道德玄經原旨

Dào dé xuán jīng yuán zhǐ 道德玄經原旨

The Original Meaning of the Mysterious Scripture of the Way and Virtue

by 杜道堅 (Dù Dàojiān; zì Chǔyī 處逸, hào Nán gǔ zǐ 南谷子; 1237–1318) — late-Sòng / early-Yuán Daoist master, abbot of several major Zhèng yī monasteries; dated 1305

A Yuán-dynasty commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) in four juàn, by Dù Dàojiān 杜道堅 (1237–1318) — a prominent late-Sòng / early-Yuán Daoist master. Dated 1305 (the first two prefaces are so dated). Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 702 / CT 702 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). Complemented by DZ 703 Xuán jīng yuán zhǐ fā huī 玄經原旨發揮 (1306), a 2-juàn follow-up in twelve sections, by the same author.

About the work

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:1767–69, DZ 702) gives the authoritative modern framing.

Philosophical character — Dàodé jīng × Yì jīng

The commentary’s distinctive feature is its sustained comparison of the Dàodé jīng with the Yì jīng 易經:

• The Spirit of the Valley (gǔ shén 谷神) of Lǎozǐ 6 is identified with the Tài jí 太極 of the Yì.
• The Lǎozǐ is explained through the categories of yǒu 有 and wú 無 (existence and non-existence); the Yì through the categories of mobility and quiescence (dòng 動, jìng 靜).
• The antithesis wúyǒu in the Dàodé jīng is illustrated in the Yì by the Tài jí 太極 giving birth to the Two Principles (liǎng yí 兩儀).

Entry into the wú jí / tài jí controversy

A notable philosophical position: Dù Dàojiān argues that the term wú jí 無極 (which Zhōu Dūnyí 周敦頤 1017–1073 had associated with the tài jí in the Tài jí tú shuō 太極圖說) does not mean “that which has no pole” but instead designates the Supreme Void (tài xū 太虛) that precedes the Tài jí. This was a controverted position in SòngYuán philosophy: Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200) had famously defended the Zhōu Dūnyí reading against contemporary Daoist-influenced critics. Dù Dàojiān’s position here joins the ranks of Daoist scholars disagreeing with Zhū Xī and aligning instead with the older Daoist cosmological tradition represented by Shào Yōng 邵雍 (1011–1077).

Punctuation

Dù Dàojiān punctuates the opening of Lǎozǐ chapter 1 after wú and yǒu — following Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 (KR5c0072). He interprets:

• Absolute wú = xiān tiān 先天 (“prior to Heaven”, the pre-cosmic condition)
• Absolute yǒu = hòu tiān 後天 (“posterior to Heaven”, the world of phenomena)

Alchemical-Daoist vocabulary

Dù Dàojiān supports the nèi dān 內丹 alchemical theory that xìng 性 (intrinsic nature) and mìng 命 (physical-life pole) are complementary and must be cultivated together — the classical Zhāng Bóduān 張伯端 shuāng xiū 雙修 (“dual cultivation”) doctrine of the Southern Lineage.

Heart-mind as Dào

Following a tradition going back to the Chóngxuán 重玄 school, Dù Dàojiān equates the heart-mind (xīn 心) with the Dào in humanity: the heart-mind is “the root, the pivot of the Way that existed before Heaven and Earth; to be resonant, it must be totally empty, like the valley” (echoing Lǎozǐ 6’s gǔ shén imagery).

Political teaching — addressed to the jūn zǐ

The teachings of the Dàodé jīng, in Dù Dàojiān’s reading, are addressed to the superior man (jūn zǐ 君子). The commentary gives special importance to the “way of the August Ones” (Sān huáng 三皇) and to the power of emperors. Dù Dàojiān borrows the Huáng jí jīng shì 皇極經世 classification of Shào Yōng 邵雍 — the Three August Ones, the Five Emperors, the Kings, and the Hegemons — and uses this scheme to organise the political-historical content of the commentary. He repeatedly invokes the exemplary conduct of Confucian culture-heroes — Yáo, Shùn, Great Yǔ — advocating government by wú wéi 無為 (non-action).

Dù Dàojiān also adopts the equally Daoist and Confucian precept according to which governing one’s own body is on a par with government of the family and of the country — the classical Dà xué 大學 xiū qí zhì píng formula in a Daoist-alchemical reading.

Prefaces

The commentary is introduced by several prefaces, each signed by scholars of the same period. The first two prefaces are dated 1305 — providing the composition-date anchor.

Abstract

The commentary is a significant document of early-Yuán Daoist philosophical synthesis. Its distinctive positions:

1. The systematic integration of Dàodé jīng cosmology with Yì jīng cosmology via the wúyǒu / dòngjìng pairs.
2. The Daoist defence of the wú jí = tài xū identification against the Zhū Xī orthodoxy.
3. The xìngmìng shuāng xiū alchemical framing of personal cultivation.
4. The use of Shào Yōng’s Huáng jí jīng shì historical-political classification.
5. The pragmatic xiū qí zhì píng political-cultivation synthesis.

Together these position Dù Dàojiān as a late-Sòng / early-Yuán advocate of an integrated Daoist-Neo-Confucian synthesis, with a characteristic preference for the Shào Yōng–Zhōu Dūnyí line against the Zhū Xī orthodoxy.

Dating. Preface dated 1305. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1305 as the composition year. Dynasty: 元.

Complementary work. DZ 703 Xuán jīng yuán zhǐ fā huī 玄經原旨發揮 (1306, 2 juàn) is a complement to the present work — “as the title implies” (Robinet). It extends the interpretive framework in twelve thematic sections, using categories and computations drawn from Shào Yōng’s Huáng jí jīng shì to recast the Dàodé jīng material in schematic-cosmological form.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1767–69 (DZ 702) and 2:1826–27 (DZ 703), both I. Robinet.
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Peter N. Gregory, eds. Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
• Boltz, Judith Magee. A Survey of Taoist Literature, Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1987.
• Pregadio, Fabrizio, ed. The Encyclopedia of Taoism. London: Routledge, 2008, 1:427–28 (article on Dù Dàojiān).

Other points of interest

Dù Dàojiān’s biographical profile is of some interest. A native of Dāng tú 當塗 in Ān huī 安徽, he entered the Daoist order at age fourteen and became abbot of several monasteries — notably the Shèng yuán guān 聖元觀 at Hú zhōu 湖州 (an important Southern-Sòng Zhèng yī centre). He flourished during the SòngYuán transition period (1279 onwards) and enjoyed significant Mongol-Yuán court patronage. His Daoist lineage positioned him in the late Southern-Sòng Zhèng yī tradition, but his continuing scholarly activity under the Yuán places him among the important transitional figures bridging the SòngYuán religious-intellectual worlds.

The engagement with Shào Yōng’s Huáng jí jīng shì — a late-Northern-Sòng numerological-cosmological system — is characteristic of early-Yuán Daoist intellectual culture. Other Yuán Daoist commentators (KR5c0070 Dèng Qí, KR5c0086 Lǐ Dàochún) similarly integrated Shào Yōng’s framework into their Daoist exegesis, making this an important Northern-Sòng-to-Yuán intellectual bridge.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0089
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:1767–69 — DZ 702 entry (I. Robinet).
• ctext.org: 道德玄經原旨