Nán huá zhēn jīng zhù shū 南華真經註疏
Annotations and Sub-commentary on the Perfected Scripture of Southern Florescence
by 程以甯 (Chéng Yǐníng, hào 復圭子 Fùguīzǐ, fl. c. 1670–1720); preface by 鄒忠允 (Zōu Zhōngyǔn) of 晉陵 (Chángzhōu)
A five-juàn early-Qīng commentary on the Zhuāng zǐ (= Nán huá zhēn jīng 南華真經, KR5c0051) by Chéng Yǐníng — the same exegete responsible for KR5i0006 Tài shàng dào dé bǎo zhāng yì — completing his programme of paired LǎoZhuāng exegesis (the Dào dé jīng via Bái Yùchán, the Zhuāng zǐ on his own). The work’s distinctive interpretive thesis, articulated in Chéng’s self-preface and confirmed in Zōu Zhōngyǔn’s preface, is that the Zhuāng zǐ is fundamentally an inner-alchemical scripture: “the Kūn fish is the elixir-scripture’s water-tiger, the Péng bird is the elixir-scripture’s fire-dragon — these two phrases penetrate the whole Nán huá so that no passage fails to yield to the blade.”
Prefaces
Preface (Zōu Zhōngyǔn). “My friend Fùguīzǐ, having already commentated the Dào dé jīng, those who recognise such things rejoiced — only then realising that the lineage from the Most-High emerges full-flush. But the Nán huá expounded the Dàodé: its phrasing is vast, its purport deep, its interior runs straight back to the chaos that begins-without-beginning and ends-without-ending. Students complain of being lost on the road. Fùguī said: ‘Qí xié records the strange — what do I know of the kūn-fish-and-péng-bird account; one must not follow predecessors’ false annotations.’ For some years now, Fùguī had been quietly studying the Nán huá; in guǐyǒu spring [癸酉春 = spring 1693] he suddenly awoke to its being the ancestor of elixir-scriptures: the Kūn fish is the elixir-scripture’s water-tiger, the Péng bird is the elixir-scripture’s fire-dragon. With these two phrases penetrating the whole Nán huá, no passage fails to yield to the blade… The annotators from Guō Xiàng and Xiàng Xiù down to Jiāo Yǐyuán’s [Jiāo Hóng’s] Lǎo Zhuāng yì — no fewer than a hundred kinds — none has known the Dàodé, much less the Nán huá. There are passages in the scripture that speak of Chán, but only Lù Xīxīng grasped its skin-and-flesh; even he did not reach the marrow… Jìnlíng yǒudì Zōu Zhōngyǔn dùn shǒu bài xù.”
Self-preface (Chéng Yǐníng). “The Dào dé jīng is the ancestor of the Three Teachings. The Most-High, in pity that men did not understand the un-transmitted study of xìngmìng, could not but, in transformed body, become Nánhuá [Zhuāng zǐ] to leak its secret. All the yù yán (allegorical sayings) are like the bǐ (allegorical verse) of the Shī — teaching men to whole-the-nature and protect-the-mandate. The zhòng yán (weighted sayings) borrow weight from antiquity, wishing men to credit the doctrine of preserving-life. The zhī yán (chalice-sayings), through ten-thousand transformations, sweet-meat their phrasing, making men first delight in the mouth, then delight in the heart, and so seek the upright meaning of the words — and, leaping out of the world’s net, range their spirit in the realm of xìngmìng. As a raft for later students, what could be more thorough! — Annotation of the Nán huá began with Guō Xiàng, continued through Xiàng Xiù, ended at Jiāo Yǐyuán’s Lǎo Zhuāng yì, more than a hundred houses, and yet they remained ten thousand mountains away…”
Abstract
A precisely-dated Qing inner-alchemical commentary on the Zhuāng zǐ by Chéng Yǐníng, completing his paired LǎoZhuāng programme. Composition occurred in guǐyǒu spring (= spring 1693) when Chéng was struck by his decisive interpretive insight, and the work was completed by 1700 (Zōu’s preface postdates the manuscript’s completion but is internally undated). The thesis — that the Zhuāng zǐ’s opening Xiāoyáo yóu parable maps directly onto the inner-alchemical fire-dragon / water-tiger dyad — is the late-imperial high-water mark of inner-alchemical Zhuāng zǐ hermeneutics; the alternative reading that this is interpretive over-reach is also tenable. The text was incorporated into the Dào zàng jí yào in 1809 and is the principal Qīng Zhuāng zǐ commentary in DZJY.
The companion Dào dé bǎo zhāng yì at KR5i0006 is conceptually paired with this work.
Translations and research
- For Cheng’s broader project see citations under KR5i0006.
- For the Chinese commentarial reception of the Zhuāng zǐ see Brook Ziporyn, Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings (Hackett 2020), introduction; and Wai-yee Li, The Readability of the Past in Early Chinese Historiography (Harvard 2008) for the broader yù-yán / zhòng-yán / zhī-yán hermeneutic.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0036
- Annotator: 程以甯; preface: 鄒忠允.