded Taoism in the Eastern Han. According to the Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian Zhuan) by Ge Hong of the Jin, the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling, courtesy name Fuhan, was a native of Feng County in the state of Pei. Originally a student at the Imperial Academy, he studied the Five Classics widely, but after a long time sighed, “This is of no benefit to the span of life.” He then studied the way of long life. At fifty he obtained the Yellow Emperor’s Elixir Scripture of the Nine Tripods and practiced on Mount Fanyang. Later, in a stone chamber on Mount Song, he obtained hidden books and secret texts and the art of commanding the spirits of the mountains, and at sixty he achieved attainment of the Tao. Hearing that the people of Shu were simple and honest and could be taught, and that it had many famous mountains, he led his disciples into Shu and lived in seclusion on Mount Heming in Sichuan. There Lord Lao the Most High (Taishang Laojun) appeared to him and transmitted the methods of the Tao; he battled the demons and ghosts of the heavens, won the twenty-four parishes, and turned them into blessed courts.

The Tang Taoist priest Meng Anpai writes in chapter 2 of The Pivot of Meaning of the Taoist Teaching: “Long ago, at the end of the Han, the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling was meditating intently in western Shu when the Most High descended in person. On the first day of the fifth month of the first year of Han’an (142), he transmitted to him the ‘True Law of the Three Heavens’ and appointed him Celestial Master, and also gave him the essential ritual texts of the Zhengyi rules and arts. On the seventh day of the seventh month of that year, he further transmitted the Wondrous Scripture of the Covenant with the Powers of Orthodox Unity and the secret of the ‘three karmas and six penetrations,’ and appointed him anew as ‘Dharma Master of the Three Heavens, Perfected of Orthodox Unity.’”

The Genealogy of the Han Celestial Masters records that the Founding Celestial Master Zhang Daoling was a ninth-generation descendant of Zhang Liang, Marquis of Liu of the Han, born on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the tenth year of Jianwu (34) on Mount Tianmu in Wu. In the second year of Yongping (59) he was appointed magistrate of Jiangzhou. Later he resigned and lived in seclusion on Mount Beimang near Luoyang to practice cultivation. Emperors Zhang and He of the Han repeatedly summoned him, but he would not go. He entered Mount Yunjin and refined the Divine Elixir of the Nine Heavens; when the elixir was complete, a dragon and a tiger appeared, and the mountain was named for them. Hearing that a pestilential vapor was bringing disaster to Ba and Shu, he went to remove it. He first lived on Mount Yangping and later on Mount Heming.

In the first year of Han’an (142), Lord Lao the Most High was moved to descend and transmit to him scriptures and registers of every grade, the Demon-Slaying Sword, and the Jade Seal. On the first day of the seventh month of the second year of Han’an (143) he climbed Mount Qingcheng. On the mountain there were a ghost city, a ghost market, and ghost hordes divided into eight divisions, each led by a ghost commander, which constantly harmed the people. When the Celestial Master arrived, the ghost commanders led their hordes out to battle; the Celestial Master wrote in the air with his vermilion brush, and the ghost hordes fell at once. The ghosts wailed and begged for their lives, willing to accept restraint. The Celestial Master then ordered them all to assemble below the Yellow Emperor’s altar on Qingcheng, and made humans dwell in the light and ghosts in the darkness. He swore: “From this day on, as heaven and earth meet and sun and moon unite, if you come out again I shall surely destroy you.” He established the twenty-four parishes and added four more to correspond to the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions. In each parish he set up the offices of immortal officials, yin officials, and libationers to govern it. He told his disciple Wang Chang that a white vapor over Mount Yang was the work of a demon, and so went to deal with it. On the way he met twelve divine maidens and asked where the salt spring was. The maidens said, “Ahead there is a great pool, and a venomous dragon lurks in it.” The Celestial Master threw a talisman into it, and the demon left the pool and fled. The spring soon dried up; the Celestial Master thrust his sword into it, and it became a salt well, to the benefit of the people.

In the second year of Yongshou (156), the Most High decreed him the Lofty Bright Great Emperor of the Boundless Six Directions. He then passed the scriptures, registers, seal, and sword to his son Zhang Heng and the elixir to his disciples Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng, and ascended in broad daylight together with his wife, Lady Yong. In later generations the Taoist community honored Zhang Daoling as “Great Dharma Master of the Three Heavens Who Upholds the Teaching, True Lord of Orthodox Unity Who Assists the Mystery and Responds in Stillness.”

2. Celestial Master Ge Xuan

Celestial Master Ge Xuan is known as Immortal Elder Ge or Immortal Lord Ge. Chapter 8 of Ge Hong’s Biographies of Divine Immortals records that Ge Xuan, courtesy name Xiaoxian, was a native of Danyang. He was brilliant from birth, with a keen and clear understanding, and read everything—classics, commentaries, philosophers, and histories. When he was a little over ten, both his parents died, and he withdrew to famous mountains to seek out teachers and study the Tao. From the immortal Zuo Ci he received the Immortal Scripture of the Nine Elixirs and Golden Liquor. Because he was so devout in cultivating the Tao, Lord Lao the Most High and the Perfected of the Supreme Ultimate descended to him on Mount Tiantai and transmitted the Lingbao Scriptures, the Dongxuan Scriptures, the Scripture of the Great Cavern, and the fast methods of Shangqing, Lingbao, Dongshen, Taiyi, and Mud-and-Soot. At the end of the Han, Sun Quan, the Great Emperor of Eastern Wu, summoned him and forcibly kept him at court; before long he departed as an immortal.

Chapter 23 of the Comprehensive Mirror of Perfected Immortals Who Embodied the Tao Through the Ages records: The Immortal Lord was originally a Perfected of the Grand Veil who descended to earth, born on the eighth day of the fourth month of the seventh year of Yanxi under Emperor Huan of the Han (164). At eight both his parents died, yet he was already studious and self-reliant. At thirteen he had read all the classics, commentaries, philosophers, and histories. Whenever he saw his father’s handwriting or footprints, he would look up to heaven and weep aloud. Disconsolate, he said: “The mountains and rivers have not changed color, yet my stern father has returned to emptiness. There is in the world a way of long life and deathlessness—why not cultivate it?” So he entered Mount Tiantai to meditate intently on the Tao. There he met the Perfected Zuo Ci, who taught him secret methods.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the second year of Guanghe under Emperor Ling (179), Lord Lao the Most High was moved to order the Perfected of the Supreme Ultimate Xu Laile and others to descend together to Mount Tiantai, where they transmitted to him the fast methods of the “Three Registers and Seven Grades” and the Scripture of the Wheel of the Law of Exhortations and Precepts. At eighteen or nineteen his Way of the immortals was gradually accomplished, and he roamed the mountains and seas. Grieving over the fall of the Han, the wars of the Three Kingdoms, droughts and floods, famine, and the countless wounded, captured, and dead, and over the forlorn souls and lingering spirits sunk in evil destinies who could hardly escape the cycle of rebirth, he edited and collected the Lingbao scriptures and proclamations, composed the great methods of sacrificial refinement, the precious registers for rebirth in heaven, the secrets of numinous talismans, and so on, reported them to the Heavenly Emperor, and established ritual altars.

On the first day of the eleventh month of the first year of Chiwu of Wu (238), by decree of the Most High he was appointed Immortal Lord of the Left Palace of the Supreme Ultimate, holding the office of overseeing the Great Demon Kings of the Three Realms and Six Heavens and administering the scriptures and registers of the “Three Caverns.” When the crown prince of Wu heard that the Immortal Lord had attained the Tao, he built a separate chamber and asked him about the Tao. The Immortal Lord said: “Your Highness now occupies the Eastern Palace and will succeed to the great throne. What matters is to purify your heart and reduce your desires, keep flatterers at a distance and honor the worthy, select heroes and men of talent, let your light fill all under heaven, harmonize the four seasons, and nurture the multitudes. This is a boundless blessing for all within the four seas—how could it be merely a blessing for one person?”

On the first day of the first lunar month of the second year of Jiahe (233), the Immortal Lord took leave of the crown prince and went straight to the blessed land of Mount Gezao to refine the Golden Elixir of Nine Cycles. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the seventh year of Chiwu (244) he returned to the heavenly realm, at the age of eighty-one.

Taoist scriptures honor Ge Xuan as “Immortal Lord of the Left Palace of the Supreme Ultimate, True Lord of Harmonious Response and Trustworthy Aid.”

3. Celestial Master Xu Xun

Celestial Master Xu Xun, known as True Lord Xu or Xu Jingyang, is the patriarch revered by the Jingming (Pure Brightness) school of Taoism.

According to “Biography of True Lord Xu of Jingyang” in chapter 33 of Bai Yuchan’s Yulong Collection, Xu Xun, courtesy name Jingzhi, came from a family originally of Xuchang; his father fled the turmoil at the end of the Han and moved to Nanchang. Xu Xun was born in the second year of Chiwu of Wu (239). As a youth he once went hunting with others and shot a pregnant doe; the fawn fell out through the arrow wound, and the doe licked her young but died before she had finished. Xu Xun was grief-stricken and awakened; he broke his crossbow, went home, and devoted himself to study. He mastered the classics and histories and was especially devoted to the arts of cultivating immortality. Hearing that Wu Meng had obtained the divine prescriptions of the Perfect Man Ding Yi, he went to study under him, and Wu Meng passed on all his secrets. Later he practiced with Guo Pu and others in the Western Hills of Nanchang. His filial conduct and virtue were praised throughout the district, and he was recommended to the court; in the first year of Taikang of the Jin (280) he became magistrate of Jingyang County in Shu Commandery, where he governed with much benevolence. In a year of great epidemic, when seven or eight in ten were dying, Xu Xun treated the sick with the divine prescriptions he had received; wherever the talismans and incantations of True Lord Xu reached, people recovered at once.

Later, knowing that the Jin house was about to fall into disorder, he gave up his post and returned east. The people of Shu, moved by his virtuous influence, built a shrine to him while he was still alive; some even followed him, moving with their whole families to Nanchang. Xu Xun and Wu Meng heard that in Danyang County in Zhenjiang Prefecture there was a female master, Mother Chen, who was well versed in the arts of the Tao, so they went together to pay their respects and ask about the wonders of the Tao. Mother Chen passed on to Xu Xun the “bronze talisman and iron tally” left by the King of Filial Piety and Fraternal Love in heaven, together with various secret formulas.

At that time a great serpent was causing harm, spreading poisonous vapors everywhere, and Xu Xun led his disciples Shi Cen, Gan Zhan, and others to kill it. When the great serpent was dead, a small serpent escaped. Gan Zhan wanted to kill it, but Xu Xun said, “It has done no harm yet; it must not be killed rashly.” He then left a prophecy: “In the 1,240 years after I depart as an immortal, within the borders of Yuzhang and among the Five Hills, eight hundred earthly immortals shall appear. Their master shall come from Yuzhang and shall greatly spread my teaching. When a sandbar suddenly rises in the middle of the river of the commandery and covers the mouth of the well, that will be the time. If the small serpent does harm then, those eight hundred shall kill it themselves. If it does no harm to any creature, it must not be killed either.” This is the “Dragon Sandbar Prophecy” that “eight hundred immortals shall appear,” handed down without interruption through Taoist history.

At that time there was also a jiao dragon spirit causing harm, capsizing boats. The dragon spirit took the form of a handsome young man and married into the Jia family of Changsha. Xu Xun fought it on the river and wounded it, and it slipped back to Changsha for treatment. Xu Xun, posing as a physician, was invited into the house and there killed it. Concerned that demons might rise again in later ages, he cast an iron pillar and set it beside a well south of the city of Nanchang, with eight iron chains in the well hooking and locking the veins of the earth to suppress evil forever. He also composed the “Iron Pillar Prophecy”: “Where the land is excellent and people’s hearts are good, no treacherous tyrants should arise. Even if someone plots rebellion, he will never see it through.”

In the second year of Ningkang (374), Xu Xun ascended to heaven with his whole household, even the chickens and dogs going with them. The Taoist community honors Xu Xun as “Immortal Grand Historian of the Nine Provinces, Lofty Bright Envoy, True Lord of the Supreme Tao, Mysterious Response, Divine Merit, and Wondrous Aid.”

4. Celestial Master Qiu Hongji

Who is Celestial Master Qiu Hongji? Consulting the Taoist scriptures, I found that he is the famous immortal of history, Fuqiu Gong. The Yuan Taoist priest Chen Zhixu (courtesy name Guanwu, style name Shangyangzi) says in the second part of his Commentary on the Wondrous Scripture of the Upper Chapters on Limitless Salvation of the Most High Dongxuan Lingbao: “Such as the Celestial Master, Jingyang, and True Lord Fuqiu, perfect in the Tao and exalted in virtue, are all ministers of the Golden Portal.” Here Fuqiu Gong is clearly placed alongside the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling and Xu Xun, and they are all said to be ministers of the heavenly court.

Chen Zhixu’s Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir by Master Shangyang, chapter 8, says: “As for the Seven Perfected and the Five Patriarchs, compassionately receiving people, and the patriarchs Zhang, Ge, Xu, and Fuqiu, who seized the moment to save the world from calamity, and who await the edict to ascend in flight …” Here the four—“Zhang, Ge, Xu, and Fuqiu”—are listed together, exactly as in Journey to the West.

In addition, the Jade Scripture of Thunder of the Supreme Nine Empyreans, Jade Clarity, Great Brahma, Purple Tenuity, and Mysterious Capital says: “Long ago the Primordial Heavenly Worthy (Yuanshi Tianzun) ordered the Unsurpassed Primordial Sovereign of Grand Clarity to appoint the Immortal Grand Historian of the Nine Provinces, Lofty Bright Envoy (that is, Xu Xun) to administer the Tai Department of Thunder; the Immortal Elder of the Left Palace of the Supreme Ultimate of the Jade Capital of the Most High (that is, Ge Xuan) to administer the Xuan Department of Thunder; and the Great Dharma Master of the Three Heavens Who Upholds the Teaching and Assists the Primordial (that is, Zhang Daoling) to administer the Du Department of Thunder; and further appointed the Great Immortal Fuqiu as co-signatory of the affairs of the Three Departments of Thunder.”

The Ritual of the Manifest Transformations of the Tao and Its Virtue of Grand Clarity records: “True Lord Zhang, Chief Minister of Grand Mystery; True Lord Ge, Chief Minister of the Heavenly Mechanism; True Lord Xu, Chief Minister of the Heavenly Pivot; True Lord Fuqiu, Co-Signatory Chief Minister.”

Chapter 40 of the Corpus of Taoist Ritual (Daofa Huiyuan) records: “The Holy Master of the Three Heavens, Chief Minister of Grand Mystery, True Lord of Orthodox Unity (Zhang Daoling); the Immortal Lord of the Supreme Ultimate, True Lord of Harmonious Response and Trustworthy Aid (Ge Xuan); the Immortal Grand Historian of the Nine Provinces, True Lord of Divine Merit and Wondrous Aid (Xu Xun); and the High Minister in Charge of Emoluments of the Nine Heavens, True Lord Fuqiu.” The surviving immortal register slip conferred on Empress Zhang, consort of the Ming Emperor Xiaozong, likewise lists together the four immortals Zhang, Ge, Xu, and Fuqiu (see the attached image). It can therefore be established that Celestial Master Qiu Hongji is Fuqiu Gong. But where the name “Hongji” comes from, I have not yet been able to find.

Fuqiu Gong was the teacher of the famous immortal Wangzi Qiao and associated with the Yellow Emperor and Rongchengzi. The Biographies of Immortals (Liexian Zhuan) records: “Wangzi Qiao was Jin, crown prince of King Ling of Zhou. He loved to play the sheng, making it sound like the cry of a phoenix. He roamed between the Yi and Luo rivers, and the Taoist Fuqiu Gong took him up Mount Songgao.”

The Facts of the Three Perfected Lords Fuqiu, Wang, and Guo of Mount Huagai, included in the Taoist Canon (Daozang), has a preface written in the fifth year of Yongle (1407) by Zhang Yuchu, the forty-third Celestial Master, which says: “Fuqiu roamed with Rongchengzi and the Yellow Emperor; at the end of the Zhou he taught Jin, crown prince of King Ling; in the Han he taught the Odes to Master Shen, was a friend of King Yuan of Chu, and delivered Wang Bao to immortality—he is the ancient Fuqiu Gong.” The book also contains the “Record of the Three Perfected” by Li Chongyuan, transport commissioner of Jiangnan West Circuit in the Northern Song, which says: “I, Chongyuan, respectfully note that Liu Xiang’s Biographies of Immortals says that Wangzi Jin met Fuqiu Gong, who took him up Mount Song; while the Book of Han speaks of Fuqiu Bo, who was still in Chang’an in the time of Empress Lü, and from whom Liu Jiao, King Yuan of Chu, received instruction in the Odes—he was, it seems, a man of Qi.”

The Tang writer Lin Bao also records in his Compendium of Surnames of the Yuanhe Era: “Fuqiu Bo is said to have been the teacher of Zijin. But Zijin was a crown prince of Zhou; so Fuqiu must have come even before Zijin, and no one knows how far back his origins go. I suppose that in the Han he hid himself among the Confucian scholars, just as Laozi hid himself as an archivist.” Taoist books call Fuqiu Gong “Patriarch Huagai.”

The Proclamations of the Masters and Perfected contains the Sacred Proclamation of Huagai: “High Sage of Jade Clarity, Supreme Perfected of the Void Sovereign. Immortal Lord of Chaotic Origin, responding in transformation and dividing your numen. Holding perfection and embodying the Tao, your merit and practice are complete. You drive the thunder and command the lightning, blessing the state and giving peace to the people. You assist the loyal and filial, wipe out sins and prolong life. Patriarch Huagai, teaching lord of humans and heavens. Co-Signatory of the Three Departments of Thunder, Chief Minister, Great Immortal of the Golden Portal, True Lord of Trustworthy Aid, Manifest Numen, Surpassing Response, and Protection of the State; High Minister in Charge of Emoluments of the Nine Heavens, Supreme Emperor of Lofty Mystery; Teaching Lord of the Wondrous Tao, True Lord of Great Emptiness of the Three-Five Flying Steps, Upright Aid, Wondrous Numen, and Harmonious Response; Immortal Minister of the South Pole Who Registers Births, Supreme Emperor of Mysterious Brightness; Teaching Lord of Sincerity, True Lord of Nine-One Highest Clarity, Manifest Aid, Responsive Numen, Sincere Response, and Wondrous Depth; Immortal Minister of the North Pole Who Examines and Assesses, Supreme Emperor of Great Brightness; Heavenly Worthy Incarnate of the Three Realms.”

(Yin Zhihua, China Taoist Association)