Sān Máo zhēnjūn jiāfēng shìdiǎn 三茅真君加封事典
Protocol of the Additional Canonization of the Three Máo Brothers
compiled and edited by 張大淳 (編, hào Chōngjìng míngzhēn wēimiào dàshī 沖靜明真微妙大師), 1267
About the work
A two-juan procedural dossier compiled at Máoshān 茅山 documenting the 1249 imperial grant of supplementary canonization-titles to the Three Máo Brothers — 聖佑 Shèngyòu to Máo Yíng 茅盈, 德佑 Déyòu to Máo Gù 茅固, and 仁佑 Rényòu to Máo Zhōng 茅衷 — preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0172 / CT 172 = TC 171), 洞真部 譜錄類. The act was initiated at the instance of Shǐ Tán 施湛 (hào Dòngwēi xiānshēng 洞微先生), who made his own appointment as zuǒjiē dàolù 左街道錄 in the capital contingent upon the Three Brothers receiving the new titles. Zhāng Dàchún 張大淳, who supervised the monasteries of Máoshān and was abbot of Shǐ Tán’s home monastery Chóngxǐ guàn 崇禧觀, recorded the complete procedural detail; printing of the record was carried out in 1267, after Shǐ’s death.
Prefaces
Zhāng Dàchún’s preface (致二): “The Way has an origin and has a continuity: at its origin it is prior to Heaven and Earth, and its beginning cannot be exhausted; in its continuity it is posterior to Heaven and Earth, and its end cannot be exhausted. The world sometimes calls this Way interrupted or resumed — alas, can such a thing be? The daily use of the common man, the hunger-food and thirst-drink of every day, are none of them not the Way; the transmission of this single thread, unbroken and continuous to the present day, has never for a single day faded. The only concern is that the world may have no one to transmit the Way. Therefore it is said: ‘Man can make the Way great; it is not the Way that makes man great.’ The immortal traces of the Máo Brothers are clearly recorded in the histories of the Former Qín onward; their position among the ranks of the immortals is beyond common reckoning. Their merits covering the nine tiers of Heaven and their grace flowing through ten thousand generations have upheld the altars of state and supported the lineage of the ruling house. Before, at Sīlíng 思陵 and at Gùlíng 固陵, the honorific titles of the Three Lords had already been augmented — Liú Jìngyī 劉靜一 had traced the source and pushed the wave. By the reign of Lǐzōng, our venerable Xūbái gāoshì 虛白高士 Sītú 司徒 Dàolù held that because the State and the people had so frequently entrusted prayers to them with immediate response, he was fit to be made Zuǒjiē Dòngwēi. The master said, ‘Alas! all this is the numinous working of the Three Lords; how dare I privately possess what they have given? I will return this favour to them, the better to honour the duty of paying-back.’ Lǐzōng consented; the cinnabar seal was applied, and its glow lit up the forests. I, Dàchún, was then in his discipleship and witnessed the affair. The Sītú repeatedly expected to engrave it on gold and stone, but was summoned away before he could. After his ascent, I, Dàchún, succeeding to his post, long hoped to carry his wish through; duties delayed me. In the dīngmǎo spring (1267), the Inner Biography and its Continuation were nearly completed, and my fellow disciples reasoned that if the record remained unprinted, it would neither be adequate to make plain the numinous response of the Three Lords, nor the revering of them by the Sacred Court, nor my own capacity to extend and disclose the transmission of this Way…” Signed on the full-moon day of the third month of the dīngmǎo year (1267), by “One specially conferred with the title Chōngjìng míngzhēn wēimiào dàshī 沖靜明真微妙大師, specially assigned as Máoshān Shānmén Dàozhèng, acting Chóngxǐguàn [administrator] and manager of all monastic affairs of this mountain, bestowed with the purple robe, Zhāng Dàchún.”
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:878–879 (§3.A.6, Sacred History and Geography), dissects the work’s contents: juan 1 contains the document of Shǐ Tán’s appointment as zuǒjiē dàolù and a record of the ensuing negotiations between the master and the civil authorities, the final imperial edict for the canonization of the Three Lords (1.14b–17b; also at [[KR5a0304|DZ 304 Máoshān zhì]] 4.13b–15a), and concluding messages of salutation to the saints. Juan 2 comprises two rituals in honour of the Máoshān ancestors: the first is a later addition, since it already incorporates the further titles Zhēnyìng 真應, Miàoyìng 妙應, and Shényìng 神應, bestowed on the Three Brothers only in 1316 (cf. DZ 304 4.19a–21a); the second is the official ritual for the 1249 canonization proper, including a personal invocation (qǐngcí 請詞) by the emperor; the work closes with Shǐ Tán’s letter of thanks to the court and his request to have the imperial edict engraved on a stele. The frontmatter brackets the work notBefore 1249 (the canonization itself) / notAfter 1267 (publication of the dossier).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “San Mao zhenjun jiafeng shidian,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.6, 878–879. On the Máoshān canonization see also [[KR5a0304|DZ 304 Máoshān zhì]].
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0173
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.6, 878–879.