Sānyuán cānzàn yánshòu shū 三元參贊延壽書
Book of Extending Life by Comprehending the Three Origins by 李鵬飛 Lǐ Péngfēi (b. c. 1222, fl. late 13th c., Yuán scholar from Qíchūn 蘄春 in Húběi).
About the work
A five-juan classic of the Yuán yǎngshēng tradition, structured around the doctrine of the Three Origins (sān yuán 三元): each human being’s lifespan is built from a “Heavenly Origin” (tiān yuán 天元) of 60 years, an “Earthly Origin” (dì yuán 地元) of 60 years, and a “Human Origin” (rén yuán 人元) of 60 years — totalling 180 years. Each is depleted by a specific failing: insufficient continence (jīng shén bù gù 精神不固) depletes the tiān yuán; over-ambitious planning (móu wéi guò dāng 謀為過當) depletes the dì yuán; dietary intemperance (yǐn shí bù jié 飲食不節) depletes the rén yuán. The work proceeds to provide for each Origin a systematic catalogue of jièshèn 戒慎 (cautions) and jìnjì 禁忌 (taboos), drawn from the Sùwèn 素問, the writings of 老子 Lǎozǐ and 莊子 Zhuāngzǐ, and the medical-classical reference corpus, paired with positive prescriptions for restoring lost capital.
Prefaces
The transmitted xù is by 李鵬飛 Lǐ Péngfēi himself. He narrates a remarkable autobiographical encounter: at “fǔ èr zhōu” (just two completed years, i.e. age 2 suì) his birth mother was relocated to Huáiběi; in adulthood, on years of weeping pilgrimage across Huáidōng and Huáixī, he was at last reunited with her in Qí’s Luótián 蘄之羅田 (modern Luotian in Húběi). On the journey home he passed the former site of 龐蘊 Páng Jūshì 龐居士 and met a Daoist of green hair and youthful complexion, surnamed Gōng 宮, gathering herbs; they spoke a day, lodged together for the night, and the Daoist sat awake until dawn. Asked his age, the Daoist replied “ninety and more”; asked the secret of his longevity, he answered: “Have you heard of the doctrine of the Three Origins?” — but Lǐ in his haste could not press the question. Ten years later, in wùchén — most plausibly Zhìyuán 25 = 1288 — Lǐ went up to take the tàixué examinations at the Ministry of Rites and, resting briefly below Fēiláifēng 飛來峰 (the famous peak in Hángzhōu), encountered the same Daoist, whose appearance had not aged. The Daoist now expounded the Three-Origin doctrine in full and bequeathed two diagrams. Lǐ records: “pú nián qīshí, fù nián qiě jiǔshíyī yǐ” 僕年七十、父年且九十一矣 (“I am 70 suì, my father is already 91 suì”), placing the completion of the work c. 1291 if Lǐ was born c. 1222.
Abstract
Lǐ Péngfēi’s Sānyuán cānzàn yánshòu shū (also titled Yánshòu shū 延壽書 in many later catalogues) is one of the two foundational Yuán yǎngshēng treatises, the other being 忽思慧 Hū Sīhuì’s Yǐnshàn zhèngyào 飲膳正要 (KR3i0043, 1330). Its position in the genre derives from its triple synthesis: (i) it provides a unifying numerological framework (the 180-year canonical lifespan, partitioned into three 60-year sub-lifespans, each separately maintainable) that subsequent late-Yuán and Míng yǎngshēng manuals adopt as their organising principle; (ii) it integrates classical-medical doctrine (the Sùwèn on regimen) with Lǎo-Zhuāng philosophical reflection on desire; and (iii) it preserves a substantial body of practical jièshèn / jìnjì lore that was widely re-anthologised by Míng-Qīng compilers (notably in 周臣 Zhōu Chén’s Hòushēng xùnzuǎn 厚生訓纂 (KR3eo009) and in the 便民圖纂 Biànmín túzuǎn).
The work circulated rapidly: a Yuán Dàdé era print is recorded in catalogue references but does not survive intact, and the principal extant witness is the Zhōngtǒng dàozàng / Dàozàng jíyào preservation (DZ HY 838, 4 juan) supplemented by the present 5-juan jicheng.tw recension which preserves an additional summarising juan. The date bracket 1288–1291 reflects the wùchén encounter as the latest terminus post quem (10 years before completion) and Lǐ’s stated age of 70 as the terminus ante quem.
The catalog meta has Lǐ Péngfēi with no further attribution; CBDB records him as fl. c. 1280. He is also the named compiler of the now-lost Lìdài chéngbài shǐjiàn 歷代成敗史鑒 cited in Yuán shǐ · Yìwénzhì. He is not to be confused with the homonymous Qīng-era Lǐ Péngfēi (b. 1867).
Translations and research
- Schipper and Verellen, eds., Daoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), vol. 3, pp. 1175–1177 — on DZ 838 Sān-yuán yán-shòu cān-zàn shū.
- 馬烈光, Zhōng-yī yǎng-shēng kāng-fù xué cí-diǎn (Běijīng, 2007), s.v.
- Catherine Despeux, “Talismans and Sacred Diagrams”, in Livia Kohn (ed.), Daoism Handbook (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 498–540 — for the diagrammatic yǎng-shēng tradition that the Sān-yuán belongs to.
- Hinrichs and Barnes (eds.), Chinese Medicine and Healing, ch. 5 (Yuán medical-Daoist convergence).
- 周一謀, Yǎng-shēng wén-xiàn tōng-kǎo 養生文獻通考 (Shàng-hǎi, 2008).
Other points of interest
The 180-year canonical lifespan that Sānyuán installs is one of the most influential numerological-anthropological constructs of late-imperial Chinese medicine — adopted as the organising idea of countless subsequent yǎngshēng compilations (cf. KR3eo009, KR3eo031) and embedded into the popular almanac tradition.
Links
- DZ 838 Sānyuán yánshòu cānzàn shū (Schipper-Verellen, Daoist Canon, 1175–1177).
- 李鵬飛 CBDB
- Kanseki DB
- 三元參贊延壽書