Chúnyáng dìjūn shénhuà miàotōng jì 純陽帝君神化妙通紀
Records of the Miraculous Manifestation of the Transcendence of the Imperial Lord Pure Yáng
compiled by 苗善時 (校正編次, fl. 1324)
About the work
A seven-juan hagiographic chronicle of Lǚ Yán 呂巖 (= Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓), assembled by Miáo Shànshí 苗善時 (signing himself Xuánmén Miáo Shànshí jiàozhèng biāncì shī tuàn 玄門苗善時校正編次詩彖, “Miáo Shànshí of the Mystery Gate, who has corrected, ordered the sequence, and supplied the verse-judgements”), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0305 / CT 305 = TC 305), 洞真部 記傳類. Chúnyáng dìjūn 純陽帝君 (“Imperial Lord Pure Yáng”) is the official title bestowed on Lǚ in 1310 by decree of Yuán Wǔzōng 武宗. According to Miáo’s preface, the records originally consisted of one hundred and twenty huà 化 (“transformations” / miraculous tales) in six juan; the present edition reaches huà 108 only — episodes 20–24 and 26–33 are missing — leaving ninety-five tales arranged in seven juan. Each tale is followed by a tuàn 彖 (“judgment”) or a shī 詩 (poem) appended by the compiler; the comments on the last stories (after no. 101) are missing. The narrative traces the saint’s life from his birth in 798 at Yǒnglè 永樂 (Hézhōng 河中, Shānxī) to his death at the end of the Táng (huà 1–8), then proceeds through his many post-mortem appearances continuing into the late thirteenth century.
Prefaces
The compiler’s preface: “Our Way — sometimes by spirit-penetration drawing in the dust-and-vulgar, sometimes by medicine-things saving the good — accommodates and shapes by following circumstance, in the great kindness and great transformation that draws all the ten thousand currents back into the One Source. Of supreme intent and supreme benevolence, encompassing all virtues but residing in no single virtue: comprehending the not-yet-begun of the Not-Empty and apprehending the yǒu xuán 有玄 of No-Birth. To debate its subtle words, expressions cannot exhaust them; to comprehend its precise meaning, deliberation makes it ever more remote. It cannot be measured by intellect or knowledge; thought must dwell in pure sincerity that it may be silently grasped. Without taking my own measure, with the well-frog’s outlook and pipe-bore vision, I have surveyed the various scriptures and assembled the historical biographies of the Táng and Sòng, gathering up actual traces and stripping away superficial flowers, completing one hundred twenty transformations and dividing them into six juan. To each chapter I have appended cí 詞 and shī 詩, with a tuàn 彖 directly speaking [the moral]; thus I name it Shénhuà miàotōng jì 神化妙通紀. May like-minded gentlemen see in it…”
The opening of huà 1: “I respectfully consult the Dàotǒng lù 道統錄: the Imperial Lord’s surname was Lǚ, his given name Yán 巖, zì Dòngbīn 洞賓, a man of Yǒnglè 永樂 county, Hézhōng 河中 prefecture, of the Táng. His great-grandfather Yánzhī 延之 ended as Military Commissioner of Eastern Zhè 浙東節度使; his grandfather Wèi 渭, of pure and refined nature, expert in literary composition, kindly and a lover of the Way, full of hidden virtues, rose by promotion to Lǐbù shìláng 禮部侍郎 and ended as Prefect of Tánzhōu 潭州刺史, posthumously enfeoffed Grand Commander of Shǎnzhōu 陜州大都督. Wèi had four sons — Wēn 溫, Gōng 恭, Jiǎn 儉, Ràng 讓…”
Abstract
Isabelle Ang, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1138–1139 (§3.B.9, The Quánzhēn Order), identifies the author as Miáo Shànshí, native of Nánjīng, disciple of Lǐ Dàochún 李道純 (cf. Qīng’ān Yíngchánzǐ yǔlù 清庵瑩蟾子語錄 3) and editor of [[KR6c0651|DZ 651 Tàishàng dòngshén sānyuán miàoběn fúshòu zhēnjīng]] (postface dated 1324). Many of the tales feature anecdotes known through later compilations (see [[KR5a1487|DZ 1484 Lǚzǔ zhì 呂祖志]]) as well as Yuán and Míng plays and vernacular literature. The author freely declares his views through the comments: he represents the texts of [[KR5a1191|DZ 1191 Bìchuán Zhèngyáng zhēnrén Língbǎo bìfǎ 秘傳正陽真人靈寶畢法]] and the ZhōngLǚ chuándào jì 鍾呂傳道集 (in [[KR4a0263|DZ 263 Xiūzhēn shíshū 修真十書]] 14–15) as forgeries. On the other hand, the saint is said to have received [[KR5a0019|Tàishàng shēngxuán xiāozāi hùmìng miàojīng 太上昇玄消災護命妙經]] (DZ 19) — a holy book collecting the essence of the Three Teachings — during his initiation (2.5b). The work opens with two imperial decrees canonising the Five Patriarchs of Quánzhēn 全真 (Lǚ being one), dated 1269 and 1310; these decrees also feature in [[KR5a0174|DZ 174 Jīnlián zhèngzōng xiānyuán xiàngzhuàn 金蓮正宗仙源像傳]]. The frontmatter brackets composition 1310 (Lǚ’s canonisation as Chúnyáng dìjūn, hence the title) to 1324 (Miáo’s signed postface to DZ 651).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Ang, “Chunyang dijun shenhua miaotong ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1138–1139. On Lǚ Dòngbīn hagiography: Isabelle Ang, “Le culte de Lü Dongbin sous les Song du Sud,” Journal asiatique 285/2 (1997), 473–507; Mori Yuria 森由利亞, “Junyō teikun shinka myōtsū ki ni tsuite” 純陽帝君神化妙通紀について, Tōhō shūkyō 東方宗教 100 (2002), 33–52. On Yuán Quánzhēn texts more generally: Pierre Marsone, Wang Chongyang et la fondation du Quanzhen (Paris 2010).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0317
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1138–1139.