唐玄宗御製道德真經疏外傳

Táng Xuán zōng yù zhì Dàodé zhēn jīng shū wài zhuàn 唐玄宗御製道德真經疏外傳

Outer Supplement to the Imperial Subcommentary on the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue by Táng Xuánzōng

attributed to 李隆基 (Lǐ Lóngjī; Táng Xuánzōng 唐玄宗, r. 712–756), in fact a late-Táng or Five-Dynasties extract from the commentary of 杜光庭 Dù Guāngtíng (850–933)

The third of the three-work imperial Xuánzōng Dàodé jīng exegetical corpus in the Daozang — nominally a wài zhuàn 外傳 (“outer supplement”) to Xuánzōng’s subcommentary (KR5c0060, DZ 678) — but in fact a late-Táng or Five-Dynasties (c. 900–950) derivative extracted from Dù Guāngtíng’s 杜光庭 Dàodé zhēn jīng guǎng shèng yì 道德真經廣聖義 (DZ 725). Preserved in four juàn as DZ 679 / CT 679 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). The Kanseki source-text files for KR5c0061 are not available (the repository directory contains only a Readme header); the present note is based on the Schipper & Verellen (2004, 1:286–87) description of DZ 679 and associated Daozang bibliography.

About the work

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:286–87, DZ 679) gives the authoritative modern framing. Despite the title’s claim to be an imperial subcommentary — under the same main title as DZ 678 — DZ 679 is in fact a textually disordered extract from Dù Guāngtíng’s Dàodé zhēn jīng guǎng shèng yì (DZ 725). Comparison, for instance, of DZ 679 1.6a–b with DZ 725 8.1a–7a confirms the textual dependence: DZ 679 is a verbatim abridgment of Dù Guāngtíng’s text.

The van der Loon bibliography (VDL 153) attributes DZ 679 to Qiáo Fēng 喬諷 (fl. 950) — a Five-Dynasties or early-Sòng Daoist compiler. Schipper & Verellen endorse the attribution of the work’s compilation to Qiáo Fēng, but emphasise that the underlying text-material is Dù Guāngtíng’s. The attribution of the parent commentary to Xuánzōng is therefore a pseudepigraphic borrowing of the imperial name on the part of Qiáo Fēng or the subsequent editorial tradition, to confer canonical authority on the excerpt.

Textual disorder

Robinet notes several specific textual irregularities:

1. The preface (1a–4a) repeats part of Dù Guāngtíng’s own preface and the beginning of his Guǎng shèng yì; the remainder of DZ 679’s preface repeats DZ 725 1.1b.
2. The opening of the commentary (1.1a–3b) begins with an interpolation from Chéng Xuányīng’s 成玄英 (early Táng) Dàodé jīng kāi tí xù jué 道德經開題序訣 or parallel Chóngxuán text — confirming the work’s composite character.
3. Terminological confusion. Dù Guāngtíng’s text is variously labelled in DZ 679 as shū 疏 (“subcommentary”), zhù 註 (“commentary”), or — as Dù Guāngtíng himself styles his material — yì 義 (“meaning”). At 1.11a–b the same material is even labelled under two different headings simultaneously, as if corresponding to two different works, when in fact both refer to Dù’s single text.

These features mark DZ 679 as a textually disordered later compilation rather than an authentic Xuánzōng work.

Prefaces

The opening preface — repeating Dù Guāngtíng’s Guǎng shèng yì preface — is the only prefatorial material. Its pseudo-attribution to Xuánzōng is spurious.

Abstract

DZ 679 represents the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties afterlife of the imperial Xuánzōng Dàodé jīng exegetical tradition. After Xuánzōng’s own commentary (DZ 677, 732–735) and subcommentary (DZ 678, 735–756) established the canonical imperial reading, and after Dù Guāngtíng’s monumental Guǎng shèng yì (DZ 725, c. 900–901) synthesised it into a super-subcommentary, the later Five-Dynasties compiler Qiáo Fēng extracted portions of Dù Guāngtíng’s text and circulated them under the imperial name, producing DZ 679. The text is therefore of value chiefly as a witness to the late-Táng Daoist reception of the Xuánzōng tradition, and for its preservation of the Dù Guāngtíng material (though the same material survives in fuller form in DZ 725).

Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 900–950 as a conservative composition window covering Dù Guāngtíng’s Guǎng shèng yì (c. 901) and Qiáo Fēng’s extraction activity (c. 950). Dynasty: 唐-五代 (late-Táng / Wǔdài).

The pseudo-imperial attribution (to Xuánzōng) is preserved in the frontmatter’s persons: field with (attributed), mirroring the catalog; Qiáo Fēng and Dù Guāngtíng are named in the prose as the actual compiler and underlying source respectively. As they are not in the catalog’s persons: list, they remain in prose only.

Note on missing source files

The Kanseki Repository directory for KR5c0061 contains only a Readme.org stub and no text files. Per the project convention, the note has been compiled on the basis of Schipper & Verellen’s authoritative DZ 679 description and cross-references; the Kanseki display text has not been consulted. Any direct quotation from the work has been omitted.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:286–87 (DZ 679, I. Robinet). Primary reference.
• Van der Loon, Piet. Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Dynasty. London: Ithaca Press, 1984, p. 153 (VDL 153). Attribution to Qiáo Fēng.
• See KR5c0059 and KR5c0060 for the authentic Xuánzōng commentaries, and the entry on DZ 725 (Dù Guāngtíng’s Guǎng shèng yì, forthcoming or elsewhere in the KR5c catalogue) for the underlying source text.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0061 — note: source text not locally available.
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:286–87 — DZ 679 entry (I. Robinet).