Guǎng Huángdì běnxíng jì 廣黃帝本行記
Expanded Annals of the Yellow Emperor
by 王瓘 (進, zhǔbù 主簿 of Jìn’ān, Lángzhōu, in Táng)
About the work
A one-juan late-Táng hagiographic treatise on Huángdì 黃帝, presented to the throne by Wáng Guàn 王瓘 — designated in the source as “presented by Wáng Guàn, zhǔbù 主簿 of Jìn’ānxiàn in Lángzhōu, in Táng” (唐閬州晉安縣主簿王瓘進) — preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0290 / CT 290 = TC 290), 洞真部 記傳類. The text is in fact the third and final juan of an annal in three juan listed in Sòng catalogues under the title Guǎng Xuányuán běnjì 廣軒轅本紀 (cf. Van der Loon 157). The complete work in three juan is reprinted in Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 100.2b–32a, which is in turn reproduced (with variants) in [[KR5a0308|DZ 296 Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn 歷世真仙體道通鑑]] 1.1a–27b. The first two juan recount Huángdì’s feats as inventor and exorcist; the third juan, headed Xiūxíng dàodé 修行道德 (“Cultivating the Way and its Virtue”) and found only in the Daozang version, is the narrative of Huángdì’s mystical quest and his initiation by masters on each of the sacred mountains.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with its narrative: “Xiūxíng dàodé. The Yellow Emperor, having ordered all under heaven and made all-things-and-uses complete, then sought out the Real and inquired after the recluse, sought the Way and asked after the immortal, hoping to obtain long life. Of those who, as the saying goes, ‘first ordered the world and ascended to immortality,’ there was one Níng Fēng zǐ 寗封子, who was Táozhèng 陶正 (Master of Pottery)…”
Abstract
Jean Levi, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:428 (§2.A.6, Sacred History and Geography), notes that the text incorporates elements from several earlier works: compare 1a, 1b, and 9b with [[KR5a0306|DZ 294 Lièxiān zhuàn]] 1.1b, 1.2a, and 1.1a–2b; and the biography of Huángdì in 1.2b–3a, 2a–b, and 4a–5a with Zhuāngzǐ 24.830–833 and 11.379–384; compare 10b here with Shānhǎi jīng 山海經 (KR5d0054) 3.14a and 3.22b. Onto these mythological elements are grafted traditions from the early Língbǎo 靈寶 corpus: compare 3b with Bàopǔzǐ 抱朴子 4.61, 18.29, 17.274; and 9b–10a with Bàopǔzǐ 13.235–236. The passages on the burial of fú 符 talismans in the mountains (9b, 11a–b) are related to traditions in Tàishàng língbǎo wǔfú xù 太上靈寶五符序 (DZ 388, 1.2b–3a, 4a–b, 6b). The initiation of Huángdì by Huáng Rén 黃人 (5a–8a) corresponds to a later development of the Tàiqīng 太清 tradition; this passage is not in the Yúnjí qīqiān version. Wáng Guàn’s working date of 881 is securely attested. The frontmatter accordingly fixes composition to 881.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Jean Levi, “Guang huangdi benxing ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.6, 428. On Huángdì hagiography: Mark Csikszentmihalyi and Michael Nylan, “Constructing Lineages and Inventing Traditions Through Exemplary Figures in Early China,” T’oung Pao 89 (2003), 59–99.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0302
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.6, 428.