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Daoism and Ming rulership: on the authenticity of Jiajing's preface to the Scripture of the Three Offices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2022

Bony Schachter*
Affiliation:
Hunan University / Yuelu Academy, Changsha, China

Abstract

This article examines Jiajing's (Zhu Houcong 朱厚熜, 1507–67) preface to the Scripture of the Three Offices (Sanguan jing 三官經, hereafter, Scripture). The first section discusses the provenance of Jiajing's preface, and shows that the preface is preserved in the Explanation (Sanguan jing zhujie 三官經註解), an unstudied edition of the Scripture produced in 1876. The second section offers a comparison between the Explanation and Ming editions of the Scripture. Relying on this comparison, the third section examines the role of Jiajing in the text's editorial history. Three aspects of the imperial preface support its authenticity: its description of Jiajing's lost imperial edition; its stance on local religious narratives; and its connection with Jiajing's early scholarly and political concerns. In examining the authenticity of Jiajing's preface, the article discusses the role of Daoist resources in shaping Ming imperial discourses on rulership.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Gábor Kósa, Peter Ditmanson, Judit Bagi, Hu Jiechen, He Yanran, and Gu Rouyan for commenting on previous versions of this manuscript. The completion of this paper would not have been possible without the institutional support offered by the Centre for the Study of Religious Ethics and Chinese Culture (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), under the direction of Professor Lai Pan-chiu. As importantly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to two anonymous reviewers, whose constructive comments have greatly improved this piece. Finally, research for this article was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (project code: 531118010462).

References

Bibliography

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Jiangxi tongzhi 江西通志. Yingying Wenyuange Siku Quanshu, vols. 513–8.Google Scholar
Mengzi 孟子. Sishu wujing 四書五經 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2014).Google Scholar
Ming shilu 明實錄 [Veritable Records of the Ming]. 1418–mid-seventeenth century. Academia Sinica, Hanji quanwen ziliaoku 漢籍全文資料庫 (Scripta Sinica) database.Google Scholar
Rixia jiuwen kao 日下舊聞考. Yingying Wenyuange Siku Quanshu, vols. 497–9.Google Scholar
Sanguan jing zhujie 三官經註解 Commented Explanation of the Scripture of the Three Officers. Tianjin Library 天津圖書館.Google Scholar
Yongfeng xian zhi 永豐縣志. Tongzhi 13 (1874) Edition. National Library of China. Code: 地.250.149/38.Google Scholar
Campany, Robert Ford. 2012. Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.10.21313/hawaii/9780824836023.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Huang, Susan Shih-shan. 2001. “Summoning the gods: paintings of three officials of heaven, earth and water and their association with Daoist ritual performance in the Southern Song period (1127–1279)”, Artibus Asiae 61/1, 552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Kern, Martin. 2017. “The ‘Harangues’ (Shi 誓) in the Shangshu”, in Kern, Martin and Meyer, Dirk (eds), Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy: Studies in the Composition and Thought of the Shangshu (Classic of Documents). Leiden: Brill, 281319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Kleeman, Terry. 2014. “The performance and significance of the merging the Pneumas (Heqi) rite in early Daoism”, Daoism: Religion, History and Society 6, 85112.Google Scholar
Kleeman, Terry. 2016. Celestial Masters: History and Ritual in Early Daoist Communities. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, Chi-Tim 黎志添. 2002. “Tian, di, shui sanguan xinyang yu zaoqi Tianshidao zhibing jiezui yishi 天地水三官信仰與早期天師道治病解罪儀式”, Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu 臺灣宗教研究 2, 138.Google Scholar
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Lagerwey, John. 2010. China: A Religious State. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Lagerwey, John. 2013. “Daojiao yu Zhongguo zongjiao wenhua zhi suowei yu wuwei 道教與中國宗教文化之所爲與無爲”, in Tim, Lai Chi 黎志添 (ed.), Shijiu shiji yilai Zhongguo difang daojiao bianqian 十九世紀以來中國地方道教變遷. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 459–71.Google Scholar
Lagerwey, John. 2019. “The emergence of a temple-centric society”, Minsu quyi 民俗曲藝, 205, 29102.Google Scholar
Legge, James. 1865. The Chinese Classics: With a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. Vol. III – Part III: The Fifth Part of the Shoo King, or the Book of Chow; and the Indexes. Hong Kong: London Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Little, Stephen. 2000. Taoism and the Arts of China. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, in association with Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
, Pengzhi. 2011. “Zaoqi daojiao jiaoyi jiqi liubian kaosuo [早期道教醮儀及其流變考索]”, in Lun, Tam Wai 譚偉倫 (ed.), Zhongguo difang zongjiao yishi lunji [中國地方宗教儀式論集]. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 19145.Google Scholar
Maspero, Henri. 1971. Le Taoïsme et les religions chinoises. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Meulenbeld, Mark. 2015. Demonic Warfare: Daoism, Territorial Networks, and the History of a Ming Novel. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reich, Aaron K. 2018. “Seeing the sacred: Daoist ritual, painted icons, and the canonization of a local god in Ming China”, PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Robinson, David M. (ed.). 2008. Culture, Courtiers, and Competition: The Ming Court (1368–1644). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, James. 2010. “The institution of Daoism in the central region (Xiangzhong) of Hunan”, Daoism: Religion, History and Society 10, 6594.Google Scholar
Schachter, Bony. 2018. “Printing the Dao: Zhou Xuanzhen, the editorial history of the jade slips of great clarity and Ming Quanzhen identity”, Daoism: Religion, History and Society 10, 186.Google Scholar
Schachter, Bony. 2020. “Taishang Yuanshi Tianzun shuo sanguan baohao 太上元始天尊說三官寶號–E47”, Chinese Religious Text Authority: https://crta.info/wiki/太上元始天尊說三官寶號_-_E47.Google Scholar
Schipper, Kristofer. 2004a. “Taishang dongxuan lingbao sanyuan pinjie gongde qingzhong jing”, in Schipper, Kristofer and Verellen, Franciscus (eds), The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 230–31.Google Scholar
Schipper, Kristofer. 2004b. “Taishang sanyuan cifu shezui jie'e xiaozai yansheng baoming miaojing”, in The Taoist Canon, 1226–7.Google Scholar
Schipper, Kristofer and Verellen, Franciscus (eds). 2004. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shaughnessy, Edward. 1993. “Shang shu 尚書 (Shu ching 書經)”, in Loewe, Michael (ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley, California: Society for the Study of Early China, and Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Verellen, Franciscus. 2019. Imperiled Destinies: The Daoist Quest for Deliverance in Medieval China. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Wang, Chien-ch'uan 王見川. 2020. “Ming-Qing Sanyuan/Sanguan dadi xinyang chutan 明清三元/三官大帝信仰初探”, in Chunwu, Fan 范純武 (ed.), Lishi, yishu yu Taiwan renwen luncong, 18. 歷史、藝術與台灣人文論叢, 十八, Xinbei: Boyang wenhua, 203–25.Google Scholar
Wang, Richard G. 2012. Ming Prince and Daoism: Institutional Patronage of an Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanhong, Wu and Yonglin, Jiang. 2007. “The Emperor's four bodies: embodied rulership and legal culture in early Ming China”, Frontiers of History in China, 2/1, 2559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baizhaiji 柏齋集. Yingying Wenyuange Siku Quanshu 影印文淵閣四庫全書 (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu yinshuguan, 1983–1986), vol. 1266.Google Scholar
Ji'an fu zhi 吉安府志. Daoguang 22 (1842) Edition. Harvard Yenching Library. Code: T3194/4634.85.Google Scholar
Ji'an fu zhi 吉安府志. Guangxu 2 (1876) Edition. National Library of China. Code: 地.250.141/39.Google Scholar
Jiangxi tongzhi 江西通志. Yingying Wenyuange Siku Quanshu, vols. 513–8.Google Scholar
Mengzi 孟子. Sishu wujing 四書五經 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2014).Google Scholar
Ming shilu 明實錄 [Veritable Records of the Ming]. 1418–mid-seventeenth century. Academia Sinica, Hanji quanwen ziliaoku 漢籍全文資料庫 (Scripta Sinica) database.Google Scholar
Rixia jiuwen kao 日下舊聞考. Yingying Wenyuange Siku Quanshu, vols. 497–9.Google Scholar
Sanguan jing zhujie 三官經註解 Commented Explanation of the Scripture of the Three Officers. Tianjin Library 天津圖書館.Google Scholar
Yongfeng xian zhi 永豐縣志. Tongzhi 13 (1874) Edition. National Library of China. Code: 地.250.149/38.Google Scholar
Campany, Robert Ford. 2012. Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.10.21313/hawaii/9780824836023.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cedzich, Ursula-Angelika. 2004. “Shangqing yuanshi pulu taizhen yujue”, in Schipper, Kristofer and Verellen, Franciscus (eds), The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 211–12.Google Scholar
Ching, Dora C.Y. 2008. “Tibetan Buddhism and the creation of the Ming Imperial image”, in Robinson, David M. (ed.), Culture, Courtiers, and Competition: The Ming Court (1368–1644). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 321–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hung-lam, Chu. 2008. “The Jiajing Emperor's interaction with his lecturers”, in Robinson, David M. (ed.), Culture, Courtiers, and Competition: The Ming Court (1368–1644). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 186230.Google Scholar
Dardess, John. 2016. Four Seasons: A Ming Emperor and His Grand Secretaries in Sixteenth-Century China. New York and London: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Ditmanson, Peter. 2017. “Moral authority and rulership in Ming literati thought”, European Journal of Political Theory, 16/4, 430–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fava, Patrice. 2014. Aux portes du ciel. La statuaire taoïste du Hunan. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Franke, Herbert. 1977. “Bemerkungen zum volkstümlichen Taoismus der Ming-Zeit”, Oriens Extremus 24/1–2, 205–15.Google Scholar
Geiss, James. 1988. “The Chia-ching reign”, in Mote, Frederick and Twitchett, Denis (eds), The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 7, The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644. Part I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 440510.Google Scholar
von Glahn, Richard. 2004. “The sociology of local religion in the Lake Tai basin”, in Lagerwey, John (ed.), Religion and Chinese Society. Paris and Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 773816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goossaert, Vincent and Palmer, David. 2011. The Religious Question in Modern China. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goossaert, Vincent. 2016. “The four lives of Zhang Yuchu 張宇初 (1361–1410), 43rd Heavenly Master”, Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 25, 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goossaert, Vincent. 2020. “Divine codes, spirit-writing, and the ritual foundations of early-modern Chinese morality books”, Asia Major 3d ser., 33/1, 131.Google Scholar
Huang, Susan Shih-shan. 2001. “Summoning the gods: paintings of three officials of heaven, earth and water and their association with Daoist ritual performance in the Southern Song period (1127–1279)”, Artibus Asiae 61/1, 552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiang, , Shoucheng 姜守誠, . 2007. “Sanyuan jing banben de wenxianxue yanjiu <《三元經》版本的文獻學研究>”, Chengda lishi xuebao, 33, 75118.Google Scholar
Kern, Martin. 2009. “Bronze inscriptions, the Shijing and the Shangshu: the evolution of the ancestral sacrifice during the Western Zhou”, in Lagerwey, John and Kalinowski, Marc (eds), Early Chinese Religion, Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC–220 AD). Leiden: Brill, 143200.Google Scholar
Kern, Martin. 2017. “The ‘Harangues’ (Shi 誓) in the Shangshu”, in Kern, Martin and Meyer, Dirk (eds), Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy: Studies in the Composition and Thought of the Shangshu (Classic of Documents). Leiden: Brill, 281319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleeman, Terry. 2008. “Three Offices”, in Pregadio, Fabrizio (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Taoism: London, Routledge, 833–34.Google Scholar
Kleeman, Terry. 2014. “The performance and significance of the merging the Pneumas (Heqi) rite in early Daoism”, Daoism: Religion, History and Society 6, 85112.Google Scholar
Kleeman, Terry. 2016. Celestial Masters: History and Ritual in Early Daoist Communities. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, Chi-Tim 黎志添. 2002. “Tian, di, shui sanguan xinyang yu zaoqi Tianshidao zhibing jiezui yishi 天地水三官信仰與早期天師道治病解罪儀式”, Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu 臺灣宗教研究 2, 138.Google Scholar
Lagerwey, John. 2005. “Scriptures are the dregs of the men of old: scripture and practice in comparative perspective”, in Andersen, Poul and Reiter, Florian (eds), Scripture, Schools and Forms of Practice in Daoism: A Berlin Symposium. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 4975.Google Scholar
Lagerwey, John. 2010. China: A Religious State. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Lagerwey, John. 2013. “Daojiao yu Zhongguo zongjiao wenhua zhi suowei yu wuwei 道教與中國宗教文化之所爲與無爲”, in Tim, Lai Chi 黎志添 (ed.), Shijiu shiji yilai Zhongguo difang daojiao bianqian 十九世紀以來中國地方道教變遷. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 459–71.Google Scholar
Lagerwey, John. 2019. “The emergence of a temple-centric society”, Minsu quyi 民俗曲藝, 205, 29102.Google Scholar
Legge, James. 1865. The Chinese Classics: With a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. Vol. III – Part III: The Fifth Part of the Shoo King, or the Book of Chow; and the Indexes. Hong Kong: London Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Little, Stephen. 2000. Taoism and the Arts of China. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, in association with Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
, Pengzhi. 2011. “Zaoqi daojiao jiaoyi jiqi liubian kaosuo [早期道教醮儀及其流變考索]”, in Lun, Tam Wai 譚偉倫 (ed.), Zhongguo difang zongjiao yishi lunji [中國地方宗教儀式論集]. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 19145.Google Scholar
Maspero, Henri. 1971. Le Taoïsme et les religions chinoises. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Meulenbeld, Mark. 2015. Demonic Warfare: Daoism, Territorial Networks, and the History of a Ming Novel. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reich, Aaron K. 2018. “Seeing the sacred: Daoist ritual, painted icons, and the canonization of a local god in Ming China”, PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Robinson, David M. (ed.). 2008. Culture, Courtiers, and Competition: The Ming Court (1368–1644). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, James. 2010. “The institution of Daoism in the central region (Xiangzhong) of Hunan”, Daoism: Religion, History and Society 10, 6594.Google Scholar
Schachter, Bony. 2018. “Printing the Dao: Zhou Xuanzhen, the editorial history of the jade slips of great clarity and Ming Quanzhen identity”, Daoism: Religion, History and Society 10, 186.Google Scholar
Schachter, Bony. 2020. “Taishang Yuanshi Tianzun shuo sanguan baohao 太上元始天尊說三官寶號–E47”, Chinese Religious Text Authority: https://crta.info/wiki/太上元始天尊說三官寶號_-_E47.Google Scholar
Schipper, Kristofer. 2004a. “Taishang dongxuan lingbao sanyuan pinjie gongde qingzhong jing”, in Schipper, Kristofer and Verellen, Franciscus (eds), The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 230–31.Google Scholar
Schipper, Kristofer. 2004b. “Taishang sanyuan cifu shezui jie'e xiaozai yansheng baoming miaojing”, in The Taoist Canon, 1226–7.Google Scholar
Schipper, Kristofer and Verellen, Franciscus (eds). 2004. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shaughnessy, Edward. 1993. “Shang shu 尚書 (Shu ching 書經)”, in Loewe, Michael (ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley, California: Society for the Study of Early China, and Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Verellen, Franciscus. 2019. Imperiled Destinies: The Daoist Quest for Deliverance in Medieval China. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Wang, Chien-ch'uan 王見川. 2020. “Ming-Qing Sanyuan/Sanguan dadi xinyang chutan 明清三元/三官大帝信仰初探”, in Chunwu, Fan 范純武 (ed.), Lishi, yishu yu Taiwan renwen luncong, 18. 歷史、藝術與台灣人文論叢, 十八, Xinbei: Boyang wenhua, 203–25.Google Scholar
Wang, Richard G. 2012. Ming Prince and Daoism: Institutional Patronage of an Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanhong, Wu and Yonglin, Jiang. 2007. “The Emperor's four bodies: embodied rulership and legal culture in early Ming China”, Frontiers of History in China, 2/1, 2559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar