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道德真經集義大旨

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Text ID
KR5c0112
Date
1299–1300
Dynasty
元

Dàodé zhēn jīng jí yì dà zhǐ 道德真經集義大旨

General Purport of the Anthology of Commentaries on the True Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue

by 劉惟永 (Liú Wéiyǒng), 丁易東 (Dīng Yìdōng, hào Shí tán 石潭), and others; dated 1299

The introductory apparatus to [[KR5c0113|DZ 724 Dàodé zhēn jīng jí yì]] 道德真經集義 — a major Yuán anthology of commentaries on the Dàodé jīng. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 723 / CT 723 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類) in three juàn. Contains prefaces, diagrams, colophons, and author-lists that contextualise the main anthology. Dated 1299 with additional colophons from 1300.

About the work

Isabelle Robinet’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:1531–80, DZ 723 and 724 together) gives the authoritative modern framing.

Structure

The three juàn contain:

  1. Nine pages of diagrams (at 1.1a–9a) illustrating phrases from the Lǎozǐ in terms of cosmology and Daoist inner-alchemical techniques. Examples:

    • The Spirit of the Valley (gǔ shén 谷神, Lǎozǐ 6) is described as designating the abode where the spirits of the viscera (zàng shén 藏神) are hidden.
    • The thirty spokes of the wheel (Lǎozǐ 11) correspond to the number of the viscera (1.1b).
    • The Mysterious Female (xuán pìn 玄牝, Lǎozǐ 6) denotes the left and right kidneys.
    • The diagram at 1.8b–9a is also found in DZ 688 Dàodé zhēn jīng zhí jiě (KR5c0071) preface 6b.

  2. A list of the 81 authors cited in the anthology (1.9b–12b); the number is given elsewhere as 78 (3.26a–26b). Most of the commentaries cited belong to the Sòng and Yuán dynasties. The passages from these commentaries were selected from earlier anthologies.

  3. The prefaces of the commentaries in the anthology (1.12b to end) — reproduced in full, serving as the documentary apparatus to the main anthology.

  4. Introductions also taken from the commentaries (2.1a–3.21b) — including one by Wáng Yuán zé 王元澤 (i.e., Wáng Pōu 王雱, 王雱) that is missing from DZ 706 (KR5c0093), even though DZ 706 contains the most extensive extant extracts from Wáng Pōu’s commentary. This supplementation of Wáng Pōu’s preface in DZ 723 is of considerable text-critical importance.

  5. Colophons and postfaces at 3.21b–27a dating from the end of the 13th century:

    • Yáng Kè 楊克 (1296)
    • Liú Wéiyǒng 劉惟永 (1299)
    • Sū Qǐ wēng 蘇啓翁
    • Yú Qīng zhōng 喻清中
    • Zhāng Yǔ cái 張與材, 41st Celestial Master (1300)

Collaborative composition

Liú Wéiyǒng’s 1299 postface explains that his anthology and that of Dīng Yìdōng 丁易東 were amalgamated. Dīng Yìdōng’s commentary is included in the main DZ 724 anthology under the name Shí tán 石潭 (his hào). Yú Qīng zhōng, in his postface, mentions “the new edition” of the anthology, which included his own commentary in collaboration with his master Dīng Yìdōng. The composition is therefore a genuinely multi-authored scholarly project, spanning Liú Wéiyǒng’s original collection, Dīng Yìdōng’s additions, and Yú Qīng zhōng’s co-editorial contributions.

Prefaces

DZ 723 consists largely of prefatory material. The principal paratextual documents are listed above. No single authorial preface dominates; the work’s character is editorial-compilational.

Abstract

The DZ 723 Dà zhǐ is an indispensable paratextual apparatus to the DZ 724 anthology. Its diagrams provide a distinctive cosmological-alchemical hermeneutics of the Dàodé jīng; its author-list and preface-collection are of great text-critical value; its colophons provide precise composition-dating anchors; and its preservation of Wáng Pōu’s preface supplements the otherwise-incomplete DZ 706 witness.

Dating. Liú Wéiyǒng’s postface 1299; Zhāng Yǔ cái’s 1300 colophon. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1299–1300 as the composition / compilation window. Dynasty: 元.

Translations and research

  • Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1531–80 (DZ 723 + DZ 724 entries, I. Robinet). Primary reference.
  • See KR5c0113 for the main anthology DZ 724.

Other points of interest

The prominence of Zhāng Yǔ cái 張與材 (41st Celestial Master, d. 1316) as a 1300 colophon-signer places the DZ 723 / DZ 724 compilation under the formal endorsement of the mid-Yuán Zhèng yī 正一 Daoist establishment. This is the same Celestial Master whose son 張嗣成 Zhāng Sìchéng (d. 1343) would later compose his own Dàodé jīng commentary-hymns (KR5c0085, 1322).

The cosmological-alchemical diagrams at 1.1a–9a are distinctive for the Yuán commentarial tradition — treating the Dàodé jīng as a systematic encryption of nèi dān 內丹 physiological-cosmological knowledge. The identification of the gǔ shén with the zàng shén 臟神, and of the xuán pìn with the kidneys, reflects the mature late-Sòng / early-Yuán nèi dān tradition going back to Zhāng Bóduān 張伯端 (984–1082) and his Southern Lineage (Nán zōng 南宗) successors.

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