Huà shū 化書
Book of Transformations (with Wáng Yīqīng’s New Voice commentary)
base text by 譚峭 (Tán Qiào, zì Jǐngshēng 景升, hào Zǐxiāo zhēnrén 紫霄真人; Five-Dynasties Min); commentary by 王一清 (Wáng Yīqīng, hào 體物子 Tǐwùzǐ; fl. 1592); preface by 吳之鵬 (Wú Zhīpéng) of Wú
The Huà shū of Tán Qiào (also known as Tán Zǐxiāo 譚紫霄, the legendary Five-Dynasties Daoist of Mǐn / Quánzhōu) — one of the foundational philosophico-religious works of late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Daoism, expounding the doctrine of universal huà (transformation) and chéng (sincerity) as the cosmic principle. The base text consists of 110 short prose-essays organised in 6 juàn under the headings dào huà 道化, shù huà 術化, dé huà 德化, rén huà 仁化, shí huà 食化, jiǎn huà 儉化. Here printed in the DZJY with Wáng Yīqīng’s late-Wàn-lì Huà shū xīn shēng 化書新聲 (“New Voice on the Huà shū”) commentary — Wáng’s pre-1592 commentary which Schipper-Verellen describe (The Taoist Canon I, on DZ 1044) as the late-Míng commentary that established the modern attribution to Tán Zǐxiāo / Tán Qiào.
Prefaces
Preface (Wú Zhīpéng, “Of Wú”). “Confucius said: ‘He who knows the Way of transformation knows what the spirit does.’ How does a thing transform, and how then change? It is all by chéng. Chéng is itself spirit; spirit is itself transformation. Only the most-sincere in all-under-Heaven can transform. Only chéng threads through empty-and-real, joins existence-and-non-existence. Sincere in the empty, the empty advances from the unfeeling to the feeling; sincere in the real, the real advances from the feeling to the unfeeling. Feeling-and-unfeeling can both transform — how much more man, the spirit of myriad things, who treads the earth and shoulders the heavens — should he be solely stuck in the formal-skeletal-trifle and unable to transform? — Like Zhuāngshēng dreaming the butterfly, like Wàngdì entrusting himself to the cuckoo: this is the great vision. If one can pass from sincerity to know spirit, from spirit to know transformation, then leaving has-and-entering not, ascending-and-descending at one’s own will, one can make water not wet, fire not heat, tigers tamable and dragons rear-able — would one not become a flying immortal and ramble? Therefore I say: when one chéng is established, the Way of Heaven-and-Earth is fully prepared. — I would say: when one chéng is established, the art of the immortals is fully prepared. Tánzǐ wrote the Huà shū; Wángjūn wrote the Huà shū xīn shēng; Tán began the source, Wáng extended the flow; Tánjūn knew transformation, Wángjūn winged transformation; the two gentlemen — first and second on the same track. — Wú zhī Péng prefaced.”
Abstract
The base Huà shū is a foundational work of post-classical Daoism, dated to the Five Dynasties (the work is mentioned in the Sòng shǐ and earliest external citations are by Sòng-era Daoists). The traditional attribution to Tán Qiào (= Tán Zǐxiāo, of Quánzhōu, founder of the Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ 天心正法) was established (as Schipper-Verellen note) in the late Míng on the basis of Wáng Yīqīng’s preface to the very edition we have here; pre-Sòng-Yuán recensions had attributed the book variously to Sòng Qíqiū 宋齊丘 and other figures. The DZJY recension is one direct descendant of Wáng’s late-Míng Xīn shēng edition, prefaced 1592 (Wáng’s) and printed shortly thereafter by Wú Zhīpéng. Terminus a quo of the base text is c. 940 (Tán Qiào’s floruit); terminus ad quem of the Xīn shēng commentary is 1592.
The Huà shū is doctrinally ambitious and philologically influential: it integrates Buddhist kōng and Daoist wú into a single cosmological doctrine where transformation is the cosmic ultimate, and the body’s emptiness is grasped as the mechanism of xiū (cultivation). The work is one of the most important Daoist treatises of the Five-Dynasties / Sòng transition.
For the textual history and the attribution debate see Schipper-Verellen, The Taoist Canon I, on DZ 1044 Huà shū, by Boltz; and Lai Yong-hai 賴永海, Tán Qiào yǔ Huà shū yánjiū 譚峭與化書研究 (Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú, 2008).
Translations and research
- Schipper-Verellen, The Taoist Canon I, on DZ 1044 Huà shū — by Boltz, with extensive textual history.
- Liú Cù-cái 劉粹才, Huà shū jiào zhù 化書校注 (Hong Kong: Zhōng-huá shū-jú, 2008).
- Wāng Wéi-cōng 王維聰, “Huà shū yán-jiū” (PhD diss., various universities). — Chinese-language scholarship is broad.
- French translation: Hubert Durt and others (preliminary; no full critical translation in any European language).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0042
- Author: 譚峭; commentator: 王一清.