Gǔshén piān 谷神篇
Treatise on the Spirit of the Valley
by 林轅 (撰, zì Shénfèng 神鳳, hào Xuáncháozǐ 玄巢子, fl. 1304)
About the work
A two-juan popular nèidān 內丹 treatise by Lín Yuán 林轅 (zì Shénfèng 神鳳, hào Xuáncháozǐ 玄巢子) of Mǐn 閩 (Fújiàn), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0252 / CT 252 = TC 251), 洞真部 方法類. The title takes its image from Lǎozǐ 6 — gǔshén bù sǐ, shì wèi xuán pìn 谷神不死，是謂玄牝 (“the Spirit of the Valley does not die, it is called the Mysterious Female”) — Lín glossing gǔ 谷 in his self-preface as “to nourish the original qì 元氣.” The work is composed mostly of poems and short dissertations on inner alchemy, but ranges more widely than the average Yuán-period nèidān anthology: it praises the Běidǒu jīng 北斗經 (1.12a), endorses the Hùnyuán fúshuǐ 混元符水 charm-water rite (1.9b, 1.14b), and even mentions sexual practice (2.16b). There is no indication of Quánzhēn 全真 affiliation. The author’s lineage is given as descending from Hán Xiāoyáo 韓逍遙, with Lín’s immediate teacher a certain Yùzǐ Lǘ’ān 玉子閭菴 (preface 6a). The text was carried into print in 1315 by Zhào Sīxuán 趙思玄 (zì Cóngshàn 從善, hào Sīxuán 思玄) of Línchuān 臨川, who supplies the second preface.
Prefaces
Patron’s preface (Zhào Sīxuán, dated 1315). “From of old, sagely emperors and kings who held the world entrusted to them placed the way of the gods and immortals before all else, and quietly transmitted it from heart to heart; with the privatising of the world to one family, this Way was no longer transmitted, and ceased with Yǔ 禹. Thereafter it dispersed among the learned outsiders, taught only mouth-to-ear, never set down in writing — until Lǎozǐ in the Zhōu wrote his five thousand words, deep and ancient in their phrasing, mysterious in their meaning. Yúkòu 禦寇 [Lièzǐ] and Zhuāng Zhōu 莊周 took the Way as ‘emptiness’; Cáo Cān 曹參 took it as ‘pure stillness’: not the strict orthodoxy, but not far from it either. Yet the unfortunate consequences are three: Shēn Bùhài 申不害 and Hán Fēi 韓非 perverted it into pitiless harshness — the error of the Mìngjiā 名家. Northern Wèi’s Kòu Qiānzhī 寇謙之 once collected Daoist texts, but his materials being scant, mixed up fāngjì 方技, talisman water, alchemy, divination, and chènwěi 讖緯 prophecies into one — that is the second. The third is that, before Buddhism arrived, the outside-the-pale arts were of two kinds: divine immortals (shénxiān 神仙) and Daoist householders (dàojiā 道家). The immortals are the mìng 命, the yáng 陽; the householders are the xìng 性, the yīn 陰; the Treatise on Bibliography of the various dynastic histories sets them out as two distinct families — the division was clear. Yet the partial students of subsequent ages, bound to their own teaching, could not distinguish properly, and so wildly took ‘isolated yīn’ to be ‘inside the body’s heart and kidneys are kǎn and lí, lead-mercury intercoursing, the Golden Elixir’ — a great folly that has misled the foolish for ages. Alas! For more than twenty years I had borne my indignation, finding none with whom to speak. Recently I met Mr. Lín Xuáncháozǐ 林玄巢子 of Sānshān 三山, and at a single word we found one another. He further showed me his Sānxuán piān 三玄篇, which on reading I was startled and joyful. Determined to publish and circulate it for the benefit of students, but lacking funds, I sought patrons and managed to bring it to print. Old Jīngyáng zhēnjūn 旌陽真君 [Xǔ Xùn] foretold that a thousand years hence eight hundred earthly immortals would arise between the Wǔ tombs — surely the time approaches. May this book bring all who see it to faithful awakening, that they may receive the great Dragon-Tiger elixir, ascend to the immortal class, and so fulfil the prophecy. Year yányòu yǐmǎo 延祐乙卯 [1315], summer, sixth month, written at Línchuān 臨川 by Háoshàng Zhàozhōu Zhào Sīxuán Cóngshàn.” Author’s self-preface (Lín Yuán, dated 1304). Lín begins with the same triadic frame — to attain immortality through cultivating the Way, to attain Buddhahood through Chán practice, to enter office through Confucian learning — and laments that few succeed at any of them. He then narrates his own life: native of Mǐn (Fújiàn), of the Lín clan; a child caught in warfare and clan dissension; tried Confucian learning, but family ruin made it impossible; thought of Buddhism but feared he would leave no descendants; took to wandering, drifting “to the four quarters,” surviving by petty trades, until a chance reading of the Huángdì nèijīng 黃帝內經 brought a sudden recognition. Then, “by good fortune meeting a true person who, taking pity on me, sketched out the essentials of xiūzhēn 修真,” Lín undertook the discipline of liǎo shēn 了身 (“realising the body”) as the supreme art. He surveyed the alchemical canons, conferred with various masters, and concluded that “if one would seek long life, one must investigate the source of one’s own birth; to see the Tathāgata one must investigate the original (běnlái 本來). The source of birth is the original qì 元氣; the original is essence and blood (jīngxuè 精血); when men know the root, no effort is wasted.” The “supreme method” lies in the shénshuǐ huáchí 神水華池 (Divine Water and Flower Pond) — the foundation of all elixirs and the ancestor of the Great Way. Lín closes with the apology that he could not personally bid farewell to all his friends scattered “from the head of Wú to the tail of Chǔ,” and so committed his learning to writing as a parting gift; he calls the book Gǔshén — to nourish the original qi. He gives his teacher’s lineage as descending from Hán Xiāoyáo through Lǘ’ān Yùjūn but does not name his immediate master, “lest by my own unworthiness I disgrace him.” Signed Dàdé bājiān, jiǎchén 大德八年甲辰, the day of the yī yáng lái fù 一陽來復 (winter solstice), Wǔfú Xuáncháozǐ Lín Yuán Shénfèng (1304).
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:847 (§3.A.4, Nèidān and Yǎngshēng), identifies the Gǔshén piān as a popular treatise on Inner Alchemy by Lín Yuán of Fújiàn, with a self-preface dated 1304 and a patron-preface by Zhào Cóngshàn dated 1315. Schipper notes that Lín gives Wǔfú 五福 as his place of origin (preface 4b), and that the lineage descends from Hán Xiāoyáo (whose Nèizhǐ tōngxuán bìjué is quoted in [[KR5c1005|DZ 1005 Zhōuyì cāntóng qì fāhuī]] 1.11b); Lín’s own teacher was a certain Yùzǐ Lǘān 玉子閭菴 (preface 6a). The work is composed mostly of poems and short dissertations, the principal subject being nèidān, but with conspicuous references to liturgical Daoism — the Běidǒu jīng, the Hùnyuán fúshuǐ charm-water rite, and even sexual practice (2.16b) — and notably no mention of Quánzhēn. The frontmatter brackets composition 1300–1315, between Lín’s self-preface and the printing.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Gushen pian,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 847. On Yuán-period popular nèidān in Fújiàn: Judith Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley 1987); Lowell Skar, “Golden Elixir Alchemy: The Formation of the Southern Lineage and the Transformation of Medieval China,” PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania 2003.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0253
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 847.