Shàngfāng dàdòng zhēnyuán miàojīng tú 上方大洞真元妙經圖
Diagrams of the Marvelous Scripture of True Origin, the Great Cavern, and the Highest Direction
About the work
A nine-folio Southern-Sòng Daoist illustrated text. A direct sequel and enlargement of DZ 436 Shàngfāng dàdòng zhēnyuán miàojīng pǐn (KR5b0120); together with DZ 438 (KR5b0122) the three works form the core Zhēnyuán 真元 textual complex. The received DZ 437 and DZ 438 are in fact a single work divided by the Míng editors.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with a dialogue between Xiāoyáo 逍遙 Shí Yòng 時永 and the Immortal Lord (Xiānjūn 仙君).
Abstract
Dated to the Southern Sòng by Yuán Bǐnglíng (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 3: 1221, DZ 437). The text opens with Shí Yàomín 時堯民 (zì of Shí Yòng 時永, fl. 1159) questioning the Immortal Lord about the True Origin of the Great Cavern, then introduces twelve diagrams illustrating Daoist cosmogony, beginning with a chart of the Empty and Spontaneous (xūwú zìrán 虛無自然). Subsequent diagrams treat Primordial Chaos (hùnyuán 混元) and the Supreme Ultimate (tàijí 太極). The long text accompanying the energy-cycle (qìyùn 氣運) diagram at 5a–9a closely parallels the text of DZ 995 Yuányuán dàomiào dòngzhēn jí piān 元元道妙洞真集篇.
As in DZ 436, the cult of the great northern saint Xuánwǔ 玄武 (here Zhēnjūn 真君) is prominent; the legend of his forty-two years of ascetic retreat on Wǔdāng shān 武當山 is rehearsed at 3a. The Jīndān gē 金丹歌 of Gāo Xiàngxiān 高象先 (fl. 990–1013; see DZ 1079 Zhēnrén Gāo Xiàngxiān jīndān gē) is cited at 10b. Minghuáng 明皇 — Emperor Xuánzōng (r. 712–756) — is invoked at 10b as part of the text’s Xuánwǔ-centred Wǔdāng cultic programme.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 3:1221 (DZ 437–438 as a single work).