元始無量度人上品妙經內義

Yuánshǐ wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng nèiyì 元始無量度人上品妙經內義

Esoteric Interpretation of the “Wondrous Scripture of Limitless Salvation”

Southern-Sòng inner-alchemical (nèidān 內丹) commentary on the Dùrén jīng 度人經 by Xiāo Yīngsǒu 蕭應叟, five juan, dated 1226; preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0090 / CT 90), 洞真部 本文類

About the work

A five-juan Southern-Sòng commentary on the Dùrén jīng by Xiāo Yīngsǒu 蕭應叟, assembling the canonical Sìjiā zhù 四家註 of Chén Jǐngyuán (DZ 87) with a sustained new inner-alchemy (nèidān 內丹) interpretation that becomes the most influential Sòng-era exegesis of the scripture. The commentary is preceded by four separate texts, all dated 1226 or attached to that date:

1. A memorial for liturgical use by Xiāo Yīngsǒu, dated 1226, stating that the Nèiyì was originally printed separately as a book in two juan but was then separated into an interlinear commentary for the present edition. Xiāo signs the memorial with his ritual title Shàngqīng dàdòng Xuándū sānjìng fǎshī 上清大洞玄都三境法師.
2. An essay on the “meaning of the scripture,” also dated 1226, in which Xiāo argues that the creative forces captured in the names of the scripture are “in no way different from the drop of essence of True Yáng” at the origin of each person’s life (2b). “The alchemical way and the meaning of the scripture are identical” (6a; cf. 1.5b, where língbǎo 靈寶 and jīndān 金丹 are equated; also 2.8a, where jīngfǎ 經法 is equated with the alchemical way).
3. A description, built around cosmological diagrams, of the origin of the universe from the “Red Writ of Chaos” (hùndòng chìwén 混洞赤文; 7a).
4. “Instructions for the Recitation of the Scripture,” containing a most interesting illustration of the Inner Landscape, showing the circulation of yīn and yáng energies in the body.

Starting with the literal meaning of the text — for which he relies on the four commentaries edited by Chén Jǐngyuán (DZ 87) — Xiāo then deepens the interpretation through numerological and cosmogonic metaphorisation of key elements. His nèidān reading became the canonical inner-alchemical exegesis of the Dùrén jīng, and was the principal source used by the forty-third Celestial Master Zhāng Yǔchū in his [[KR5a0089|DZ 89 Tōngyì]].

Prefaces

Four prefatory texts by Xiāo Yīngsǒu, all dated 1226: the liturgical memorial, the essay on the meaning of the scripture, the cosmogonic description with diagrams, and the recitation-instruction with Inner-Landscape illustration.

Abstract

The work is tightly dated to 1226 by the four prefatory texts. John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:716–717 (§3.A.1), identifies Xiāo as Shàngqīng dàdòng Xuándū sānjìng fǎshī and gives his floruit as c. 1226. The frontmatter locks the composition-date at 1226 for both notBefore and notAfter; dynasty 南宋. Xiāo Yīngsǒu is the sole catalog person wikilinked.

Translations and research

No complete translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing neiyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 716–717. For the wider Sòng inner-alchemical interpretation of the Dùrén jīng see Lagerwey’s introductory treatment of the DZ 87–92 cluster in §3.A.1.

Other points of interest

The Nèiyì supplies the decisive inner-alchemical interpretation of the Dùrén jīng that will dominate Yuán and Míng exegesis of the scripture. Xiāo’s declaration that “the alchemical way and the meaning of the scripture are identical” (6a) is one of the clearest programmatic statements in Sòng Daoist exegesis of the unity of ritual-recitation practice and internal-alchemical cultivation — and it is this statement that underwrites the transformation of the Dùrén jīng from a Six-Dynasties revelation into a Sòng-era inner-alchemy primer.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5a0090
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 716–717 — DZ 90 entry (John Lagerwey).