道德真經新註

Dàodé zhēn jīng xīn zhù 道德真經新註

New Commentary on the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue

by 李約 (Lǐ Yuē; zì Zài bó 在博; late-Táng scholar, active c. 810 CE)

A late-Táng commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) by Lǐ Yuē 李約 (active c. 810), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 692 / CT 692 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類) in four juàn. The commentary is notable for a distinctive punctuation of Lǎozǐ chapter 25 that challenges the received reading of the famous “four Greats” passage.

About the work

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:288, DZ 692) gives the authoritative modern framing.

Chapter division

The commentary divides the Dàodé jīng into 37 chapters for the Dào jīng and 41 chapters for the Dé jīng — a total of 78 chapters, three short of the canonical 81. Lǐ Yuē combines chapters 43 and 44, chapters 48 and 49, and chapters 68 and 69 — editorial decisions that reflect his reading of the text’s internal logic.

The distinctive punctuation of chapter 25

Lǐ Yuē’s most striking editorial move is the re-punctuation of Lǎozǐ chapter 25 — the famous “four Greats” passage. The received Héshàng gōng / Wáng Bì reading is: rén fǎ dì, dì fǎ tiān, tiān fǎ dào, dào fǎ zì rán 人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然 (“Humanity models itself on Earth, Earth models itself on Heaven, Heaven models itself on the Way, the Way models itself on Nature”) — which, when read in sequence, implies five rather than four “Greats” (Humanity, Earth, Heaven, Way, Nature). Lǐ Yuē, considering this inconsistent with the immediately preceding line on the “four Greats” (dào dà, tiān dà, dì dà, wáng yì dà 道大，天大，地大，王亦大), re-punctuates:

Rén fǎ dì dì, fǎ tiān tiān, fǎ dào dào, fǎ zì rán 人法地地，法天天，法道道，法自然。

“One who models oneself on Earth is just like Earth; one who models oneself on Heaven is just like Heaven; one who models oneself on the Way is just like the Way; this is the law of Nature.”

The repetition-punctuation (dì dì, tiān tiān, dào dào) — rendering the passage as a series of four parallel self-identifications rather than a hierarchical chain of models — restores the four-Greats symmetry. Lǐ Yuē’s preface explicitly attacks the received punctuation: “Twenty commentators say ‘Humanity models itself on Earth, Earth on Heaven, Heaven on Way, Way on Nature’ — making five Greats within the cosmic realm, contradicting the text… How could a king only be able to model himself on Earth and not on Heaven, the Way, or Nature?”

Philosophical character

• Priority of zhì shēn 治身 (“self-cultivation”) over metaphysics. Interpretation in terms of personal-cultivation takes precedence over metaphysical interpretation throughout the commentary (2.3b, 7b).
• The Way as pure non-being (wú 無). The Dao is simply “the void, non-being” (3.3b). Any connotation of wú and yǒu as ontological being vs non-being is ignored.
• Acceptance of Héshàng gōng on the Dark and the Female (1.4a); also a vitalistic (body-cultivation) interpretation (3.9a) with quotations from the Huáng tíng jīng 黃庭經.
• Immortality as spiritual survival, not bodily. “Immortality is the survival of the spirit, or spirits, beyond the body, not physical immortality” (2.12a–b).
• Life defined as spirit abiding in the heart-mind. “Life is the shén 神 that abides in the xīn 心, provided the latter is empty” (4.8b).

Prefaces

The commentary opens with Lǐ Yuē’s own preface (xù 序), which articulates its theological-political framework and the polemical motivation for the new punctuation. Key lines:

“The natural Way, being stilled, brings forth Heaven-and-Earth and the ten thousand things within it. Humanity is the master of the ten thousand things, and so is the third of the Sān cái 三才 (Three Powers: Heaven, Earth, and Humanity). Lǎojūn in the days of the Western Zhōu therefore took up the Way and Virtue to save the customs of the age. The Way (dào) is the clear, still, natural Way. The Virtue (dé) is what is obtained (dé 得) after long practice when custom has been lost. Hence the text says: ‘The Way is great, Heaven is great, Earth is great, and the King is also great — these are the Four Greats within the cosmic realm.’ The King takes as his model the three great natural marvels of Earth, Heaven, and the Way, and thereby governs the world.

“‘Humanity’ means simply the common people — hence ‘Humanity models itself on Earth’ is no more than what was meant by ‘Ruler as Ruler, Minister as Minister, Father as Father, Son as Son.’ But later students, not grasping the sage’s purport, have erred — twenty commentators all say that Humanity models itself on Earth, Earth on Heaven, Heaven on the Way, and the Way on Nature — making Five Greats within the cosmic realm, contradicting the text and betraying the teaching. How could a king only be able to model himself on Earth and not on Heaven, the Way, or Nature?… Some treat the scripture as a book of immortals and spirits; others treat it as a doctrine of empty nothingness. These who say ‘first the HuángLǎo then the Six Classics’ — such shallow talk! They do not know that the Six Classics are the branches and leaves of the HuángLǎo tradition. I, in my youth, acquired the essential meaning, and have now examined and explicated it. This is the art of purifying the heart, nourishing the breath, securing the household, and preserving the state.”

Abstract

The commentary is transmitted under the title Dàodé zhēn jīng xīn zhù (“New Commentary on the Dàodé zhēn jīng”). Péng Sì 彭耜 (commentator on DZ 709 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí zhù zá shuō) and Dǒng Sījìng 董思靖 (commentator on DZ 705 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí jiě) both date it to the Táng (see DZ 709 Jí zhù zá shuō 1.4b and DZ 705 Zhēn jīng jí jiě third preface, 3a). The text is quoted (at DZ 692 4.6b) in Chén Jǐng yuán’s 陳景元 DZ 714 Dàodé zhēn jīng cáng shì zuǎn wēi piān 道德真經藏室纂微篇 9.11a. It is mentioned in Sòng catalogues (VDL 106). The reading Lǐ Nà 李納 as author of a Lǎozǐ commentary in Tōng zhì 通志 “Yì wén lüè” 5.1b is probably a textual error for Lǐ Yuē 李約.

Dating. Lǐ Yuē is described as fl. c. 810 (Zhēn yuán 貞元 – Yuán hé 元和 eras). Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 795–820 as a broad late-Táng 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, 1:288 (DZ 692, I. Robinet). Primary reference.
• Robinet, Isabelle. Les commentaires du Tao tö king jusqu’au VIIe siècle. Paris: Collège de France, 1977.
• Barrett, T. H. Taoism Under the T’ang. London: Wellsweep, 1996. For late-Táng Daoism.

Other points of interest

Lǐ Yuē’s distinctive chapter-25 punctuation is the most-cited interpretive feature of the commentary. Most later commentators — while aware of Lǐ Yuē’s reading — reject it in favour of the received hierarchical reading (Humanity → Earth → Heaven → Way → Nature), which better supports a xuánxué-metaphysical interpretation and fits the “return to the root” theme of other passages in the Lǎozǐ. Modern scholars, however, have occasionally revived the Lǐ Yuē reading in light of the Mǎwángduī 馬王堆 and Guōdiàn 郭店 textual witnesses, which slightly support the four-Greats symmetry.

The commentary’s Confucian-framing rhetoric — “the Six Classics are the branches and leaves of the HuángLǎo tradition” — is characteristic of the late-Táng Daoist-Confucian syncretism, paralleling Lù Xīshēng’s 陸希聲 slightly later commentary (KR5c0068).

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0075
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:288 — DZ 692 entry (I. Robinet).
• ctext.org: 道德真經新註