Xiūzhēn shíshū ZhōngLǚ chuándào jí 修真十書鍾呂傳道集
Anthology on the Transmission of the Way from Zhōnglí [Quán] to Lǚ [Dòngbīn], from the “Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection”
attributed to 鍾離權 (述, “narrated by Zhèngyáng zhēnrén Zhōnglí Quán Yúnfáng”), compiled by 呂洞賓 (集, as Chúnyáng zhēnrén Lǚ Yán Dòngbīn), and transmitted by 施肩吾 (傳, as Huáyáng zhēnrén Shī Jiānwú Xīshèng)
About the work
A three-juan nèidān 內丹 (“inner alchemy”) dialogue, juan 14–16 of the great Yuán-period anthology Xiūzhēn shíshū 修真十書 (“Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection”), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 263c / CT 263.14 = TC 2:801–802), 洞真部 方法類. The work belongs to the Zhōng–Lǚ 鍾呂 corpus of inner-alchemical writings ascribed to the legendary immortals Zhōnglí Quán 鍾離權 and his disciple Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓 — the same lineage that produced [[KR5a0247|DZ 246 Xīshān qúnxiān huìzhēn jì]] and [[KR5f0025|DZ 1191 Mì chuán Zhèngyáng zhēnrén Língbǎo bìfǎ]]. Cast as a question-and-answer dialogue between Lǚ (questioner) and Zhōnglí (master), the text is divided into eighteen topics (lùn 論) covering the principal categories of nèidān doctrine: the kinds of immortals (zhēnxiān 真仙, guǐxiān 鬼仙, rénxiān 人仙, dìxiān 地仙, shénxiān 神仙, tiānxiān 天仙); the great Way; yīn and yáng; the qì of Heaven and Earth; the sun and moon; the four seasons; the five phases; water and fire; the dragon and tiger; the cauldron and stove; lead and mercury; the cinnabar fields; rivers and chariots; firing and timing; zhòutiān 晝天 and huánjīn 還金; the fluids of the elixir; and at last chāotuō 超脫 (“liberation, transfiguration”). Doctrine is theoretical, with only occasional gestures toward concrete practice. The text defines itself (16.13a–b) as the theoretical companion to [[KR5f0025|DZ 1191 Língbǎo bìfǎ]], which lays out the practical regimen.
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:801–802 (§3.A.4.b, the Zhōng–Lǚ Tradition), notes that the title ZhōngLǚ chuándào jí is first listed in Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí 直齋書錄解題 12.348, but that a complete (slightly abridged) version is already embedded in [[KR5c1017|DZ 1017 Dàoshū]] under the title Chuándào piān 傳道篇 (ca. 1150), which establishes a terminus ante quem in the early to mid-twelfth century; on internal grounds the work belongs to the Northern-Sòng Zhōng–Lǚ stratum. The Sòngshǐ 宋史 Yìwén zhì 4.5190 lists it as Zhēnxiān chuándào jí 真仙傳道集; the Míng Dàoyán nèiwài bìjué quánshū gives yet another title, ZhōngLǚ èrxiān chuándào jí 鍾呂二仙傳道集 (with an additional final paragraph). Yú Yǎn 俞琰 (1258–1314) attributed authorship to Shī Jiānwú 施肩吾 (under the zì Shī Qīzhēn 施栖真; see [[KR5d1004|Zhōuyì cāntóng qì fāhuī]] 8.3a), placing the actual textual labour with Shī rather than the legendary Zhōng–Lǚ pair — a view consistent with the work’s stratigraphic profile (cf. the same attribution-history at DZ 1191 and DZ 246). The frontmatter brackets composition broadly to the Northern Sòng (960–1127), in line with the Schipper–Baldrian-Hussein placement.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Zhong-Lü chuandao ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4.b, 801–802. On the Zhōng–Lǚ corpus more broadly: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, Procédés secrets du joyau magique: Traité d’alchimie taoïste du XIe siècle (Paris: Les Deux Océans, 1984); Isabelle Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste (Paris: Cerf, 1995). Eva Wong’s The Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality: The Teachings of Immortals Chung and Lü (Boston: Shambhala, 2000) offers a popularising rendering.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0266
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4.b, 801–802.