墉城集仙錄

Yōng chéng jí xiān lù 墉城集仙錄

Collected Records of Immortals of the Walled City

by 杜光庭 (Dù Guāngtíng, 850–933)

A major late-Táng / Five-Dynasties hagiographic compilation of female Daoist immortals by 杜光庭 Dù Guāngtíng. Originally in 10 juàn; preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 783 / CT 783 (Dòngshén bù, Pǔ lù lèi 洞神部譜錄類) in 7 juàn (partially incomplete).

About the work

Distinctive character

The Yōng chéng jí xiān lù is one of the most important pre-modern Chinese hagiographies of women Daoist immortals — a relatively rare genre in the Chinese hagiographic corpus. The title Yōng chéng 墉城 (“Walled City”) refers to the paradise-palace of Xī Wáng Mǔ 西王母 (Queen Mother of the West) in Daoist mythology — thus the “Walled City of Immortals” is where female immortals gather.

Contents

The compilation gathers biographies / hagiographies of:

1. Xī Wáng Mǔ 西王母 — the Queen Mother of the West, supreme female Daoist deity.
2. Her celestial maidens-in-waiting and attendants.
3. Historical female Daoists from the classical past through the late Táng.
4. Major female immortals of the Daoist hagiographic tradition.

Author

杜光庭 Dù Guāngtíng (850–933) — see KR5c0114 for his major Dàodé jīng commentary and 杜光庭 for his biography. The Yōng chéng jí xiān lù is one of his most important hagiographic works, alongside Xiān zhuàn shí yí 仙傳拾遺 (a general hagiographic supplement).

Abstract

A major source for the study of women in classical Chinese religion and one of the foundational documents of the Chinese female-immortal hagiographic tradition.

Dating. Within Dù Guāngtíng’s mature period (900–933). Dynasty: 唐-五代.

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 783 entry.
• Cahill, Suzanne E. Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.
• Cahill, Suzanne E. Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood: Records of the Assembled Transcendents of the Fortified Walled City. Magdalena: Three Pines Press, 2006. Annotated English translation.
• Verellen, Franciscus. Du Guangting (850–933). Paris: Collège de France, 1989.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0180
• Author: 杜光庭.
• Cahill, Divine Traces (2006) — English translation.
• ctext.org: 墉城集仙錄