Zǐ Yuánjūn shòudào chuánxīn fǎ 紫元君授道傳心法
The Method of Zǐ-[xū] Yuánjūn for the Transmission of the Way through the Heart
A late-Táng or Five-Dynasties neidan and waidan treatise with commentary attributed to 陰長生 (Yīn Chángshēng), nine folios (one juǎn), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0226 / CT 226 = TC 226), 洞真部 方法類.
About the work
A short alchemical work attributed to Zǐxū yuánjūn 紫虛元君 — i.e. Wèi Huácún 魏華存 (252–334), the Shàngqīng matriarch — and provided with an interlinear commentary attributed to 陰長生 (Yīn Chángshēng), the legendary Eastern-Hàn alchemical immortal known from Gě Hóng’s 葛洪 Shénxiān zhuàn 神仙傳. The text divides into two parts. The first (1a–2b) concerns the “transmission through the heart” (chuánxīn 傳心) and is composed in partly versified prose of five- and four-character lines: the adept is enjoined to purify his heart before receiving the teaching and to “contemplate the heart” (guān xīn 觀心) before putting the teaching into practice. The second part (2b–8b) consists of a poem entitled Lónghǔ gē 龍虎歌 (“Song of the Dragon and the Tiger”) with 陰長生’s commentary, followed by a series of twelve further poems. The poetical sections are reproduced in Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 73.1a–ff., where the principal poem is called Gǔ lónghǔ gē 古龍虎歌 (“Old Song of the Dragon and the Tiger”) and the commentary is explicitly attributed to 陰長生.
The poem and commentary use an alchemical vocabulary similar to that of Xuánjiè lù 玄解錄 (DZ 928) or Yīnzhēnjūn jīnshí wǔxiānglèi 陰真君金石五相類 (DZ 906); but the present text places strong polemical weight against the so-called “yellow-and-white drug” (huángbǎi yào 黃白藥) of operative gold-making, and instead emphasises spiritual accomplishment via the Inner Three Ones, the cultivation of the zhēnrén 真人 root, and the integrity of the heart-mind in the master-disciple relationship.
Prefaces
No separate preface in the source. The opening chuánxīn section functions as the framing introduction: “The transmission of the Way begins with the transmission of the heart. If the heart is true, the Way is not split; if the heart is false, the Way is not real. The will governs the qì in the heart; the qì arises from within the heart, hence reaching the xīn completes the zhì and so attains the Way. In the master’s heart, what is to be received is to be apprehended; thus the heart of the disciple is as the master’s heart — the two hearts merged into one — and originally not two…”
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:404 (§2.A.5, Alchemy), notes that the work is mentioned in the Chóngwén zǒngmù 崇文總目 and the Sòngshǐ 宋史 Yìwén zhì 藝文志 under the variant titles Yuánjūn fùdào chuánxīn jué 元君服道傳心訣 and Yuánjūn fùdào chuánxīn fǎmén 元君服道傳心法門 (VDL 82). Such titles appear to have been common in the Five-Dynasties period (907–960) — cf. [[KR5c0926|DZ 926 Dà huándān zhàojiàn]] 19a, dated by its preface to 962 — but it is not impossible that the present work is of an earlier (mid- or late-Táng) date. The title Yuánjūn is traditionally linked to alchemical writings (cf. [[KR5c0885|DZ 885 Huángdì jiǔdǐng shéndān jīngjué]] 3.1a–1b), and Shíyào ěryǎ 石藥爾雅 (preface 806) 1.6b says that “[Zǐxū] Yuánjūn does not allow the ultimate medicine (zhìyào 至藥) to be transmitted in an unruly way” — zhìyào is one of the most frequent expressions in the present text. A passage on transmission at 7a is corrupted in the present text but quoted in correct form in [[KR5c0947|DZ 947 Yùqīng nèishū]] 7a, a work probably dating from the Táng. The frontmatter brackets composition broadly 800–960 to cover both the late-Táng and the Wǔdài hypotheses; the 陰長生 attribution is, as usual, pseudepigraphic (cf. CLAUDE.md note on 陰長生).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Zi yuanjun shoudao chuanxin fa,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.5, 404. On the lónghǔ alchemical metaphor and its Táng-Sòng evolution: Isabelle Robinet, “Original Contributions of Neidan to Taoism,” in Livia Kohn ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Ann Arbor 1989), 297–330; Fabrizio Pregadio, Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China (Stanford 2006), and The Way of the Golden Elixir: A Historical Overview of Taoist Alchemy (Mountain View, CA: Golden Elixir Press, 2012).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0227
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.5, 404.