Tàiqīng shénjiàn 太清神鑑
Supreme-Clarity Spirit-Mirror (Sòng-period physiognomic compendium) pseudepigraphically attributed to 王朴 (Wáng Pǔ, late-Wǔ-dài HòuZhōu Privy Counsellor); actual author unknown — Sòng-period composition
About the work
A 6-juan late-imperial Chinese physiognomic compendium pseudepigraphically attributed to the late-Wǔ-dài HòuZhōu (後周) Privy Counsellor Wáng Pǔ 王朴. The Sìkù 提要 makes a careful textual-critical case against the Wáng Pǔ attribution:
(a) Inconsistency with Wáng Pǔ’s documented expertise: Both the Xīn Wǔdài shǐ (Ōuyáng Xiū) and the Jiù Wǔdài shǐ (Xuē Jūzhèng) document Wáng Pǔ’s expertise in yīnyáng lǜfǎ (yīnyáng pitch-pipes-and-methods) and xīngwěi shēnglǜ (asterism-and-pitch-pipes) — but neither records his expertise in physiognomy.
(b) Geographic incompatibility: the work’s preface claims its author “left the Línwū grotto” — but Wáng Pǔ was a Dōngpíng family man who served the central court; “his footprints never reached Jiāngzuǒ” (the south-of-the-river region where Línwū grotto is located). The Lín-wū-grotto authorship-claim is therefore impossible for Wáng Pǔ.
(c) The pseudepigraphic motive: Wáng Pǔ’s reputation for shùshù expertise made him a magnet for pseudepigraphic attribution of subsequent shùshù works. Wáng Yín’s Mòjì records anecdotes (Wáng Pǔ traveling with the HòuZhōu Shìzōng to the Wǔzhànghé river and seeing a fire-wheel small-child predicting Sòng’s replacement of Zhōu) — “absolutely fanciful and not believable”; popular interest in such anecdotes encouraged pseudepigraphic compositions under Wáng Pǔ’s name.
The 提要 nonetheless commends the work’s substantive content: “The various books it cites — the chapter-titles are mostly pre-Sòng [editions]. Its synthesis of numerical principle, dissection of meaning-essence, often [reaches] subtle-points; suspected also issues from Sòng people [authors], not later technique-practitioners’ wild discussions”. The work is therefore a Sòng-period physiognomic synthesis with substantive traditional-source content, not a late forgery.
The Sìkù-recension is recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, with about 70-80% of the original content reconstructable; reorganized into 6 juàn. The Wáng Pǔ attribution is removed from the byline.
For the broader physiognomic tradition, see KR3g0043, KR3g0044, KR3g0046.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), ninth month.]