道德真經註 (李榮)

Dàodé zhēn jīng zhù 道德真經註 (Lǐ Róng)

Commentary on the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue

by 李榮 (Lǐ Róng, hào Rén zhēn zǐ 任真子); active second half of 7th century (Táng Gāozōng / Wǔ Zétiān eras)

The foundational mid-Táng Chóngxuán 重玄 commentary on the Dàodé jīng ([[KR5c0045|Dàodé zhēn jīng]]) by the famous Daoist master Lǐ Róng 李榮, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 722 / CT 722 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). The received text is incomplete, ending at Lǎozǐ chapter 36 (i.e. preserving only the Dào piān 道篇). Missing portions can be recovered through citations in DZ 711 Dàodé zhēn jīng xuán dé zuǎn shū (KR5c0099).

About the work

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:290–91, DZ 722) gives the authoritative modern framing.

Position in the Chóngxuán 重玄 tradition

The commentary is a foundational document of the Double Mystery (Chóngxuán 重玄) school — the Tang Daoist philosophical tradition deeply influenced by Mādhyamika Buddhism. Lǐ Róng’s commentary stands alongside Chéng Xuányīng’s 成玄英 commentaries on the Zhuāngzǐ and the Lǎozǐ (cf. DZ 745 Nán huá zhēn jīng zhù shū 南華真經注疏) as the authoritative expressions of the mature Chóngxuán metaphysics.

Chóngxuán doctrine in the commentary

Lǐ Róng articulates the classical Chóngxuán position:

• The Dao of the Centre (zhōng dào 中道) is neither yǒu 有 (being) nor wú 無 (non-being) (1.9b).
• Yet yǒu and wú are not simply rejected — they are merged into one (2.11a).
• The Dao is neither one nor triple, but one and triple (2.10a) — the classical fēi yī fēi sān, yī ér sān 非一非三，一而三 formulation.
• It is “mystery upon mystery, rejection upon rejection” (xuán zhī yòu xuán, qì zhī yòu qì 玄之又玄，棄之又棄; 2.10b; cf. 1.4b) — the hermeneutic double-negation that gave the school its name.
• It consists of “non-attachment to either of the two components” (4.3a) — that is, to either of the two opposing elements (wú and yǒu, unity and multiplicity, being and non-being), and even to non-attachment itself.

Soteriological programme

As Robinet summarises the Chóngxuán process: the mystical search proceeds through the dialectical process (of negation) and then the conjunction of opposites where all thought is banished. The end-state is jiān wàng 兼忘 (“total forgetfulness”, also called liǎng wàng 兩忘 “double forgetfulness”) — the Buddhist-derived soteriological concept of absolute interior silence.

Transmission

The commentary is incomplete: the received DZ 722 ends at chapter 36 — i.e., the Dào piān 道篇 portion only. The missing Dé piān 德篇 (chapters 38–81) can be partially recovered from:

• DZ 711 Dàodé zhēn jīng xuán dé zuǎn shū 道德真經玄德纂疏 (KR5c0099) — Qiáng Sīqí’s late-Táng / Five-Dynasties compendium, which preserves substantial portions of Lǐ Róng’s Dé piān commentary.
• Scattered quotations in other Daozang anthologies.

Prefaces

No preface survives in the received DZ 722 text.

Abstract

The commentary is one of the most philosophically influential Táng Daoist readings of the Dàodé jīng. Its Chóngxuán formulations — “neither being nor non-being”, “mystery upon mystery”, “total forgetfulness” — established a hermeneutical vocabulary that dominated subsequent Lǎozǐ interpretation through the SòngYuánMíng periods. Lǐ Róng’s synthesis of Daoist-cosmological reading with Mādhyamika-Buddhist dialectic is one of the foundational achievements of medieval Chinese philosophy.

Dating. Active second half of the 7th century — under Táng Gāozōng 高宗 (r. 649–683) and Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 (r. 684–705). Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 650–700 as the composition window. Dynasty: 唐.

Author. Lǐ Róng 李榮 (hào Rén zhēn zǐ 任真子) — “a famous Taoist monk originally from Sìchuān who lived in the second half of the seventh century”. Played a prominent role in the Buddhist-Daoist controversies of the Táng court. Author of other works on the Zhuāngzǐ (now lost) and on the Xī shēng jīng 西昇經 (partially preserved in DZ 726 Xī shēng jīng jí zhù 西昇經集註).

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:290–91 (DZ 722, I. Robinet). Primary reference.
• Robinet, Isabelle. Les commentaires du Tao tö king jusqu’au VIIe siècle. Paris: Collège de France, 1977. Foundational study of the Chóngxuán tradition including Lǐ Róng.
• Barrett, T. H. Taoism Under the T’ang. London: Wellsweep, 1996. For Lǐ Róng’s court role.
• Kohn, Livia. Laughing at the Tao: Debates Among Buddhists and Taoists in Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. For the mid-Táng Daoist-Buddhist polemics in which Lǐ Róng was prominent.
• Assandri, Friederike. Beyond the Daodejing: Twofold Mystery in Tang Daoism. Magdalena: Three Pines Press, 2009. The definitive modern English-language monograph on the Chóngxuán school including Lǐ Róng.

Other points of interest

Lǐ Róng’s role in the Buddhist-Daoist controversies of the mid-Táng court is well-documented. He was a leading Daoist disputant in several formal Buddhist-Daoist debates held before Emperors Gāozōng and Wǔ Zétiān — debates that were both religious-philosophical exchanges and political-ideological contests. His prestige at court both secured his doctrinal influence and exposed him to the polemical pressures of the tradition he was defending.

The incompleteness of DZ 722 — ending at chapter 36 — is typical of the early transmission difficulties of Táng commentary. Many early Táng Daoist works survive only fragmentarily through the Sòng and Yuán periods; DZ 722 represents the best extant witness to Lǐ Róng’s Lǎozǐ thought, supplemented by the Qiáng Sīqí anthology DZ 711.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0111
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:290–91 — DZ 722 entry (I. Robinet).
• ctext.org: 道德真經註 (李榮)