Xiūzhēn shíshū Wùzhēn piān 修真十書悟真篇
Folios on Awakening to Truth, from the “Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection”
by 張伯端 (撰, 984–1082); commentaries by 葉士表 (zì Wénshū 文叔, 注 dated 1161) and others; compiled by 遠公輔 (集, 1202)
About the work
A five-juan recension of the Wùzhēn piān 悟真篇 — Zhāng Bóduān’s 張伯端 (984–1082) foundational nèidān poetic treatise of 1075, the second cornerstone of Chinese inner alchemy after the Zhōuyì cāntóng qì 周易參同契. Preserved as juan 26–30 of the Xiūzhēn shíshū 修真十書 in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 263e / CT 263.26 = TC 2:816–817), 洞真部 方法類. The collection comprises the oldest surviving commentaries on the Wùzhēn piān: the 1161 commentary of Yè Wénshū 葉文叔 (Yè Shìbiǎo 葉士表) — the earliest known Wùzhēn piān commentary, framed in terms of the dàyǎn 大衍 numerical scheme of the Xìcí 繫辭 appendix — together with commentaries variously attributed to Wēng Bǎoguāng 翁葆光 (under the names Xiāngchuān wēng 湘川翁 and Wúmíng zǐ 無名子) or Xuē Dàoguāng 薛道光. The whole was edited and brought together in 1202 by Yuán Gōngfǔ 遠公輔 (so the catalog meta; commonly written 袁公輔). The text was originally listed in Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí 直齋書錄解題 12.349 with the full title Wùzhēn piān jízhù 悟真篇集注. The present recension is the most complete surviving edition of the Wùzhēn piān itself: it preserves Zhāng Bóduān’s eighty-one verses (sixteen qīlǜ 七律, sixty-four jīnxī keyed to the hexagrams, one closing on Tàiyī 太一), the twelve Xījiāng yuè 西江月 cí-lyrics, and the thirty-two Buddhist-themed poems (the Chánzōng gēsòng 禪宗歌頌; juan 30.1a–12a), the last of which are missing in the parallel recensions [[KR5d0141|DZ 141 Wùzhēn piān zhùshū]] and [[KR5d0142|DZ 142 Wùzhēn piān sānzhù]]. Five additional poems and a set of Dānfáng bǎojiàn tú 丹房寶鑑圖 diagrams (no author given) are appended.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The 1161 preface by Yè Wénshū and the 1202 preface by Yuán Gōngfǔ (both seen by the Yuán scholar Dài Qǐzōng 戴起宗, ca. 1337) are not preserved in the present Xiūzhēn shíshū witness; cf. [[KR5d0143|Sānchéng bìyào]] 19b–20a.
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:816–817 (§3.A.4.c, the Wùzhēn piān and the Southern School), describes the recensional history. The Wùzhēn piān was first listed in Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì 郡齋讀書志 (VDL 118) under the title Tōngxuán bìyào Wùzhēn piān 通玄祕要悟真篇 in one juan; quoted already in [[KR5c1017|DZ 1017 Dàoshū]] 18.9b by Zēng Zào 曾慥 (d. 1155), in [[KR5d1248|Sāndòng qúnxiān lù]] 2.9b (1154 preface), and in [[KR5d0688|Dàodé zhēnjīng zhíjiě]] 2.12a (1159 preface). The first commentary by Yè Wénshū was completed in 1161; the present compilation by Yuán Gōngfǔ followed in 1202; and Wēng Bǎoguāng’s commentary was already in circulation by 1173 (preface to [[KR5d0141|Wùzhēn piān zhùshū]]). On the disputed authorship of the second commentary (Wēng Bǎoguāng vs. Xuē Dàoguāng) see Schipper-Verellen 2:818–823 and the apparatus at KR5d0141; on the orderly arrangement of the poems, the present Xiūzhēn shíshū recension follows Zhāng Bóduān’s stated programme more closely than any other Daozang witness. Frontmatter brackets composition between Zhāng’s autograph preface of 1075 and Yuán Gōngfǔ’s 1202 compilation.
Translations and research
Tessenow Friedrich (Thomas Cleary), Understanding Reality: A Taoist Alchemical Classic (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987) — translation of the 80 Wùzhēn piān verses; Paul Crowe, “Chapters on Awakening to the Real,” British Columbia Asian Review 12 (2000), 1–40. Critical study and partial translation: Isabelle Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste (Paris: Cerf, 1995). Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Wuzhen pian (Xiuzhen shishu 26–30),” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4.c, 816–817. Specialized: Azuma Jūji, “Chō Hakutan Goshinhen no kenkyū”; Liu Ts’un-yan, “Zhang Boduan yu Wuzhen pian”; Yan Zhenfei, “Wuzhen pian chengshu didian.”
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0268
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4.c, 816–817.