Qiányuán zǐ sānshǐ lùn 乾元子三始論
Master Qiányuán’s Discourse on the Three Beginnings
attributed to Qiányuán zǐ 乾元子 (撰, otherwise unknown; pseudonym based on the celestial-immortal master of one of Chìsōng zǐ’s 赤松子 teachers)
About the work
A very short lùn 論 (“discourse”) in one juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 268 / CT 268 = TC 2:737), 洞真部 方法類. The work is signed Qiányuán zǐ 乾元子 — a hào whose ultimate referent is a tiānxiān 天仙 (“celestial immortal”) said in [[KR5b0883|Tàiqīng jīng tiānshī kǒujué]] 5b to be the master of one of the teachers of Chìsōng zǐ 赤松子 — but no actual author can be identified, and the date of composition is uncertain. The treatise comprises four short paragraphs setting out a cosmological framework drawn directly from the Hàn apocryphal tradition, especially the Yìwěi Qiánzáodù 易緯乾鑿度 and the first chapter of the Lièzǐ 列子. In Qiányuán zǐ’s reading: Tàiyì 太易 (“Great Change”) is the equivalent of hùndùn 混沌 (“Chaos”); Tàichū 太初 (“Great Beginning”), Tàishǐ 太始 (“Great Commencement”), and Tàisù 太素 (“Great Simplicity”) are respectively the beginnings of qì 氣, xíng 形 (form), and zhì 質 (matter) — hence the title’s sānshǐ 三始, the “Three Beginnings”. The discourse closes with a brief application of this fourfold cosmogony to the practitioner’s own constitution.
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:737 (§3.A.1, Philosophy), describes the work as a short undated treatise drawing directly on Hàn-period yìwěi 易緯 cosmogonic categories — categories made canonical for Daoist cosmology through the Lièzǐ 列子 chapter 1 (Tiānruì 天瑞). The sānshǐ schema (Tàichū-Tàishǐ-Tàisù as the births of qì, xíng, and zhì) became one of the standard frames for medieval Daoist cosmogony — embedded, for example, in the early-Sòng Yúnjí qī qiān 雲笈七籤 cosmological prefaces and in the cosmogonic openings of late-Táng / Sòng nèidān treatises. The brevity and the absence of any clear citation-anchor make precise dating impossible; Baldrian-Hussein offers no specific date. The frontmatter brackets composition broadly to the late-Táng / Sòng (800–1100) span within which such cosmological abstracts were most commonly produced.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Qianyuan zi sanshi lun,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 737. On the yìwěi / Lièzǐ cosmogonic schema and its Daoist reception: Isabelle Robinet, “Original Contributions of Neidan to Taoism and Chinese Thought,” in Livia Kohn ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989), 297–330; Catherine Despeux, “Cosmogonie et anthropogonie dans le taoïsme du Tang,” in Religions traditionnelles d’Asie orientale et identité culturelle (Paris: Cerf, 1991).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0280
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 737.