FROM MORTAL TO DIVINE04
Trace Lord Zhang's journey through Yuezhou, Pangu, Fanghu Rock, Shiniu Mountain, and Jinsha while comparing differing textual traditions.
A Mortal Beginning
Genealogical traditions describe an orphan who herded cattle, gathered firewood, and made hoe handles. This life close to land and labor helps explain his later role as a protector of farming communities.
The Peach of Awakening
Early texts preserve related but distinct accounts of immortals, a peach or bamboo shoot, fasting, and prophecy. At Fanghu Rock, the story is attached to a landscape that pilgrims can enter.
Protection and Service
Snake-slaying, rainmaking, healing, and irrigation transformed local fears of drought, epidemic, and wilderness into a protective sacred presence.
From Life to Living Tradition
Jinsha's Jiulong Pool marks the tradition of his transcendence. Migration later carried Fazhu Gong devotion to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
