道德真經解

Dàodé zhēn jīng jiě 道德真經解

Explication of the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue

Anonymous (Southern Sòng, 1127–1279)

A Southern-Sòng anonymous commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) in three juàn, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 700 / CT 700 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). The catalog title “(二)” is a Kanseki disambiguation marker distinguishing this text from other works titled Dàodé zhēn jīng jiě (notably KR5c0066 of Chén Xiàng gǔ, marked “(一)”).

About the work

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:1020–21, DZ 700) gives the authoritative modern framing. Key features:

• The date is unknown — the commentary is anonymous, with no preface, colophon, or textual indication giving a firm date. The placement in Southern Sòng is a reasoned guess based on internal vocabulary and editorial style.
• The third (final) juàn is borrowed entirely from DZ 696 Dàodé zhēn jīng quán jiě (KR5c0081) — specifically, juàn 2 of DZ 696 is reproduced as juàn 3 of DZ 700. This editorial dependence confirms that DZ 700 postdates DZ 696 (preface 1159), and is therefore at earliest mid-12th-century.
• The original final part of the present commentary is missing (Robinet) — DZ 700 is incomplete.

The surviving original portion (juàn 1–2) is the anonymous Southern-Sòng commentary proper; the supplementary juàn 3 is Shī Yōng’s edition (KR5c0081).

Prefaces

The commentary opens with an anonymous preface that frames the text’s composition in terms of the needs of the contemporary era:

“The sage stores his spirit in silence; the Way is in the dark and dim. Flowing through the six voids, none can know its workings; responding to the myriad changes, who dares peer at its traces? — one going, one coming, it empties itself from Origin; one making, one transforming, it cultivates itself in Truth. How, then, would it have words to be loquacious? The sage, silent, thinks of it. But the common sentiment is utterly foolish — one must draw it on, and then it moves; the common nature is utterly benighted — one must teach it, and then it awakens. This is why there are words set down on strips and volumes, hanging for the imperishable ages, serving as the constant good’s rescue. As a thousand years pass, the Way becomes ever more distant; the sage’s intent grows obscured; those of the middling cannot take the supreme truth; those of dull capacity cannot attain it. Yet more, our Lǎo Jūn’s book — its words are clear but its principle is distant, its text is near but its purport is hidden. If one does not interpret and explain, the multitude will see it as distant as the sky and cannot illuminate it as with vermilion and blue dye. Hence, taking the opportunity of walking-transformation and of arriving at the dust-world, I have not shirked to draw the brush and set forth the great meanings — with the hope only of pointing the way.”

The preface’s signature-less closing and the “walking-transformation” (xíng huà 行化, a Daoist idiom) conclusion suggest a Daoist author. But no identification is possible.

Abstract

The commentary is of interest primarily as a witness to anonymous Southern-Sòng Daoist commentarial activity — alongside Chén Xiàng gǔ (KR5c0066, 1101), Shào Ruòyú (KR5c0071, 1159), and various other identified commentators. Its editorial incorporation of DZ 696’s juàn 2 as its own juàn 3 testifies to a Southern-Sòng culture of editorial compilation and composite-text assembly, and confirms the Southern-Sòng Daoist commentarial tradition’s continuity with the Jīn-transmitted textual material from the Bó community.

Dating. Southern Sòng (1127–1279). Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1127–1279 as the conservative composition window. Dynasty: 南宋.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1020–21 (DZ 700, I. Robinet). Primary reference.

Other points of interest

The editorial borrowing of DZ 696’s juàn 2 is an interesting instance of the flexible textuality of SòngYuán Daoist commentary. Scholars and editors of the period treated textual boundaries with considerable flexibility, incorporating earlier material into later compilations as a normal editorial practice. The result is a composite DZ 700 in which two distinct commentarial voices are juxtaposed — the anonymous Southern-Sòng author (juàn 1–2) and Shī Yōng’s received text (juàn 3).

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0087
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:1020–21 — DZ 700 entry (I. Robinet).
• ctext.org: 道德真經解