Yīn zhì wén zhù 陰騭文註
Annotated Treatise on the Hidden-Determining
base text: the Yīn zhì wén 陰騭文 attributed to 文昌帝君; with annotations; collated by 朱珪 and re-edited by 蔣予蒲 for the 1809 DZJY
A short and densely-glossed annotated edition of the Yīn zhì wén — one of the three principal moral-merit tracts of the late-imperial era (with the Tài shàng gǎn yìng piān KR5i0013 / KR5i0014 and the Gōng guò gé), here printed with a substantial annotation tradition. The base text is generically a Sòng-era zhìshì tract attributed to Wénchāng dìjūn (referencing the historical Sòng Sòng Jiāo 宋郊 episode demonstrates Sòng-era origin). The annotations include extensive cross-reference to the Wén dì huà shū tradition: the canonical 17 huà (transformations) of the deity through Hàn-Tang-Sòng historical figures.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with an editorial àn (case-note) explaining the Shū jīng’s opening Hóng fàn phrase wéi tiān yīn zhì xià mín — “Heaven secretly determines the lower people” — and proceeding to the annotations.
Editorial summary (Jiǎng Yǔpǔ). “Mr. Zhū Shíjūn (= Zhū Guī) of Dàxīng once in the jiǎzǐ year personally informed me [Yǔpǔ] that he had recently received from a xīn tán (heart-altar = planchette session) the correction of the jiǔ shēng bā huà (nine-births-eight-transformations) error. The Imperial Lord, in Western Zhōu Wǔwáng’s time, descended in star-light at the household of recluse Zhāngsǒu and was named Shànxūn — that was his first life. In Chéngwáng’s time he spirit-roamed at Jūnshān Dòngtíng and descended at Zhāng Wújì’s house, named Zhōngsì zì Zhòng — second life. He descended into the Hàn as Prince Rúyì of Zhào — third life. Again descending in Zhāng family as named Xūn — fourth. At Eastern Hàn Shùndì he descended as Zhāng Xiàozhòng — fifth. Again descending in Héshuò named Zhāng Liè — sixth. At Jìn Wǔdì Tàikāng 8, descending in Jīnmǎshān in the Zhāng family, named Yà zì Pángfū, dreaming a white-mule heavenly-officer leading him into a great cave — Zǐtóng Qīqū — seventh. Suddenly transformed into a Confucian called Xiè Ài — eighth. Again at Northern Wèi he was Wēn Zǐshēng — ninth…”
Abstract
The classical annotated edition of the Yīn zhì wén, the second of the three principal late-imperial moral-merit tracts. The annotations preserve the canonical 17-transformation hagiography of Wénchāng dìjūn, with the editorial àn by Jiǎng Yǔpǔ noting Zhū Guī’s planchette-derived correction to the standard jiǔ shēng bā huà (nine-births-eight-transformations) genealogy. The terminus a quo is Sòng (the base text dates from the late Northern Sòng or Southern Sòng); terminus ad quem is the 1809 DZJY (Jiǎng Yǔpǔ’s chóng dìng).
The base Yīn zhì wén is the most-frequently-printed moral-merit tract of late-imperial China, often bound together with the Gǎn yìng piān. For the broader shàn shū tradition see Sakai Tadao’s magnum opus and Brokaw, Ledgers of Merit and Demerit.
Translations and research
- For the Yīn zhì wén see Brokaw, Ledgers of Merit and Demerit; Sakai Tadao, Chūgoku zensho no kenkyū.
- For the Wén-chāng cult’s hagiographical tradition see Kleeman, A God’s Own Tale.
- Translation by James Legge, The Texts of Taoism (Sacred Books of the East XXXIX-XL, 1891), includes the Yīn zhì wén.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0087
- Editor-reviewers: 朱珪, 蔣予蒲.