Dòngxiāo túzhì 洞霄圖志
Illustrated Gazetteer of Dòngxiāo (the Dàdídòng grotto-heaven Daoist temple at Yúháng) by 鄧牧 (Dèng Mù, 1247–1306) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 6-juan monograph on the Dòngxiāogōng 洞霄宮 Daoist abbey at Yúháng County (Hángzhōu) — the Dàdí 大滌 grotto-heaven, one of the 72 fúdì (Blessed Lands) of the Daoist tradition. Composed at the end of the Sòng / start of the Yuán by the Sòng-loyalist hermit Dèng Mù, who had retired into Daoist seclusion after the 1276 Mongol conquest. Dèng entered Dòngxiāo in Dàdé yǐhài (1299), residing at the Chāoránguǎn; the abbot Shěn Duōfú 沈多福 prepared the Báilù shānfáng for him, and in conjunction with the abbey’s resident Daoist Mèng Zōngbǎo 孟宗寶 he searched the older registers and composed the work. Categories: Gōngguān (palaces and abbeys), Shānshuǐ (mountains and waters), Dòngfǔ (grotto-residences) with appended Yìshì (extraordinary affairs), Rénwù (persons, divided Xiānzǐ immortal-masters and Gāodào high-Daoists), Bēijì (steles).
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Dèng Mù 鄧牧 of the Sòng. Mù, zì Mùxīn 牧心, of Qiántáng. After the Sòng fall he hid in seclusion, with traces erased; he was on friendly terms only with Xiè Áo. At Áo’s death-bed, Mù happened to be away on travel; Áo’s farewell verse — “the Jiǔsuǒ shānrén return-or-not return” — was written for Mù. His will and tendency can be imagined from this.
The Dòngxiāogōng is in Yúháng County. The Dàdí dòngtiān (Dàdí Grotto-Heaven) — its caves and ravines deeply elegant — is one of the 72 fúdì. In the Sòng era it was customary to have retired Premiers and other high officials taking the fèngcí (sacrificial-charge) post, leading the tíjǔ (Inspector) office. In the Zhènghé era, Táng Zǐxiá 唐子霞 composed the Zhēnjìng lù recording its scenery; later not transmitted. In the Duānpíng era there is a continuation; today also no examination.
Mù in Dàdé yǐhài (1299) entered Dòngxiāo, lodging at the Chāoránguǎn. The abbot Shěn Duōfú prepared the Báilù shānfáng for him to inhabit. He thus assigned Mù together with the resident-mountain Daoist Mèng Zōngbǎo to gather and examine older registers, composing this gazetteer.
Six categories: Gōngguān (Abbeys); Shānshuǐ; Dòngfǔ; appended Yìshì (Wondrous Affairs); Rénwù — divided into Xiānzǐ and Gāodào sub-headings; Bēijì. Each category one juan. At the head are prefaces by the Hereditary Master of the Yuán Doctrine, Wú Quánjié 吳全節, and by Duōfú; at the end are postfaces by Yè Lín 葉林 of Qiántáng and Lǐ Yǒusūn 李洧孫 of Tāizhōu.
Mù’s literature is fundamentally lofty and remote of style; hence what is recorded is detailed and abridged in proper measure. Only the surnames-and-names of Sòng tíjǔ officials are not recorded. In recent times Zhū Yízūn first composed records to supplement these. Yet Sòng-era fèngcí were largely held remotely — not greatly relating to the antiquarian sites of this mountain. Just as the dukes-and-marquises of Wèi and Jìn and after, with names tied to commanderies-and-counties but matters separate from máotǔ (enfeoffment-soil) — within a gazetteer-record, recording them is not redundant; deleting them is not lacking.
Mù completed this book in Dàdé yǐsì (1305); by the next year bǐngwǔ (1306) spring, Mù died. Juan 5 of this book has appended title-names of resident abbots that include matters after the 6th month of bǐngwǔ; we suspect these were additions by the Daoist register. Further, in the Rénwù category, are biographies of Mù and Yè Lín, with Xùbiān (Continuation) two characters in front; we also do not know who was the continuer. The older version had it; we for now together preserve.
Further, the book is called Túzhì (Illustrated Gazetteer); but the present version has gazetteer without map — must be lost in manuscript-transmission, with no possibility of collation or supplementation. We for now also follow its lacuna.
Abstract
The Dòngxiāo túzhì is the principal Daoist mountain-monograph of the SòngYuán transition, a major source for the Dàdí grotto-heaven cult-center, and a literary monument of the Sòng-loyalist seclusion-tradition. Its author Dèng Mù (1247–1306, zì Mùxīn 牧心 — the hào Wénxíng dàshī 文行大師 was conferred by the Yuán; CBDB record by alternate id) was a major Sòng-loyalist hermit whose principal companion-in-arms was the great SòngJīnYuán prose stylist and Sòng-loyalist Xiè Áo 謝翺 (1249–1295). On Xiè Áo’s deathbed (1295) Dèng was away on travel; Xiè’s celebrated farewell verse “Jiǔsuǒ shānrén” alludes to Dèng (referring to the Nine-Lock Mountain, Dèng’s mountain-of-residence prior to his Dòngxiāo phase).
The 6-category structure (Gōngguān, Shānshuǐ, Dòngfǔ+Yìshì, Rénwù with Xiānzǐ / Gāodào, Bēijì) is a refinement of the standard Sòng Daoist mountain-monograph genre. The work’s coverage of Sòng-era fèngcí (sacrificial-charge) officials — though only partial as the Sìkù tíyào notes — provides one of the principal documentary sources for the institutional history of Sòng-era retirement appointments to Daoist temples. The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 587.6); the original maps that gave the work its title (Túzhì) are lost.
Translations and research
No English translation. Cited in: Hugh R. Clark, Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River Valley (Fujian) from the Late Tang through the Song (Cambridge, 2007); Stephen Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (UC Press, 1997); Tim H. Barrett, Taoism under the T’ang (Wellsweep, 1996). For Dèng Mù’s Sòng-loyalist context see Jennifer W. Jay, A Change in Dynasties: Loyalism in Thirteenth-Century China (Western Washington, 1991). Standard Chinese reference: Lǐ Yáng-fēng 李陽風, Dòng-xiāo gōng zhì (Zhèjiāng dàxué, 2008).
Other points of interest
The work is unusual among Sòng-era Daoist mountain-monographs in being composed under early-Yuán political conditions by a Sòng-loyalist Daoist; its preface by the Yuán Hereditary Master Wú Quánjié — an ethnic-Mongol/Han Daoist intermediary at the Yuán court — embodies the political compromise of the Yuán-Daoist accommodation.