Zǐyáng zhēnrén nèizhuàn 紫陽真人內傳
The Esoteric Life of the Zhēnrén of Purple Yáng
Anonymous Eastern-Jìn Shàngqīng 上清 esoteric biography of Zhōu Yìshān 周義山, in one juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0303 / CT 303 = TC 303), 洞真部 記傳類.
About the work
A one-juan esoteric biography (nèizhuàn 內傳) of the Zhēnrén of Purple Yáng — Zǐyáng zhēnrén 紫陽真人 = Zhōu Yìshān 周義山 (zì Jìtōng 季通, of Rǔyīn 汝陰; born under the Hàn, traditionally 80 b.c.) — composed within the orbit of the late-fourth-century Shàngqīng revelations and an integral part of that corpus. The text opens by establishing Zhōu’s lineage as a seventh-generation descendant of the Hàn chancellor Zhōu Bó 周勃, born at Chénliú 陳留 while his father was cìshǐ 刺史 there. As a youth Zhōu read the Xiào jīng 孝經, Lúnyǔ 論語, and Yìjīng 周易; from sixteen onward he practised solar respiration at dawn, rinsing his mouth, swallowing fluids, breathing in qì by the hundredfold. Then follows the canonical Shàngqīng narrative of his quest: the meeting with the apparently humble Lord Sū 蘇君 (in fact the Immortal Lord Sū) from whom he received the Sānyī 三一 (Three Ones); the journey through the sacred mountains of the immortals; the encounter with ever greater saints, including the Yellow Old Lord (HuángLǎo jūn 黃老君) from whom Zhōu received many Shàngqīng scriptures and talismans; and the enumerated bibliographic list of these documents.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the biographical narrative: “The Zhēnrén of Purple Yáng’s original surname was Zhōu, his tabooed name Yìshān 義山, his zì Jìtōng 季通; he was a man of Rǔyīn 汝陰, a seventh-generation descendant of the Hàn chancellor Zhōu Bó 周勃. With the ancestral clan dispersed and scattered, the family had for generations served as high officials. His paternal grandfather Xuán 玄, in Yuánfèng 元鳳 1 (80 b.c.), was cìshǐ of Qīngzhōu 青州刺史; his father Mì 祕 was Fànyánglìng 范陽令 at the time he was born…”
Abstract
Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:198 (§1.B.2, Shàngqīng), describes the Zǐyáng zhēnrén nèizhuàn as one of the key esoteric biographies of the Shàngqīng tradition. According to a colophon (the ZhōuPéi èrzhēn xù 周裴二真序; 18a–19a) ascribed to Lord Péi 裴 (cf. the preceding article in the Tàoist Canon) and to Zhōu the zhēnrén himself, the present biography was written by Zhōu and revealed to a certain Huà Qiáo 華僑, prefect of Jiāngchéng 江乘 (Jùróng 句容, Jiāngsū), who was allied to the family of Xǔ Mì 許謐, Yáng Xī 楊羲’s patron. Táo Hóngjǐng discusses these facts at the very end of [[KR5d1010|Zhēn’gào 真誥]] (DZ 1016) 20.13b–14a: Huà was an early recipient of divine revelations but was indiscreet, so the immortals stopped visiting him and turned instead to Yáng Xī. Táo was therefore acquainted with the present text and its colophon.
A copyist’s note at 14b states: “[Copy based on the] edition of the Chief of Rites Mòzhāo 末詔(?), [itself] originally copied on sexagesimal day one, seventh of the First Moon of the third year of the Lóng’ān 隆安 era of the Jìn [1 March 399].” The copyist further notes that Lord Zhōu was born in 80 b.c. (with a slight error in the chronology), and that in 65 b.c. Zhōu became the disciple of Lord Sū from whom he received the [method of] the Three Ones. According to Táo’s bibliographic indications (Zhēnbó 真伯), the text should contain 3,488 characters; the present version has 3,489: “As I do not know which character is superfluous, I dare not delete any.” The present version is therefore later than Táo. The frontmatter brackets composition to the late fourth century (ca. 380–399), within the YángXǔ revelation milieu.
Translations and research
No full translation. Translated in part in Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme, 2 vols. (Paris: EFEO, 1984), with extended discussion. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Ziyang zhenren neizhuan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 198. See also Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (Berkeley 1997), index.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0315
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 198.