Tàijí Gě xiāngōng zhuàn 太極葛仙公傳
Biography of Gě [Xuán], Duke-Immortal of the Tàijí [Palace] by 譚嗣先 (compiler), with preface by 朱綽
About the work
A late-Yuán / early-Míng one-juàn hagiography (29 folios in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng, fasc. 201) of Gě Xuán 葛玄 (zì Xiàoxiān 孝先, 164–244), traditionally venerated as Tàijí zuǒxiāngōng 太極左仙公 — “Duke-Immortal of the Left of the Supreme Ultimate” — and great-uncle of Gě Hóng 葛洪. Compiled by Tán Sìxiān 譚嗣先 (zì Dàolín 道林), a Daoist of the Qīngyuánguàn 青元觀 in Jùróng 句容 (the same monastery built in 508 on the site of Gě Xuán’s former dwelling), and edited and prefaced by Zhū Chuò 朱綽, a registrar of Píngyīn district 平陰縣 (Shāndōng) in the early Míng. The work is a key Daoist source for the Gě Xuán cult and an important textual mirror of the Sòng–Yuán Língbǎo / Léifǎ tradition that traced its lineage back to him.
Prefaces
Preface by Zhū Chuò 朱綽 (dated 丁巳, i.e. 1377), folios 1a–2b. Zhū opens with a panegyric on the Daoist tradition from Shénnóng’s Rain Master through Lǎozǐ to the Qín–Hàn fāngshì, then narrates the encounter that produced the present text. While serving in Shāndōng and after returning home in mourning, he was visited by Tán Dàolín (i.e. Tán Sìxiān), who came from the Qīngyuánguàn together with five fellow disciples and presented him with a manuscript “Biography of the Duke-Immortal.” Zhū explains that the monastery had been founded on the very site of Gě Xuán’s old residence and had attracted pilgrims for nearly a millennium; Tán’s late master Zhúyánwēng 竹巖翁 (姓貢氏名惟琳, Gòng Wéilín, of Liǔrú in Dānyáng) had long wished to compile a definitive biography but had been frustrated by the fact that an earlier zhuàn by a “Mr. Lǚ” 吕先生 had perished with the burning of the Dàozàng, leaving only an incomplete Géfūshānsuǒjì recension. After Zhúyánwēng’s death his disciples, led by Tán, asked Zhū to “add polish” to the inherited material. Zhū re-edited the text — finding it “verbose and disordered” (繁蕪而尚多放失) — and produced the present one-juàn redaction. The colophon is signed “歲在丁巳二月朔朱綽序” (first day of the second month, 1377).
Abstract
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 884–885; entry by Hans-Hermann Schmidt) date Zhū Chuò’s preface to 1377 on the basis of the Jùróngxiànzhì 8.22b, which lists Zhū as registrar of Píngyīn district in the early Hóngwǔ era — the cyclical dīngsì therefore cannot be 1317 but must be 1377. Tán Sìxiān is described in the preface as a Daoist of the Qīngyuánguàn in Jùróng (Dānyáng), a foundation said in the text itself (3a–b) to date back to Liáng Tiānjiān 7 = 508. He took as his base text a “Biography of the Duke-Immortal” (仙公傳) preserved on Mt. Géfū 閤皁山 (Géfūshān, in Jiāngxī, the site of Gě Xuán’s alchemical activity and apotheosis) — a Southern-Sòng compilation that, according to Schmidt, also underlies the Gě Xuán entry in Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn 23. Tán supplemented this with material drawn principally from Zhēn’gào 真誥 (DZ 1016) and Shénxiān zhuàn 神仙傳, citing also the Bàopǔzǐ, Lièxiān zhuàn, Yúnjí qīqiān, Jīnlíng liùcháo jì, Shàngqīng jí, Lǐ Hánguāng’s preface to the Dàdòngjīng, Jiǎ Shànxiáng’s Gāodào zhuàn, and the local Jùróng zhì.
The narrative structure follows the conventions of Daoist hagiography: Gě’s noble Lángyé ancestry; portents at his birth in Hàn Yánxī 7 (164 CE); precocious filial piety; refusal of office; self-cultivation in mountain retreat; reception of the Sāndòng sìfǔ scriptures and registers from the Tàijí Perfected Xú Láilè 徐來勒 in 179; the transmission of the Jīnyè dāndān and Báihǔ qībiàn lore from Zuǒ Cí 左慈 (Zuǒ Yuánfàng 左元放); thaumaturgic exploits at the court of Sūn Quán 孫權 and his heir-apparent Sūn Dēng 孫登; alchemical work on Mt. Géfū where the surviving alchemical traces (the “drug-pounding bird,” the bubbling jīnshā spring) are explained; the bestowal of three cèmìng 冊命 (investitures) by the Most High; and the final ascension on Chìwū 7 (244 CE) at age eighty-one. Five disciples are named, principally Zhèng Sīyuǎn 鄭思遠. Tán’s text is unusual in placing especially heavy weight on Léifǎ 雷法 / Léitíng materials and on the Tàishàng língbǎo register tradition, casting Gě Xuán not only as the patriarch of the Língbǎo lineage (an old motif) but as one of the three administrators of the Léitíng sānshěng 雷霆三省 (1b cited from a biézhuàn — a clear reflection of Sòng–Yuán Tiānxīn / Qīngwēi reorganisations of thunder ritual).
The received recension also carries (23a–28b) Táo Hóngjǐng’s 陶弘景 Wú Tàijí zuǒxiāngōng Gěgōng zhī bēi 吳太極左仙公葛公之碑 (= Huáyáng Táo yǐnjū jí 2.5a–8b, DZ 1050), itself the principal Liùcháo source for the Gě Xuán cult, and a 25-character verse inscription by Fāng Jùn 方峻 (景通; jìnshì 1030); the volume closes with two Sòng imperial edicts (28b–29a), the first of Chóngníng 3 (1104) bestowing the title Chōngyìng zhēnrén 沖應真人 and the second of Chúnyòu 6 (1246) elevating him to Chōngyìng fúyòu zhēnjūn 沖應孚佑真君.
The work’s date should therefore be understood as that of the received recension (Zhū Chuò’s 1377 redaction); Tán’s underlying compilation may be slightly earlier, but the form transmitted in the Dàozàng is the joint Tán–Zhū product of the Hóngwǔ years.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 2: 884–885 (DZ 450, entry by Hans-Hermann Schmidt).
- Bokenkamp, Stephen R. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. — for the Língbǎo background and the Gě Xuán-as-revealer motif.
- Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme. 2 vols. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1984.
- Pregadio, Fabrizio, ed. The Encyclopedia of Taoism. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 2008. s.v. “Ge Xuan” (vol. 1, 442–443).
Other points of interest
The opening of Zhū Chuò’s preface is one of very few sources to identify Tán Sìxiān’s master Zhúyánwēng 竹巖翁 by personal name (Gòng Wéilín 貢惟琳 of LiǔrúDānyáng, a Confucian who loved the qín and revered Gě Xuán’s path) and to record that Tán’s father-line was of the 於溪 Tán clan in Dānyáng — a small but precious genealogical anchor for what is otherwise an obscure compiler.