Qióng guǎn Bái zhēn rén jí 瓊琯白真人集
The Collected Works of Master Bái of Qióngguǎn
works of 白玉蟾 (Bái Yùchán, hào Qióngguǎn 瓊琯, Hǎiqióngzǐ 海瓊子; 1194–1229), Southern-Sòng Nán zōng fifth-patriarch; here gathered and prefaced by 何繼高 (Hé Jìgāo) of Huìjī in 萬曆甲午 = 1594
A seven-juàn anthology of the Southern Sòng Nánzōng fifth-patriarch Bái Yùchán’s prose, verse, and ritual writings — assembled in the late Wànlì era by Hé Jìgāo from materials gathered “wherever they appeared in records” plus extensive consultation of Gézào and Yùsì (two of Bái’s chief residences). The collection is the principal late-Míng anthology of Bái Yùchán materials, complementing the canonical SòngYuán Hǎi qióng jí 海瓊集, Hǎi qióng wèn dào jí 海瓊問道集, and Wǔ jiǔ jí 武夷集 (preserved in the Zhèng tǒng Dào zàng).
Prefaces
Preface (Hé Jìgāo, dated 萬曆甲午 = 1594). Surveys the southern-school transmission lineage and Bái Yùchán’s place in it: “*Guǎngchéngzǐ told the Yellow Emperor: ‘do not weary your form, do not shake your essence — only thus can you achieve long life’. The yùyè refining-the-self-master traces back to him. There is the saying: ‘zhìyáng hèhè, zhìyīn sùsù; sùsù emerging from Heaven, hèhè emerging from Earth — the jīnyè refining-the-form master traces back to that. — The yùyè is the daily-use; the jīnyè is the work of one moment-and-quarter… To complete xìng and complete mìng, there is no other Way: the Yellow Emperor unfolded its secret in the Yīnfú; the Hán-gǔ-pass [Lǎozǐ] poured out its purport in the Dàodé; Bóyáng exhausted its store in the Cāntóng; Píngshū (Zhāng Bóduān) spat out its art in the Wùzhēn — and at this point the study of nature-and-mandate is fully revealed. From after [Zhāng] Píngshū gave it to Shí, Shí gave it to Xuē Dàoyuán, Xuē gave it to Chén Níwán, and the Perfected One [Bái Yùchán] received the Way from Níwán xiānshēng. The transmission is so direct! The Perfected One was named Yùchán, hào Qióngguǎn. His family was of Mǐnqīng of Fú; his great-grandfather taught at Qióngzhōu, and the Perfected One was born at Qióng [Hǎinán]. Heaven-endowed and intelligent, in his tiáochèn age (childhood) he could already recite by-heart the Five Classics. As he grew, his literary thought was vast-and-flowing — in a moment composing several thousand words — but his long-piece big-volumes-with-the-brush playing-and-saying were nothing but unfolding the study of nature-and-mandate. — I roamed the Liúdū (Beijing residence) and met a stranger-man, and so heard the Perfected One’s liànjǐ liànxíng doctrine; I roamed Línjiāng and met a Daoist, and got transmitted the Perfected One’s Dòngzhēn léi fǎ book. Linzhi-ge and Yùsì are the two famous places where the Perfected One sojourned longest, and his prefaces, records, poems, and songs are most numerous there. Therefore I exhaustively searched and broadly visited; whatever was scattered in records I gathered into a single volume, and morning-and-evening study-and-realise — and the secret-purport of nature-and-mandate of the Yīn fú and the various books has been mostly leaked therein. — Wànlì jiǎwǔ end of Duānyáng day, Lóngshā meeting-presider, Yuè-de presiding-cult, Huìjī tàiníng, Hé Jìgāo wrote.”
Abstract
The principal late-Wàn-lì anthology of the Southern Sòng Nán zōng fifth-patriarch Bái Yùchán, prefaced 1594 by Hé Jìgāo of Huìjī (Shàoxīng) — the same date and milieu as the parallel late-Wàn-lì alchemical-recension activity at KR5i0029 (Péng Hàogǔ, 1599) and KR5i0007 (Wáng Yīqīng, 1597). The 1594 preface is the terminus ad quem of compilation; the materials themselves are 12th–13th-century. The collection complements the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng’s Bái Yùchán materials and is the principal late-imperial vehicle for his transmission.
For Bái Yùchán’s life and broader corpus see 白玉蟾 and Schipper-Verellen II on DZ 1115 Hǎi qióng Bái zhēn rén yǔ lù and adjacent.
Translations and research
- Skar, Lowell. “Bai Yuchan and the Southern Lineage of Daoist Inner Alchemy” (PhD diss. and various articles).
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen. The Taoist Canon II, on DZ 263, 1115, etc., the Bái Yù-chán materials.
- Tsuchiya Masaaki 土屋正昭. Hakugyokusen no kenkyū 白玉蟾の研究. Tokyo: Kyū-ko shoin, 1994. — fundamental Japanese-language study.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0060
- Author: 白玉蟾; preface: 何繼高.