道德真經傳

Dàodé zhēn jīng zhuàn 道德真經傳

Transmission of the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue

by 陸希聲 (Lù Xīshēng; late Táng, active c. 889–904)

A late-Táng commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) in four juàn, by the late-Táng statesman-scholar Lù Xīshēng 陸希聲 (fl. 889–904), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 685 / CT 685 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). The commentary is notable for its sustained argument that the teachings of Lǎozǐ and Confucius are fundamentally compatible — a claim developed through dense intertextual engagement with the Yìjīng, the Lǐ jì 禮記, and the Lúnyǔ 論語, and through the interpretation of the Dàodé jīng as a complement to the Confucian classical tradition rather than its rival. The commentary is a key document of the late-Táng Confucian-Daoist synthesis that prepared the way for Sòng Neo-Confucianism.

About the work

The commentary is a section-by-section paraphrase of the Dàodé jīng, rendering the terse classical text into a more accessible and discursive prose. Lù Xīshēng’s distinctive editorial choices include: sections 32, 63, and 64 divided into two parts; sections 42 and 43 combined; section 54 placed before 53. These editorial modifications reflect Lù’s attempt to make the text read more continuously.

Philosophical framework

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:287–88, DZ 685) gives the authoritative modern framing. The commentary articulates a sustained Confucian-Daoist synthesis via the interlocking oppositions of:

• Principle (lǐ 理) and things (shì 事) — identified with the “nameless” and the “named” of Lǎozǐ chapter 1 (1.1b–2a).
• Essence (tǐ 體) and function (yòng 用) — identified with Way (dào) and Virtue (dé) at 3.17a.
• Heart-mind (xīn 心) and traces (jì 迹) — at 2.23a.
• Intrinsic nature (xìng 性) and passions (qíng 情) — identified with being (yǒu 有) and non-being (wú 無) at 1.1a–4b.

These contrasting pairs merge into the doctrines of total forgetfulness (jiān wàng 兼忘, 2.23a) and return to intrinsic nature (fù xìng 復性) — both themes that entered into the Neo-Confucian vocabulary within two generations of Lù’s composition, through Lǐ Áo’s 李翱 Fù xìng shū 復性書 and Zhōu Dūnyí’s 周敦頤 Tài jí tú shuō 太極圖說.

The Gǔ shén and the Xuán pìn

Following a characteristic late-Táng reading, Lù interprets the Dàodé jīng’s famous Gǔ shén bù sǐ, shì wèi Xuán pìn 谷神不死，是謂玄牝 (“The Spirit of the Valley does not die; this is called the Mysterious Female”) (chapter 6, commentary at 1.6b) as the central symbol of the fusion of lǐ and shì, tǐ and yòng, the mainspring of the “endless chain of action and reaction” by which rule through non-action (wú wéi zhī zhì 無為之治) becomes possible and by which the sage attains invulnerability (3.18a).

The great synthesis

The commentary’s signature move is the assertion of a great harmony (dà tóng 大同, 1.3a–b) among Fú Xī 伏羲 (the discoverer of the eight trigrams), Wén wáng 文王 (interpreter of the Yìjīng’s hexagrams), Kǒngzǐ 孔子, and Lǎozǐ 老子. Each has his own distinctive contribution, but all four — in Lù’s reading — converge on a single cosmological-ethical vision:

• Fú Xī 伏羲 — drew the eight trigrams, “imaged the ten-thousand things, exhausted the principles of nature and destiny, harmonised with the Way and Virtue.”
• Wén wáng 文王 — “observed the movement of the nine and six of the Great Yì, valued the firm and the yielding, and brought it to the mean.”
• Kǒngzǐ 孔子 — “ancestor of Yáo and Shùn, took authority from Wén wáng and Wǔ wáng, led the people through the teaching of rén 仁 and yì 義.”
• Lǎozǐ 老子 — “in the same spirit as Fú Xī, looked before the heavens and earth, rooted in yīn and yáng, pushed to the utmost of nature and destiny, explored the profundity of the Way and Virtue.”

The preface’s signature line is Lù’s claim that Wáng Bì 王弼 had erred in asserting that “the sage is one with the Way but Lǎozǐ was not” — Lù reads the Dàodé jīng as itself a sage’s work, neither inferior to the Confucian classics nor distinct from them.

Prefaces

The preface to the commentary — preserved in both DZ 685 and in Yún jí qī qiān 雲笈七籤 1.13a–16a — is one of the most important late-Táng manifestos of the Confucian-Daoist synthesis. Lù’s opening line, Dà dào yǐn shì, jiào shuāi, tiān xià fāng dà luàn 大道隱世教衰天下方大亂 (“The great Way withdraws from the world, teaching declines, and the world verges on great chaos”), frames the composition as a response to the decline of both Daoist and Confucian teaching at the end of the Táng.

The preface argues explicitly: “Confucius’s method arose from wén 文 (culture), and wén governs the emotions; Lǎozǐ’s method is rooted in zhì 質 (substance), and zhì returns us to our nature. The ultimate of nature-and-emotions — in the sage, these cannot be different. The alternation of wén and zhì across ten thousand ages cannot be reduced to one… The Yì jīng says: ‘The manifestation of rén 仁’ — this is what ‘taking wén as teaching’ means…” The preface is thus a sustained argument for the complementarity of the Confucian and Daoist traditions, based on the Yì-inspired interplay of wén and zhì.

Abstract

Lù Xīshēng’s commentary is one of the most philosophically sophisticated late-Táng Dàodé jīng commentaries surviving, and a key document of the intellectual transition from Táng Chóngxuán 重玄 Daoism to Sòng Neo-Confucian metaphysics. Its central interpretive moves — the use of lǐ/shì, tǐ/yòng, xìng/qíng pairs, the doctrine of fù xìng as a response to decadent civilisation, the fusion of Daoist and Confucian cosmologies through the Yì jīng, and the explicit endorsement of wú wéi as the ethical ground of both traditions — all anticipate themes that would become central to Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200) and the other mature Northern- and Southern-Sòng Neo-Confucians.

Reception and transmission. The commentary (1.5b) is cited in DZ 695 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí jiě 道德真經集解 1.10a–b, confirming its incorporation into the late-Sòng collected-commentary tradition. A nearly identical version of the commentary is also preserved in the Qīng Zhī hǎi 指海 collectanea.

Dating. Lù Xīshēng’s active period is attested as 889–904 CE (late Zhāozōng 昭宗 era; he briefly served as Tóng zhōng shū mén xià píng zhāng shì 同中書門下平章事, i.e. chancellor, under Zhāozōng in 895). The commentary is undated but must fall within this window. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 889–904 as the composition window. Dynasty 唐.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:287–88 (DZ 685, I. Robinet). Primary reference.
• Robinet, Isabelle. Les commentaires du Tao tö king jusqu’au VIIe siècle. Paris: Collège de France, 1977. (Though Lù is post-7th-century, Robinet’s framework applies.)
• Barrett, T. H. Taoism Under the T’ang: Religion and Empire during the Golden Age of Chinese History. London: Wellsweep, 1996, pp. 96–99. For Lù Xīshēng’s biography.
• Liú Xīzǎi 劉熙載. Yì gài 藝概. On the late-Táng literary-philosophical synthesis.
• Jiù Táng shū 舊唐書 149.3914; Xīn Táng shū 新唐書 116.4235. Primary biographical notices.
• Yún jí qī qiān 雲笈七籤 1.13a–16a. Preface to DZ 685.

Other points of interest

Lù Xīshēng was also the author of commentaries on the Yì jīng 易經 and the Chūnqiū 春秋 — the core Confucian classics — which are partially lost but which are mentioned in the Sòng shǐ 宋史 Yì wén zhì 藝文志. His simultaneous authorship of Daoist and Confucian classical commentaries places him at the institutional boundary of the late-Táng scholarly tradition, and embodies in his own work the synthesis that DZ 685 argues for.

The commentary’s Confucian-Daoist synthesis was influential in the early Sòng. Wáng Ānshí 王安石 (1021–1086), in his own Dàodé jīng commentary (liáng tōng shū 兩同書, preserved only in fragments), is noted by Robinet as reflecting Lù Xīshēng’s approach (Schipper & Verellen 2004, 1:286 n., citing Lù’s influence on later imperial readings). Through this line of transmission, Lù Xīshēng’s late-Táng synthesis shaped the emergence of Sòng Neo-Confucianism itself.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0068
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:287–88 — DZ 685 entry (I. Robinet).
• ctext.org: 道德真經傳