Xīshān qúnxiān huìzhēn jì 西山群仙會真記
Record of the Realization-Gathering of the Assembled Immortals on Mount Xī
attributed to 施肩吾 (attributed, hào Huáyáng zhēnrén 華陽真人) and edited by his disciple 李竦 (編)
About the work
A five-juan nèidān 內丹 (“inner alchemy”) compendium in twenty-five sections, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0246 / CT 246 = TC 245), 洞真部 方法類. The work belongs to the core group of the Zhōng–Lǚ 鍾呂 (Zhōnglí Quán–Lǚ Dòngbīn) nèidān literature and was the most widely consulted manual of the tradition after its Sòng diffusion. It is attributed to the well-known Táng poet Shī Jiānwú 施肩吾 (zì Xīshèng 希聖, hào Qīngxū dòngtiān Huáyáng zhēnrén 清虛洞天華陽真人, fl. 820), recluse of Xīshān 西山 in Jiāngxī, and compiled by his disciple Lǐ Sōng 李竦 (zì Quánměi 全美, hào Sānxiān mén dìzǐ tiānxià dū xiānkè 三仙門弟子天下都仙客). The five juan correspond to the five phases (wǔxíng 五行); each of the twenty-five sections quotes a Daoist text — most often a Xīshān jì 西山記 appearing to be an antecedent of the present work — and treats one of five themes: (i) recognition (shízhī 識 — of masters, methods, the Way); (ii) nourishment (yǎng 養 — of the vital principle and the qì); (iii) reparation of damage (bǔ 補 — to diminished qì or vitality); (iv) true alchemical ingredients (yīn / yáng, lead and mercury); (v) transmutation and perfection (of body and spirit). The theoretical and practical content is less elaborated than that of [[KR5a1191|DZ 1191 Bìchuán Zhèngyáng zhēnrén Língbǎo bìfǎ]].
Prefaces
Shī Jiānwú’s attributed preface (夜一): “The preface says: ‘Since xìng 性 (inborn nature) is not innate to the learner, whoever would study the Way must resort to incisive questioning; the Way is hard to express, so the one who establishes the teaching does not rely on plain writing, but hides its workings and conceals its intent, fearing the sacred words may be lightly leaked. By likening things and setting forth speech, it is secretly transmitted to the man of understanding. There are in the world those who read five lines at a glance and miss nothing at a single unrolling, whose names thunder through the age — but how many of them know the formula of immortality? How many whose crowns brush the heavens penetrate the hidden principle? One must seek the Way and inquire after the true one, seek a master and choose one’s friends; one must read ten thousand scrolls of immortal-scripture and discover that they do not step outside yīn and yáng; a single word from a revered master and one recognizes, of one’s own accord, the true from the false. All the world knows that the Five Phases — water, fire, wood, metal, earth — beget each other as mother and child, and restrict each other as husband and wife; but few know the diāndǎo 顛倒 (inversion) method, and fewer still the chōutiān 抽添 (extracting and supplementing) principle. All the world knows that the upper, middle, and lower sāntián 三田 are the three fields of essence, qì, and spirit — that in the midst of essence qì is born, and in the midst of qì spirit — but few know the meaning of fǎnfù 返復 (return-and-restoration) and fewer still can manifest the merit of liberation. To know the inversion of the five phases is the first step of entering the Way; to penetrate the chōutiān is to be a man of the Way. To master the return-and-restoration of the three fields is to attain the Way; to effect the liberation is to become one who has perfected it. From former sages to later sages, none have not accomplished the Way and entrusted themselves to it; yet of those completed of a hundred, scarcely one or two. Today’s later students have only the name of Way; of those entered upon it, scarcely eight or nine in ten. Of those one might discuss as having attained and been liberated, there are at Xīshān some ten and more, so I have compiled from former and later sages their secret mutual accord into one set of five juan, taking the numerical form of the Five Phases; each juan has five sections, answering the meaning of one qì of pure yáng. Thus I open to view the supreme Way, elaborate on the hidden workings, and draw on short pieces to disclose the ultimate words of the Zhōng–Lǚ line, hoping that those to come, if they understand, may practice it diligently and follow me out of the dust-wheel to become companions of Penglai 蓬瀛.’ — signed Huáyáng zhēnrén 華陽真人 Shī Jiānwú Xīshèng.”
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:804–805 (§3.A.4, Nèidān and Yǎngshēng), observes that the attribution to Shī Jiānwú was already challenged in the Sòng: the Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí 直齋書錄解題 12.348 treats the Táng poet Shī Jiānwú and the “Shī Jiānwú” who wrote the present work as two different men of the same name. Internal evidence further confirms a terminus post quem close to the end of the tenth century — 1.6a names Zhāng Mèngqiān 張夢乾, who appears to have died in 998 (Shānxī tōngzhì cited in Gǔjīn túshū jíchéng, Shényì diǎn, juan 252). The title first appears in the Suíchū táng shūmù 遂初堂書目 (Van der Loon 108), and Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì 郡齋讀書志 lists it with the same five-juan twenty-five-pian division. An abridged version sits in [[KR5c1017|DZ 1017 Dàoshū]] 38. The frontmatter brackets composition 998–1100.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Xishan qunxian huizhen ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 804–805. On the Zhōng–Lǚ nèidān corpus: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, Procédés secrets du joyau magique: Traité d’alchimie taoïste du XIe siècle (Paris: Les Deux Océans, 1984); Paul Crowe, “The Science and Art of the Qunxian huizhen Corpus” (various articles).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0247
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 804–805.