Tàishàng chìwén dòngshén sānlù 太上赤文洞神三籙
Most-High Three Registers of the Red-Text Cavern-Spirit collected by 陶弘景 (梁貞白先生, 集); annotated by Lǐ Chúnfēng 李淳風 (唐太史令, 注)
About the work
A single-juǎn anthology of three Daoist registers (sānlù 三籙) under the rubric Chìwén dòngshén 赤文洞神 (Red-Text Cavern-Spirit), preserved in the Daozang under the joint attribution to the Liáng Daoist patriarch 陶弘景 (Táo Hóngjǐng, 456–536; styled Zhēnbái xiānshēng 貞白先生 in the source) as collector, and to the early-Táng court astronomer-mathematician Lǐ Chúnfēng 李淳風 (602–670; Tàishǐlìng 太史令) as commentator. The original Chìwén dòngshén shì 赤文洞神式 was a Six-Dynasties Daoist register; Táo collected and edited the three principal sub-types.
Abstract
The text opens with Táo’s note: “Yǐnjū xiānshēng yuē: Lùzhě běn yuē ‘Chìwén dòngshén shì’, bié chū wéi sānběn. Cǐ shū yú Gě Bào wèi tí, yǒu suǒ shòu rén Hànzhōng. Yuē ‘wú jīn yǐ zhòng suǒ chuán zhě, zhèng zhī wéi yī piān, ér suì tí běnchēng yú qián’.” 隱居先生曰：籙者本曰赤文洞神式，別出爲三本。此書於葛鮑未題，有所受人漢中。曰吾今以衆所傳者，證之爲一篇，而遂題本稱於前 (“The Hidden-Dweller Master [Táo’s hào Huáyáng yǐnjū 華陽隱居] says: ‘The register is originally called Chìwén dòngshén shì; separately, it issues in three sub-types. This book, in the version of Gě and Bào, is untitled; there are recipients of it from Hànzhōng. I have now, by collating the versions current in circulation, attested them as a single piece, and accordingly placed the original title at the head.’”). Táo’s editorial method is the standard Máoshān one: collate multiple witnesses, restore the title, identify textual variants.
Lǐ Chúnfēng’s annotation supplements this with calendrical-astronomical correlations of the register’s content: which spirits are invoked at which celestial positions; which talismanic graphs correspond to which constellations. The two layers — Liáng-Daoist collection plus Táng Tàishǐ annotation — preserve a uniquely transparent record of the Six-Dynasties to Táng transmission of the Chìwén register tradition.
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 1: 277–278, Catherine Despeux) note that the attribution to Táo Hóngjǐng has been challenged in modern scholarship — the text as transmitted shows some Táng-period elements — but the editorial framework of the Sānlù presented as Táo’s recension is plausibly authentic.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Vol. 1: 277–278 (DZ 589, Catherine Despeux).
- Strickmann, Michel. Le taoïsme du Mao Chan: Chronique d’une révélation. Paris: Collège de France, 1981 — the standard monograph on Táo Hóngjǐng.
Other points of interest
The attribution-pair (Liáng-Daoist patriarch + Táng court astronomer) is unusual within the Daozang and gives the text a distinctive double-layered authority chain spanning the Six-Dynasties to Táng. Lǐ Chúnfēng (602–670), the historical Tàishǐlìng, is best known for his astronomical-mathematical works (the Yǐsì zhàn 乙巳占, the editorial recensions of the Suànjīng shíshū 算經十書) and the prophetic Tuībèi tú 推背圖 (with Yuán Tiāngāng 袁天罡).
Links
- Daozang — DZ 589
- Táo Hóngjǐng — Wikipedia
- Lǐ Chúnfēng — Wikipedia