Qīngwēi xiānpǔ 清微仙譜
Chronology of the Immortals of the Qīngwēi Heaven
transmitted by 黃舜申 (傳, hào Léiyuān 雷淵, fl. 1224–1287), with preface by 陳采 (序) dated 1293
About the work
A seventeen-folio lineage-register of the Qīngwēi 清微 (“Clear Tenuity”) school of Daoist ritual, compiled by the founder Huáng Shùnshēn 黃舜申 and transmitted to Chén Cǎi 陳采, whose 1293 preface heads the volume. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0171 / CT 171 = TC 170), 洞真部 譜錄類. The register is organized in six sections and traces the school’s pedigree of gods, saints, and human patriarchs back to Yuánshǐ shàngdì 元始上帝, with the four great traditions — Shàngqīng 上清, Língbǎo 靈寶, Dàodé 道德, Zhèngyī 正一 — converging first through Zhāoníng zǔyuánjūn 昭凝祖元君 in the Táng–Sòng period, and then through Hùnyīn zhēnrén Nángōng 混隱真人南公 (i.e. Nán Bìdào 南畢道) in the Sòng. The received transmission reaches Huáng Shùnshēn in the thirteenth century, whose name closes the sixth paragraph and whose Fújiàn teaching platform disseminated the school’s distinctive Qīngwēi léifǎ 清微雷法 (thunder-ritual) practice.
Prefaces
Preface by Chén Cǎi 陳采 (致一): “The Way precedes the Supreme Ultimate — what does this mean? Before there were Heaven and Earth there was already the Supreme Ultimate; could it be that it had something prior? I have heard the classic say: ‘Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth.’ What is origin but that which already existed prior to Heaven and Earth? Now the coming and going of sun and moon, the gathering and moistening of wind and rain, the rolling of thunder — men know these to be the workings of Heaven, and do not know that they are the functioning of this Way. Alas! if the functioning of this Way should cease even for a breath, the workings of Heaven would cease with it…” Chén goes on to narrate the successive transmission: from Yuánshǐ twice to Yùchén 玉晨 and Lǎojūn 老君; further one-step to Zhēnyuán Tàihuá 真元太華, Guānlìng 關令, and Zhèngyī 正一 — the “four currents”; after ten generations uniting again in Zhāoníng zǔyuánjūn; then after a further eight generations reaching Hùnyǐn zhēnrén Nángōng (i.e. Nán Bìdào 南畢道), who served as a distinguished Sòng official until a meeting with Bǎoyī zhēnrén 保一真人 endowed him with the supreme Way. Nán recognized Huáng Shùnshēn (Léi yuān 雷淵 Huáng xiānshēng 黃先生) as the one capable of receiving the full teaching and delivered to him the books of the school. Chén himself was Huáng’s last and most thoroughly instructed disciple; at Huáng’s direction, Chén’s preface dates from the zhìyuán guǐsì 至元癸巳 (1293) year, chúnyáng 純陽 (4th) month, chúnyīn 純陰 day, signed “the late-coming student of Jiàn’ān 建安, Chén Cǎi, having burned incense and reverently composed.”
Abstract
Florian C. Reiter, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1100–1101 (§3.B.7, The Qīngwēi School), identifies the text as a school genealogy transmitting the claim that the Qīngwēi ritual system integrates and subsumes the four older currents of Daoism. The name Qīngwēi designates the highest heaven (cf. [[KR5a1128|DZ 1128 Dàomén jīngfǎ xiāngchéng cìxù]] 3.1a). The lineage list overlaps, with many variant divine titles, [[KR5a0223|DZ 223 Qīngwēi yuánjiàng dàfǎ]] 25.8b–12b and [[KR5a0224|DZ 224 Qīngwēi zhāifǎ]] 1.1a–13b; those later Yuán compilations preserve much of the Qīngwēi ritual apparatus proper. The frontmatter brackets composition between Huáng’s latest attested year of activity (1287) and the preface date (1293).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Florian C. Reiter, “Qingwei xianpu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1100–1101. On the Qīngwēi school: Florian C. Reiter, Grundelemente und Tendenzen des religiösen Taoismus: Das Spannungsverhältnis von Integration und Individualität in seiner Geschichte zur Chin-, Yüan- und frühen Ming-Zeit (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1988), esp. 45–50; Florian C. Reiter, Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0172
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1100–1101.