Dàodé zhēn jīng yǎn yì shǒu chāo 道德真經衍義手鈔
Elaborations on the Purport of the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue, Copied by Hand
by 王守正 (Wáng Shǒuzhèng, hào Wǔ fēng Qīng ān yì shì 五峰清菴逸士 “Pure and Quiet Recluse from the Five Peaks”), with chāo 鈔 additions by one of his disciples; early Yuán (late 13th century)
An early-Yuán commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) in originally 20 juàn, jointly authored by the Daoist master Wáng Shǒuzhèng 王守正 and one of his disciples. The surviving DZ 717 / CT 717 text (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類) preserves 18 juàn — the first two juàn are lost, corresponding to the first eight chapters of the Dàodé jīng with their commentaries.
About the work
Jan A. M. De Meyer’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:1728–60, DZ 717) gives the authoritative modern framing.
Two-tier structure
The work has a distinctive two-part structure in each chapter:
- Yǎn yì 衍義 (“Elaborations on the Purport”) — the main commentary, ascribed to Wáng Shǒuzhèng. Offers elucidations of the Dàodé jīng text.
- Chāo 鈔 (“Copy / Transcript”) — an explanatory paragraph headed by the character chāo, following each yǎn yì paragraph. These chāo sections are ascribed to a disciple of Wáng Shǒuzhèng and were, according to Wáng Yún’s 王惲 preface, later additions to Wáng Shǒuzhèng’s original Lǎozǐ yǎn yì.
The title “Shǒu chāo” 手鈔 (“Hand-copied”) on the received text may therefore refer to the disciple’s transcription-with-additions rather than to Wáng Shǒuzhèng’s original work.
Sources
The sources quoted in the two tiers differ substantially:
- Yǎn yì sources (Wáng Shǒuzhèng): primarily the Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 and the Yì jīng 易經. A focused, Daoist-classical interpretive apparatus.
- Chāo sources (the disciple): a wide variety including all of the Confucian classics, philosophical works (Hán Fēi zǐ 韓非子, Yáng Xióng’s 揚雄 Fǎ yán 法言), historical works (Shǐ jì 史記), and more recent commentaries including Dù Guāngtíng’s 杜光庭 DZ 725 Dàodé zhēn jīng guǎng shèng yì 道德真經廣聖義.
The chāo sections are mostly considerably longer than the yǎn yì sections they follow, giving the received text an asymmetric structure — the master’s concise commentary accompanied by the disciple’s more extensive scholarly apparatus.
Author identification
The author Wáng Shǒuzhèng is identified by Wáng Yún 王惲 (d. 1304) in his preface “Lǎozǐ yǎn yì xù” 老子衍義序 (preserved in Wáng Yún’s Qiū jiàn xiān shēng dà quán wén jí 秋澗先生大全文集 42.11b–12a, not included in the received DZ 717 text). Wáng Yún’s 1292 preface narrates his meeting in the capital (Dà dū 大都, modern Beijing) with an old Daoist master from the Chóng yáng gōng 重陽宮 — one of the leading Quán zhēn 全真 temples in modern Shǎnxī. The master was named Wáng, was a native of Shǔ 蜀 (Sìchuān), and was “obviously the real author of the present work”.
Wáng Shǒuzhèng is thus identified as a Quán zhēn Daoist master from Shǔ, active in the late 13th century, connected with the Chóng yáng gōng (the principal Quán zhēn establishment in the Mongol-Yuán period).
Prefaces
No preface survives in the received DZ 717 text (the first two juàn including any preface being lost).
The Wáng Yún preface (1292) from the Qiū jiàn xiān shēng dà quán wén jí 42.11b–12a is an important external document identifying the author and confirming the text’s composition-context.
Abstract
The text is a valuable early-Yuán Quán zhēn Daoist reading of the Dàodé jīng. Its two-tier structure — master’s commentary + disciple’s expanded apparatus — reflects the pedagogical tradition of Quán zhēn monastic teaching, in which lay and clerical students worked through the classical texts under a master’s oral guidance.
Historical context. The 1292 date of Wáng Yún’s preface places Wáng Shǒuzhèng’s activity in the late 13th century — after the Mongol conquest of the Southern Sòng (1279) and during the consolidation of Mongol-Yuán religious patronage. The Quán zhēn lineage had flourished under Mongol favour from Qiū Chǔjī’s 丘處機 celebrated 1222 audience with Genghis Khan onwards, and Wáng Shǒuzhèng belongs to the third or fourth generation of this mature Quán zhēn tradition.
Dating. Active late 13th century; Wáng Yún’s preface 1292. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1279–1304 as a conservative composition window (from the early Yuán through Wáng Yún’s death). Dynasty: 元.
Transmission. The text is uniquely preserved in the Daozang — no independent witness survives.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1728–60 (DZ 717, J. De Meyer). Primary reference.
- Wáng Yún 王惲. Qiū jiàn xiān shēng dà quán wén jí 秋澗先生大全文集 42.11b–12a (“Lǎozǐ yǎn yì xù”). Preface to the work, crucial for author-identification.
- Boltz, Judith Magee. A Survey of Taoist Literature, Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1987. For the Quán zhēn Yuán-era context.
Other points of interest
Wáng Shǒuzhèng’s hào Wǔ fēng Qīng ān yì shì 五峰清菴逸士 (“Pure and Quiet Recluse from the Five Peaks”) is evocative of the Quán zhēn emphasis on retreat, solitude, and purification. The “Five Peaks” is the traditional Daoist wǔ yuè 五嶽 (Five Great Mountains of China) or a local five-peaked formation at his Shǔ residence.
The Chóng yáng gōng 重陽宮 in Shǎnxī (at Hù xiàn 戶縣, near Xī’ān) is one of the most important Quán zhēn monasteries — the burial place of the tradition’s founder Wáng Chóngyáng 王重陽 (1113–1170), and a major pilgrimage site. Wáng Shǒuzhèng’s association with the Chóng yáng gōng places him firmly in the mainstream Quán zhēn lineage.
The Wáng Yún 王惲 (d. 1304) whose preface identifies Wáng Shǒuzhèng was a major Mongol-Yuán scholar-official and a close collaborator of the Quán zhēn patriarch Qí Zhìchéng 祁志誠 (1219–1293). Wáng Yún’s 42-juàn collected works Qiū jiàn xiān shēng dà quán wén jí is an important source for Mongol-Yuán religious-intellectual history.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0106
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:1728–60 — DZ 717 entry (J. De Meyer).
- ctext.org: 道德真經衍義手鈔