Huángdì yīnfú jīng sòng 黃帝陰符經頌
The Yellow Emperor’s Scripture of the Hidden Contracts, [Interpreted] in Hymns
by 元陽子 (頌)
About the work
A one-juan rhymed commentary on the [[KR5a0031|Huángdì yīnfú jīng 黃帝陰符經]] (DZ 31, the parent scripture), in thirty-nine seven-syllable hymns by the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Daoist alchemist Yuányáng zǐ 元陽子, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0311 / CT 311 = TC 311), 洞真部 讚頌類. The main text of the Yīnfú jīng (417 characters) is divided into three sections under the conventional headings — “Shénxiān bàoyī yǎndào 神仙抱一演道章” (“The Spirit-Immortals Embracing the One and Demonstrating the Way”), “Fùguó ānmín yǎnfǎ 富國安民演法章” (“Enriching the State and Pacifying the People, Demonstrating the Method”), and “Qiángbīng zhànshèng yǎnshù 強兵戰勝演術章” (“Strengthening the Army and Achieving Victory, Demonstrating the Technique”). Yuányáng zǐ relates each phrase of the Yīnfú jīng to alchemical practice, drawing the yīnfú “hidden tally” themes — Heaven’s dào, the Five Thieves, the holding of the universe in the hand — into the operations of nèidān 內丹 inner alchemy: the jīnyè 金液 (“gold liquor”), the Nine-Returning Elixir (jiǔhuán dān 九還丹), the cinnabar gate of the kidneys, the kǎn lǐ 坎離 inversion of the trigrams, and the jīnhuá mén 金華門 (“Gate of the Golden Flower”). The Tōngzhì 通志, “Yìwén lüè” 藝文略 5.5a records this commentary among the bibliographic Yīnfú literature.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the first hymn-block: “Yuányáng zǐ sòng 元陽子頌. [Section 1] Shénxiān bàoyī yǎndào zhāngshàng 神仙抱一演道章上. [Verse of the Yīnfú:] ‘To behold the Way of Heaven, to apprehend the Operation of Heaven — that is the whole of it.’ [Yuányáng zǐ’s hymn:] In Heaven the suspended images transform the primal essence; / The Way at perfection — chōng and hé — lies in deep darkness. / Obtain the One, behold Heaven, no other practice; / The Great Yáng’s primal purport is wholly clear. [Verse:] ‘Heaven has the Five Thieves; he who beholds them prospers.’ [Hymn:] Compassion, awakening, the mind communing — the Nine-Light Brightness; / The Five Stars assemble and enter the country of Lí. / If only the floating world by cultivation could obtain it, / The Yellow Emperor would have boasted of the Five Thieves’ prosperity in vain.”
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:323 (§2.A.1, Philosophy), identifies the work as the Yīnfú jīng commentary by Yuányáng zǐ that is bibliographically cited in Tōngzhì “Yìwén lüè” 5.5a. He relates the Yīnfú jīng to alchemical practice in thirty-nine hymns of seven characters per line; the main text (417 characters) is divided into three sections with the usual headings. The Dàozàng jíyào 道藏輯要 edition (JY 119) shows an interpolation in the main text, discussed at [[KR5a0124|DZ 124 Huángdì yīnfú jīng zhùjiě 黃帝陰符經注解]] 2b–3a; the commentary itself is identical between the editions. Yuányáng zǐ’s identity is discussed in his person-note (and in the entries for [[KR5a0239|Yuányáng zǐ jīnyè jí 元陽子金液集 (DZ 238)]] and [[KR5a0240|Huándān jīnyè gē zhù 還丹金液歌注 (DZ 239)]]); the work belongs to the same late-Táng / Five-Dynasties stratum (ca. 850–1000) of zhōngLǚ-type alchemical commentary.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Huangdi yinfu jing song,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.1, 323. On the Yīnfú jīng and its commentaries: Christopher Rand, “Li Ch’üan and Chinese Military Thought,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 39/1 (1979), 107–137; Anne Cheng, “Yinfu jing,” in Fabrizio Pregadio ed., The Encyclopedia of Taoism (London 2008), 2:1170–1172.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0323
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.1, 323.