The Empress and the Heavenly Masters: A Study of the Ordination Scroll of Empress Zhang (1493)

Over twenty-seven meters long, the Ordination Scroll of Empress Zhang (1493) is an important Ming Dynasty Daoist artifact from the San Diego Museum of Art’s collection that records the imperial ordination of Empress Zhang (1470–1541), consort of the Ming Dynasty Hongzhi emperor (r. 1488–1505), by Zhang Xuanqing (d. 1509), the forty-seventh Heavenly Master of the Zhengyi institution. This book uncovers the history of imperial ordinations through a detailed examination of the scroll’s transcriptions and the meticulously-painted images of celestial beings, as well as the influences of the Daoist leaders known as the Zhengyi Heavenly Masters.