道德真經章句訓頌

Dàodé zhēn jīng zhāng jù xùn sòng 道德真經章句訓頌

Admonitory Hymns on the Chapters of the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue

by 張嗣成 (Zhāng Sìchéng; hào Tài xuán zǐ 太玄子, hé shàng Hàn 嗣漢; d. 1343) — 39th Celestial Master of the Zhèngyī 正一 lineage (from the Shàng qīng gōng 上清宮 at Lóng hǔ shān 龍虎山)

An important Yuán-dynasty Zhèngyī 正一 Celestial-Master commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) in two juàn, by the 39th Celestial Master Zhāng Sìchéng 張嗣成. Preface dated Zhì zhì rén xū 至治壬戌 year, fifth month of summer (1322 CE). Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 698 / CT 698 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類), and also in the Qīng Dàozàng jíyào 道藏輯要 as JY048 Tài shàng Dàodé zhēn jīng zhāng jù xùn sòng 太上道德真經章句訓頌.

The commentary is — as Judith Boltz has observed (A Survey of Taoist Literature, 223) — the only Daoist commentary on the Dàodé jīng in the Daozang produced by a Celestial Master of the Zhèngyī hierarchy. It is therefore a distinctive document of Yuán-era orthodox Zhèngyī engagement with the Daoist canon’s foundational scripture.

About the work

Jan A. M. De Meyer’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:665–66, DZ 698) gives the authoritative modern framing.

Form and function

The commentary presents each of the 81 chapters of the Dàodé jīng as an admonitory hymn (xùn sòng 訓頌) — a liturgical-didactic poem composed in classical verse metre. The hymns are written mostly in:

• Four-character lines (with some)
• Five-character lines (and some)
• Seven-character lines

Thirteen of the eighty-one hymns are supplemented with extra commentarial prose, which elaborates the philosophical content more fully. In these extra passages, one finds elucidations of the nature of the Dào in terms of:

• Lǐ 理 (principle)
• Qì 氣 (vital energy)
• Xìng 性 (nature)
• Mìng 命 (life/decree) (1.1b)

And Zhāng’s opinion on Héshàng gōng’s 河上公 division of the Dàodé jīng into 81 chapters (1.19a).

Motivation

Zhāng states in his preface that he composed the Xùn sòng because of his frustration with the widespread ignorance of his contemporaries regarding Lǎozǐ’s teachings — including those who considered themselves Lǎozǐ’s followers. He explicitly claims that reciting these hymns will:

1. Enhance insight into the true meaning of the classic.
2. Enable one to cultivate one’s person, regulate the family, rule the people, and bring peace to the realm — literally echoing the Confucian Dà xué 大學’s xiū shēn, qí jiā, zhì guó, píng tiān xià 修身、齊家、治國、平天下 formula.

This Confucian framing is a striking move in a Daoist commentary — particularly by a Celestial Master — and reflects the mature Yuán-era Daoist-Confucian syncretism in which the Celestial Master lineage positioned itself as custodian of a universal moral-political heritage.

However, Zhāng concedes that these effects are only the coarser aspects (qí cū 其粗) of the message. True wisdom, he argues, must be sought in the cultivation of jīn dān 金丹 (inner alchemy’s golden elixir) — a nod to the nèi dān tradition that by the Yuán was already well-integrated into the Zhèngyī ritual-Daoist practice.

Prefaces

The commentary opens with Zhāng Sìchéng’s own preface (xù 序), signed:

“Zhì zhì 壬戌 xià wǔ yuè [1322, fifth month of summer], Sì Hàn sān shí jiǔ dài tiān shī Tài xuán zǐ 嗣漢三十九代天師太玄子 Zhāng Sì chéng 張嗣成, bowing twice and prostrating, respectfully prefaces.”

The preface articulates:

“The Most High Lǎojūn — his Way is great and his Virtue vast, keeping within simplicity while acting broadly, concealing great use in the land of non-use, lodging all-doing in non-doing. Beyond the Supreme Ultimate, he is not ancient; within the Three Extremes, he is not modern. What gets his height-and-brightness is called Heaven; what gets his breadth-and-weight is called Earth; the sun and moon get him and succeed in brightness; the four seasons get him and go in alternation; mountains and rivers get him and flow and stand. Whether vast or minute, high or low, flying or diving, moving or planted — each gets one [thing] and becomes a myriad being. The spirit of things is human; all cannot get beyond the confines of his shaping. Seeking the reason without finding it, I am forced to name it: Dào 道.

“Without a sage, there is no one to have this Way; without a scripture, there is no one to bear this Way. Therefore: the Way is hard to hear — but through the scripture, one hears it after all. The Way is hard to see — but through the scripture, one sees it after all…

“Our ancestor Zhèng yī zhēn jūn 正一真君 [the First Celestial Master, Zhāng Dàolíng 張道陵] received twice the descent of divine mounts to Western Shǔ, personally received the supreme Way, and unfolded what lies beyond the five-thousand words. The family has preserved it for a thousand years and more. I, Sì chéng, humbly inherit the lineage, successively receiving the virtuous command to propagate the teaching of the Tài shàng Lǎo jūn — this is the first purpose of zhù lí [ritual blessing]. Therefore at every Sān yuán 三元 ritual opening of the altar, transmitting the registers and performing the blessings, I must immediately expound this scripture to the disciples at the altar and to those who come with longing for the Way — that they may drink as fish drink water, each to his own capacity. But the far-reaching multitudes cannot each be instructed day by day; the days are insufficient. A Lǎo jūn disciple who does not know Lǎo jūn’s Way — this is like eating one’s fill all day without recognising the five grains, or holding a candle through the night without recognising fire. Not only does one fail oneself, one also deeply fails the Sagely Dynasty’s intent in venerating the scriptures and teachings. For this reason I have, not measuring myself, unrolled their meaning as zhāng jù [chapter-and-phrase commentary] — not daring to say I have Lǎo jūn’s intent, but so that my disciples and the lovers of virtue and the Way may take them and play with them, and if they enter into realisation, then the golden elixir need not be sought elsewhere, and the Supreme Way is what I have had all along…”

Abstract

The commentary is a major document of Yuán-era orthodox Zhèngyī Daoism. Its distinctive features:

1. Composition by the 39th Celestial Master, the highest-ranking living Daoist figure of the period.
2. Liturgical-poetic form — unique among surviving Dàodé jīng commentaries in the Daozang; designed for recitation at the Sān yuán 三元 ritual occasions (15th of the first month, 15th of the seventh month, 15th of the tenth month).
3. Confucian political framing — explicit use of the Dà xué xiū shēn, qí jiā, zhì guó, píng tiān xià formula, reflecting the Zhèngyī Daoist self-understanding as custodian of a comprehensive moral-political-cosmological teaching.
4. Nèi dān framing of the deeper teaching — beyond the exoteric xiūqízhìpíng teaching, true wisdom lies in jīn dān.

The commentary represents the Zhèngyī lineage’s pedagogical engagement with the Dàodé jīng as a teaching text for disciples and lay devotees — a different register from the scholarly commentary tradition (Wáng Bì, Héshàng gōng, Sòng imperial) that dominates the received commentary corpus.

Dating. Preface dated Zhì zhì rén xū = 1322 CE. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1322 as the composition year. Dynasty: 元.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:665–66 (DZ 698, J. De Meyer). Primary reference.
• Boltz, Judith Magee. A Survey of Taoist Literature, Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1987, p. 223. On DZ 698 as the sole Daozang Dàodé jīng commentary by a Celestial Master.
• Kobayashi Masayoshi 小林正美. Tōshū jū dai tenshi Shō Yǔ cái zhuàn 唐宋代天師張羽材傳. Waseda University, 1999. For the Zhèngyī lineage’s Yuán-era history.
• Davis, Edward L. Society and the Supernatural in Song China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001. For the broader ritual-Daoist context.

Other points of interest

The 39th Celestial Master Zhāng Sìchéng (d. 1343) was the head of the Zhèngyī lineage during a critical period of Yuán Daoist history, when the Mongol court (under Shì zǔ 世祖 Kublai Khan and his successors) extended formal recognition to the Celestial Masters and incorporated them into the imperial-religious apparatus. Zhāng Sìchéng presided over the Shàng qīng gōng at Lóng hǔ shān in Jiāng xī, and oversaw the formal transmission of the Zhèngyī registers and the cultivation of a large disciple body.

The commentary’s liturgical-poetic form — each of the 81 chapters rendered as a verse-hymn suitable for recitation — reflects the pedagogical needs of the Celestial Master’s own ritual-teaching activity. As the preface makes clear, Zhāng used the hymns in his own sān yuán altar-instruction, and the commentary is essentially the textual fixation of this oral-liturgical tradition.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0085
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:665–66 — DZ 698 entry (J. De Meyer).
• ctext.org: 道德真經章句訓頌