元始無量度人上品妙經通義

Yuánshǐ wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng tōngyì 元始無量度人上品妙經通義

Comprehensive Interpretation of the “Wondrous Scripture of Limitless Salvation”

four-juan early-Míng commentary on the Dùrén jīng 度人經 by the forty-third Celestial Master Zhāng Yǔchū 張宇初 (1361–1410), drawing heavily on [[KR5a0090|Xiāo Yīngsǒu’s Nèiyì (DZ 90)]] and on a lost commentary by Léi Mò’ān 雷默庵; preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0089 / CT 89), 洞真部 本文類

About the work

A four-juan early-Míng comprehensive interpretation (tōngyì 通義) of the Dùrén jīng by the forty-third Celestial Master Zhāng Yǔchū 張宇初 (1361–1410), drawing on virtually all earlier Dùrénjīng commentators from Yán Dōng 嚴東 through Xuē Jìzhāo 薛季昭. As an interpretation the text is heavily derivative, relying especially on Xiāo Yīngsǒu’s 蕭應叟 [[KR5a0090|DZ 90 Nèiyì]] and on an otherwise-lost commentary by Léi Mò’ān 雷默庵 (see notice on [[KR5a0092|DZ 92 Dùrén jīng zhùjiě]]).

Zhāng first mentions Xiāo Yīngsǒu by name only at 1.15b, but his interpretation of the first part of the text in terms of Inner Alchemy derives almost entirely from Xiāo (cf. 1.5a–15b with DZ 90 Miàojīng nèiyì 1.10b–2.6a). In addition to Zhāng’s identified borrowings from Léi Mò’ān, the prefatory diagrams not taken from Xiāo’s Nèiyì — which link the Dùrén jīng to thunder-rite lore — probably also derive from Léi. In excluding the Yuánshǐ língshū shàng / xià piān (at 4.2a), Zhāng invokes the joint authority of Léi and Xiāo. The direct citations from Léi are on the whole unremarkable.

Zhāng concludes the text with a postface to Léi Mò’ān’s edition of the Dùrén jīng, originally revealed by the Celestial Lord Xīn 辛 during a séance in a gēngyín 庚寅 year (1290?). After recalling his revelation of the Hùnyuán 混元 Thunder rites to Léi, Xīn launches into an encomium on the Dùrén jīng: it is the only text, says Xīn, that survives all final cataclysms, safe in the Jade Capital. It contains within it the entire “mystery of Hùnyuán”; the precious pearl at the beginning of the text is the human heart, and Yuánshǐ tiānzūn is the “primordial spirit” — so that “when one recites this text with appropriate concentration, it is the Primordial Beginning who recites.” Those who do not understand the scripture’s meaning can save neither themselves nor others. Most of these points are cited again in Zhāng’s commentary (1.15a, 23a–24b).

The postface complements the biography of Léi Mò’ān in [[KR5a0297|DZ 297 Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn xùbiān 歷世真仙體道通鑑續編]] 5.11b–14a: it was while reciting the Dùrén jīng that the Hùnyuán method was originally revealed to Léi. Seven days later, the Celestial Lord Xīn appeared to tell Léi that “this teaching is based entirely on the Dùrén jīng.” Finally, Léi’s last request before his testamentary poem and death was that his disciples recite for him the Dùrén jīng one last time.

Prefaces

No original prefaces preserved as discrete prose preludes; the work is framed by Zhāng’s own integrative comments and by the appended postface to Léi Mò’ān’s edition.

Abstract

John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:715–716 (§3.A.1), dates the work within Zhāng Yǔchū’s Celestial-Master tenure, and the frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1390 / notAfter 1410 (consistent with Zhāng’s death date), with dynasty 明初. Zhāng Yǔchū is the only person wikilinked, reflecting his role as author/editor; Léi Mò’ān and Xiāo Yīngsǒu are discussed in prose as Zhāng’s sources.

Translations and research

No complete translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing tongyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 715–716. For Zhāng Yǔchū see the person note 張宇初 and the entries on his other works (DZ 1215 and DZ 1232).

Other points of interest

The commentary is the early-Míng “official” Celestial-Master reading of the Dùrén jīng, and as such defines the normative Míng ZhèngyīTiānshī exegesis for the scripture that the Daozang places at DZ 1. Its heavy reliance on Xiāo Yīngsǒu’s Nèiyì fixes the inner-alchemical framing of the scripture as the dominant Míng-era interpretive mode.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5a0089
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 715–716 — DZ 89 entry (John Lagerwey).