Huángdì yīnfú jīng jiě 黃帝陰符經解
Explanations Concerning the “Huángdì yīnfú jīng”
Northern-Sòng court-Daoist commentary on the Yīnfú jīng by Jiǎn Chāngchén 蹇昌辰 (hào Bǎoníng dàshī 保寧大師), twenty-one folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0114 / CT 114 = TC 113), 洞真部 本文類; also in Sìkù quánshū (WYG, as Yīnfú jīng jiě)
About the work
A twenty-one-folio Northern-Sòng commentary by the court Daoist Jiǎn Chāngchén 蹇昌辰 (hào Bǎoníng dàshī 保寧大師). His preface emphasises the novelty of his readings. In the section “Traces of the Yīnfú jīng” (Yīnfú jīng zhī jī 陰符經之跡), Jiǎn explains the discrepancy between the c. 300-word and c. 400-word versions: the Queen Mother of the West revealed the text to Huángdì, and Huángdì in turn added his own commentary — accounting for the extra c. 100 words. Jiǎn separates what is believed to be Huángdì’s commentary under the title “Expositions about the Huángdì Yīnfú” (15b–19a) — this is the only version that divides the whole text into four paragraphs.
The commentary is based on the assumption that the effects of “hidden correspondences” can be detected in the heavenly forces expressed in signs (xiàng 象) and especially in the mirror of the heart-and-mind. Interpretations focus on the xīn 心, with a few quotations from philosophical works including Zhuāngzǐ and Lièzǐ.
Prefaces
Preface by Jiǎn Chāngchén emphasising the novelty of his reading.
Abstract
Florian C. Reiter, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:694 (§3.A.1), dates the commentary to Jiǎn’s Northern-Sòng court-Daoist activity. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1000 / notAfter 1100, with dynasty 北宋. Jiǎn Chāngchén is the sole catalog-meta person wikilinked.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Florian C. Reiter, “Huangdi yinfu jing jie,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 694.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0114
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 694 — DZ 113 (TC) / KR5a0114 (Kanripo) entry.