Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn 穆天子傳
The Story of King Mu, Son of Heaven
with commentary by 郭璞 (注, 276–324)
About the work
A six-juan epic narrative of King Mù of Zhōu 周穆王 (traditionally dated r. 1023–983 BCE), his travels through the world and his meeting with Xī wáng mǔ 西王母 (juan 1–5), together with the death and burial of Lady Shèng Jī 盛姬 (juan 6). The text was discovered in 281 (Tàikāng 太康 2) by tomb-robbers in the tomb of King Xiāng of Wèi 魏襄王 (r. 318–296 BCE), together with many other texts (the Jízhǒng 汲塚 corpus); it was edited and inscribed onto bound bamboo slips by Xún Xù 荀勖 and his colleagues. According to Xún Xù’s preface, juan 1–4 are a unit and correspond to the original state in which they were found, whereas juan 5 was reconstructed by Xún and his colleagues from other remains. Juan 6 corresponds to a fragment from another work, the Zhōu Mùwáng měirén Shèng Jī sǐshì 周穆王美人盛姬死事, also found in the tomb. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0291 / CT 291 = TC 291), 洞真部 記傳類.
Prefaces
The Daozang text carries Xún Xù 荀勖’s undated preface (the original Jin-period editor’s preface): “Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn came forth from the Jí-tomb. The Jìn-period Xún Xù collated and fixed it as six juan; in his preface he says: ‘Although the matter is not canonical, the writing is highly archaic and quite worth perusing. He who consults the Shūxù 書序 declares that King Mù enjoyed his rule for a hundred years and aged in vagabondage. The Tàishǐgōng’s [Sīmǎ Qiān 司馬遷] account of King Mù’s reception by Xī wáng mǔ matches what most other transmitted accounts record; this book seems to have prepared a detailed record of one moment, and is not to be deeply impugned…‘” The Daozang reprint also incorporates the 1350 preface by Wáng Jiàn 王監 (zì Xuánhàn 玄翰), recording that he obtained a rare copy from the imperial censor Liú Zhēn 劉貞 (1289–1361) and had it reprinted.
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:114 (§1.A.6, Sacred History and Geography), observes that the Daozang edition is based on a printed edition of the Yuán period (1279–1368). The original Yuán edition has not been preserved; the present Daozang reprint is therefore the oldest extant edition of the work, and the Tiānyīgé 天一閣 reprint (from which all later editions derive) is probably based on it. The Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn is cited in Daoist works as a source related to the search for immortality; central to this interpretation is the episode of the meeting between the Son of Heaven and Xī wáng mǔ, a theme adopted in many later hagiographies, the most famous being [[KR5a0304|DZ 292 Hàn Wǔdì nèi zhuàn 漢武帝內傳]]. Internal evidence and the archaeological context of the Jí-tomb find place composition in the late Warring States period, broadly the early third century BCE; the frontmatter accordingly brackets composition -300 to -250. Guō Pú’s 郭璞 (276–324) commentary is well authenticated, mentioned in Guō’s biography in Jìn shū 晉書 and in the bibliographic treatises of Suí shū and Táng shū.
Translations and research
Translation: Rémi Mathieu, Le Mu Tianzi zhuan: traduction annotée — étude critique (Paris: Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises, 1978). Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Mu tianzi zhuan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.6, 114. Substantial studies: Gù Shí 顧實, Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn xī zhēng jiāngshū 穆天子傳西征講疏; Wáng Yīliáng 王貽梁 and Chén Jiànmín 陳建敏, Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn huìjiào jíshì 穆天子傳彙校集釋 (Shanghai 1994); Wéi Tíngshēng 衛挺生, Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn jīnkǎo 穆天子傳今考; Yáng Shànqún 楊善群, “Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn de zhēnwěi” 穆天子傳的真偽; Zhèng Jiéwén 鄭杰文, Mù tiānzǐ zhuàn tōngjiě 穆天子傳通解.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0303
- Wikipedia: Mu Tianzi zhuan
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.6, 114.