Xiànquán jí 峴泉集
Hanging-Spring Collection by 張宇初 (撰)
About the work
Xiànquán jí 峴泉集 in 4 juǎn — the surviving collection of writings of Zhāng Yǔchū 張宇初 (1361–1410), zì Zǐxuán 子璿**, forty-third-generation Celestial Master (sìshísān dài Tiānshī 四十三代天師) of the Lónghǔ shān 龍虎山 Zhèngyī 正一 lineage; native of Guìxī 貴溪 (Jiāngxī). Inherited the Dàojiào patriarchate in Hóngwǔ 10 (1377); died Yǒnglè 8 (1410). The collection’s prominent feature is its overwhelmingly Confucian-classical / Lǐxué register: Tàijí shì 太極釋, Xiāntiāntú lùn 先天圖論, Hétú yuánbiàn 河圖原辨, Xúnzǐ biàn 荀子辨, Yīnfújīng 陰符經 — the Sìkù editors note that these are all in accord with what the Confucians say, and that the Wènshén 問神 essay takes Chéng[-Yí] and Zhū[-Xī]‘s principle as its basis, never magnifying his teaching with the wild-and-strange talk of cloud-master and wind-elder. The transmission has shrunk severely: Sòng Lián 宋濂 (宋濂) once praised Zhāng’s yǐngwù yǒu wénxué (sharp insight, accomplished in literature), and Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊’s Míngshī zōng records a 20-juǎn edition (poetry comprising half), prefaced by Wáng Shēn 王紳; the present WYG recension is only 4 juǎn, all prose except for a few dozen gēxíng (poems) at the end of the last juǎn. Although the Wáng Shēn preface is preserved at the head, the 20-juǎn edition itself is gone.
Tiyao
Xiànquán jí in 4 juǎn — by Zhāng Yǔchū of the Míng. Yǔchū, zì Zǐxuán, native of Guìxī; descendant of Dàolíng 道陵 [Zhāng Dàolíng, the founding Celestial Master]. In Hóngwǔ 10 (1377) he inherited the zhǎng (presidency) of the Dào teaching; died Yǒnglè 8 (1410). Sòng Lián once praised him as yǐngwù yǒu wénxué. Zhū Yízūn’s Míngshī zōng records his collection in 20 juǎn, of which half is poetry. Wáng Shēn wrote its preface. The present text is entirely his prose works; only at the end are appended several dozen gēxíng. At the head, although the Shēn preface is preserved, the old 20-juǎn edition is no longer extant. Among the pieces, those such as the Tàijí shì, Xiāntiāntú lùn, Hétú yuánbiàn, Xúnzǐ biàn, and Yīnfújīng biàn are all in accord with Confucian discourse. The Wènshén essay takes the principle of Chéng and Zhū entirely as its basis, never magnifying his teaching with the wild-and-strange talk of cloud-master and wind-elder. Compared with those who recite the books of Zhōu and Kǒng but expound the views of Fó (Buddha) and Lǎo (Daoism), [Zhāng] is far indeed [in the opposite direction]. Compiled and presented respectfully in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Sìkù editors place Zhāng Yǔchū outside the conventional Daoist-patriarch literary expectation: a Celestial Master writing in a thoroughly Sòng-school Lǐxué register, deploying the Tàijí, Xiāntiāntú, Hétú, and Yīnfújīng materials within the ChéngZhū conceptual frame, not within the Quánzhēn or Zhèngyī internal-alchemy frame that one might expect. This is consistent with what is now known of Zhāng’s wider role in the early-Míng state-sponsored Daoist institutional consolidation: he is also the compiler of the Dàomén shíguī 道門十規 (c. 1400, preserved as DZ 1232 in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng), an institutional rectification document that pre-figures the eventual 1445 compilation of the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng. His Confucian-classical literary register is one face of the same intellectual project: positioning the Lónghǔshān Celestial-Master institution as compatible with — even continuous with — Sòng-school orthodoxy.
The textual loss is dramatic: Zhū Yízūn’s Míngshī zōng attests a 20-juǎn edition of which half was poetry. The WYG recension is one-fifth of this; the lost 16 juǎn include the entire poetic corpus except for a few gēxíng. The Wáng Shēn preface (printed at the head of the 20-juǎn edition) survived as a paratext detached from its text.
Translations and research
- Pierre-Henry de Bruyn, Le Wudang shan: Histoire des récits fondateurs. EFEO, 2010. Background on Zhāng Yǔ-chū’s role in the early-Míng state-Daoist consolidation.
- Schipper & Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. 3 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Notice of Zhāng Yǔ-chū and Dào-mén shí-guī (DZ 1232).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The collection is unusual within KR4e in being the personal biéjí of a sitting Celestial-Master patriarch. The Confucian-philological register has obvious institutional motivation — Zhāng’s collection is in a sense self-presentational evidence for the Dàomén shíguī’s argument that Daoist clergy should be classically literate.