Tiāntáishān zhì 天台山志
Gazetteer of Mt. Tiān-tái
About the work
An anonymous single-juǎn Yuán-period gazetteer of Mt. Tiāntái 天台山 in Tāizhōu 台州 (modern Zhèjiāng), the most important Daoist sacred mountain of the lower Yángzǐ delta and the founding seat of the Shàngqīng 上清 tradition through the Liáng-period activities of Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景 and his lineage. The work focuses on the mountain’s Daoist (rather than Buddhist) infrastructure — Mt. Tiāntái was equally famous as the cradle of the Tiāntái Buddhist school, which the gazetteer largely sets aside — and is therefore a useful counter-balance to the Buddhist-dominated genre of Tiāntái literature.
Abstract
The work opens with a Jùnzhì biàn 郡志辯 (“Discussion of the Prefectural Gazetteer”) in which the compiler corrects the Kuàijī zhì 會稽志 entry on the Sīmǎ Huǐ Qiáo 司馬悔橋 in Xīnchāng 新昌 county: he insists on the spelling Huǐ 悔 (“regret”) rather than the corrupt Huì 晦, citing the Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 (which lists Sīmǎ Huǐ Shān as the sixteenth fúdì under the Daoist immortal Lǐ Míng 李明) and the Jìzuǎn yuānhǎi 記纂淵海 (which gives it as the sixtieth fúdì). The bridge took its name from 司馬承禎 (Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn), who is said to have regretted leaving the mountain when summoned to the Táng court at this point on his journey.
The body of the gazetteer comprises:
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Topographic section: opening with Tiāntáishān’s essential parameters as reported by Táo Yǐnjū 陶隱居 in the Zhēngào (height 18,000 zhàng, circumference 800 lǐ, eight “layers” or terraced sub-ranges), then citing the Shídào zhì 十道志, Dēngzhēn yǐnjué, Sūn Xìnggōng 孫興公 (Sūn Chuò 孫綽)‘s celebrated Tiāntáishān fù 天台山賦 (here transcribed in full), the Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān’s testimony that Tiāntái is one of only five mountains (with Tàihuá, Shǎoshì, Jìnyún, Luófú, plus DàXiǎotái) where alchemy can succeed.
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Specific peaks, grottoes, springs: Tóngbǎi 桐栢, Chìchéng 赤城, Bàobù 瀑布, Fólǒng 佛壠, Xiānglú 香爐, Huādǐng 華頂, Dōngcāng 東蒼 and so on, with quotation from earlier shǎnzhì literature.
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Cult-buildings: principally the Tóngbǎiguàn 桐栢觀, founded in Wú Chìwū 2 (239 CE) by Gě Xuán 葛玄 as alchemical retreat and re-established for 司馬承禎 by imperial decree of Táng Ruìzōng in Jǐngyún 2 (711); the Dòngtiāngōng 洞天宫 with its history under Táng Xiántōng (founded by Yè Cángzhì 葉藏質) and Sòng Xiángfú; the Yùjīngguàn 玉京觀 at the Chìchéng grotto-heaven; the Yòushèngguàn 佑聖觀, originally the city-god temple; and the twin shrines Rénjìng 仁靖 and Chúnsù 純素, both founded at the Tóngbǎi site early in the Yuán Zhìyuán era after Daoist Wáng Zúān 王足菴 (zì Zhōnglì 中立) was honoured by Yuán Shìzǔ (Khubilai) with the title Rénjìng chúnsù zhēnrén 仁靖純素真人.
The cited inscription dates extend to a 1207 (Jiādìng 嘉定) record at one shrine and the Dàdé 大德 era (1297–1307) at another, with the Wáng Zúān investiture (under Shìzǔ, i.e. ca. 1264–1294) the latest event datable from internal evidence. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 3: 1234, Vincent Goossaert) place the work in the YuánMíng transition, ca. 1368 — the date used in the catalog meta — but it could plausibly be slightly earlier. The compiler is anonymous.
The work was produced in close institutional dialogue with two other Tiān-tái-region Daoist gazetteers: KR5b0309 Lóngruìguàn Yǔxué Yángmíng dòngtiān tújīng (Northern Sòng) and the Tóngbǎi guànzhì (Sòng, lost). It cites both directly and is the principal Daozang witness to the institutional history of the Tóngbǎi cluster of Daoist establishments under late-Sòng and Yuán imperial patronage.
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. 3: 1234 (DZ 603, Vincent Goossaert).
- Mather, Richard B. “The Mystical Ascent of the T’ien-t’ai Mountains: Sun Ch’o’s Yu T’ien-t’ai-shan fu.” Monumenta Serica 20 (1961): 226–45 — translation and study of the Sūn Chuò fù transcribed in full in the gazetteer.
- Verellen, Franciscus. “Tiantai shan 天台山.” In The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio, 2: 980–82. London: Routledge, 2008.
- Sakauchi Tarō 阪內太郎. “Tendai-zan shi o megutte” 『天台山志』をめぐって. Tōhō shūkyō 87 (1996): 1–18 — focused study of this gazetteer.
Other points of interest
The text is one of the relatively few Daoist sources for the early-Yuán institutional landscape of Mt. Tiāntái after the great SòngYuán dynastic transition, and it documents the imperially-patronised Wáng Zúān lineage that briefly enjoyed the Rénjìng chúnsù zhēnrén title under Khubilai. The compiler’s careful philological correction of Sīmǎ Huǐ Qiáo (悔, not 晦) in the opening section is a model of medieval Chinese place-name philology.