Huáyáng Táo yǐnjū nèizhuàn 華陽陶隱居內傳
Esoteric Biography of the Huáyáng Recluse Táo [Hóngjǐng]
by 賈嵩 (撰)
About the work
A three-juan esoteric biography of Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景 (456–536), founding patriarch of Máoshān 茅山 Shàngqīng 上清, compiled by Jiǎ Sōng 賈嵩 (signing himself Bìluó rúzǐ 薜蘿孺子, “Child of the Briar Vines”), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0300 / CT 300 = TC 300), 洞真部 記傳類. Juan 1 covers Táo’s official career under the LiúSòng 劉宋 and Qí 齊; juan 2 his retreat to Máoshān (492) and his religious life there; juan 3 collects later documentation, notably Sòng Huīzōng’s 宋徽宗 1124 decree expanding Táo’s honorific name and the eulogy by the poet Sū Xiàng 蘇庠 (1065–1147) — both, on Cedzich’s analysis, later additions appended to an originally two-juan work. Jiǎ’s preface itself names his sources individually, drawing especially on the now-incomplete record kept by Táo’s nephew Táo Yì 陶翊 (the Huáyáng yǐnjū xiānshēng běnqǐ lù 華陽隱居先生本起錄, surviving in Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 107.1b–11b), supplemented around 502–508 by Pān Quánwén 潘權文; and on Táo’s own [[KR5d1010|Zhēn’gào 真誥]] (DZ 1016) and the Dēngzhēn yǐnjué 登真隱訣 (DZ 421).
Prefaces
The compiler’s preface (Jiǎ Sōng 賈嵩 signing as 薜蘿孺子 Bìluó rúzǐ): “Some say: ‘Mr. Zhēnbái 貞白先生 is in the Liángshū 梁書 Gāoshì zhuàn 高士傳; why now make another biography?’ I reply: the Liángshū says, ‘Lord Táo’s tabooed name was Hóngjǐng, zì Tōngmíng 通明, of Mòlíng 秣陵 in Dānyáng 丹陽. His mother dreamed of two heavenly persons holding incense braziers’ — and so on. When Qí Gāo 齊高 acted as chancellor, he was made tutor (shìdú 侍讀) to several princes; though within the Vermilion Gate he had no congress with externals. In Yǒngmíng 永明 12 (494) he stripped off his court robes and hung them at Shénhǔ 神虎 Gate, memorialising his resignation; the edict permitted it…” (the Liángshū paraphrase continues) “Thereafter he visited the famous mountains, sought immortal medicines; in every gully and valley he must sit and lie among them. He especially loved the wind in the pines, and planted them throughout his courtyard. When Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 ascended the throne, he wrote letters of inquiry…” Jiǎ then specifies that the present nèizhuàn 內傳 (“esoteric biography”) supplements the imperial-history record with the documentary materials retrieved from Táo Yì’s Běnqǐ lù, Pān Quánwén’s continuation, and Táo’s own Zhēn’gào and Dēngzhēn yǐnjué.
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:428–429 (§2.A.6, Sacred History and Geography), argues that the compiler — long supposed by Qīng scholars (e.g., Yè Déhuī’s 葉德輝 1903 edition) to be a Sòng author — is with some probability identifiable with the late-Táng prose writer of the same name whose Xián kěwèi fù 閒可畏賦 is preserved in Wényuàn yīnghuá 5.9a–10a. The compositional logic is that the preface enumerates Jiǎ’s sources for what he treats as a two-juan work; juan 3 then comprises material entirely outside that source-discussion (Huīzōng’s 1124 decree, Sū Xiàng’s eulogy, etc.) and is plausibly a later supplement. The Bìshū shěng xùbiān dào sìkù quēshū mù 秘書省續編到四庫闕書目 (VDL 144) lists the work in two juan, supporting the supplementation hypothesis. The frontmatter accordingly brackets composition late ninth to early tenth century. Cedzich notes that Jiǎ followed Táo Yì’s record only as far as 499; Pān Quánwén’s continuation supplied 502–508. The sources are catalogued explicitly in Jiǎ’s preface, an unusual feature for the genre.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §2.A.6, 428–429. On Táo Hóngjǐng more generally: Michel Strickmann, Le taoïsme du Mao chan (Paris 1981); Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (Berkeley 1997); Stephen R. Bokenkamp, “Answering a Summons,” in Donald S. Lopez ed., Religions of China in Practice (Princeton 1996), 188–202.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0312
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §2.A.6, 428–429.