Xiāndū zhì 仙都志
Gazetteer of Xiān-dū by 陳性定 (撰), 吳明義 (編)
About the work
A two-juǎn Yuán-period gazetteer of Mt. Xiāndū 仙都山 — also known as Jìnyúnshān 縉雲山 — in Chùzhōu 處州 prefecture (modern Lìshuǐ 麗水, Zhèjiāng), the canonical twenty-ninth of the thirty-six Daoist grotto-heavens (the Xuándū qíxiān dòngtiān 玄都祈仙洞天) and the legendary site of Huángdì’s 黃帝 ascent on the fire-dragon. The work was compiled by the resident Daoist 陳性定 (Chén Xìngdìng, hào Shǎowēi 少微) at the Yùxūgōng 玉虛宫 and collated by 吳明義 (Wú Míngyì, zì Zhòngyí 仲誼), shānzhǎng of the affiliated Dúfēng 獨峰 abbey, with a preface dated Zhìzhèng 8 (1348).
Abstract
The preface (signed Zhìzhèng wùzǐ wǔyuè jìwàng 至正戊子五月既望, = 1348, 5/16) frames the work in the yǔgòng 禹貢 — zhífāng 職方 tradition of administrative geography: “Jiānglǐ zhī shū zhào yú Yǔgòng ér jù yú Zhífāng, rán shuǐ yǒu jīng, jùnyì yǒu shèng — cǐ Xiāndū zhì suǒ yóu zuò yě.” 疆理之書肇於禹貢而具於職方，然水有經，郡邑有乗 — 此仙都志所由作也. (“The literature of territorial demarcation begins with the Yǔgòng and is fully laid out in the Zhífāng; rivers have their classics, prefectures and counties their gazetteers — and so this Xiāndū zhì came to be written”). The preface further records that under the Yányòu 延祐 era (1314–1320) the Daoist Zhào Xūyī 趙虛一 had arrived bearing imperial seal-orders to administer the site, prompting renewed institutional patronage; the present compilation, the prefacer notes, will allow even those who cannot travel to “lie down and journey” (卧游 wòyóu) through the mountain.
The compilers’ table identifies them as “Yùxū zhùshān Shǎowēi Chén Xìngdìng cǐyī biānjí” 玉虛住山少微陳性定此一編集 (“Compiled in one [edition] by Chén Xìngdìng cǐyī, Shǎowēi, resident of Yùxū”) and “Dúfēng shānzhǎng Póyáng Wú Míngyì Zhòngyí jiàozhèng” 獨峯山長番陽吳明義仲誼校正 (“Collated by Wú Míngyì Zhòngyí, shānzhǎng of Dúfēng, of Póyáng”).
Juǎn 1 (Shàng) treats the mountain’s topography, opening with the central Xiāndūshān 仙都山 itself — anciently called Jìnyúnshān 縉雠山, the thirtieth-ninth of the grotto-heavens, where Huángdì made his apotheosis. The text cites Sīmǎ Qiān’s Shǐjì on the title Jìnyún as Huángdì’s summer-officer (黄帝夏官之名); Zhāng Shǒujié 張守節 on Kuòzhōu Jìnyúnxiàn 栝州縉雲縣 as the place of Huángdì’s enfeoffment; the Tàipíng huányǔ jì 太平寰宇記 on the Táng establishment of the prefecture; and the Tújīng 圖經 narrative of the Tiānbǎo 7 (748) miracle when coloured clouds, immortal music, and phoenix-flight prompted the local prefect Miáo Fèngqiàn 苗奉倩 to memorialise the court, which subsequently bestowed the present name. There follow sections on Dúfēngshān 獨峰山 (the “Solitary-Peak Mountain” or Xiāndūshí 仙都石, the “Xiāndū Stone”, 200-zhàng tall with a lotus-bearing lake at its summit), Bùxūshān 歩虛山, and many other peaks and grottoes, each with quotations from Xiè Língyùn 謝靈運’s Míngshān jì 名山記, Liú Chéng 劉澄’s Shānshuǐ jì 山水記, the Yúdì zhì 輿地志, the Sòng-period Kuòcāng jiùzhì 括蒼舊志, and so on. Notable poems and prose by visitors (Bái Jūyì 白居易, Xiè Língyùn, Zhū Xī 朱熹 — Huìān xiānshēng 晦庵先生 — and others) are gathered.
Juǎn 2 (Xià) covers the Daoist personalities associated with the mountain (Huángdì himself, the Jìnyún xiānzhǎng 縉雲仙長, Liú Yǐnzhēn 劉隱真, Zhōu Jǐngfù 周景復, etc.), the cult-buildings (Yùxūgōng 玉虛宮 with its administrative history, Dúfēngguàn 獨峰觀, subsidiary shrines), liturgical traditions, miracle-tale records, and a closing collection of literary works on the mountain.
The work is one of the most informative Yuán-period Daozang shrine-gazetteers and a primary source for the imperial-Daoist administration of the late-Yuán dòngtiān network. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1227, Vincent Goossaert) note its particularly rich inventory of Sòng and Yuán imperial-grant documentation.
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. 2: 1227 (DZ 602, Vincent Goossaert).
- Hahn, Thomas. “The Standard Taoist Mountain and Related Features of Religious Geography.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 4 (1988): 145–56 — for the broader shān-zhì genre.
- Liú Yáng 劉揚 et al., eds. Xiān-dū-shān zhì 仙都山志 (modern critical edition). Hangzhou: Zhèjiāng rén-mín chū-bǎn-shè, 2008.
Other points of interest
The site is the locus of one of the principal Daoist Huáng-dì-ascent myths (parallel to but distinct from the Qiáoshān 橋山 tomb tradition), and the Xiāndū zhì preserves the early phases of this myth’s Daoist literarisation. The Tiānbǎo 7 (748) Daoist-cloud miracle that led to the imperial renaming of the mountain is also a useful witness to Táng-period state recognition of regional Daoist sites.