天仙正理直論

Tiān xiān zhèng lǐ zhí lùn 天仙正理直論

Direct Discussion of the Orthodox Principle of the Heavenly Immortals

by 伍守陽 (Wǔ Shǒuyáng, 沖虛真人, 1573–1644), composed Tiānqǐ rénxū (= 1622) at first, supplemented through Chóngzhēn jǐmǎo (= 1639); collated by 伍守虛 (Wǔ Shǒuxū); re-edited and re-prefaced 1764 (Qiánlóng 29) by 申兆定 (Shēn Zhàodìng, hào Tiěchán 鐵蟾, of Jìnyáng 晉陽)

The foundational systematic exposition of the WǔLiǔ pài inner-alchemy lineage, in three juàn presenting the complete xìngmìng curriculum in clear discursive prose — what the WǔLiǔ pài tradition calls zhí lùn (“direct discussion”) in deliberate contrast with the older yù yán (allegorical) traditions of the Wù zhēn piān and Cān tóng qì. The work has been re-printed multiple times: the original Wǔzǔ edition in Tiānqǐ rénxū (1622), with a zēngzhù (supplemented annotations) by 1639; the Kāngxī 8 jǐyǒu (1669) re-edition by Tú Shūpǔ 涂叔樸 of Xīnjiàn at the Lǎojūntáng of Jīnlíng (Nanjing); the Kāngxī 58 jǐhài (1719) re-edition at the Sūzhōu Lǎojūntáng by Xiè Sìfāng 謝嗣芳 et al.; the Qiánlóng 29 jiǎshēn (1764) re-edition by Shēn Zhàodìng of Jìnyáng — the last being the recension that entered the DZJY.

Prefaces

Re-edition Postface (Shēn Zhàodìng, 鐵蟾, dated 乾隆二十有九年甲申金鼎滿日 = a 1764 day in jiǎshēn). “*The Tiān xiān zhèng lǐ book of Wǔ Chōngxū zhēnrén was completed in the previous Míng’s Tiānqǐ rénxū, and to Chóngzhēn 12 jǐmǎo the Magpie-bridge crossing was completed and called zēngzhù. The Sūzhōu disciple Wú Chéngchuān had it engraved at Jīnlíng, with Qí Huìjí and the Nánchāng old-disciple Tú Zhīfēn assisting; the woodblocks were stored at the Dàoyǐnzhāi west-corridor of the south-capital lamp-market. Years passed, original-blocks were rare-to-be-found in the world. In Kāngxī 8 jǐyǒu winter, Xīnjiàn Tú Shūpǔ and others re-engraved to broaden the transmission, with a preface by the local jìnshì Lí Bóān, names Yuánkuān, an academic-supervisor. The Perfected One’s hall-nephew Dáxíng further narrated the affair-summary at the head-of-page. In Kāngxī 58 jǐhài, Xiè Sìfāng and others re-engraved at the Sūzhōu Lǎojūntáng, drawing-up the later students; he was already moved to the Chóngshòu Dàoguàn outside Chāngmén, and so the human realm was little to know of it. — I have lived thirty years now, often at my misled-and-darkened-in-original-brightness deeply weeping; reading the elixir-classics of ten-thousand volumes, was no different from a thorny-trip; long-after, suddenly I said: ‘The words and the metaphors are the fishing-net and rabbit-snare of the Way. Using the fishing-net and rabbit-snare to obtain fish-and-rabbit, that is acceptable; but using the fishing-net and rabbit-snare as the fish-and-rabbit, that will not do.’ How much more, the great-matter conditions are also what Heaven really fixes! — This summer I heard Zhuàng Píngwáng Mǎichī xiānshēng hiding at Wúmén; calling-and-asking him, telling him my crossing-the-world’s-fundamental-aim — the master in turn lifted up and gave me one volume saying, ‘this is Wǔzǔ’s Tiān xiān zhèng lǐ; Heaven does not begrudge the Way; this book has long been in the world — child, you have not yet seen it?’ Pressed to read it, I felt as though the thorn-bushes were swept away and my heart-and-eye opened-up. Alas, the fishing-net is truly not the fish-and-rabbit, but it does carry the fish-and-rabbit within the fishing-net — that is, to speak of the fishing-net as being the fish-and-rabbit, alas, is unacceptable. — Together with my younger brother Yùjǐng, my friend Yáng Hùtáng, broadly visiting, I obtained one full copy lacking the Dàoyuán qiǎnshuō piān; further requested the master’s western-Jiāng original-version to correct; only then was the book a full-jade. — Mr. Wǔzǔ’s writing of this book is now 143 years from today; in the meantime its giving-and-receiving have not been easy; in Wǔzǔ’s own time he also abandoned land-and-garden, traversing difficulties from his master nineteen years before he obtained the full-purport. As for one such as I, born at the world’s-great-house, virtue thin and karma deep, only by one-thought firm-keeping for five-cold-summers I have been able to fathom the heart-source of one-hundred-years-back — what fortune is this also! — Qiánlóng twenty-and-ninth year, jiǎshēn, jīndǐng full-day, Jìnyáng private-disciple Tiěchán Shēn Zhàodìng respectfully wrote.”

Abstract

The classical systematic exposition of the WǔLiǔ pài inner-alchemical doctrine, with an exemplary print-and-transmission history that the 1764 postface lays out in explicit detail: original 1622 → supplemented 1639 → Kāngxī 8 (1669) re-engraving → Kāngxī 58 (1719) re-engraving → Qiánlóng 29 (1764) re-engraving — the last being the recension preserved in the DZJY. The 1764 postface is itself a useful witness to the practical history of inner-alchemical print culture across a 142-year span. The text was the most-frequently-printed inner-alchemical exposition of late-imperial China and the basis for much of the modern English-language exposition of “Daoist Yoga.”

Translations and research

• Cleary, Thomas, trans. Daoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality. Shambhala 1973. — translation of an underlying Wǔ-Liǔ derivative; not the Tiān xiān zhèng lǐ itself.
• Esposito, Monica. Facets of Qing Daoism. UniversityMedia 2014. — fundamental on the Wǔ-Liǔ tradition and its print history.
• Komjathy, Louis. The Way of Complete Perfection. SUNY 2013.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5i0067
• Author: 伍守陽; collator: 伍守虛; 1764 postface: 申兆定.