Huán zhēnrén shēngxiān jì 桓真人升仙記
Record of Zhēnrén Huán’s Ascent to Immortality
Anonymous Five-Dynasties / early-Sòng hagiographic chuánqí 傳奇 in one juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0301 / CT 301 = TC 301), 洞真部 記傳類.
About the work
A short anonymous hagiography, in one juan, recounting the legend of Huán [Fǎ]kāi 桓[法]闓, supposed disciple of Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景 (456–536). In the present version — at variance with the standard hagiographic tradition (see e.g. Sāndòng zhūnáng 三洞珠囊 1.17a) — Huán travels from Sìchuān 四川 to Máoshān 茅山 to enter Táo’s service as the lowliest servant; he silently strives for perfection, and in the end, to everyone’s amazement, is preferred to his ambitious master and is summoned to Heaven before him. The text proposes nèidān 內丹 practices — and especially a method of meditation called mòcháo Shàngdì 默朝上帝 (“silent audience with the Emperor on High”; cf. [[KR5b0566|DZ 566 Shàngqīng tiānxīn zhèngfǎ]] 上清天心正法 6.5a–b) — as Huán’s recipe for success. The text concludes with the master Huán bidding farewell and giving Táo the elixir formulae before his ascent.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the narrative: “Lǐ Huán xiānjūn 李桓仙君 of Huágài shān 華蓋山 in Western Shǔ 西蜀 received the Way and transmitted it to Huán Kǎi zhēnrén 桓凱真人. The xiānjūn took the disciple’s surname Huán to make it his own surname; thus ‘Huán’ was not in fact his original surname. One day the xiānjūn said to his disciple Huán Kǎi: ‘You have obtained the Great Medicine of the Golden Elixir; the fēibù 飛步 (‘walking on air’) and yǐnshēn 隱身 (‘invisibility’) techniques you have all mastered — but you have not yet heard the Great Way.‘”
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:903–904 (§3.A.6, Sacred History and Geography), establishes that the present text can scarcely date earlier than the tenth century: it refers (9b) to the cult of the Three Offices of the Water Palace 水府三官, first canonised in 928 by Yáng Pǔ 楊溥, ruler of Wú 吳 (later NánTáng 南唐) — see Xīn Wǔdàishǐ 新五代史 61.758, Sòng huìyào jígǎo 宋會要輯稿 1:882. Hence notBefore 928. A roughly similar but much shorter hagiography of Huán [Fǎ]kāi already existed in Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭’s Shénxiān gǎnyù zhuàn 神仙感遇傳 (preserved in Tàipíng guǎngjì 太平廣記 15.106; see Verellen, “Encounter as revelation,” 380), but only Zēng Zào 曾慥 (d. 1155) cites the present, expanded text — at [[KR5c1017|DZ 1017 Dàoshū]] 道樞 8.1a–2b, with detail-by-detail correspondences to 1a–b, 3a–b, 5b, 6a–b, and 7a–b of the present version. The frontmatter accordingly brackets composition 928–1155, with the most likely window the late-tenth to early-twelfth century. The author is unknown.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “Huan zhenren shengxian ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.6, 903–904. See also Michel Strickmann, “Saintly Fools and Chinese Masters (Holy Fools),” Asia Major 3rd ser. 7/1 (1994), 35–57.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0313
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.6, 903–904.