宗玄集

Zōngxuán jí 宗玄集

Collected Works of [Master] of the Origin of the Mystery (Wú Yún) by 吳筠 (撰)

About the work

Zōngxuán jí 宗玄集 in 3 juǎn — with appended Yuángāng lùn 元綱論 in 1 juǎn and Nèidān jiǔzhāng jīng 內丹九章經 in 1 juǎn — is the surviving collection of Wú Yún 吳筠 (d. 778), the Tiānbǎo / Dàlì-period Daoist priest-poet whose patronage relationship with Lǐ Bái 李白 is recorded in the Jiù Tángshū Lǐ Bái zhuàn. The title comes from his disciples’ posthumous sīshì 私諡 honorific Zōngxuán xiānshēng 宗玄先生 (“Master of the Origin of the Mystery”). The transmitted text descends through the Míng Zhìyuán Dàozàng 正統道藏 print rather than through the secular biéjí tradition. The Sòng catalogs (Wénxiàn tōngkǎo) record a 10-juǎn version with a Quán Déyú 權德輿 權德輿 preface; the present 3-juǎn abridgement contains only 119 pieces (against the 450 piān mentioned in Quán’s preface), so the WYG text is incomplete.

Tiyao

Zōngxuán jí in 3 juǎn, with appended Yuángāng lùn 元綱論 in 1 juǎn, Nèidān jiǔzhāng jīng 內丹九章經 in 1 juǎn. By Wú Yún of the Táng. Yún’s zì was Zhēnjié 貞節, a Huáyīn 華陰 man, who became a recluse at Nányáng 南陽; in Tiānbǎo he was summoned to the capital, requested to become a Daoist priest, and lived at Sōngshān 嵩山; later he returned to Máoshān 茅山 and went east to Kuàijī 會稽, traveling between Tiāntāi 天台 and Shàn 剡, exchanging poems with Lǐ Bái 李白 and Kǒng Cháofǔ 孔巢父. He died in Dàlì; his disciples conferred the sīshì Zōngxuán xiānshēng on him. He has biographies in the yǐnyì zhuàn of both Jiù Tángshū and Xīn Tángshū.

The present text is the Bàoshì zhībùzúzhāi 鮑氏知不足齋 transcript [from the Dàozàng]; the closing colophon says it is “absorbed into the Dàozàng; the world has no separate edition.” But the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo says: “Wú Yún Zōngxuán xiānshēng jí in 10 juǎn; the front has Quán Déyú’s preface; placed in sequence among the biéjí.” So at the time there were circulating copies. The colophon is dated wùshēn with no era — it must postdate the Tōngkǎo.

The front of juǎn 1 has Quán Déyú’s preface saying Tàiyuán Wáng Yán 太原王顏 collated his remaining writings into 30 juǎn; afterward there is a Wú zūnshī […] yì Déyú zhuàn 吳尊師亦德輿撰 (“[Mr] Wú the venerable master, also written by Déyú”) which says 20 juǎn — disagreeing with both 30 and the Tōngkǎo’s 10. Déyú’s preface gives 450 piān; the present text totals only 119 piān (poetry, fù, lùn) — so it is not complete.

The JiùTángshū biography says Wú is a Lǔzhōng 魯中 Confucian; the XīnTángshū biography says he is a Huázhōu 華州 Huáyīn man; Déyú’s preface says Huáyīn, but the biography says Lǔ Confucian — and the preface says he received Zhèngyī fǎ 正一法 from Féng zūnshī 馮尊師, five generations after Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景, while the biography says he received Zhèngyī fǎ from Pān Tǐyuán 潘體元, who was Féng’s teacher — the two sources are discordant.

The Jiù Tángshū Lǐ Bái biography says Lǐ Bái in early Tiānbǎo travelled to Kuàijī, and lived as a recluse at Shàn with the Daoist priest Wú Yún; but the Wú Yún biography says Wú, anticipating the An Lùshān rebellion, asked to return to Máoshān; afterward, with the chaos in Zhōngyuán and JiāngHuái full of bandits, he then went east to Kuàijī and exchanged poems with Lǐ Bái and Kǒng Cháofǔ — but at this point Lǐ Bái had already been exiled to Yèláng over the Yǒngwáng Lín 永王璘 affair, so he could not have lived in retreat with Wú. The biography is therefore a forgery; the preface dates Wú’s death to Dàlì 13 (778), with the preface composed 25 years later, in Zhēnyuán 19 (803). Quán Déyú took zhīlǐbù gòngjǔ in Zhēnyuán 17 (801), so the dating is internally consistent.

(Reverently collated and submitted at… [signature line truncated in transcription])

Abstract

The Zōngxuán jí is one of the principal Tang-period Daoist literary collections — Wú Yún’s poetry and fù run alongside his prose treatises on zhèngyī 正一 ritual, nèidān 內丹 (internal alchemy), and Daoist political philosophy. The Sìkù tíyào is unusually candid about textual problems: the present 3-juǎn abridgement is far less than Quán Déyú’s 30-juǎn (or alternative 20-juǎn) original; the standard-history biographies disagree with the preface on Wú’s native place and Daoist lineage; and the JiùTángshū claim of late shared retreat with Lǐ Bái is chronologically impossible (Lǐ Bái was in exile at Yèláng in the years in question).

The two appended fùlù texts — Yuángāng lùn 元綱論 (a treatise on cosmological yuán 元 / gāng 綱) and Nèidān jiǔzhāng jīng 內丹九章經 (a 9-zhāng internal alchemical text) — are among the principal early-medieval nèidān sources predating the Wǔdài / Sòng explosion of the genre.

Wú Yún (d. 778; CBDB cbdbId per the existing person note) was a Huáyīn 華陰 native (per Quán Déyú’s preface, contradicting the Jiù Tángshū); zì Zhēnjié 貞節. After early Daoist studies under Pān Tǐyuán 潘體元 and / or Féng zūnshī (the disagreement is unresolved) at Sōngshān and Máoshān, he was summoned to court in Tiānbǎo and exchanged literary correspondence with the senior court Daoist priesthood. He retired to Kuàijī and Tiāntāi in the wake of the An Lùshān rebellion and died there in Dàlì 13 (778).

Translations and research

• Edward H. Schafer. 1989. “The Snow of Mao Shan.” T’oung Pao 75: 1–26. Substantial discussion of Wú Yún’s Daoist context.
• Russell Kirkland. 1988. “From Imperial Tutor to Taoist Priest: Ho Chih-chang at the Court of T’ang Hsüan-tsung.” Journal of Asian History 23. Important context.
• Édouard Chavannes. 1909. “Le pèlerinage de Wou Yun.” Mémoires de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 9. Early French treatment.
• Stephen Bokenkamp. 1997. Early Daoist Scriptures. UC Press. Context for the Daoist textual tradition Wú inherits.
• Quán Dé-yú 權德輿’s Wú Yún xù 吳筠序 — the original preface preserved at juǎn 1 of the present collection — is itself the principal contemporary biographical source.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s careful dismantling of the JiùTángshū claim that Lǐ Bái lived in retreat with Wú Yún at Shàn — by appeal to chronology rather than to source-credibility argument — is one of the cleaner examples of the Sìkù compilers using collateral biographical evidence to correct an entrenched standard-history error.

Links

• Wu Yun (Wikidata Q11042842)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature); §44.6 (Tang Daoism).