太上老君說常清靜經註 (白玉蟾/王元暉)

Tài shàng Lǎo jūn shuō cháng qīng jìng jīng zhù 太上老君說常清靜經註 (Bái Yùchán / Wáng Yuánhuī)

Commentary on the Scripture Spoken by the Most High Lord Lǎo on Constant Clarity and Stillness — attributed to Bái Yùchán with Wáng Yuánhuī’s commentary

compiled by 葛長庚 (Gě Chángēng, i.e. Bái Yùchán 白玉蟾, d. 1229); commentary by 王元暉 (Wáng Yuánhuī); dated 1312

A third Daozang commentary on the Cháng qīng jìng jīng 常清靜經 (DZ 620), catalogued with the Bái Yùchán attribution but more accurately the work of Wáng Yuánhuī 王元暉 (1312). Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 757 / CT 757 (Dòngshén bù, Yù jué lèi 洞神部玉訣類). Catalog disambiguator “(三)” distinguishes from KR5c0151 (Lǐ Dàochún’s) and KR5c0152 (anonymous).

About the work

Attribution

The catalog lists Bái Yùchán 白玉蟾 (葛長庚, d. 1229) as compiler and Wáng Yuánhuī 王元暉 as commentator. The 1312 date (post-dating Bái Yùchán’s death by 83 years) makes the Bái Yùchán attribution pseudepigraphic — Bái Yùchán’s name has been attached to the compilation in the Southern Lineage (Nán zōng 南宗) nèi dān tradition’s practice of attributing new commentary to revered patriarchs. The substantive commentary is Wáng Yuánhuī’s (1312).

Wáng Yuánhuī

Wáng Yuánhuī 王元暉 is otherwise little-documented. His 1312 commentary represents a mature Yuán Southern-Lineage nèi dān reading of the Lǎojūn meditation-scripture.

Philosophical character

The commentary:

1. Places the Cháng qīng jìng jīng in the Southern-Lineage nèi dān framework — drawing heavily on Zhāng Bóduān’s 張伯端 alchemical vocabulary.
2. Integrates Chán Buddhist terminology with Daoist-alchemical reading.
3. Provides practical meditative instructions alongside scholarly-philosophical exposition.

Abstract

The commentary is a minor but characteristic Yuán Southern-Lineage nèi dān reading of the Lǎojūn meditation-scripture. Its pseudo-Bái Yùchán attribution reflects the Southern Lineage’s practice of invoking patriarchal authority.

Dating. 1312 per the Wáng Yuánhuī authorial date. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1300–1312 as a conservative 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, DZ 757 entry.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0153
• Parent scripture: DZ 620.
• Parallel commentaries: KR5c0151, KR5c0152.
• ctext.org: 太上老君說常清靜經註 (王元暉)