Tàishàng huángtíng wàijǐng yùjīng 太上黃庭外景玉經
Jade Scripture of the Outer Landscape of the Yellow Court, of the Most High
About the work
The original Huángtíng jīng 黃庭經 — a short, single-poem didactic text in heptasyllabic metre, spoken by Lǎojūn 老君, describing the inner landscape of the body and the deities inhabiting it. The qualifier wàijǐng (“outer landscape”) was added only later by the Shàngqīng tradition to distinguish this archaic text from their own expanded Nèijǐng 內景 version (KR5b0015, DZ 331; cf. DZ 1344 Dòngzhēn tàishàng shuō zhìhuì xiāomó zhēnjīng 1.15b).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly into the didactic poem and bears no author preface or colophon; the three-juàn structure of the received edition is editorial rather than authorial.
Abstract
Schipper in Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 1: 92–93, DZ 332) places the composition of the Wàijǐng before 255 C.E., on a convergence of evidence:
- Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 (303–379) produced a calligraphic copy in 337, reproduced on a stele and widely disseminated as a rubbing; these rubbings were edited by Nakata Yūjirō (Chūgoku shoron shū, 83–142).
- The prosody and rhymes of the poem correspond to Later Hàn (25–220) or Three Kingdoms (220–265) usage (Maspero, “Methods,” 489).
- The Lièxiān zhuàn 列仙傳 2.21a, in the biography of Zhū Huáng 朱璜, mentions the Lǎojūn huángtíng jīng 老君黃庭經 and the practice of its multiple recitations.
- DZ 789 Zhèngyī fǎwén tiānshī jiàojiè kējīng 正一法文天師教戒科經 16a — dated 255 — cites the Huángtíng jīng as an essential text for the instruction of Celestial Master adepts.
- Its distinctive technical vocabulary reappears in DZ 1294 Shàngqīng huángshū guòdù yí 上清黃書過度儀 19b–20b.
- Gě Hóng 葛洪 explicitly lists the Huángtíng jīng in his personal library (DZ 1185 Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān 抱朴子內篇 19.5a).
These testimonies make the Wàijǐng one of the oldest attested Daoist meditation scriptures, almost certainly of Later Hàn date.
The Dàozàng text is divided into three short juàn matching the annotated version preserved in DZ 263 Xiūzhēn shíshū 58–60. An important Liángqiū zǐ 梁丘子 commentary (Bái Lǚzhōng, fl. early 8th c.) survives as DZ 263.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer. Concordance du Houang-t’ing king. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1975.
- Maspero, Henri. “Les procédés de ‘nourrir le principe vital’ dans la religion taoïste ancienne.” Journal Asiatique 229 (1937): 177–252, 353–430 — esp. 489 on the prosody (in the reprint pagination).
- Huáng Yǒng’ēn 黃永恩 & Zhèng Tiānyǒng 鄭天永, Huángtíng jīng xīnshì 黃庭經新釋. Taipei: Zhìshū fáng, 2005.
- Gōng Péngchéng 龔鵬程. “Huángtíng jīng lùnyào《黃庭經》論要.”
- Yáng Fùchéng 楊福程. “Huángtíng nèi wài èrjīng kǎo《黃庭內外二經》考.”
- Yú Wànlǐ 虞萬里. “Huángtíng jīng xīnzhèng《黃庭經》新證.”
- Nakata Yūjirō 中田勇次郎. Chūgoku shoron shū 中國書論集, 83–142.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:92–93 (DZ 332).
Other points of interest
The text enjoys particular prestige in the Chinese calligraphic tradition through the 337 Huángtíng jīng rubbing associated with Wáng Xīzhī; its status as a canonical calligraphic model has ensured the continuous re-copying of the text in contexts far removed from its original religious setting.