Táo Hóngjǐng jí 陶弘景集
Collected Works of Tao Hongjing (Reconstructed) by 陶弘景 (撰)
About the work
A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the literary writings of Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景 (456–536 CE), founder of the Máoshān 茅山 Shàngqīng 上清 Daoist tradition, physician, pharmacologist, and imperial adviser to Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝. Organized in three juǎn, the fragments are cited in the Dào Zàng 道藏 under 《陶隱居集》 (Táo Yǐnjū jí, “Collection of the Retired Scholar Táo”), reflecting his hermit sobriquet Huáyáng yǐnjū 華陽隱居. Major pieces include the 〈水仙賦〉 (Rhapsody on the Water Immortal), a lengthy Daoist literary exercise describing the realms of the water immortals, rich in cosmological imagery; and fragments of other literary and religious compositions.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.
Abstract
Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景 (456–536; zì Tōngmíng 通明; hào Huáyáng yǐnjū 華陽隱居; CBDB id 439191) was the most consequential Daoist master of the early medieval period, responsible for systematizing the Shàngqīng 上清 revelations and editing the Zhēngāo 真誥. See 陶弘景 for full biography.
His literary writings were produced alongside his religious and scientific work and are marked by Daoist cosmological vocabulary and imagery. The 〈水仙賦〉 is a substantial fù describing the domains, activities, and cosmic significance of the water immortals (shuǐxiān 水仙), evoking rivers, seas, and immortal palaces in the tradition of the Yuèfǔ sea-excursion poems. References to figures like Ānqī 安期 (the immortal Ānqī Shēng 安期生) and the Queen Mother of the West (Xī Wángmǔ 西王母) situate the poem firmly within the Daoist immortality tradition that Táo systematized in his practical work.
The Dào Zàng 道藏 (Zūn 尊 character section) preserves his literary writings as 《陶隱居集》. He is listed in the general bibliography of Liáng dynasty literary works, and later bibliographic catalogues record a literary collection, though it was largely lost by the Sòng. The present reconstruction draws primarily from Daoist canonical sources and the Tàipíng guǎng jì 太平廣記 and Yùlǎn 御覽 traditions.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching.” In Facets of Taoism, ed. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979: 123–192.
- Strickmann, Michel. Le taoïsme du Mao Chan: Chronique d’une révélation. Paris: Collège de France, 1981.
- Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Tr. Phyllis Brooks. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Links
- Wikipedia: Tao Hongjing