Created 8-Sep-06
Modified 8-Sep-06
Photographs taken during my visit May 11-13, 1985, at Longhushan 龙虎山, Jiangxi province. I had the privilege of being the first foreign scholar to visit the former residence of the Zhang Tianshi 张天师 (the Daoist Heavenly Master), approx. nine years after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The first two photographs are of the latest Zhang Tianshi (and his mother), who had just recently moved back to the village of Shangqingzhen 上请镇. The compound was under construction then, as can be seen from the following images. It had been converted into an elementary school during the Cultural Revolution, and many of the original, elaborate structures had been destroyed. Photographs 11 to 13 show the sparse remains of the residences of the ceremonial masters 法官 assisting the Heavenly Master in his rituals and other affairs.
The last sequence of images is of the village itself.
Some of these photographs were published by the Zhengyi daoshi 正一道士 Gong Qun 龚群 in his magazine Daojiao wenhua 道教文化杂志 in Taiwan in 1986. Gong, before fleeing the Communist takeover in 1949, and according to his business card, had served as the general secretary 秘书长 to the previous Heavenly Master.
Scanned feom Extachrome slides with an Epson 2400 into 48 Bit color TIFs, converted into JPG format, and uploaded September 9, 2006.
Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY.
© Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images
