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南嶽小錄

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Text ID
KR2k0083
Date
902–902
Dynasty
唐

Nányuè xiǎolù 南嶽小錄

A Short Record of the Southern Marchmount (Mt. Héng) by 李沖昭 (Lǐ Chōngzhāo, fl. 902) — zhuàn 撰

About the work

A 1-juan late-Táng Daoist topographical monograph on Nányuè 南嶽 (Mt. Héng 衡山, the Southern Marchmount), composed in the second year of Tiānfù (902), the second-to-last reign-year of the Táng. The author was a Daoist priest who in his youth had a religious awakening and later took ordination, frequenting Mt. Héng. He drew on the Héngshān tújīng and Xiāngzhōng jì, the older steles, oral tradition from Daoist elders, and his own observations. The structure: first the Five Peaks and Three Streams; next the abbeys, observatories, ancestral temples, altar halls and abbey-courts; appended to these are the traces of historical Daoist adepts who attained the Way and ascended in flight. The earliest surviving Táng monograph on any of the Five Marchmounts.

Tiyao

We respectfully note: this is the work of the Táng Daoist priest Lǐ Chōngzhāo 李沖昭. The opening of the juan has the author’s own preface, saying: “In youth I awakened to the Way; in recent years I followed a Master. Reaching the Marchmount Gate, I frequently visited the numinous traces, fully reading the old steles and the Héngshān tújīng and Xiāngzhōng jì; further I inquired of the Masters and elders, the aged of the Marchmount-foot. Whenever I gained an item, I stored it in my coffer; selecting and writing directly, I have made one juan.”

We examine the book: it has the Xiántōng reign-name (860–874), so it must have been composed after Yìzōng. The rénxū year mentioned at the end of the preface is Tiānfù 2 of Zhāozōng (902). The Jiù Tángshū Jīngjí zhì and Xīn Tángshū Yìwénzhì both do not catalogue it. Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì Yìwénlüè first records this title; the juan-count agrees with the present version. Only “Chōngzhāo” 沖昭 is written as “Zhòngzhāo” 仲昭 — perhaps a printing error.

The book first lists the Five Peaks and Three Streams; next sets out the categories of abbeys, observatories, ancestral temples, altar halls, and abbey-courts; with the traces of those of successive ages who attained the Way and ascended in flight, appended thereto. Although a Daoist priest furthering his own teaching, he is not without exaggerative or fantastical phrasing. Yet for Táng-era books on famous mountains and grotto-residences — such as Lú Hóngyī’s Sōngshān jì, Zhāng Mì’s Lúshān zájì, Lìnghú Jiànyáo’s Yùsìshān jì, Dù Guāngtíng’s Wǔyíshān jì — none now survives. This alone is transmitted from the old text. The choice scenes and numinous traces are sufficient to provide for antiquarian record-keeping; this is also what those who examine tújīng should reverently take as evidence.

The present version is what was cut by Cài Rǔnán 蔡汝楠 of the Míng when he served as Prefect of Héngzhōu. There is a xiǎoyǐn (short notice) at the head, which says that the matters and persons recorded are wholly different from the present versions.

Abstract

The Nányuè xiǎolù is the earliest surviving Táng-era Daoist topographical monograph on any of the Five Marchmounts and one of the principal sources for the medieval cult of Mt. Héng. Its dating is uniquely precise within the Daoist topographical genre: the author’s own preface dates the work to Tiānfù 2 (rénxū, 902), in the penultimate year of the Táng. The author Lǐ Chōngzhāo (the Sìkù tíyào notes the variant 仲昭 / Zhòngzhāo as a printing error) is otherwise unknown; he was a yǔshì (Daoist priest) of the Sōngshān 松山 abbey, presumably an ordinand of the Mt. Héng cult-center.

The Sìkù tíyào explicitly identifies the work as the only surviving Táng-era Daoist mountain-monograph: comparable Táng works on Mt. Sōng (Lú Hóngyī), Mt. Lú (Zhāng Mì), Mt. Yùsì (Lìnghú Jiànyáo), and Mt. Wǔyí (Dù Guāngtíng) are all lost. The work was first catalogued by Zhèng Qiáo in his Tōngzhì Yìwénlüè (Sòng); not catalogued in the Tángshū treatises. The Míng prefect Cài Rǔnán of Héngzhōu (Jiājìng era) issued a fresh imprint, which is the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū base text (vol. 585.1). The Sìkù tíyào endorses Cài Rǔnán’s xiǎoyǐn observation that the textual content differs from the more contemporary “current versions” — likely a reference to a Míng-era expansion of the original Táng text under the same title.

Translations and research

No comprehensive English translation. Discussed in: Edouard Chavannes, Le T’ai chan: essai de monographie d’un culte chinois (Paris, 1910), §3 (comparative — Five Marchmounts); James Robson, Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak (Nanyue) in Medieval China (Harvard, 2009) — the principal English-language monograph on Mt. Héng, with extensive engagement with the Nán-yuè xiǎo-lù; Paul R. Katz, Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshal Wen in Late Imperial Chekiang (SUNY, 1995). For the Táng-Daoist topographical genre see Stephen Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (UC Press, 1997); Gil Raz, The Emergence of Daoism: Creation of Tradition (Routledge, 2012). Standard Chinese reference: Hú Fú-chēn 胡孚琛, Zhōnghuá dào-jiào dà-cí-diǎn 中華道教大辭典 (Zhōngguó shèkē, 1995).

Other points of interest

The work is the principal documentary source for late-Táng Mt. Héng Daoist topography and is the textual basis for James Robson’s Power of Place (2009), the principal English-language monograph on the Mt. Héng cult. The work’s extreme rarity — sole surviving Táng-era marchmount monograph — gives it disproportionate documentary value for the medieval Daoist topographical genre.

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