Zhēn quán 真詮
The True Articulation
inner-alchemical anthology of unknown earlier provenance; held in the family of 彭定求 (Péng Dìngqiú, 1645–1719) — passed from his father; reprinted by Péng in Kāngxī gēngyín 1st month = December 1710 (康熙庚寅孟冬朔)
An inner-alchemical anthology held in family stewardship by the Sūzhōu Hanlin scholar Péng Dìngqiú — zhuàngyuán of the 1670 kē and principal editor of the Quán Táng shī — and reprinted by him under his Daoist-cult name Yǒngzhēn shānrén in 1710. Péng’s preface narrates that his father, in his youth, had received the Zhēn quán book and “treasured it as the orthodox lineage of nourishing-life,” and at the end of his life had inscribed the simple-cover inscription: “throughout my life, surveying the four-quarters’ alchemy-arts in great variety — the deluded-and-erroneous come out distorted; none is as clean-and-precise-and-subtle as this book — by which one can preserve a brief and obtain it.” Péng reprints it for posterity — “preserving its mystery-paper-and-ink, lest it be lost over years.”
Prefaces
Preface (Péng Dìngqiú), dated 康熙庚寅孟冬朔 = 1st day, mid-winter, 1710. “*My late father in his youth obtained the Zhēn quán book; received it as the orthodox-lineage of nourishing-life; in essence-and-spirit-flourishing-fully, he was already determined and at the zōngguàn (capping-rite) age was pointed at by it. Reaching my late father’s later years, he again inscribed at the head of the volume: ‘Throughout my life surveying the four-quarters, alchemy-arts most numerous; the deluded-and-erroneous come out and are mistaken; none equal this book in cleanness-and-precision and ability to keep-the-promise and self-attain.’ He earnestly transmitted-and-bequeathed it, kept it stored in the trunk-corner. Years pass; paper-and-ink grow fuzzy; fearing it would be long-lost, I have re-engraved it to inherit my late father’s bequeathed-aim. May I, with all who recognise its value, together verify it. — Kāngxī gēngyín mid-winter 1st-day, Yǒngzhēn shānrén Péng Dìngqiú inscribed.”
Self-preface within the Zhēn quán (anonymous original). “The cultivation-and-refinement learning has two Ways. The Wén shǐ jīng says: those who can see the essence-and-spirit and long-live; those who can forget the essence-and-spirit and transcend-life. To forget the essence-and-spirit — emptiness reaching its extreme, stillness reaching its limit, essence spontaneously transforms into pneuma, pneuma spontaneously transforms into spirit, spirit spontaneously returns to emptiness — this is the empty-and-no Great-Way’s learning. To see the essence-and-spirit — empty-and-still as substance, fire-symbol as function; refining essence into pneuma, refining pneuma into spirit, refining spirit returning to emptiness — this is the spirit-driving-pneuma learning…”
Abstract
A late-Míng to early-Qīng inner-alchemical anthology of unknown attribution, transmitted in the Péng family of Sūzhōu through the steward-care of Péng Shèngmíng 彭聖明 (Péng Dìngqiú’s father) and reprinted by Péng Dìngqiú in 1710 under his Daoist-cult name. The work is doctrinally a xìngmìngshuāngxiū manual in the conventional southern-school register; its distinguishing feature is the layered preservation as a literati-family Daoist heirloom, with the Péng family — orthodox-Confucian high office on the surface, private yǎngshēng devotee underneath — replicating a pattern documented elsewhere (cf. 陳廷敬 for the Gǎnyìngpiān parallel). The dating bracket records the wide range from the underlying anthology’s likely late-Míng composition to Péng’s 1710 reprint.
Translations and research
- For the broader Péng family see Hummel, Eminent Chinese, s.v. “P’eng Ting-ch’iu.”
- No critical edition or full translation of the Zhēn quán in modern languages located.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0074
- Reprinter: 彭定求.