Bàoyī zǐ Sānfēng lǎorén dānjué 抱一子三峰老人丹訣
Alchemical Instructions of the Old Man of Three Peaks, Master Holding-the-One
compiled by 金月巖 (編); transmitted by 黃公望 (傳, 1269–1354, hào Dàchī 大癡, “Inheritor of the Quánzhēn 全真 Orthodoxy”)
About the work
An eighteen-folio late-Yuán Quánzhēn 全真 nèidān 內丹 collection, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0281 / CT 281 = TC 281), 洞真部 眾術類. The text bears two attribution lines: “compiled by Jīn Yuèyán 金月巖, inheritor of the Quánzhēn orthodoxy” (嗣全真正宗金月巖編) and “transmitted by the great-fool Huáng Gōngwàng 黃公望, inheritor of Quánzhēn” (嗣全真大癡黄公望傳). Huáng Gōngwàng (1269–1354) is far better known to the broader tradition as one of the Four Great Masters of Yuán painting; here he appears in his Quánzhēn capacity. The work is presented as the alchemical lessons of a certain “Liú xiānshēng 劉先生 of long-life undying, the Jīnchán tuōqiào 金蟬脫殼 (Cicada-shedding) celestial-immortal,” titled the “Old Man of Three Peaks, Master Holding-the-One.” It contains: oral instructions on the celestial immortals’ chart (Tiānxiān tú kǒujué 天仙圖口訣); oral instructions on false xìngmìng (假性命口訣); oral instructions on true xìngmìng (真性命口訣); and sixteen qī yán juéjù 七言絕句 poems on the wěilǘ xué 尾閭穴 (the lowermost pass of the spine), counted to “answer the sixteen-liǎng number of qiánkūn.”
Prefaces
No formal preface in the source. The text opens with a brief notice listing the contents, immediately followed by the editor’s introduction (1a–6b), which is polemical against heterodox practices: “Master Liú of long-life undying… Alas, the seekers of the Way of past and present, not meeting an enlightened master to be personally transmitted the oral formula, give rise to short-sighted views, raising up confusion and ignorance: some who eat pine and cypress; some who drink water and swallow talismans; some who suck and swallow saliva; some who exhale stale and inhale fresh; some who absorb the essence of sun and moon; some who ànmó dǎoyǐn 按摩導引 (massage and guide-and-stretch); some who fast and abstain from grain; some who blindly cultivate and refine; some who prop up the tongue against the heart-ash…”
Abstract
Vincent Goossaert, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1190–1191 (§3.B.9, The Quánzhēn Order), notes that the work raises problems of identification both for compiler and author (cf. [[KR5a0241|DZ 242 Zhízhōu xiānshēng quánzhēn zhízhǐ 直州先生全真直指]]). The work is attributed to a Liú xiānshēng 劉先生 with the appellation “Old Man of Three Peaks, Master Holding-the-One,” but it is not clear that this is a historical figure. The general tone is comparable to that of DZ 242, being polemical against heterodox practices, although the term quánzhēn itself is absent here. The structure does not strictly follow the precis: the first section gives oral instructions on the false xìngmìng (6b–9a, the “small accomplishment” of those who fix on the lower dāntián 丹田 — to be practiced only initially) and on the true xìngmìng (11a–15a, the “great accomplishment” of those who effect the reversal of the true yīn and yáng and circulate them through the body); the Tiānxiān tú 天仙圖 (15a–16b) is in fact composed of four trigrams; the wěilǘ 尾閭 chart and the sixteen accompanying poems come last (16b–18b). All textual references are to Quánzhēn patriarchs (Zhōnglí Quán 鍾離權, Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓, Liú Hǎichán 劉海蟾, Wáng Chóngyáng 王重陽, Sòng Défāng 宋德方), although the idea that the zhēnrén 真人 state can be attained in three hundred days (parallel to gestation; 13a–b) is uncommon in Quánzhēn texts. The method is intended only for male adepts; the term sānfēng 三峰 (“Three Peaks”) sometimes refers to sexual techniques in later works but probably not here. Compiler Jīn Yuèyán 金月巖 is otherwise unknown; transmitter Huáng Gōngwàng (1269–1354) is the painter and Quánzhēn priest. The frontmatter brackets composition to Huáng Gōngwàng’s working life and slightly later (1300–1368).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Vincent Goossaert, “Baoyi zi sanfeng laoren danjue,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1190–1191. On Huáng Gōngwàng’s Daoist commitments alongside his more famous painting career: James Cahill, Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279–1368 (New York 1976); Susan E. Nelson, “Late Yuan Painting and the Quanzhen Order,” in Daoist Identity, ed. Livia Kohn and Harold D. Roth (Honolulu 2002).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0293
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1190–1191.