Níngyáng Dǒng zhēnrén yùxiān jì 凝陽董真人遇仙記
Encounters with Immortals of the Congealed-Yáng Zhēnrén Dǒng
compiled by 祿昭聞 (編纂, ca. 1238)
About the work
A one-juan chronological hagiography of Dǒng Shǒuzhì 董守志 (hào Níngyáng zǐ 凝陽子, zì Kuānfǔ 寬甫; 1160–1227), a Jurchen-born Daoist of Lóng’ān 隆安 ancestry whose original family-name was Shùhǔ 朮虎 (“Termuk”), commonly addressed as Mr. Dǒng 董氏. Compiled by the otherwise unknown Lù Zhāowén 祿昭聞 (signing himself biānzuǎn 編纂, “compiler”), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0308 / CT 308 = TC 308), 洞真部 記傳類. The narrative opens with Dǒng’s lineage — Jurchen, his father unaffiliated with office, his mother long deceased; a cadet branch of the family resettled in Zhōngnán 終南 and then in Lǒngzhōu 隴州 Qiānyáng 汧陽. Dǒng was conscripted in the dàdìng gēngzǐ (1180) levy. The text then summarises his life (1a–2a) and proceeds chronologically — encounters with Zhèngyáng 正陽 (Zhōnglí Quán 鍾離權), Chúnyáng 純陽 (Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓), and Hǎichán 海蟾 (Liú Hǎichán 劉海蟾), who appear sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, sometimes from the void, sometimes in person — through to his liberation from military service for chronic illness, his retreat into the religious life at age thirty-five, his itinerant Daoist career in western Shǎnxī and eastern Gānsù, and his death in 1227.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the genealogical and cosmographical preamble: “The zhēnrén’s family for generations was of Lóng’ān 隆安. His original surname was Shùhǔ 朮虎; the common designation was ‘Mr. Dǒng’ 董氏. His tabooed name was Shǒuzhì 守志, his zì Kuānfǔ 寬甫, his hào Níngyáng zǐ 凝陽子. Originally he was a man of Nǚzhí 女直 (= Jurchen) extraction. The father did not take office; the mother had long died. He took a wife of the Xīliè 奚烈 clan, who bore one son and two daughters. As his grandfather had wandered as an official into the western reaches of Shǎn 陜, the family came to live at the foot of Zhōngnán 終南 mountain. When in Dàdìng gēngzǐ (1180) the fǔtiē military levy fell at night and the conscripts were inspected, after the Wūmóukè 烏謀克 unit was transferred to Lǒngzhōu 隴州 Qiānyáng 汧陽 garrison, he made his home there. The zhēnrén by nature was simple and pure, his bearing generous and great…”
Abstract
Vincent Goossaert, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1139–1141 (§3.B.9, The Quánzhēn Order), describes the work as a chronicle of the career of the otherwise unknown Dǒng Shǒuzhì (1160–1227), a Jurchen who adopted a Chinese name and became a military man. Dǒng was chronically ill until his conversion and miraculous cure at age thirty-five; thereafter he led an eventful life as a Daoist monk in the western Shǎnxī and eastern Gānsù regions. After a short summary (1a–2a) of the whole story, Lù Zhāowén — otherwise unknown — narrates chronologically the most significant events of Dǒng’s life. Most are encounters with the three immortals Zhōnglí Quán 鍾離權, Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓, and Liú Hǎichán 劉海蟾, who appear either alone or in pairs, imparting medicine or talismans, instruction and poems, sometimes speaking from the void and sometimes appearing in person to perform miracles.
It is noteworthy that Lǚ Dòngbīn is the least prominent of the three. By contrast, the hagiographic data on Liú Hǎichán are especially interesting; they form the first substantial account of Liú before the official Quánzhēn 全真 biography, [[KR5a0173|DZ 173 Jīnlián zhèngzōng jì 金蓮正宗記]], a few years later. Although famous since the eleventh century as a disciple of Chén Tuán 陳摶 and a nèidān 內丹 master (see Dōngxuán bǐlù 東軒筆錄 8.90), Liú Hǎichán’s legend appears in developed form only by the late Jurchen Jīn period (1115–1234). Some details differ from both Quánzhēn texts and early sources such as the inscriptions Liú Hǎichán xiānjì 劉海蟾仙跡 (1116; cf. Chén Yuán 陳垣, Dàojiā jīnshí lüè 道家金石略, 328–330) and Chuáng Hǎichán táng yìshí kèjì 創海蟾堂義式刻記 (1148; Dàojiā jīnshí lüè 1010). According to Wáng Chóngyáng 王重陽’s poems, Liú hailed from Yān 燕 (the place named in the later standard version of his life), while the inscriptions place his origins in Qín 秦. In the present text he says of himself that he came from Ruìchéng 芮城 (southern Shānxī, near Lǚ Dòngbīn’s birthplace); he also has a “yellow face,” a trait unique to this account.
The narrative is in matter-of-fact style; it evokes a popular following that probably mingled with the more articulate Quánzhēn movement after Dǒng’s death. The transmission of the Way from Liú Hǎichán to Dǒng is mentioned in [[KR5a0174|DZ 174 Jīnlián zhèngzōng xiānyuán xiàngzhuàn]] 17b, and a Níngyáng Wànshòu gōng 凝陽萬壽宫 originally founded by Dǒng was active in Lǒngzhōu (western Shǎnxī) until later periods. The frontmatter brackets composition shortly after Dǒng’s death in 1227, with the catalog meta’s ca. 1238 a reasonable estimate.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Vincent Goossaert, “Ningyang Dong zhenren yuxian ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1139–1141. On Liú Hǎichán’s hagiography: Vincent Goossaert, “Bibliographie de l’histoire des taoïstes Quánzhēn,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 9 (1996/97); Pierre Marsone, Wang Chongyang et la fondation du Quanzhen (Paris 2010).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0320
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.9, 1139–1141.