Xiūzhēn shíshū Zázhù jiéjìng 修真十書雜著捷徑
Shortcut to the Way: A Miscellany, from the “Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection”
compiled in the Zhìyuán 至元 era (1335–1340) by Yú Juéhuá 俞琰華 (zì Róngfǔ 榮甫) of Jiàn’ān 建安, Fújiàn — not to be confused with the slightly earlier 俞琰 Yú Yǎn (1258–1314) of Wújùn
About the work
A nine-juan Yuán-period xiūzhēn 修真 miscellany, juan 17–25 of the great anthology Xiūzhēn shíshū 修真十書 (“Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection”), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 263d / CT 263.17 = TC 2:799–800), 洞真部 方法類. The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù 四庫全書總目 147.3078 lists a Xiūzhēn jiéjìng 修真捷徑 in nine juan compiled by Yú Juéhuá 俞琰華, zì Róngfǔ 榮甫, of Jiàn’ān (Fújiàn) under the Yuán reign period Zhìyuán (1335–1340); both the description and the juàn-count match the present text, and Schipper-Verellen identify them. The collection bundles breathing techniques, treatises on the Five Viscera (wǔzàng 五臟), descriptions of the body, dǎoyǐn 導引 (gymnastics) techniques, and poems on these themes. Among the unique texts: juan 17 opens with the Cuìxū piān 翠虛篇 of Chén Pǔ 陳朴 (Níwán xiānsheng 泥丸先生) — a “nine-cycles of the gold elixir” (jiǔzhuǎn jīndān 九轉金丹) treatise; juan 18 contains illustrations and explanations of various centres of head and body by Yānluó zǐ 煙蘿子; juan 19 contains the Bāduànjǐn fǎ 八段錦法 (“Eight Lengths of Brocade”) with illustrations of dǎoyǐn attributed to Zhōnglí Quán (translated in Maspero, “Methods,” 547–48); juan 21.6b ff. preserves the Tiānyuán rùyào jìng 天元入藥鏡 (cf. [[KR5a0136|Cuī gōng rùyào jìng zhùjiě]]); juan 22–23 collect poems and cí-lyrics by Zēng Zào 曾慥 (d. 1155) and his circle; juan 24–25 give eighty-one anonymous verses on yǎngshēng 養生 techniques, including the Tiāndì jiāoshén lùn 天地交神論 (25.1a–2b), excerpted from [[KR5f0025|DZ 1191 Bìchuán Zhèngyáng zhēnrén Língbǎo bìfǎ]].
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:799–800 (§3.A.4, Nèidān and Yǎngshēng), identifies the present Zázhù jiéjìng with the Xiūzhēn jiéjìng of Yú Juéhuá listed in the Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù. The compiler is otherwise unknown. The character of the collection — a Yuán-period catch-all of body-, breath-, and verse-based techniques drawn from disparate Táng-through-Sòng strata — is consistent with the broader Xiūzhēn shíshū programme of preserving heterogeneous xiūzhēn materials within a single ten-book frame. The frontmatter brackets composition to the Zhìyuán reign-period (1335–1340) of the Yuán emperor Shùndì 順帝.
Translations and research
No full translation. The Bāduànjǐn fǎ in juan 19 is partially translated in Henri Maspero, “Les procédés de ‘nourrir le principe vital’ dans la religion taoïste ancienne,” Journal Asiatique 229 (1937), 547–48 (Eng. tr. Frank A. Kierman, “Methods of ‘Nourishing the Vital Principle’ in the Ancient Taoist Religion,” in Taoism and Chinese Religion, Amherst: UMass Press, 1981). Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Zazhu jiejing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 799–800. On dǎoyǐn and bāduànjǐn: Catherine Despeux, “Gymnastics: The Ancient Tradition,” in Livia Kohn ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989), 225–62.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0267
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 799–800.