Jīnlián zhèngzōng xiānyuán xiàngzhuàn 金蓮正宗仙源像傳
Portraits and Biographies of the Origins of the Masters of the True Line of Transmission of the Golden Lotus School
edited by 劉志玄 (編, hào Lúshān qīngxī dàorén 廬山清溪道士, preface 1326) and 謝西蟾 (編); with a second preface by 張嗣成 (序, the 39th Celestial Master, hào Tàixuán zǐ 太玄子) dated 1327
About the work
A forty-five-folio illustrated Quánzhēn 全真 lineage-history, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0174 / CT 174 = TC 173), 洞真部 譜錄類. A companion to [[KR5a0174|DZ 173 Jīnlián zhèngzōng jì]] compiled eighty-five years later, the work presents short biographies of the patriarchs, each preceded by a portrait (hence xiàngzhuàn 像傳): the Five Ancestors and Seven Perfected (Wǔ zǔ qī zhēn 五祖七真) of the Quánzhēn tradition — Dōnghuá dìjūn 東華帝君, Zhōnglí Quán 鍾離權, Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓, Liú Hǎichán 劉海蟾, Wáng Chóngyáng 王重陽, and the Seven Zhēnrén — prefaced in the present volume by imperial documents: Chinggis Khan’s 1221 summons-edict to Qiū Chǔjī 丘處機 and Qubilai’s supplementary rescript of canonization.
Prefaces
Zhāng Sīchéng’s 張嗣成 preface (致九), from the tàidìng dīngmǎo 泰定丁卯 spring (1327): “Lǐ Quánzhèng 李全正 brought to me a copy of the Quánzhēn zhèngzōng xiānyuán xiàngzhuàn 全真正宗仙源像傳 compiled by Liú Tiānsù 劉天素 and Xiè Xīchán 謝西蟾. I read it and took it for excellent, kowtowed and composed a eulogy: Heaven unveiled the mystery-current; the blue ox went west; the subtle words are the five thousand; the ancestor of the unfathomable Way transmitted them to Dōnghuá, and on to Zhōng and Lǚ; once the single copper was cast away, they encountered the two gentlemen. Rare indeed! The Seven Lotus, with the auspicious star and the sweet dew, with rites of weighted gravity, the snowy mountain, his teaching spreading through the central lands; the age is distant but the words endure, the Way knows no before or after. To transmit it by portrait is to hear it as if heard, to behold it as if seen. The yellow crane soars far; where does the white cloud go? A single scroll of plain writing, a single wisp of sunken incense — Heaven above and men below, peach-blossom and flowing stream.”
Liú Zhìxuán’s 劉志玄 preface (致九, facing page), tàidìng bǐngyín 泰定丙寅 winter solstice (1326), from Mt Lú 廬山 Qīngxī: “The marvel of the great Way has what cannot be transmitted in words, and has what cannot be transmitted except in words: this is why the Xiānyuán xiàngzhuàn was made. In our Quánzhēn, from Xuányuán downward, the Five Ancestors and Seven Perfected bore the Way high and their virtue deep, their transformations reached the nine realms; our Chángchūn 長春 patriarch-master, ten-thousand miles into the Snowy Mountains, opened wide the mystery-current. These things did not need writing to be transmitted; yet their records in detail are not easily searched out. I always wished to compile a complete book to record them; one day I put this intention to master Xīchán 西蟾; delighted, he approved, and together we combed biographies and stele-records, compiled and recorded for several years until the details came to be complete. We set the portraits before, appended the biographies after, and titled the work Quánzhēn zhèngzōng xiānyuán xiàngzhuàn. May like-minded fellow adepts, reading it, find by what can be transmitted the way to what cannot be transmitted. In that case, this book will not have been composed in vain. If the work still has gaps, I welcome instruction.” Signed by “the Lúshān qīngxī Dàoshì 廬山清溪道士 Liú Zhìxuán 劉志玄.”
Abstract
Florian C. Reiter, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1136 (§3.B.9, The Quánzhēn Order), identifies the compilation as a pair to DZ 173, constructed with the same source method (chiefly stele inscriptions). The compilation is the joint work of Liú Zhìxuán (here the lead name) and Xiè Xīchán, presented in the xiàngzhuàn genre that visualizes the patriarchs beside their biographies. The two prefaces date the inner work to 1326 (Liú) and its first imperial endorsement to 1327 (Zhāng Sīchéng, 39th Celestial Master), which fix the received recension’s composition window. The frontmatter brackets the period accordingly.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Florian C. Reiter, “Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1136. On Quánzhēn hagiography and the later illustrated xiàngzhuàn genre see Pierre Marsone, Wang Chongyang et la fondation du Quanzhen (Paris 2010); Vincent Goossaert, La création du taoïsme moderne (EHESS dissertation, 1997).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0175
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1136.