Chìsōng zǐ zhōngjiè jīng 赤松子中誡經
Scripture of the Central Precepts of Master Red-Pine
a tenth-century Daoist morality-text in the form of a dialogue between Huángdì 黃帝 and the immortal 赤松子 (Chìsōng zǐ); attributed to him pseudepigraphically
About the work
A fourteen-folio Daoist morality-text in one juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0185 / CT 185 = TC 185), 洞真部 戒律類. The body of the text is a dialogue between the Yellow Emperor (Huángdì 黃帝) and the immortal Master Red-Pine (Chìsōng zǐ 赤松子) on the relation between an individual’s deeds and his fate: each person has a star in heaven that watches over him; transgression diminishes his original life-span of 120 years (43,800 days). The Yellow Emperor inquires why men’s lives are so unequally apportioned; Chìsōng zǐ explains the schedule of celestial reductions, the doctrine of suàn 算 (life-units) and jì 紀 (twelve-year periods), the table of merits running from one good act to one thousand (with corresponding karmic returns extending across multiple generations), the parallel table of demerits, the eight hundred and more enumerated transgressions that summon celestial punishment, and the practical means by which one may turn aside the consequences of past evil through future good. Together with [[KR5a0307|DZ 1167 Tàishàng gǎnyìng piān]] this work is foundational for the shànshū 善書 (morality-book) genre that flourishes from the Sòng forward.
Prefaces
The volume opens with an anonymous preface (致雨十): “In old times, Gōngmíng zǐgāo 公明子皋, passing through Sòng, met the great officer Xuē Wǎn 薛瑗, who had ten sons — six lame, hump-backed, with withered arms or simple-minded; one had died in prison; three were blind, deaf, or dumb. Zǐgāo asked the great officer what conduct of his had brought such calamity. Xuē Wǎn answered: ‘Now in your kindness, sir, I will speak the matter from my heart. As prime minister of the state, I never raised up a man, never received a scholar; when I saw a worthy I treated him as an enemy and shut the gate to him; when others lost something, it was as if I had gained; when others gained, it was as if I had lost — I hated to be unable to take their place.’ Zǐgāo said: ‘If a great officer’s conduct is like this, his house must be exterminated; thousand troubles, ten-thousand sicknesses, the disaster reaches your sons and grandsons — every kind of evil retribution. How could it be otherwise?’ Xuē Wǎn, hearing this, was struck with terror; his colour changed, his soul wandered. He bowed his head and asked: ‘Knowing my fault, may I yet repair it?’ Zǐgāo answered: ‘Heaven, though high, looks down upon what is below. He who acts wickedly will surely meet with calamity; he who acts well will surely meet with blessing. To turn from the past and cultivate what is to come, to turn defeat into success — it is not too late. I once received from a Master a single scroll, the Chìsōng zǐ jiè zhēn 赤松子誡箴; if you cultivate by it, you may treat the body’s ten thousand ailments and may even pluck back the present sons and grandsons. I now know that all the great officer has done has been wrong from the start.’ He took the scroll from his case and conferred it upon Xuē. Wǎn bowed and received it. Zǐgāo took his leave. After some years, he came back to the state. He saw that all the sons’ afflictions had cleared. Asked how, the great officer said: ‘My sons have not had any fine doctor, nor any special technique; only since the year I received the Zhōngjiè jīng 中誡經 from Master, I have changed my heart, repented my faults — when I see others losing I grieve for them, when I see others gaining I rejoice for them inwardly; I raised up the worthy and capable, withdrew myself from rank and emolument, the gold and silk I had hoarded I scattered to the orphans and poor; I redeemed those in distress, gave with generous heart…’ Zǐgāo replied: ‘How swift! how swift is Heaven’s recompense to good — quicker than echo to sound, than shadow to form! Now your single mind has done good, and the hundred ailments of the sons have all cleared — how much more if one carries out a thousand and more such things!’ Xuē Wǎn would have given Zǐgāo a thousand pieces of gold to repay him; Zǐgāo refused, asking only that the book be copied and given to those who had not yet awakened, that the favour be repaid in the giving on. Then he took his leave.”
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:320 (§2.A.1 Philosophy), gives the textual lineage. The work is first listed in Chóngwén zǒngmù 崇文總目 9.2b (Sòng 1042), placing it in any case before the mid-eleventh century. The Bìshūshěng xùbiāndào sìkù quèshūmù 秘書省續編到四庫闕書目 2.34b gives the variant title Chìsōng zǐ bājiè lù 赤松子八誡籙 and ascribes authorship to Chén Tuán 陳摶 (871–989), but this attribution is not confirmed in any of Chén’s biographies. In Sòng times further variant titles are attested: Chìsōng zǐ jiè 赤松子誡, Chìsōng zǐ zhōngjiè piān 赤松子中誡篇 (cf. Vandermeersch Daoist book-list [VDL] no. 110), and Chìsōng zǐ jīng 赤松子經 (cf. Xīshān xiānshēng Zhēnwénzhōnggōng wénjí 西山先生真文忠公文集 35.551–552). The work was possibly inspired by a passage in [[KR5c0257|DZ 1185 Bàopǔ zǐ nèipiān 抱朴子內篇]] 6.5a–b, which contains a brief summary of a Chìsōng zǐ jīng with similar contents. The “Xuē Wǎn” preface story has a variant in [[KR5a0307|DZ 1167 Tàishàng gǎnyìng piān]] 4.1b–2a — a textual link confirming the work’s place at the head of the morality-book tradition. The frontmatter brackets composition to the tenth century in agreement with TC.
Translations and research
No full English translation, but the parallel material is treated in: Catherine Bell, “Printing and Religion in China: Some Evidence from the Taishang ganying pian,” Journal of Chinese Religions 20 (1992), 173–186. Standard scholarly entry: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Chisong zi zhongjie jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.1, 320; with bibliography Yoshioka Yoshitoyo 吉岡義豐, “Sekishōshi chūkai-kyō to kōka shisō” 赤松子中誡經と功過思想, in Yoshioka Yoshitoyo Hakushi kanreki kinen Dōkyō kenkyū ronshū (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1977). On the shànshū genre: Cynthia J. Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0186
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.1, 320.