Dàodé zhēn jīng cì jiě 道德真經次解
Ordered Explications of the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue
Anonymous (Míng-dynasty 明, c. 1368–1445; attribution unclear)
A Míng-dynasty anonymous commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) in two juàn, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 697 / CT 697 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). The work is chiefly valuable not for its interpretive content but for its preservation of textual variants from a Táng-era stele at the Lóng xīng guān 龍興觀 — a witness to the pre-Sòng received text of the Dàodé jīng that is otherwise difficult to reconstruct.
About the work
Jan A. M. De Meyer’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:1985–86, DZ 697) gives the authoritative modern framing.
The Lóng xīng guān stele
According to the author’s preface, the commentary’s composition was triggered by a visit to the Lóng xīng guān 龍興觀 — a Daoist temple located in Suì zhōu 遂州 (near Yì zhōu 易州, southwest of modern Beijing). The temple housed a stele inscribed with the texts of the Dào jīng 道經 and the Dé jīng 德經. If this is the same stele as the one from the Lóng xīng guān in Yì zhōu referred to in Chén Yuán’s 陳垣 Dào jiā jīn shí lüè 道家金石略 pp. 98–99, the stele would date from Jǐng lóng 2 (708 CE) — an early Táng witness to the received Dàodé jīng text.
When the author read the text on the stele, he found it to differ substantially from the text of the Dàodé jīng current in his own day (late Yuán / early Míng), with major discrepancies in interpretation. He therefore decided to produce a commentary on the classic and to systematically note all textual variants found on the stele.
Structure
The work comprises four parts:
- Annotated Dào jīng (juàn 1a) — the first half of the Dàodé jīng with commentary.
- Annotated Dé jīng (juàn 1b) — the second half with commentary.
- List of textual variants from the Lóng xīng guān stele for the Dào jīng — 69 instances.
- List of textual variants for the Dé jīng — 70 instances.
The variant-lists are the commentary’s most valuable contribution: the preserved Táng-stele readings include distinctive forms such as:
| Received reading | Lóng xīng guān stele |
|---|---|
| 為而不恃 wéi ér bù shì | 為而恃 wéi ér shì (ch. 2, 10, 51) |
| 不尚賢 bù shàng xián | 不上賢 bù shàng xián (ch. 3) |
| 不敢為 bù gǎn wéi | 不敢不為 bù gǎn bù wéi (ch. 64) |
| 跂者不立 qǐ zhě bù lì | 喘者不久 chuǎn zhě bù jiǔ (ch. 24) |
| 田甚蕪 tián shèn wú | 田甚苗 tián shèn miáo (ch. 53) |
| 多言 duō yán | 多聞 duō wén (ch. 5) |
| 無私 wú sī | 無尸 wú shī (ch. 7) |
| 不釋 bù shì | 不汋 bù shuò (?) |
| 不克 bù kè | 不充 bù chōng (ch. 59) |
| 小鮮 xiǎo xiān | 小腥 xiǎo xīng (ch. 60) |
(The author’s preface lists ten representative examples; the actual count in the variant-tables is 139 total, as noted above.) These variants are an important witness to Táng-era textual variation in the Dàodé jīng, providing checkpoints against the Wáng Bì / Héshàng gōng received recensions.
Philosophical content
The author explicitly claims not to follow any prior commentator but to establish “a school of my own” (zì chéng yī jiā 自成一家). In practice, De Meyer observes, “some of the explanations are rather bland.” The commentary’s lasting value lies in its stele-variants rather than in its philosophical exposition.
Prefaces
The commentary opens with an anonymous author’s preface (the catalog meta is silent on authorship). Key passages:
“Affairs are myriad in variety, but their meaning returns to a single rule. The Three Teachings are tripartite, their principle flows from the hundred schools — all embody the ancient and preserve the present, entirely dispelling the heterodox and returning to the orthodox. All point out the axle and string the pearls, expounding both to end and to start, wishing to make what is so be so, and what is not-so not-so; to let white be white and black black…
“Later, passing through Suì zhōu, I saw at the Lóng xīng guān 龍興觀 a stone stele upon which the two scriptures of Dào and Dé were inscribed. Examining it minutely, I found it differs from the current edition: many characters are at variance, with no commentary and no chapter titles; meanings are sometimes opposed to one another. The old reading ‘acting without presumption’ (wéi ér bù shì 為而不恃) the stele reads as ‘acting with reliance’ (wéi ér shì 為而恃); the old ‘do not honour the worthy’ (bù shàng xián 不尚賢) the stele reads as ‘do not elevate the worthy’ (bù shàng xián 不上賢, with different character)… I have briefly listed ten instances; I cannot exhaustively enumerate.
“Regarding the meaning, each reader will have his own view. Seeing this remnant and omission, how could I not supplement? Not measuring my own emptiness, I have explicated the text as it proceeds, dividing it into two juàn, titled Cì jiě (‘Ordered Explications’), not continuing the work of others but forming a school of my own. As to what is right and what is wrong, the world is well able to judge. I offer this to those of like interest; I hope they will not neglect it. Respectfully prefaced.”
Abstract
The commentary’s Míng dating is inferred from the Schipper & Verellen’s placement (Part 3, sections covering Míng texts) but is not otherwise firmly fixed. The terminus post quem is the Táng stele referenced in the preface (708 CE); the terminus ante quem is the compilation of the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng in 1445. De Meyer’s cautious “Míng dynasty (1368–1644)?” dating acknowledges the uncertainty. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1368–1445 as the conservative window. Dynasty: 明.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1985–86 (DZ 697, J. De Meyer). Primary reference.
- Chén Yuán 陳垣. Dào jiā jīn shí lüè 道家金石略. Běijīng: Wén wù chū bǎn shè, 1988, pp. 98–99. On the Lóng xīng guān stele.
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. Tonkō dōkyō: Mokurokuhen 敦煌道經・目錄編. Tokyo: Fukutake, 1978. For Dūnhuáng witnesses of the Dàodé jīng that can be compared with the Lóng xīng guān readings.
Other points of interest
The Táng stele at the Lóng xīng guān, dated Jǐng lóng 2 (708), is one of the earliest epigraphic witnesses to the Dàodé jīng text. It was erected at a time when Xuánzōng’s 742 canonisation had not yet occurred; the readings preserved in DZ 697 may therefore reflect the pre-canonical received text of the Lǎozǐ in early-Táng circulation. The value of this witness is enhanced by the fact that the original stele, if it survives, has not been studied in modern scholarship with any thoroughness.
The commentary’s Three Teachings framing in the opening of the preface (dǐng fēn sān jiào, lǐ chū bǎi jiā 鼎分三教，理出百家) is characteristic of YuánMíng Daoist intellectual orthodoxy — treating the Dàodé jīng as a common foundation-text for the integrated Confucian-Daoist-Buddhist philosophical synthesis.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0082
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:1985–86 — DZ 697 entry (J. De Meyer).
- ctext.org: 道德真經次解