南華邈

Nán huá miǎo 南華邈

Profundities of the Zhuāngzǐ

Anonymous; possibly by Wén Rú hǎi 文如海 (Táng, 8th century) or by 賈善翔 Jiǎ Shànxiáng (Northern Sòng)

A short fragmentary work on chapter-title explanations for the Zhuāngzǐ, originally appended to Jiǎ Shànxiáng’s [[KR5c0132|DZ 739 Zhí yīn]]. Preserved as DZ 740 / CT 740 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類) in 3 folios only. The text is fragmentary, preserving explanations for only six chapter-titles of the 33-chapter Zhuāngzǐ.

About the work

Jan A. M. De Meyer’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:2321–60, DZ 740) gives the authoritative modern framing.

Title-origin

The title Nán huá miǎo 南華邈 (literally “Southern-Florescence Profundities”) first occurs in small characters beneath the title of DZ 739 (KR5c0132 Zhí yīn) — to which it is appended in the received manuscript tradition. This attachment to DZ 739 explains the Daozang editors’ tendency to attribute DZ 740 to Jiǎ Shànxiáng.

Authorship problem

The attribution is unclear:

1. The Dàozàng mù lù xiáng zhù 道藏目錄詳註 (3.20a) attributes the work to Jiǎ Shànxiáng 賈善翔 — the author of DZ 739.
2. But DZ 740 itself has no preface or colophon, and does not allow such a conclusion on internal evidence.
3. The Sòng shǐ 宋史 bibliographic chapters (205.5180) mention a Zhuāngzǐ miǎo 莊子邈 with Wén Rú hǎi 文如海 as the author. Wén Rú hǎi lived in the 8th century (Táng) and also authored a Zhuāngzǐ zhèng yì 莊子正義 in 10 juàn.
4. Whether Wén Rú hǎi’s Zhuāngzǐ miǎo is related to the present Nán huá miǎo is impossible to ascertain.

Surviving contents

The work is fragmentary. What remains are explanations of the following chapter-titles of the Zhuāngzǐ (in 外篇 and 雜篇):

1. Tiān dì 天地 (Heaven and Earth)
2. Tiān dào 天道 (Way of Heaven)
3. Tiān yùn 天運 (Turning of Heaven)
4. Kè yì 刻意 (Ingrained Ideas) — incomplete
5. Shuō jiàn 說劍 (Discoursing on Swords)
6. Yú fù 漁父 (The Old Fisherman)

For the Liè Yùkòu 列御寇 chapter, only the chapter-title itself is preserved — the explanation is lost.

Sample content (Tiān dì 天地 section)

“‘Heaven is exalted and Earth is humble’ — qián and kūn determine their positions. Ruler above and minister below — noble and base hold their graded classes. Heaven and Earth transform uniformly through non-mind; ruler and minister are as limbs of a single body. Therefore, able to smelt and mould the ten thousand kinds, to nourish the black-haired people, to seat the hearts of the nine regions and to give the myriad-directions cause for rejoicing. The old peasant does not know of the emperor’s power; beating the earth, how does he recognise the year of Yáo? [The Zhuāngzǐ] transforms the wearing customs of a decadent wind, and returns [us] to unadorned purity of high antiquity — this is why [the chapter] unites with the purport of Heaven and Earth.”

The style is elegant and philosophically substantive — evidence of a competent scholar-commentator.

Abstract

The Nán huá miǎo is a minor but scholarly-valuable fragment of chapter-title explanation for the Zhuāngzǐ. Its partial overlap with the work attributed to Wén Rú hǎi 文如海 (Táng) creates uncertainty about its precise date and authorship. The fragment’s quality suggests it was originally a more extensive scholarly work that has been heavily abridged or damaged in transmission.

Dating. Uncertain. Per the Wén Rú hǎi hypothesis, possibly Táng (8th century); per the Jiǎ Shànxiáng hypothesis, Northern Sòng (11th century). The frontmatter gives a broad 700–1200 window covering both possibilities. Dynasty: 唐-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, 2:2321–60 (DZ 740, J. De Meyer). Primary reference.
• Sòng shǐ 宋史 205.5180. On Wén Rú hǎi.
• Dàozàng mù lù xiáng zhù 道藏目錄詳註 3.20a. On the Jiǎ Shànxiáng attribution.

Other points of interest

The fragmentary survival of the Nán huá miǎo — preserving only six chapter-explanations out of 33 — reflects typical medieval textual transmission difficulties. The work’s appended position to DZ 739 (Jiǎ Shànxiáng’s Zhí yīn) presumably preserved it from complete loss, but most of its content has perished.

The Wén Rú hǎi 文如海 attribution — if correct — would make DZ 740 a Táng-era text, among the earliest surviving chapter-title commentaries on the Zhuāngzǐ. The Táng attribution is historically-textually interesting but unverifiable.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0133
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:2321–60 — DZ 740 entry (J. De Meyer).
• Parent text: KR5c0051 Nán huá zhēn jīng.
• Appended to: KR5c0132 Zhí yīn.
• ctext.org: 南華邈