道德真經集解 (趙秉文)

Dàodé zhēn jīng jí jiě 道德真經集解 (Zhào Bǐngwén)

Collection of Commentaries on the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue

compiled by 趙秉文 (Zhào Bǐngwén; 1159–1232) — Jīn-dynasty scholar-official, academician, and leading literary-philosophical figure

A Jīn-dynasty collected-commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) in four juàn, compiled by Zhào Bǐngwén 趙秉文 (1159–1232) — identified in the text as Zhào xué shì 趙學士 (“Academician Zhào”) and confirmed in the Guī qián zhì 歸潛志 1.5–6 and 9.97–98 as Zhào Bǐngwén, named academician in 1217. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 695 / CT 695 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). Among the most significant pre-Sòng collected-commentary compilations of the Dàodé jīng.

About the work

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:655–56, DZ 695) gives the authoritative modern framing. The anthology:

• Collects seventeen commentaries by different authors, cited selectively to illuminate each passage of the Dàodé jīng.
• Includes materials from a wide range of periods: from the early mediaeval era (Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什 c. 344–413, Sēngzhào 僧肇 374–414 — both Buddhist attributions of disputed authenticity) through to Zhào Bǐngwén’s own Jīn-dynasty contemporaries.
• Places individual commentaries under identifying names — rather than the more usual compilation-style anonymous presentation. Zhào Bǐngwén’s own commentary is simply one of the included voices, which is unusual for a compilation (compilers typically place their own material separately).

Key source commentaries

Robinet identifies the principal sources drawn upon by Zhào Bǐngwén:

• Sū Zhé 蘇轍 (蘇轍) — the anonymous opening sentences of each commentary are, in fact, taken from Sū Zhé’s (KR5c0074, DZ 691) Dàodé zhēn jīng zhù.
• Jū jì 聚疾 = Liú Jūjì 劉聚疾 (Sòng; see DZ 723 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí yì dà zhǐ 道德真經集義大旨 1.10a). Compare DZ 695 1.12b with DZ 724 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí yì 20.11a.
• Lù 陸 = Lù Xīshēng 陸希聲 (陸希聲) (KR5c0068, DZ 685). Compare DZ 695 1.10a-b with DZ 685 1.5b.
• Yè 葉 = Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 (1077–1148), author of various commentaries on the classics. Compare DZ 695 2.3a-b with DZ 707 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí zhù 6.4b.
• Sū Jìng jìng 蘇敬靜 (3.3a).
• Sū Jìng jìng 蘇敬靜 (4.7b).
• Wáng Ān shí 王安石 (1.19a-b) — fragments of the partially-lost Wáng Ān shí Lǎozǐ commentary.
• Zhào Bǐngwén himself — his own glosses appear among the included commentaries.
• Shào Ruòyú 邵若愚 (邵若愚) (11.18a-b; see DZ 688, KR5c0071) — Sòng commentary including his distinctive continuous-text editing.

Many other figures are cited briefly across the 81 chapters.

Prefaces

No separate authorial preface survives in the DZ 695 witness; the compilation proceeds directly to the gloss of Lǎozǐ chapter 1.

Abstract

The compilation is a key document of the Jīn-dynasty Daoist intellectual tradition — a tradition often neglected in modern scholarship in favour of the contemporaneous Southern Sòng and the Quánzhēn 全真 Daoist movement. Zhào Bǐngwén, as academician and leading literary figure at the Jīn court, represents a more scholarly / literati stream of Daoist engagement — his compilation is based on the extensive Sòng literature available to him (Sū Zhé, Sīmǎ Guāng, Wáng Ān shí, Lǚ Huìqīng, Shào Ruòyú, Lù Xīshēng, Yè Mèngdé) rather than on the distinctive JīnQuánzhēn or Southern-Sòng Nán zōng alchemical traditions. This makes DZ 695 an especially valuable witness to the Southern-Sòng commentary literature as read from the Jīn north — the compilation preserves some variants of its sources that differ from the Southern-Sòng DZ witnesses (see Robinet’s collations).

Dating. Zhào Bǐngwén’s academician appointment in 1217 gives a firm terminus post quem for the compilation’s attribution to him; his death in 1232 provides the terminus ante quem. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1217–1232 as the composition window. Dynasty: 金 (Jīn).

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:655–56 (DZ 695, I. Robinet). Primary reference.
• Jīn shǐ 金史 110.2426–29. Principal biographical source on Zhào Bǐngwén.
• Guī qián zhì 歸潛志 1.5–6, 9.97–98. Contemporary identification of Zhào xué shì as Zhào Bǐngwén.
• Boltz, Judith Magee. A Survey of Taoist Literature, Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1987. For the Jīn Daoist context.
• Tao Jing-shen. The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China: A Study of Sinicization. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976. For the Jīn intellectual context.

Other points of interest

The compilation’s inclusion of attributed Kumārajīva and Sēngzhào commentaries — Buddhist attributions of early-medieval date — is philologically noteworthy. The authenticity of these Buddhist-authored Lǎozǐ commentaries is doubtful (neither Kumārajīva nor Sēngzhào is otherwise attested as a Lǎozǐ commentator), but their inclusion in the compilation reflects the Jīn-era tradition of treating the Buddhist and Daoist classical corpora as mutually illuminating. The wài zhuàn 外傳 of Xuánzōng’s commentary (KR5c0062, DZ 679) similarly lists Kumārajīva, Fó tú chéng 佛圖澄, and Sēngzhào among the pre-Táng commentators on the Lǎozǐ.

Zhào Bǐngwén’s personal philosophical position — articulated in his other works — is a robust defence of the Three Teachings (sān jiào 三教) synthesis, with heavy Buddhist and Daoist influence on his nominally Confucian discourse. The Dàodé jīng jí jiě is one of his most direct engagements with the Daoist tradition, though his Confucian classical commentaries and his poetry are the more voluminous parts of his corpus.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0080
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:655–56 — DZ 695 entry (I. Robinet).
• ctext.org: 道德真經集解 (趙秉文)