Dàodé zhēn jīng jí zhù zá shuō 道德真經集註雜說
Various Observations Supplementing the Collected Commentaries on the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue
by 彭耜 (Péng Sì, hào Hè lín zhēn yì 鶴林真逸); composed 1229 as the third companion to KR5c0095 (DZ 707)
A miscellaneous supplement (2 juàn) to Péng Sì’s [[KR5c0095|DZ 707 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí zhù]] and [[KR5c0096|DZ 708 Shì wén]], preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 709 / CT 709 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類), and in the Qīng Dàozàng jíyào as JY051. Together with DZ 707 and DZ 708, it forms the tripartite scholarly apparatus of Péng Sì’s 1229 comprehensive Lǎozǐ scholarship.
About the work
Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:1181–82, DZ 709) gives the authoritative modern framing. The Zá shuō (“Various Observations”) offers:
Citations and historical usage
Reports of instances where the Lǎozǐ was quoted — often by emperors, going back as far as the Hàn. Péng Sì traces the political-imperial reception of the scripture through a wide range of official sources, providing a historical record of how the Dàodé jīng was cited, invoked, and applied in governance discourse across centuries.
Bibliographical information
Provides information about certain commentaries or anthologies of commentaries, with occasional direct quotations from them. This section is especially valuable for:
- Bibliographic reconstruction: The Zá shuō preserves titles and attributions for commentaries whose works are now lost.
- A notable reference at 1.2a–3a: Péng Sì mentions a lost catalogue of the Daozang that described the contents of the anthology by Zhāng Dàoxiāng 張道相 (also known as Zhāng Jūn xiāng 張君相, 1254–1322) — a work now no longer extant. This adds a fragment to the textual history of Zhāng’s contested work. (The Wài zhuàn to KR5c0062 DZ 679 mentions that Zhāng Dàoxiāng collected 29 commentaries plus his own 30th.)
Source-citation convention
Péng Sì nearly always indicates his sources: official dynastic histories, local gazetteers, literary works, and commentaries. This source-citation discipline anticipates later Qīng kǎo jù 考據 bibliographical rigour.
Abstract
The Zá shuō is a miscellany rather than a systematic work — but its historical and bibliographic value is considerable. For the history of Lǎozǐ commentary, DZ 709 is one of the most valuable single documents of pre-Míng scholarly reception — preserving fragments, attributions, and context-notes that would otherwise be lost.
Dating. Contemporary with DZ 707 and DZ 708, so 1229. Dynasty: 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, 2:1181–82 (DZ 709 entry, I. Robinet). Primary reference.
- See also KR5c0095 and KR5c0096 for the parent and companion works.
Other points of interest
The Zá shuō’s mention at 1.2a–3a of the lost Daozang catalogue describing Zhāng Dàoxiāng / Zhāng Jūnxiāng’s anthology is particularly significant. Zhāng Jūnxiāng was the Yuán-era Daoist scholar (a personal name occasionally confused with Zhāng Dàoxiāng of the post-Tiān bǎo Táng era; see the discussion at KR5c0076). Péng Sì’s 1229 reference confirms that a comprehensive Sòng Daozang catalogue was available before the Mongol disruption — a fact of some importance for the reconstruction of pre-Mongol Daoist bibliography.
The convention of tripartite scholarly apparatus (main text + philology + miscellany) that Péng Sì pioneered for the Dàodé jīng was influential on later compilers, both Daoist and Confucian. A roughly parallel tripartite organisation can be seen in Zhū Xī’s 朱熹 Sì shū zhāng jù jí zhù + Huò wèn + Jí yì, and in various YuánMíng scholarly compilations.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0097
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:1181–82 — DZ 709 entry (I. Robinet).
- Parent work: KR5c0095; companion: KR5c0096.
- ctext.org: 道德真經集註雜說