Huá gài shān sān xiān zhēn jīng 華蓋山三仙真經
True Scripture of the Three Immortals of Mount Huágài
scripture associated with the Wáng Guō èr zhēnjūn 王郭二真君 cult of Huágàishān 華蓋山 (Jiāngxī, Chóngrén county); compiled by Bālíng lìng Huòtóng Cuī Shìzhào (Cuī Shìzhào, Bālíng prefect of Huòtóng); the foundational stele Qiáo xiān guàn bēi jì 橋仙觀碑記 by 顏真卿 (Yán Zhēnqīng, 709–784) is preserved at the head
A scripture and stele-record cluster around the cult of the WángGuō two perfected lords of Huágàishān — the brother-Daoists Wáng (the cousin of Fāng Píng) and Guō (Wáng’s clan-younger-brother), who began their cultivation at Jīnhuáshān, sojourned at the Yùsì → Mágū traversal and stopped at Huágàishān; refined inner-elixir there; performed talismanic rites of rain-and-rescue; and ascended in Jìn Huìdì Yuánkāng 2, 2nd month, 1st day = March 292 CE. Their post-mortem cult became one of the regional Daoist cults of central Jiāngxī, with the Qiáo xiān guàn (Bridge-Immortal Belvedere) as its principal site.
Prefaces
Qiáo xiān guàn bēi jì (Yán Zhēnqīng, mid-Tang). “Reverently in Jiāngnán region — beautiful place lifting its name; among mountains-and-marchmounts, wǎn yǒu xiān dòng (winding has the immortal-cavern). I respectfully received the sacred-favour, and as Inspector arrived at Línchuān. One day, examining the geographical-map, I obtained that the subordinate-county Chóngrén of Huágàishān has the altar of the Two Perfected Lords Wáng Guō preserved. Joyfully gazing at the strange-affair, I had not traced its beginning. Other-day, on my official-leisure, I therefore commanded an army-officer to go to the mountain and search-out a stele-inscription. He indeed obtained one shíjì: it was Suí Kāihuáng 5 [= 585 CE]; the burning-cultivating Daoist Lǐ Zǐzhēn on the broken-stele had re-recorded its text, and so we know: the Two Perfected, Wáng and Guō — immortals not displaying their names. Wáng was Fāngpíng’s second-cousin; Guō was Wáng’s clan-younger-brother. They began at Jīnhuáshān cultivating-the-Way to plan light-rising; sought-and-roamed the cavern-bureaux, from Yùsìshān heading toward Mágū; on the way they rested at one mountain. Asking the old-folk, ‘what mountain is this?’ They answered, ‘this is Bālíng Huágàishān.’ The Two Perfected then said to each other: ‘this mountain is a fúdì (blessed-land), the name also strange.’ Therefore they sought a divination to stop here, again to refine the spirit-elixir…”
Abstract
A regional cult-scripture for the Huágàishān Two-Perfected — a Western-Jìn-era cult attested in the Yán Zhēnqīng stele (Tang). The DZJY recension preserves the canonical stele plus the planchette-revealed scripture in the cult’s name. The dating bracket notBefore 290 (the Western-Jìn cult origin) / notAfter 1809 (the DZJY incorporation) records the wide range from the underlying cult to the present recension.
Translations and research
- No critical edition or translation located.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0102
- Stele-author: 顏真卿 (Yán Zhēnqīng).