Lóngruìguàn Yǔxué Yángmíng dòngtiān tújīng 龍瑞觀禹穴陽明洞天圖經
Illustrated Scripture of the Lóng-ruì Belvedere, the Cavern of Yǔ, and the Yáng-míng Grotto-Heaven by 葉樞 (撰), 李宗諤 (修定)
About the work
A single-juǎn Northern-Sòng tújīng 圖經 (illustrated topographical handbook) for the Lóngruìguàn 龍瑞觀 at Kuàijī 會稽 (modern Shàoxīng 紹興, Zhèjiāng), the cult-site associated with Yǔ 禹’s mythical cavern (Yǔxué 禹穴) and with the Yángmíng dòngtiān 陽明洞天 — the eleventh of the thirty-six grotto-heavens in the canonical Daoist scheme (also reckoned as the first by older systems, as the Guīshān báiyù jīng 龜山白玉經 cited in the work asserts). The Daozang text bears the heading “Sòng Hànlín xuéshì Lǐ Zōngè xiūdìng” 宋翰林學士李宗諤修定, identifying 李宗諤 (964–1012) as the earlier redactor; the transmitted recension is the 1114 revision by 葉樞, the Kuàijī Daoist of the late Zhènghé era.
Abstract
The work opens with the establishment of the Lóngruìguàn itself: “Kuàijī Lóngruìguàn zài xiàn dōngnán yīshíwǔ lǐ, jí DàYǔ tàn Língbǎo wǔfú zhìshuǐ zhī suǒ” 會稽龍瑞觀在縣東南一十五里，即大禹探靈寳五符治水之所 (“The Lóngruì Belvedere of Kuàijī lies 15 lǐ south-east of the county seat, on the site where the Great Yǔ retrieved the Língbǎo wǔfú and brought the floods under control”). It was founded under the Táng as the Huáixiānguǎn 懷仙館 in Shénlóng 1 (705) and renamed in 714 (Kāiyuán 2) when Yè tiānshī 葉天師 (Yè Fǎshàn 葉法善) held a jiào 醮 ritual at the site and a dragon appeared.
The text then proceeds systematically through:
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Kuàijīshān 會稽山 (also known as Héngshān 衡山 or Fùfǔshān 覆鬴山), the “ancestral mountain” (鎮山) of Yángzhōu and the locus of Yǔ’s coronation assembly. The compiler cites the Shānhǎi jīng, Yúdì zhì, Huánglǎn, Yuèzhuàn, Shǐjì Fēngshàn shū, the Huángdì Xuánnǚ bīngfǎ 黃帝玄女兵法, and the Dùnjiǎ kāishān tú 遁甲開山圖 on the spirit Wǎnwěi 宛委 presenting Yǔ with the Yùguì zhī shū 玉匱之書 in twelve chapters, four chapters of which flew into the springs, four into the heavens, and four of which Yǔ retained to suppress the flood — the alleged historical archetype of the present canonical revelation tradition. The text confirms the mountain as the Yángmíng dòngtiān, 350 lǐ in circumference, on the authority of the Guīshān báiyù jīng.
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Wǎnwěishān 宛委山 (the cavern proper), at which Yǔ discovered the chìguī 赤珪 (red sceptre) like the sun and the báiguī 白珪 (white sceptre) like the moon, plus the Jīnjiǎnshū 金簡書 inscribed on green jade in silver thread (WúYuè chūnqiū).
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Subsidiary peaks: Shèdíshān 射的山 (where local people read the colour of the painted target to predict the rice price), Jiànyǔshān 箭羽山, Zhènghóngshān 鄭洪山 (named for the Hàn-period tàiwèi Zhèng Hóng who once returned an arrow to an immortal at this peak), and so on through the remaining peaks, springs, and dòngfǔ of the complex.
The work is therefore a hybrid of cult-gazetteer and mythical-historical compendium, organising the Kuàijī sacred landscape around the mythography of Yǔ and the canonical Daoist grotto-system. The choice of compilers — a high Northern-Sòng Hànlín xuéshì (Lǐ Zōngè) for the original recension and a local Daoist (Yè Shū) for the 1114 revision — is itself a striking witness to the institutional symbiosis between metropolitan literati culture and regional Daoist scholarship in the early Sòng.
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: 685 (DZ 604, Franciscus Verellen).
- Verellen, Franciscus. “The Beyond Within: Grotto-Heavens (dongtian) in Taoist Ritual and Cosmology.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 8 (1995): 265–90.
- Lewis, Mark Edward. The Flood Myths of Early China. Albany: SUNY Press, 2006 — for the broader mythography of Yǔ that the gazetteer Daoicises.
Other points of interest
The work is among the earliest preserved Daoist tújīng (illustrated topographical handbooks) and the tú (illustrations) referenced in the title are no longer present in the Daozang witness — only the textual jīng survives. The work is also an important witness to the early-Sòng Daoist absorption of the Yǔ-cult into the official network of dòngtiān; the Yángmíng dòngtiān’s identification with Kuàijīshān is firmly established here as standard Daoist geography.