Tàihuá Xīyí zhì 太華希夷誌
Records on [the Life of Chén] Xīyí of Huáshān
by 張輅 (撰, 1314)
About the work
A two-juan biography of Chén Tuán 陳摶 (hào Xīyí xiānshēng 希夷先生; d. 989), the Five-Dynasties / early-Sòng recluse-master of Huáshān 華山, compiled by Zhāng Lù 張輅 (hào Nèzhāi 訥齋), an administrative clerk (zhīshì 知事) of Hézhōng 河中 prefecture, with a self-preface dated 1314. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0306 / CT 306 = TC 306), 洞真部 記傳類. Juan 1 is devoted to Chén Tuán’s fame at the court of Sòng Tàizōng 宋太宗 (r. 976–997); juan 2, a collection of anecdotes on Chén and his contemporaries, includes a bibliographical list of Chén’s works (7b). Although the account is partly factual and mainly fictional, Zhāng’s stated wish was to give Chén’s life a historical background.
Prefaces
Zhāng Lù’s preface (signed 登仕郎河中府知事訥齋張輅纂集補譔, “compiled and supplemented by Zhāng Lù of Nèzhāi, Dēngshì láng zhīshì of Hézhōngfǔ”): “Inept though I be, while serving as office-clerk at Hézhōngfǔ in Jìnníng 晉寧, near to Huáshān 華山, in the leisure of public duties I gathered up what could be found in old books and in popular sayings of the lofty ways and stern manners of the Master Xīyí — truly a man without parallel in the dynasty preceding ours, the Sòng. Therefore I have made the Tàihuá Xīyí zhì 太華希夷誌 to record him. The Master understood the Yì 易 deeply and reached the marvellous principles of the dark and the wonderful; he viewed men’s fortunes and misfortunes, the auspice or augury of things, with the response of milfoil and tortoise. Living in the time of the Five Dynasties, he had the will to set right the world; what he had learned was the Way of the august, the imperial, the kingly, the ministerial. Hearing that Sòng Tàizǔ 宋太祖 had ascended the throne and the realm was now settled, he entered Huáshān to be a Daoist master, and would not respond to summons. When Tàizōng 太宗 came to power, he was thrice summoned to the court and received with the rite of guests; given a seat and conversation, the discussions on auspicious and unfortunate matters [followed]…”
Abstract
Florian C. Reiter, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1107–1108 (§3.B.7, Independent Masters and Lineages), identifies Zhāng Lù as a zhīshì 知事 administrative clerk in Hézhōng (modern Shānxī), near Huáshān, where he compiled the present biography. The first chapter is devoted to Chén Tuán’s reputation at Sòng Tàizōng’s court; the second is a collection of anecdotes on the Daoist master and his contemporaries, with a bibliographical list of his works at 7b. Reiter identifies the principal source of many passages as Zhū Xī’s 朱熹 (1130–1200) Wǔcháo míngchén yánxíng lù 五朝名臣言行錄 10.1 (passages 1.1a–b, 8b–10a, 13a–b; 2.2a–b, 3b–5a, 9a–13b), though Zhāng has not excerpted them directly from Zhū’s works. Other passages (2.2b–3b) draw on Zhāng Fāngpíng’s 張方平 (1007–1091) account in the Lèquán jí 樂全集 33; one passage (2.1a–2b) is taken from the Xiāngshān yělù 湘山野錄 by the Buddhist Wényìng 文瑩, as quoted in the encyclopedia HuángSòng shìshí lèiyuán 皇宋事實類苑 by Jiāng Shàoyú 江少虞 (twelfth century); a poem dedicated to Zhāng Yǒng 張詠 (2.1b) is also from this source; another (2.1a) appears in the Qīngxiāng zájì 青箱雜記 by Wú Chùhòu 吳處厚 (eleventh century).
Some parts of the text (5a–b, 6a–b) have much in common with Chén Tuán’s biography in [[KR5a0296|Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn 歷世真仙體道通鑑 (DZ 296) 47]], possibly derived from a common (lost) Gāodào zhuàn 高道傳 source — a short passage at 1.15a is identical with a quotation in [[KR5a1252|DZ 1248 Sāndòng qúnxiān lù 三洞群仙錄]] 13.10b which gives the Gāodào zhuàn as its source. The collection includes some of Chén Tuán’s poems, the most important being an exchange of poems with Sòng Tàizōng in juan 1; the date Zhìdào 至道 1 (995) given there appears erroneous, since Chén died in 989 — the Xù Zīzhì tōngjiàn chángbiān 續資治通鑑長編 dates the poems to Yōngxī 雍熙 1 (984). The frontmatter dates composition to the signed preface of 1314.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Florian C. Reiter, “Taihua Xiyi zhi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1107–1108. On Chén Tuán: Livia Knaul (= Livia Kohn), Leben und Legende des Ch’en T’uan (Frankfurt 1981); Isabelle Robinet, Introduction à l’alchimie intérieure taoïste (Paris: Cerf, 1995), 109–113.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0318
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1107–1108.