元始無量度人上品妙經四註

Yuánshǐ wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng sìzhù 元始無量度人上品妙經四註

Four Commentaries on the “Wondrous Scripture of the Upper Chapters on Limitless Salvation of the Primordial Commencement”

the famous “Four Commentators” (Sìjiā zhù 四家註) recension of the one-juan Dùrén jīng 度人經, compiled and prefaced by Chén Jǐngyuán 陳景元 in 1067, four juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0087 / CT 87), 洞真部 本文類

About the work

A four-juan critical-compilation edition of the commentaries on the original one-juan Dùrén jīng 度人經 (DZ 1 juan 1) assembled by the Northern-Sòng Daoist scholar-patriarch Chén Jǐngyuán 陳景元 (1024–1094) and prefaced by him in Qīngníng 治平 4 (1067). The commentaries are those of the four canonical “Four Commentators” (Sìjiā 四家):

1. Yán Dōng 嚴東 (fl. 485; LZTT 28.14b–15a) — the oldest of the four, Six-Dynasties. Although his commentary is not cited in juan 1 (which contains the preface of the Dùrén jīng), he refers to its events elsewhere (2.58a). Yán Dōng touches on cosmology but his primary aim is definition of the text’s vocabulary.

2. Xuē Yōuqī 薛幽棲 (fl. 754; LZTT 39.10b–11b). His preface to the edition is dated jiǎwǔ 甲午 (754).

3. Lǐ Shàowēi 李少微 (Táng). Li’s commentary is not only the most frequently-used of the four but also “the most interesting” (Lagerwey in S-V 2004, 2:713). He cites many texts, especially from the Dòngshén 洞神 canon, providing clear descriptions of the Three Offices (2.32b–36b) and the Five Spirits of the body (3.20a–21b). He mentions a Shēngtiān qì 昇天契 (“Contract for the Ascension to Heaven”) without which the Celestial Officers will not open the Gate of Heaven. He places the cycle of Thirty-Two Heavens starting in the northwest at the Gate of Heaven (contra Yán Dōng who places it in the east).

4. Chéng Xuányīng 成玄英 (fl. 631–655, possibly until 669). Chéng appears to cite Lǐ Shàowēi, indicating his posteriority (cf. 3.9a, 9b with Li’s commentary at 3.11b). Chéng is the most famous of the four in the wider Daoist-philosophical context, being also the premier Táng commentator on the Dàodé jīng and Zhuāngzǐ.

The compilation includes three prefaces: one by Sòng emperor Zhēnzōng 真宗 (r. 997–1022; see Van der Loon 134); Chén Jǐngyuán’s own preface dated 1067; and Xuē Yōuqī’s original 754 preface. The paragraph on the divisions of the Dùrén jīng and the phonetic glosses at the end are based on those in Zhāng Wànfú’s 張萬福 [[KR5a0095|DZ 95 Dòngxuán língbǎo wúliàng dùrén jīng jué yīnyì]] 7b–9b.

Prefaces

Three prefaces, preserved in the source:

1. Preface by Sòng emperor Zhēnzōng 真宗 (r. 997–1022), composed as an imperial benediction of the Dùrén jīng tradition.

2. Preface by Chén Jǐngyuán 陳景元, dated 1067 — the editor’s own introduction explaining his assembly of the four commentaries into a single critical text.

3. Preface by Xuē Yōuqī 薛幽棲, dated jiǎwǔ 甲午 (754) — the Táng commentator’s original preface, preserved by Chén Jǐngyuán from Xuē’s stand-alone recension.

Abstract

The Sìzhù 四註 is the authoritative Sòng-era critical edition of the Dùrén jīng commentarial tradition and remains the single most important point of entry to the classical Chinese commentary-literature on the scripture. The compilation is tightly dated: Chén Jǐngyuán’s own preface is dated Qīngníng 4 (1067), making this scripture one of the most securely-dated commentarial works in the Daozang. The frontmatter locks the composition-date at 1067 for both notBefore and notAfter; dynasty 北宋.

The compilation is a work of Chén Jǐngyuán, who is wikilinked in frontmatter under function biān 編 (editor) — not as commentator; the commentaries themselves belong to Yán Dōng, Xuē Yōuqī, Lǐ Shàowēi, and Chéng Xuányīng, each of whom is named in prose. commentedTextid is set to KR5a0001 (the parent Dùrén jīng).

Translations and research

No complete translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing sizhu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2, §3.A.1, 712–713. For Chén Jǐngyuán see the person note 陳景元; for the wider Dùrén jīng commentarial apparatus see the entries on DZ 87–92, all treated by Lagerwey in the same volume.

Other points of interest

The Sìzhù is the compilation that definitively stabilises the “Four Commentators” (Sìjiā) tradition as the classical exegetical apparatus for the Dùrén jīng — a status it retains through the Yuán and Míng into the Qīng. Chén Jǐngyuán’s editorial decisions about how to present the four commentaries (interlinear, side-by-side, successive) shape the reception of the Dùrén jīng for centuries. The three-preface apparatus (imperial, editorial, original-Táng) is itself a statement about the scripture’s authority across three strata of sanctification.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5a0087
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 712–713 — DZ 87 entry (John Lagerwey).