Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn 歷世真仙體道通鑑
Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals Who Embodied the Tao through the Ages
by 趙道一 (撰, hào Quányáng zǐ 全陽子, fl. 1294); colophon (刊記) by 劉辰翁 (1232–1297) dated jiǎwǔ 1294; preface (序) by 鄧光薦 (1232–1303) dated jiǎwǔ 1294
About the work
A vast fifty-three-juan Daoist universal hagiography, by the Yuán-period dàoshì 道士 Zhào Dàoyī 趙道一 (referred to in one of the prefaces as Zhào Quányáng 趙全陽), of the Fúyún shān Shèngshòu wànnián gōng 浮雲山聖壽萬年宮 (the Fúyún guǎn 浮雲觀, renamed Fúyún shān under the Sòng, situated in Fèngxīn xiàn 奉新縣 in the superior prefecture of Lóngxīng fǔ 隆興府, modern Nánchāng 南昌, Jiāngxī). Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0296 / CT 296 = TC 296), 洞真部 記傳類. The work narrates the history of Daoism through the lives of those who attained the Way; it is supplemented by [[KR5a0309|DZ 297 Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn xùbiān 續編]] (SòngJīnYuán continuation, mainly Quánzhēn) and [[KR5a0310|DZ 298 Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn hòují 後集]] (female immortals). The aim is nothing less than to provide Daoism with its own tōngjiàn — a counterpart to Sīmǎ Guāng’s 司馬光 Zīzhì tōngjiàn 資治通鑑 and the Buddhist Shìshì tōngjiàn 釋氏通鑑.
Prefaces
Two key paratexts: (1) Dèng Guāngjiàn’s 鄧光薦 preface, dated the jiǎwǔ year (1294), opening with a citation of Bó Hǎiqióng’s [Bó Yùchán 白玉蟾] remark that Gě Hóng’s Shénxiān zhuàn recorded over a thousand persons; Liú Gāng făshī 劉綱法師 added some sixteen hundred for the Xù xiānzhuàn; the Sòng compiler Wáng Tàichū 王太初 collected biographies of nine hundred for the Jí xiān zhuàn 集仙傳; and “in the Xuānhé era [1119–1126], examining ancient and modern, the obtained immortals reach fifty thousand, called Xiānshǐ 仙史 — what abundance!” Dèng then expounds Zhào Dàoyī’s editorial vision. (2) Liú Chénwēng’s 劉辰翁 colophon, also dated jiǎwǔ (1294), confirms that the work’s contents reach to “contemporary” times — i.e., 1294. The body of the work itself is preceded by Zhào Dàoyī’s own foreword, stating that his history covers the period from antiquity to the end of the Sòng. The biography of the thirty-fifth Heavenly Master toward the end of the work suggests that this section was written during the lifetime of the thirty-sixth Heavenly Master (active under Khubilai, who conferred a title on him in 1291).
Abstract
Jean Levi (revised by Franciscus Verellen), in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:887–891 (§3.A.6, Sacred History and Geography), gives the following analysis. Zhào Dàoyī compiled the work in the two decades after the fall of the Sòng. The two preface-writers were prominent Sòng loyalists: Dèng Guāngjiàn (1232–1303) attempted suicide twice after the dynasty’s fall and refused the overtures of the Yuán general Zhāng Hóngfàn 張弘範 before retiring to Daoism; Liú Chénwēng (1232–1297) was a Lúlíng 廬陵 native active in late-Sòng Neo-Confucian circles and similarly withdrew from official life after the Mongol victory. Both signed in 1294. Zhào Dàoyī’s editorial procedure consists in transcribing biographies word-for-word — sometimes adding a brief conclusion as to how a saint’s life reflects the teaching of the Dàodé jīng 道德經 — and arranging them according to his own groupings. The chronology is complicated by saintly longevity, reincarnation, and the need to account for filiation by movement and school; the work’s organization is governed by three sometimes-irreconcilable principles: (1) the order pre-established by earlier collections; (2) filiation by school; (3) historical chronology. Direct sources include [[KR5a0306|DZ 294 Lièxiān zhuàn]] (= entire juan 3), the Shénxiān zhuàn (juan 5, 11–13, 34), [[KR5a0307|DZ 295 Xù xiānzhuàn]] (= juan 36–39 in large part), the lost Dòngxiān zhuàn 洞仙傳 (juan 6 and scattered), Lǐ Bó’s 李渤 Zhēn xì 真系 of 805 (juan 24–25 on Máoshān), the Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 (juan 8, 9, 13, 14, 16), the Xuānyuán běnjì 軒轅本紀 (preserved in Yúnjí qīqiān 100 = LZTT juan 1), the Hùnyuán shèngjì 混元聖紀 of 1191 (= juan 2), and the Gāodào zhuàn 高道傳 (1068–1101). The frontmatter brackets composition 1280–1294.
Translations and research
Translation: no full translation; partial translation of selected biographies in various studies. Standard scholarly entry: Jean Levi (rev. Franciscus Verellen), “Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.6, 887–891. Substantial study: Ozaki Masaharu 尾崎正治, “Rekishi shinsen taidō tsūkan” 歷世真仙體道通鑑.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0308
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.6, 887–891.