Jīnlián zhèngzōng jì 金蓮正宗記
Record of the True Line of Transmission of the Golden Lotus School
by 秦志安 (撰, hào Chángchūn Hútiān Línjiān Yùkè 長春壺天林間羽客, also Shùlí dàorén 樗櫟道人), preface dated 1241
About the work
A five-juan genealogy of the Quánzhēn 全真 (Golden Lotus, Jīnlián 金蓮) school, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0173 / CT 173 = TC 172), 洞真部 譜錄類. The oldest surviving Quánzhēn lineage-history in the Canon, it lays out the school’s pedigree in fourteen biographies, each prefaced by a descriptive narrative and followed by one or more eulogies: Dōnghuá dìjūn 東華帝君 (Wáng Xuánfǔ 王玄甫), whose initiation by Báiyún shàngzhēn 白雲上真 opens the lineage; Zhōnglí Quán 鍾離權; Lǘ Yán 呂巖 (Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓); Liú Hǎichán 劉海蟾; Wáng Chóngyáng 王重陽 with his two Shānxī companions Hé Yùchán 何玉蟾 and Lǐ Língyáng 李靈陽; and the Seven Zhēnrén (Qī zhēn 七真) connected with Wáng’s Shāndōng activity. Each biography closes with honorary imperial titles of the Jurchen-Jìn (1115–1234) and Yuán (1279–1368) dynasties, a bibliography of the master’s literary works, and a mediumistic poem.
Prefaces
Qín Zhì’ān’s own preface (致四): “The Way has no beginning and no end; the Teaching has a before and an after. Some say: the Way and the Teaching — are they not the same? I answer: not the same. What is tranquil, silent, truly constant is the Way; what transmits the Law and delivers men is the Teaching. As substance, the Way has passed through countless kalpas without a particle of change; as function, the Teaching has had its times of lapse and its times of revival. Some ask: when did the Teaching arise? I answer: after Xuānyuán the Yellow Emperor cast the tripods and rode the fire-dragon up into the Great Void, only then was the doctrine of long life and unfading sight known; yet of those who understood and practised it, there were but seventy-two men. Then down to the reign of Yīn king Wǔdīng, Lǎojūn manifested himself at Làiyáng 瀨陽; he arrived east at the pass of Wèi, and crossed the flowing sands to the west, transforming the age for nine hundred and ninety-six years; then he rode a white deer, ascended the blue cypress, passed beyond the emerald void, and roamed the Jade Capital. Though there were these striking signs, men remained confused and did not yet trust them. And with the coming of the Hàn Celestial Master Zhāng Jìngyìng 張靜應 (Zhāng Dàolíng), who received in person the Orthodox Unity Register, fought the demon-prisons for the good ground, and ordained Daoists as jìjiǔ 祭酒, the Teaching grew in strength, spreading through the four seas…” The preface continues through the Xiàn Bēi–ethnic masters Kòu 寇, Wú 吳, Dù 杜, Yè 葉; then Língsù 林靈素 under Sòng Huīzōng; and comes to the decisive figure: “With the declining register of Sòng, the late-born Chóngyáng 重陽 (Wáng Zhé 王喆) stepped forth and renewed the Teaching, specialized in the teaching of Nature and Destiny, broadly converted the Three Prefectures, and united them in Five Assemblies, with Jīnlián 金蓮 (‘Golden Lotus’) at their head.” Then: “Our Chángchūn zǐ Qiū 丘 the divine immortal, having received the summons of the emperor and answered the invitation to Yīnshān 陰山, exhorted him to curb wine and lust and to lessen slaughter; a single word of his burned fierce, and ten thousand kingdoms came to spring-life, rescuing hundreds of millions from the boilers and blades…” Dated the xīnchǒu 辛丑 year (1241), Píngshuǐ 平水, by Chángchūn hútiān 長春壺天.
Abstract
Florian C. Reiter, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1135–1136 (§3.B.9, The Quánzhēn Order), identifies the work as the earliest extant Quánzhēn historiography, prepared by Qín Zhì’ān 秦志安 after he joined the editorial team under Sòng Défāng 宋德方 in Hénán for the compilation of the Xuándū bǎozàng 玄都寶藏 (into which he incorporated his own “Line of Transmission”; see Yuán Hǎowèn 元好問, “Tōngzhēn zǐ mùbēi míng,” Yíshān xiānshēng wénjí 遺山先生文集 31.314b–315b). The work’s distinctive argument is the identification of Wáng Chóngyáng’s inheritance of Quánzhēn from the earlier masters as a recovery of a long-standing transmission proper to questions of xìngmìng 性命 (nature-destiny), in which Wáng is presented as a successor to Lín Língsù 林靈素. The narrative rests chiefly on stele inscriptions composed by literati patrons. The frontmatter gives the preface date (1241) for both bounds, since composition, presentation, and preface coincide.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Florian C. Reiter, “Jinlian zhengzong ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1135–1136. On early Quánzhēn historiography see Vincent Goossaert, La création du taoïsme moderne: L’ordre Quanzhen (Paris: EHESS dissertation, 1997); Pierre Marsone, Wang Chongyang et la fondation du Quanzhen: Ascètes taoïstes et alchimie intérieure (Paris: Collège de France–IHEC, 2010).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0174
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1135–1136.