太上老君內觀經

Tàishàng Lǎojūn nèiguān jīng 太上老君內觀經

Scripture of Inner Vision, by the Most High Lord Lǎo

anonymous early-Táng treatise on Daoist meditation in one juàn of seven folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (DZ 641 / CT 641, 洞神部本文類) and in the Dàozàng jíyào (JY063); first of seven scriptures bundled together under the rubric “Qī jīng tóng juàn shāng bā” 七經同卷傷八. The companion texts in the bundle (KR5c0023–KR5c0028) are the Tàishàng Lǎojūn shuō liǎoxīn jīng 太上老君說了心經, Tàishàng Lǎojūn nèidān jīng 太上老君內丹經, Tàishàng nèidān shǒuyī zhēndìng jīng 太上內丹守一真定經, Tàishàng Lǎojūn nèi rìyòng miàojīng 太上老君內日用妙經, Tàishàng Lǎojūn wài rìyòng miàojīng 太上老君外日用妙經, and Tàishàng shuō zhuǎnlún wǔdào sùmìng yīnyuán jīng 太上說轉輪五道宿命因緣經.

About the work

The Nèiguān jīng is cast as a sequence of fifteen short pronouncements by Lǎojūn 老君 on the inner constitution and contemplative training of the human person. The opening section (1b–2a) gives a ten-month embryological scheme paired with a register of the body’s resident deities — Tàiyī Dìjūn 太一帝君 / Níwánjūn 泥丸君 in the head, Sīmìng 司命 in the heart, Wúyīng 無英 on the left and Báiyuán 白元 on the right (governing the three hún and seven pò), Táohái 桃孩 at the navel — and develops the foundational equation xīn = shén 心即神, the heart-mind as the changeable and sovereign deity of the body. The middle sections (2a–5b) catalogue the technical lexicon of inner cultivation: mìng 命 (received from the Way), xìng 性 (received from form), xīn 心, yì 意, zhì 志, zhì 智, huì 慧, hún 魂, pò 魄, xuè 血, jīng 精, róng 榮, wèi 衛, shēn 身, xíng 形, zhì 質, tǐ 體, qū 軀, shén 神, líng 靈, shēng 生, sǐ 死, dào 道; warns that the six perceptual faculties (liù shí 六識) generate desire and bind one to liúlàng shēngsǐ 流浪生死; and frames the project of nèiguān as the practice by which “the form is preserved by holding to the Way” (形以道全) so that “form and Way merge into one and one becomes long-living and undying, plumed and transformed into a spirit-immortal” (生道合一則長生不死羽化神仙). The closing sections (5b–7a) present a series of definitions of the various states of the heart-mind — xūxīn 虛心, wúxīn 無心, dìngxīn 定心, ānxīn 安心, jìngxīn 靜心, zhèngxīn 正心, qīngxīn 清心, jìngxīn 淨心 — and conclude with Lǎojūn’s programmatic statement that zhīdào 知道, xìndào 信道, xíngdào 行道, and dédào 得道 are each easier than shǒudào 守道.

Prefaces

No preface. The text opens directly with Lǎojūn’s exposition.

Abstract

Kristofer Schipper’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:500, DZ 641) places the work in the Early Táng (618–907) and identifies it as a foundational document of Táng “ecstatic introspection” (nèiguān 內觀): “The work treats the theoretical background of ecstatic introspection, the development of the embryo, the nomenclature of the spirits of the body, and the state of ataraxy. It has exerted a wide influence and is often quoted in later commentaries.” Schipper notes that Zhāng Wànfú 張萬福 quotes the Nèiguān jīng extensively at DZ 1241 Chuánshòu sāndòng jīngjiè fǎlù lüèshuō 1.5b–7 (i.e. 2a–6a of our text), establishing a terminus ante quem in the early Táng — Zhāng Wànfú was active under Empress Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 and the Kāiyuán 開元 reign (713–741), so frontmatter notBefore/notAfter accordingly bracket 618–741, narrowing the catalog meta’s “唐初期” to its operative window. Schipper further notes the work’s stylistic and doctrinal kinship with KR5c0001 Tàishàng Lǎojūn shuō cháng qīngjìng miàojīng 太上老君說常清靜妙經 (DZ 620), explicitly comparing the present text’s 5a.6 with that of the Qīngjìng jīng. The catalog meta lists no author, consistent with the text’s pseudo-revelatory frame as a discourse of Lǎojūn; modern scholarship has not securely attributed the work to any individual figure, although its position alongside the Dìngguān jīng 定觀經 (DZ 400) and the Cháng qīngjìng jīng in the early-Táng “nèiguān” cluster is well established.

The Nèiguān jīng is one of the most influential Daoist meditation manuals of the Táng. It supplies the technical vocabulary for much of the Yúnjí qīqiān’s 雲笈七籤 treatment of inner cultivation (see, e.g., YJQQ 17.1a–8b, where substantial portions are reproduced) and is cited in DZ 1422 Zhēnzhōng jīng 枕中經, DZ 875 (the visualization manual cited at 18b), DZ 840 Péngzǔ shèshēng yǎngxìng lùn 彭祖攝生養性論, and elsewhere. The text is the principal source for the Táng-period harmonization of the older Shàngqīng cún sī 存思 spirit-visualization practice with the xīnxìng 心性 doctrine that would later inform Quánzhēn 全真 nèidān 內丹 — a development reflected within the present qī jīng 七經 bundle itself, which juxtaposes the Nèiguān jīng with the Nèidān jīng and the Nèidān shǒuyī zhēndìng jīng.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:500 (DZ 641, K. Schipper).
• Kohn, Livia. “Taoist Insight Meditation: The Tang Practice of Neiguan.” In Livia Kohn ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, 191–222. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989. The standard English study; includes a partial translation.
• Kohn, Livia. Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhen’s Zuowanglun. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1987 — situates the Nèiguān jīng in the early-Táng zuòwàng / nèiguān milieu.
• Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity. Trans. Julian F. Pas and Norman J. Girardot. Albany: SUNY Press, 1993 — for the antecedent Shàngqīng cún sī practices.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0022
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:500 — DZ 641 entry (K. Schipper).