Zǐyáng zhēnrén Wùzhēn zhízhǐ xiángshuō sānchéng bìyào 紫陽真人悟真直指詳說三乘秘要
Detailed Explanations of the Directives of Zǐyáng Zhēnrén’s Awakening to Truth and the Esoteric Essential Methods of the Three Vehicles
by 翁葆光 (撰, 12th c.), with editorial appendix by 戴起宗 (編, ca. 1335)
About the work
A 33-folio appendix to the Wēng Bǎoguāng commentary on the Wùzhēn piān, traditionally placed at the end of [[KR5a0142|DZ 141 Zǐyáng zhēnrén Wùzhēn piān zhùshū]] but presented here as a separate work in the Daozang. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0143 / CT 143 = TC 143), 洞真部 玉訣類. The body is composed of three connected essays — Qiángbīng zhànshèng zhī shù 強兵戰勝之術 (the alchemical technique of “strengthening the troops and winning the battle” = the gathering of the elixir, lower juàn), Fùguó ān mín zhī fǎ 富國安民之法 (the alchemical technique of “enriching the state and pacifying the people” = the firing of the cycle, middle juàn), and Shénxiān bào yī zhī dào 神仙抱一之道 (the immortals’ “embracing of the One” = the nine-year miànbì 面壁 abstraction, upper juàn). To these are appended the Sānchéng bìyào shī 三乘秘要詩 (three short alchemical poems summarising the three sections), Bóyúnzǐ’s 白雲子 preface dated Jiātài jiǎzǐ 嘉泰甲子 = 1204, biographical notes on Zhāng Bóduān and on Xuē Zǐxián 薛紫賢 (Xuē Dàoguāng), Dài Qǐzōng’s textual notes (zhì shùn rén shēn 至順壬申 = 1332; zhì yuán bǐng zǐ 至元丙子 = 1336; zhì yuán dīng chǒu 至元丁丑 = 1337), and the substantial Jīndān fǎ xiàng 金丹法象 — a dictionary of inner-alchemy figures collected by Wēng and expanded by Dài, classifying the alchemical lexicon under the seven categories yáng 陽, yīn 陰, yáng zhōng yīn 陽中陰, yīn zhōng yáng 陰中陽, zhōng gōng 中宮, wài yào 外藥, and nèi yào 內藥.
Prefaces
Wēng Bǎoguāng’s Wùzhēn zhízhǐ xiángshuō 悟真直指詳說 opens directly, signed at the head 象川無名子翁葆光述, surveying the great themes of the work — the xiāntiān yī qì 先天一氣 from which Heaven and Earth unfold; the impossibility of obtaining the inexhaustible from the perishable substances of jīn shí cǎo mù 金石草木; the analogy of the elixir-vessels to a sun-mirror collecting fire and a moon-mirror collecting water; the operative figures of zhēn lóng 真龍, zhēn hǔ 真虎 and the “moon at the first quarter” 初弦; the financial and human resources required for the work (drawing on Yīn Zhēnjūn 陰真君 — see DZ 134); the detailed schedule of fire-phasing keyed to the sixty-four hexagrams; and the final nine-year sequestration in bào yī 抱一. The preface programme is followed by Bóyúnzǐ’s preface (dated 1204), which gives an autobiographical account of Bóyúnzǐ’s reception of the Wùzhēn piān commentary from Chén Zǐyáng 陳紫陽 (= Chén Dálíng 陳達靈), grandson of the immortal-disciple of Wēng Bǎoguāng, in the Jiātài era (1201–1204). A long Wùzhēn piān běnmò shìjì 悟真篇本末事跡 (“Origin and Transmission of the Wùzhēn piān”) and Xuē Zǐxián shìjì 薛紫賢事跡 (signed Zhènghé yǐwèi 政和乙未 = 1115) record the standard hagiographical account of Zhāng Bóduān, his transmission to Shí Tài 石泰 of the Xìnglín yì 杏林驛, and Shí Tài’s onward transmission to Xuē Zǐxián. Dài Qǐzōng’s textual notes (signed 至元丙子中元空玄子戴起宗仲同父謹辨 = 1336) and his nephew Dài Shùn’s 戴順 supplementary remarks (1337) close the prefatorial complex.
Abstract
According to Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:819–822 (§3.A.4, Nèidān and Yǎngshēng), the present text and its appendix are presented as two separate items in the Daozang (the appendix erroneously numbered DZ 144 in the old Tōngwén yìnshū guǎn 通文印書館 index), but should have been placed directly after the main commentary as in the Sìkù quánshū edition of DZ 141 and the Míng compilation Jīndān zhèngli dàquán 金丹正理大全 (in Dàoshū quánjí 道書全集). A comparison of the present text with the Sìkù quánshū edition reveals additional anomalies: the Sìkù edition is in three juàn with a one-juàn appendix and matches [[KR5a0143|DZ 142 Wùzhēn piān sānzhù]] in the presentation of the poems; ours, by contrast, is in eight juàn and has been considerably reworked, with whole passages of DZ 142 interpolated into the commentaries. Many of these interpolations consist of comments by Chén Zhìxū 陳致虛 and Lù Shù 陸墅; it is therefore likely that the additions were made by a member of Chén Zhìxū’s school. Dài Qǐzōng’s biàn 辨 (1336) supplies the philological argumentation that disentangles Wēng Bǎoguāng (Wúmíngzǐ 無名子) from the spurious “Xuē Dàoguāng” commentary into which his own work had often been transmitted. The frontmatter brackets composition to 1173–1340 — a span covering the original Wēng essays (preface 1173) and the Yuán-era editorial work that produced the received Daozang recension.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Ziyang zhenren Wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sancheng biyao,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 819–822. The Jīndān fǎ xiàng lexicon at the end of the work is drawn upon by Isabelle Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste (Cerf, 1995), and Fabrizio Pregadio, The Encyclopedia of Taoism (London: Routledge, 2008), s.v. “Neidan.”
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0144
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 819–822.