沖虛至德真經義解

Chōng xū zhì dé zhēn jīng yì jiě 沖虛至德真經義解

Imperial Explanation of the Meaning of the True Scripture of the Void and Supreme Virtue

by 徽宗 (Sòng Huīzōng, Zhào Jí 趙佶, r. 1100–1125); composed 1118

Sòng Huīzōng’s imperial commentary on the [[KR5c0049|Chōng xū zhì dé zhēn jīng]] (the Lièzǐ) — the companion imperial commentary to his earlier Dàodé jīng imperial commentary (KR5c0063, c. 1111–1118). Composed in 1118 as part of the Zhèng hé 政和 imperial Daoist programme that produced the Zhèng hé Dàozàng (1118–19). Preserved as DZ 731 / CT 731 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類) in six juàn — but the received text is fragmentary, treating only half of the Lièzǐ.

About the work

Hans-Hermann Schmidt’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:2721–44, DZ 731) gives the authoritative modern framing.

Textual transmission

The received DZ 731 text is fragmentary:

• Sòng bibliographies list Huīzōng’s Lièzǐ commentary in 8 juàn (VDL 101).
• DZ 731 preserves only 6 juàn — the missing portion begins at what is juàn 12 of the expanded DZ 732 compilation.
• The full commentary is preserved in DZ 732 Chōng xū zhì dé zhēn jīng sì jiě 沖虛至德真經四解 (Gāo Shǒuyuán’s 1189 compilation), where Huīzōng’s commentary is included alongside three others.
• Huīzōng’s 1118 preface is preserved only in DZ 732, not in the fragmentary DZ 731.

Huīzōng’s 1118 preface (preserved in DZ 732)

In his preface, Huīzōng writes: “after having commentated the Lǎozǐ and the Zhuāngzǐ, it would be impossible not to expound the Lièzǐ” — placing the Lièzǐ commentary in the coordinated sequence of his imperial commentaries on the three classical Daoist texts. (The Zhuāngzǐ imperial commentary is preserved only in fragments; the Dàodé jīng commentary is DZ 680, KR5c0063.)

An edict commanding the Directorate of Education (Guó zǐ jiàn 國子監) to print the imperial Lièzǐ commentary and distribute it to scholars was issued in 1123 (see Tōng jiàn cháng biān jì shì běn mò 通鑑長編紀事本末 127.9b–10a).

Philosophical character

Huīzōng’s commentary does not linger over philological details but gives an elegant exegesis of the philosophical thought of the work — consistent with the aestheticising character of his other imperial commentaries. The commentary:

1. Treats the Lièzǐ as a coherent philosophical work rather than a collection of fragments.
2. Integrates Chóngxuán 重玄 and Mādhyamika-Buddhist interpretive categories with Daoist-classical reading.
3. Does not show substantial textual variants from the standard Zhāng Zhàn 張湛 recension — Huīzōng works with the received text as established in the Eastern Jìn tradition.
4. Contains interspersed information about variant readings from Zhāng Zhàn’s (fl. 370) commentary — a characteristic Sòng editorial feature.

Prefaces

• Huīzōng’s 1118 preface — preserved in DZ 732 alone.
• No authorial preface survives in DZ 731 itself.

Abstract

Huīzōng’s imperial Lièzǐ commentary is the third and last of his three commentaries on the classical Daoist classics, together with DZ 680 [[KR5c0063|Dàodé jīng yù jiě]] and the partially-preserved imperial Zhuāngzǐ commentary. The three together constitute the most ambitious imperial-Daoist commentary programme of the Northern Sòng — completed in 1118 just before Huīzōng’s 1118–19 Zhèng hé Dàozàng project and eight years before the catastrophic fall of the Northern Sòng to the Jurchen (1126).

Dating. 1118 per Huīzōng’s preface. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1118 as the composition date. 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, 2:2721–44 (DZ 731, H.-H. Schmidt). Primary reference.
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Emperor Huizong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. For the Huīzōng-era imperial Daoist project.
• See also KR5c0063 (his Dàodé jīng commentary) and KR5c0064 (Zhāng Ān’s subcommentary).

Other points of interest

Huīzōng’s three-part imperial Daoist commentary programme — Dàodé jīng (c. 1111–1118) + Zhuāngzǐ (now fragmentary) + Lièzǐ (1118) — was the most ambitious imperial engagement with the classical Daoist corpus since Táng Xuánzōng’s (742–756) coordinated canonisation and commentary of the four Daoist classics. The 1118 completion of the Lièzǐ commentary places it at the culmination of this programme, immediately before the imperial Daoist project passed its peak and began its rapid decline with the Jurchen invasions.

The commentary’s preservation of its 1118 preface only in DZ 732 is a characteristic instance of the vicissitudes of Sòng textual transmission: the original imperial-printing edition of DZ 731 apparently lost its preface in transmission, but Gāo Shǒuyuán’s 1189 composite compilation preserved the preface alongside the fuller commentary.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0122
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:2721–44 — DZ 731 entry (H.-H. Schmidt).
• Parent text: KR5c0049 Chōng xū zhì dé zhēn jīng.
• Companion imperial commentary: KR5c0063 Dàodé jīng yù jiě.
• ctext.org: 沖虛至德真經義解