Tàishàng shēngxuán xiāozāi hùmìng miàojīng zhù 太上昇玄消災護命妙經註
Commentary on the Marvellous Scripture of the Most High on Elevation-to-Mystery, Protecting Life and Averting Disaster
Yuán-dynasty inner-alchemy commentary on [[KR5a0019|DZ 19 Shēngxuán xiāozāi hùmìng miàojīng]] by Lǐ Dàochún 李道純 (d. 1306); five folios; preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0102 / CT 102 = TC 101), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A five-folio Yuán-dynasty commentary on the Táng [[KR5a0019|Shēngxuán xiāozāi hùmìng miàojīng]] by Lǐ Dàochún 李道純 (hào Qīngān 清庵, d. 1306), the Quánzhēn 全真 master and major inner-alchemy theorist. In comparison with the standard versions of the scripture (as given in DZ 19 and in the Dūnhuáng manuscripts), we find an additional phrase of four characters at 4a: suí chù gòngyǎng 隨處供養 (“worship wherever you are”).
Lǐ Dàochún’s commentary is divided into three parts. It proposes an inner-alchemical interpretation of the scripture: Yuánshǐ tiānzūn symbolises the ancestral qì (zǔqì 祖氣); the Palace of Five Colours where he preaches is equated with the Yellow Court (Huángtíng 黃庭); the Forest of the Seven Jewels is identified with the Three Origins (Sānyuán 三元) and the Four Emblems (sìxiàng 四象). In the second part, Lǐ Dàochún quotes the Heart Sūtra (Xīnjīng 心經) — a distinctive Quánzhēn move of integrating Buddhist prajñāpāramitā literature into Daoist commentary.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Catherine Despeux, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:724–725 (§3.A.1), dates the commentary to Lǐ Dàochún’s Yuán floruit (active to his death in 1306). The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1280 / notAfter 1306, with dynasty 元. Lǐ Dàochún is the sole catalog-meta person wikilinked.
Translations and research
Partial English treatment in Thomas Cleary, The Book of Balance and Harmony (North Point Press, 1989), which translates Lǐ Dàochún’s Zhōnghé jí 中和集. Standard scholarly entry: Catherine Despeux, “Taishang shengxuan xiaozai huming miaojing zhu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 724–725. For Lǐ Dàochún’s wider corpus see 李道純 person note.
Other points of interest
Lǐ Dàochún’s commentary is programmatically inner-alchemical: the mythological apparatus of the Táng scripture is systematically remapped to the internal body and its alchemical processes. The integration of the Xīnjīng in the second part of the commentary is particularly striking and reflects Lǐ’s broader Buddhist-Daoist syncretic approach characteristic of the Quánzhēn middle-school.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0102
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 724–725 — DZ 101 (TC) / KR5a0102 (Kanripo) entry (Catherine Despeux).