Guǎngchéng jí 廣成集
The Guǎng-chéng (Master Vast-Completion) Collection by 杜光庭 (撰)
About the work
The twelve-juǎn WYG collection of memorials and Daoist zhāijiào (purification-and-offering) liturgical texts of Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭 (850–933) — the leading Daoist of the late Táng / Former-Shǔ period and the most prolific Daoist liturgical author in Chinese history. The title takes Dù’s honorific Guǎngchéng xiānshēng 廣成先生 (conferred by Wáng Yǎn 王衍 of Former-Shǔ in 923 at the reciprocal-investiture ceremony — see the 杜光庭 person note). The collection covers two functional registers: (1) biǎo 表 — formal memorials presented to the Former-Shǔ throne (these include such pieces as Xiè chú Hùbù shìláng biǎo 謝除戶部侍郎表, Hè shōufù Lǒngzhōu biǎo 賀收復隴州表, Hè tàiyáng dāngkuī bùkuī biǎo 賀太陽當虧不虧表 — congratulations on a predicted solar eclipse failing to occur on the dīngwèi day); (2) zhāijiàowén 齋醮文 — purification-and-offering liturgical texts composed at imperial command for the Former-Shǔ court — the principal Daoist court-liturgical corpus of the entire Five Dynasties period.
The text is incomplete. The Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì records Dù’s Guǎngchéng jí in 100 juǎn plus a Húzhōng jí 壺中集 of three juǎn; the Tōngzhì yìwénluè records Dù’s jí at 30 juǎn. The present text — twelve juǎn of biǎo and zhāijiào only — preserves a small fraction. Several of Dù’s known prose pieces (e.g., the Xù Máo Xiānwēng luèwén preface, the Lúzhōu Liú zhēnrén bēijì, the Qīngchéngxiàn chóngxiū chōngmiàoguān bēijì, the Yúnshēnggōng Guǎngyúnwài zūnshī bēijì, the Sānxuéshān gōngdé bēiwén) — listed in the Shíguó chūnqiū — are not in this text, indicating that the present is “the surviving residuum, no longer the complete original.”
Tiyao
“We respectfully report: Guǎngchéng jí, twelve juǎn. Composed by Dù Guāngtíng of Shǔ. Guāngtíng, as a Daoist master, served Wáng Jiàn and Wáng Yǎn of Former-Shǔ; he was given the title Guǎngchéng xiānshēng; he later retired to Qīngchéngshān 青城山 and died at age 85. His other works — Dòngtiān fúdì jì, Dàojiào língyàn jì, Yōngchéng jí xiānlù, Shénxiān gǎnyù zhuàn — are separately catalogued under the Daoist division. The Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì records Guāngtíng’s Guǎngchéng jí in 100 juǎn and the Húzhōng jí in 3 juǎn; the Tōngzhì yìwénluè records Guāngtíng jí in 30 juǎn. The present text in 12 juǎn contains only the biǎo and zhāijiàowén — two genres. The Shíguó chūnqiū records the preface to the Máo Xiānwēng luèwén, the Lúzhōu Liú zhēnrén bēijì, the Qīngchéngxiàn chóngxiū chōngmiàoguān bēijì, the Yúnshēnggōng Guǎngyúnwài zūnshī bēijì, and the Sānxuéshān gōngdé bēiwén — none of these are in the present text. Clearly the surviving residuum is not the complete original. According to the Tōngjiàn, the Shǔ ruler made Guāngtíng Jiànyì dàifū (Censor of Remonstrance), but the collection has a Xiè chú Hùbù shìláng biǎo; the Tōngjiàn does not mention this office. According to the Tōngjiàn, Wáng Zōngwǎn 王宗綰 took Bǎojī Qíbǎoshèng jiédùshǐ Lǐ Jìjī’s surrender and restored him as Sāng Hóngzhì; but the collection’s Hè shōufù Lǒngzhōu biǎo says ‘jiédùshǐ Sāng Jiǎn submitted with his troops’ — so ‘Hóngzhì’ was also called ‘Jiǎn’, a fact the histories do not record. There is a Hè tàiyáng dāngkuī bùkuī biǎo saying ‘On the present month’s first dīngwèi sì-hour, the sun was due to be totally eclipsed at 11 dù of the Zhěn lunar lodge’. Cross-checked against the histories: under Shǔ Tàizǔ Yǒngpíng 1 (911) on the new moon of the first month dīnghài; under Hòuzhǔ Qiándé 3 (965) [should read: 921] on the new moon of the sixth month yǐmǎo; in Qiándé 5 (923) on the new moon of the tenth month xīnwèi — all are recorded eclipse days, but none is on a dīngwèi. Shǔ used Hú Xiùlín’s Yǒngchāng almanac, perhaps differing from the central-China practice. This is worth comparing. The collection has medi-text-period Wáng Jiàn-period liturgies — Chuānzhǔ xiànggōng (Lord-Chancellor of Sìchuān), Sītú (Minister of Public Works), Shǔwáng (King of Shǔ), Tàishī (Grand Preceptor); cross-checked with the histories, Wáng Jiàn was Xīchuān jiédù tóng píngzhāngshì, shǒu Sītú, enfeoffed Shǔwáng — all match precisely; only the Tàishī title is omitted from the histories. There is also Hànzhōu shàngshū Wáng Zōngkuí, Zhènjiāng shìzhōng Wáng Zōngàn — both Wáng Jiàn’s yǎngzǐ (adopted sons); the Shíguó chūnqiū details their offices but does not record their Hànzhōu cìshǐ and Zhènjiāngjūn jiédùshǐ postings. There is also Yuèguó fūrén’s Dōutǒng Zōngkǎn huányuàn cí — saying ‘pressed against the lonely city for ten days, suddenly heard the ramparts were broken — full of merit in sweeping the xiōngkuáng, fulfilling the wisdom-and-brightness reward’. The histories record Wáng Zōngkǎn 王宗侃 as Běilù xíngyíng dūtǒng and his attack on Qí; in the Qīngnílǐng zhī zhàn, Zōngkǎn’s troops were heavily defeated; the Shǔ ruler held him answerable; he returned without merit — diametrically opposed to the wording in the present text. Guāngtíng’s parallel-prose is voluminous and well-developed but full of religious-sect roundabout-speech, not entirely consistent with the orthodox standard. However, the writings of the Five-Dynasties period are mostly fragmentary; the present text has many things mutually verifying with the standard histories — hence we record it in full as an aid to comparing similarities and differences. Respectfully presented, Qiánlóng 43 / 5 (1778). Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General reviser: Lù Fèichí.”
Abstract
The Guǎngchéng jí is the principal surviving liturgical-cum-administrative prose corpus of late-Táng / Former-Shǔ Daoism. Cataloged here as a biéjí (collected works) under the Former-Shǔ rather than the Táng — Wáng Jiàn declared Former-Shǔ in 907; Dù served his court from 901 onwards as jīfǔ (court chaplain) and from 923 received the Chuánzhēn tiānshī and Guǎngchéng xiānshēng honorifics from Wáng Yǎn. The biǎo are mostly composed on Wáng Jiàn’s or Wáng Yǎn’s behalf for ceremonial occasions (eclipse-non-occurrence, military victory, court appointments); the zhāijiàowén (purification-and-offering liturgies) are mostly composed on behalf of imperial princes, princesses, military commanders, and aristocratic patrons.
The collection’s bibliographic significance is threefold: (a) it preserves the principal court-Daoist liturgical corpus of the Five-Dynasties period — a corpus elsewhere lost; (b) the biǎo contain many prosopographical details on Former-Shǔ personnel (including the offices of Wáng Jiàn’s yǎngzǐ — adopted-son generals — at Hànzhōu and Zhènjiāngjūn not recorded in the standard histories); (c) the rare astronomical detail in the Hè tàiyáng dāngkuī bùkuī biǎo documents the use of Hú Xiùlín’s Yǒngchāng almanac at the Former-Shǔ court — important evidence for the divergence of Five-Dynasties calendrical practice from central-China norms.
CBDB id 92840 confirms 850–933. The collection’s date-bracket — 901 (Wáng Jiàn’s Chuānzhǔ xiànggōng status, the earliest documented) to 933 (Dù’s death) — corresponds to the active Former-Shǔ court-Daoist period. See the 杜光庭 person note for the broader career.
Translations and research
- Franciscus Verellen. 1989. Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale. Paris: Mémoires de l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises. — Standard Western-language monograph; treats the Guǎng-chéng jí as the principal documentary corpus.
- Franciscus Verellen. Multiple articles in Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie on Former-Shǔ Daoism and the Guǎng-chéng jí liturgies.
- 孫亦平 Sūn Yì-píng. 2005. Dù Guāng-tíng yán-jiū 杜光庭研究. Nanjing.
- Suzanne Cahill. 2006. Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood. Three Pines Press. — Translation of Dù’s Yōng-chéng jí xiān-lù (a separate work, but illuminating context).
Other points of interest
The Hè tàiyáng dāngkuī bùkuī biǎo (Memorial Congratulating the Sun on Eclipse-That-Failed-to-Occur) is a remarkable document: an imperial congratulation when an eclipse predicted by court astronomers did not in fact occur. The Sìkù tiyao uses this single text to make a major astronomical-history point — that the Former-Shǔ court used Hú Xiùlín’s Yǒngchāng almanac, whose prediction-set differed from contemporaneous central-China practice — important evidence for Five-Dynasties calendrical pluralism.