Fúshòu dānshū 福壽丹書
Cinnabar Book of Felicity and Long Life by 龔居中 Gōng Jūzhōng (zì Yìngyuán 應圓, fl. late-Wànlì to Tiānqǐ era, late-Míng physician of Jīnxī 金谿 in Jiāngxī).
About the work
A six-juan yǎngshēng compendium organised under five categorical biān 編 (sections), each addressing one domain of life-preservation:
- 安養 Ānyǎng — “Tranquil Nourishment”: general principles of life-preservation, framed around the recognition of how illness arises so that life can be preserved.
- 延齡 Yánlíng — “Extending Years”: the origins of senescence and the methods for slowing them.
- 服食 Fúshí — “Drug Ingestion”: medicinal-pharmaceutical methods.
- 採補 Cǎibǔ — “Gathering-and-Supplementing”: the sexual-alchemical fángzhōng literature, with particular emphasis on the shēngmén sǐhù, huǒlóng shuǐhǔ 生門死戶火龍水虎 (Gate of Life, Door of Death, Fire-Dragon, Water-Tiger) terminology of inner alchemy.
- 玄修 Xuánxiū — “Mysterious Cultivation”: the inner-alchemical practice proper, with focus on shēnqiān xīngǒng dìngshuǐ huìhuǒ 身鉛心汞定水慧火 (the body-lead, mind-mercury, set-water, wisdom-fire configuration).
A closing 清樂 Qīnglè (“Pure Joy”) chapter on aesthetic-recreational yǎngshēng in the literati mode (xiāoyáo yídǐng túshǐ zhī jiān, yíqíng fēngyuè shānshuǐ zhī qù 逍遙彝鼎圖史之間、怡情風月山水之趣 — “loitering among bronzes and paintings, taking joy from breezes-moon and mountains-streams”) rounds out the volume.
Prefaces
The transmitted xù yī 序一 (the first preface) by an anonymous friend of the compiler narrates: “Felicity cannot be obtained casually; long life cannot be reached through good luck — how should Heaven be stingy toward people? It is rather that people are stingy with themselves. — Why? The poor-and-vexed have indeed no way to obtain felicity; but the rich-and-honoured-and-glorious also, through over-much use, cannot obtain full felicity. The hard-toiling-and-pursuing-after have indeed no means to reach long life; but the peacefully-at-home-and-leisurely also, through their snared affections for desire, cannot reach long life. — This is why felicity-and-long-life are not often manifest in people. Who knows how to cherish felicity and preserve long life? — That which is called cherishing rests in cultivating virtue and reducing wants. Without intent to harm others — this is cultivating virtue. Without intent to benefit-self — this is reducing wants. The essentials are sought in establishing the heart… that what blocks desire, by not drowning passion in spring-fairness, is taking… the essentials are first in nourishing qì — this is the reason this Fúshòu cinnabar was made. — My friend Yìngyuán Gōngjūn [Mr. Gōng of the hào Yìngyuán] was widely read across the groups of texts, refined in his elegance with named-things; that he is called Yìngyuán is because he truly grasps the inner-circle to respond to the boundless. He has gathered the famous masters into the qúnyù 群玉 (the “group of jades”), classed them into a single volume, named Fúshòu dānshū.”
The first preface lays out the structural plan of the work (the five biān enumerated above) and is the principal source for the editorial framework.
Abstract
The compiler 龔居中 Gōng Jūzhōng (zì Yìngyuán 應圓, fl. late-Wànlì to Tiānqǐ era, c. 1610–1640) is also the author of the celebrated Tánhuǒ diǎnxuě 痰火點雪 (KR3eh040) (痰火點雪), the principal late-Míng treatise on tánhuǒ (phlegm-fire) pathology. The Fúshòu dānshū is his principal yǎngshēng compilation, integrating the late-Míng synthesis of (i) Confucian moral-cultivational discourse (yǎngdé), (ii) Daoist inner-alchemical practice (xuánxiū), (iii) the fángzhōng sexual-alchemical literature (cǎibǔ), and (iv) the literati aesthetic-recreational yǎngshēng (qīnglè). The work belongs to the same late-Wànlì publishing efflorescence as 高濂 Gāo Lián’s Zūnshēng bājiān 遵生八牋 (KR3j0172) (1591) and 萬全 Wàn Quán’s Yǎngshēng sìyào (KR3eo025).
The work’s most distinctive section is the Cǎibǔ chapter, which preserves a substantial body of late-Míng fángzhōng literature (sexual-alchemical “gathering and supplementing”) that was widely censored in the Qīng. The work is consequently an important witness to the late-Míng sexual-alchemical canon in its full form.
The date bracket 1610–1632 reflects Gōng’s active publishing period.
Translations and research
- 龔居中, Fú-shòu dān-shū, in Sì-kù wèi-shōu shū jí-kān 四庫未收書輯刊 series.
- 龔居中, Tán-huǒ diǎn-xuě — modern critical editions by 高春樂, 楊培東 et al.
- Douglas Wile, Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992) — for the cǎi-bǔ literature.
- Vivienne Lo and Christopher Cullen (eds.), Medieval Chinese Medicine (Routledge, 2005).
- Zhōng-guó yī-jí dà-cí-diǎn, s.v. 福壽丹書.
Other points of interest
The Fúshòu dānshū is one of the few late-Míng yǎngshēng compendia to explicitly preserve the fángzhōng literature without significant censorship — making it a key source for the late-Míng sexual-alchemical canon. The Qīng Sìkù censorship excluded most works of this type; their re-emergence in modern scholarship has largely been through editions like the present jicheng.tw reprint and the Sìkù wèishōu shū jíkān series.
Links
- Companion in the corpus: KR3eh040 痰火點雪 (Gōng’s tánhuǒ treatise).
- Kanseki DB
- 福壽丹書