Sānjí zhìmìng quándì 三極至命筌諦
The Three Ultimates and the Fish-Trap of Ultimate Destiny
by 王慶升 (述, hào Guǒzhāi 果齋, hào Yuánqīng zǐ 爰清子)
About the work
A one-juan late-Sòng nèidān 內丹 (“inner alchemy”) manual by Wáng Qìngshēng 王慶升 (hào Guǒzhāi 果齋, also Yuánqīng zǐ 爰清子), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0275 / CT 275 = TC 275), 洞真部 眾術類. The title plays on Zhuāngzǐ’s quán 筌 (“fish-trap”): words are the trap by which the meaning-fish of the Three Ultimates (sānjí 三極: Wújí 無極, Tàijí 太極, Huángjí 皇極) and their bearing on Ultimate Destiny (zhìmìng 至命) is caught — though the traditional graph 諦 (dì, “truth, ascertain”) is here written for tí 蹄 (“snare”), keeping the binomial quántí 筌蹄 of Zhuāngzǐ “Wàiwù” 外物. The text accompanies Wáng’s other surviving alchemical work [[KR5d0112|Yuánqīng zǐ zhìmìng piān 爰清子至命篇]] (DZ 1090, dated 1249), and elaborates the same Southern-school nèidān doctrines through diagrams, prose explanations, and verse.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with a heading and the author’s verse exposition of the Three Ultimates: “Pure good and pure yáng, the substance utterly firm — this is named the Sovereign of the Primordial Beginning’s Method… the One of Heaven, clear and unmuddied; the Tàijí just born and wrought into the home of fire; the Wújí stands one — its nature has five; the Great Way mingles and fuses civil and martial; able to keep the Ten Precepts, one returns to the beginning…”
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:847 (§3.A.4, Nèidān and Yǎngshēng), identifies Wáng Qìngshēng (zì Guózhāi 國齋, hào Yuánqīng zǐ 爰清子) as the disciple of a Master Yáo 姚 whose hào was Tāoyuán zǐ 韜元子, himself a follower of Bó Yùchán 白玉蟾. A certain Yáng Cǎiyīn 楊采隱 instructed Wáng in the principles of alchemy in 1243 and on fire-phasing (huǒhòu 火候) in 1244 (11b); Wáng accordingly belonged to the Southern School (Nánzōng 南宗) of nèidān. He gives a list of works written by the patriarchs of this lineage and transmitted to their successors (10a–12a). The text then proceeds through diagrams of the Three Ultimates (Wújí, Tàijí, Huángjí), discusses the meaning of the Five Vehicles (wǔjù 五車: sheep, deer, buffalo, great buffalo, great white buffalo) and the Three Vehicles (sānshèng 三乘), and includes a commentary on a waìdān 外丹 poem by Bó Yùchán (Zǐqīng Bó zhēnrén jīnyè dàhuán wàidān jué 紫清白真人金液大還外丹訣, 12a–23b) and a versified explanation of a song by Lǚ Dòngbīn (Chúnyáng zhēnrén shuāngtiān xiàojiào 純陽真人霜天曉角, 21b–23a) — neither of which is extant in those authors’ own collections in the Daozang. The final section comprises Wáng’s own short prose and poetic compositions. Since the latest internal date is 1244, the frontmatter brackets composition 1244–1260 (working life of the author within the lineage of Bó Yùchán’s followers).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Catherine Despeux, “Sanji zhiming quanti,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 847. On Bó Yùchán and the Southern School: Lowell Skar, “Golden Elixir Alchemy: The Formation of the Southern Lineage of the Way of the Golden Elixir,” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania (2003); Catherine Despeux, Le chemin de l’éveil (Paris: L’Asiathèque, 1981).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0287
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 847.