Xiūzhēn jīngyì zálùn 修真精義雜論
Miscellaneous Discussions on the Essential Meaning of Cultivating Truth
by 司馬承禎 (述, 647–735, hào Báiyún zǐ 白雲子)
About the work
A one-juan Táng treatise on yǎngshēng 養生 (“nurturing life”) attributed to the twelfth Shàngqīng 上清 patriarch Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn 司馬承禎 (647–735, hào Báiyún zǐ 白雲子, “Master of the White Cloud”), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0277 / CT 277 = TC 277), 洞真部 眾術類. The text opens with a section on guided exercises (dǎoyǐn 導引) and proceeds through detailed instructions on the proper times and methods for dǎoyǐn, breath circulation, the structure of the jīngmài 經脈 (channels) and the relations of yíng 榮 (constructive) and wèi 衛 (defensive) qì, the role of the heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, and spleen, and the principles of physiological self-care. Substantively the work is a chapter excerpted from Sīmǎ’s longer Fúqì jīngyì lùn 服氣精義論 (DZ 830).
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the treatise: “Lùn dǎoyǐn 論導引: The body’s joints and limbs depend on motion and use; the channels and the yíngwèi circulation depend on free communication. Now since I dwell at leisure, with no labour or duty to occupy me, I require dǎoyǐn in order to preserve harmony and ease. ‘A door-pivot does not rot’ — the saying is true. Man’s blood, qì, and spirit are what nourish life and complete one’s nature and destiny…”
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:367 (§2.A.4, Yǎngshēng), notes that the present text forms part of the longer 830 Fúqì jīngyì lùn 服氣精義論 by Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn — i.e., that it is an excerpted recension presented in the Daozang as an independent work. Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn (zì Zǐwēi 子微, hào Báiyún zǐ 白雲子, posthumous sobriquet Zhēnyī xiānshēng 貞一先生) was the dominant Daoist voice at the early-Táng court under three successive emperors and the principal authority on Shàngqīng yǎngshēng and meditative practice; his canonical works include the Zuòwàng lùn 坐忘論 (DZ 1036), Tiānyǐn zǐ 天隱子 (DZ 1020), and the present Fúqì jīngyì lùn (DZ 830) of which the Xiūzhēn jīngyì zálùn is a chapter. The frontmatter brackets composition to Sīmǎ’s mature working life (ca. 700) up to his death in 735.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Xiuzhen jingyi zalun,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1, 367. The fuller Fúqì jīngyì lùn (DZ 830) is partially translated and discussed in: Ute Engelhardt, Die klassische Tradition der Qi-Übungen (Qigong): Eine Darstellung anhand des Tang-zeitlichen Texts Fuqi jingyi lun (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1987). On Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn more generally: Livia Kohn, Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhen’s Zuowang lun (Nettetal: Steyler, 1987); T. H. Barrett, Taoism Under the T’ang (London: Wellsweep, 1996).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0289
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1, 367.