Longmen Institutional Development in Zhejiang Province: The Chongdao Lineage of the Tongbai Palace during the Eighteenth Century

This article aims to advance research on the history of Longmen communities in Zhejiang during the Qing dynasty by focusing on the institutional network established by the Daoists of the Tongbai Palace (Tiantai county) in the eighteenth century. To do so, I have relied on the study of the socio-institutional links between Daoist temples and analyzed an array of historical sources (gazetteers, Daoist texts, palace memorials) to individuate connections between the Longmen temples of Zhejiang. I focus on the four leading members of the Longmen community of the Tongbai Palace (Gao Qingyu, Min Yide, Shen Yibing, and Fang Yiding) to show that this temple had a key position in the network formed among prominent temples inhabited by Longmen communities, such as the Jingu Grotto of Hangzhou, the Dayou Palace of Mount Weiyu, and the Yunchao Temple of Mount Jin’gai.