Why and How to Read the Zhuangzi? Late Ming Neidan Master Cheng Yining's Answer
Author: Jean Angles (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes - Paris Sciences et Lettres, Religious Sciences Section, Doctoral Student)
Vol.&No.：Vol. 65, No. 2
Date：September 2020
Pages：147-169
DOI：10.6210/JNTNU.202009_65(2).0007
Abstract：
The Commentary and Sub-commentary to the True Classic of Southern Splendor is a late Ming commentary on the Zhuangzi, which interprets it from a Neidan perspective. The author Cheng Yining develops an original hermeneutical strategy, seldom seen in the history of Zhuangzi exegesis: he reads the Zhuangzi as an inner alchemy classic, and his commentary aims to uncover its alchemical meaning. To support his reading, Cheng Yining creates a new figure for the author Zhuangzi, who becomes a transformation body of the Most High Lord Lao, and writes the Southern Splendor to reveal to the world the road to immortality using “symbolic words.” Cheng Yining’s goal is to decipher those symbols, thus offering what he sees as the sole way of reading the Zhuangzi that remains true to its original intent. His commentary stands as a meritorious deed, accomplished by Cheng Yining to provide the real meaning of the Zhuangzi, and to gain the Most High Lord Lao’s help to complete his own inner alchemical practice.
Keywords：Cheng Yining, hermeneutics, inner alchemy, Late Ming thought, Zhuangzi
《Full Text》
.0007.jpg)
References：
- Ming‧Cheng Yining. 《南華真經注疏》 (Nanhua zhenjing zhushu). Vol. 9,《道藏輯要──牛集》 (Daozang jiyao: Ox Lodge, sections 9-12), (Taipei, Taiwan: Kaozheng Publishing Co., reprint, 1971), 3991-4032.
- Ming‧Cheng Yining.《南華真經注疏》 (Nanhua zhenjing zhushu). Vol. 10,《道藏輯要──牛集》 (Daozang jiyao: Ox Lodge, sections 9-12), (Taipei, Taiwan: Kaozheng Publishing Co., reprint, 1971), 4035-4188.
- Ming‧Lu Xixing. 《南華真經副墨》 (Nanhua zhenjing fumo), notes and punctuation by Jiang Menma (Beijing, China: Chung Hwa Book Co., Lt., 2010).
- Chen Yinghui.〈陰陽丹旨的全身全真：程以寧《南華真經注疏》淺析〉 (The Cultivation and Purification of Body and Mind in the Theory of Yindan and Yangdan-An Analysis of Cheng Yining’s Annotation and Explanation of True Scripture of Southern Florescence), 《鵝湖月刊》 (Legein Monthly), 499 (2017): 26-36.
- Eichman, Jennifer. A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2016).
» More
- Ming‧Cheng Yining. 《南華真經注疏》 (Nanhua zhenjing zhushu). Vol. 9,《道藏輯要──牛集》 (Daozang jiyao: Ox Lodge, sections 9-12), (Taipei, Taiwan: Kaozheng Publishing Co., reprint, 1971), 3991-4032.
- Ming‧Cheng Yining.《南華真經注疏》 (Nanhua zhenjing zhushu). Vol. 10,《道藏輯要──牛集》 (Daozang jiyao: Ox Lodge, sections 9-12), (Taipei, Taiwan: Kaozheng Publishing Co., reprint, 1971), 4035-4188.
- Ming‧Lu Xixing. 《南華真經副墨》 (Nanhua zhenjing fumo), notes and punctuation by Jiang Menma (Beijing, China: Chung Hwa Book Co., Lt., 2010).
- Chen Yinghui.〈陰陽丹旨的全身全真：程以寧《南華真經注疏》淺析〉 (The Cultivation and Purification of Body and Mind in the Theory of Yindan and Yangdan-An Analysis of Cheng Yining’s Annotation and Explanation of True Scripture of Southern Florescence), 《鵝湖月刊》 (Legein Monthly), 499 (2017): 26-36.
- Eichman, Jennifer. A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2016).
- Epstein, Sara. “Boundaries of the Dao: Hanshan Deqing’s (1546-1623) Buddhist Commentary on the Zhuangzi” (Ph. D. diss, Stanford University, 2006).
- Esposito, Monica. Creative Daoism (Paris, France: University Media, 2013).
- Fang Yong.《莊子學史》 (Zhuangzixue shi), vol. 2 (Beijing, China: People’s Publishing House, 2008).
- Hsiao Chinming.《反身體道：內丹密契主義研究》 (Fanshen tidao: Neidan miqizhuyi yanjiu) (Taipei, Taiwan: Shinwenfeng Publishing Co., 2009).
- Kohn, Livia. God of the Dao: Lord Lao in History and Myth (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies Publications, 1998).
- Lai Chi Tim.〈《呂祖全書正宗》──清代北京覺源壇的歷史及其呂祖天仙派信仰〉 (The Lüzu quanshu zhengzong: The History of the Jueyuan Altar of Beijing and the Cult of its Lüzu Tianxian Lineage during the Qing Dynasty), 《中國文哲研究集刊》 (Zhongguo wenzhe yanjiu jikan), 46 (2015): 101-149.
- ＿＿＿＿. 〈明清道教呂祖降乩信仰的發展及相關文人乩壇研究〉(A Study of the Development of Lüzu’s Spirit-Writing Cult and the Related Literati Spirit-Writing Altars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties), 《中國文化研究所學報》 (Journal of Chinese Studies), 65(2017): 139-179.
- Liu Xun. “Numinous Father and Holy Mother: Late Ming Duo Cultivation Practice,” in Internal Alchemy: Self, Society, and the Quest for Immortality, eds. Livia Kohn and Robin R. Wang (St. Petersburg, FL: Three Pines Press, 2009), 121-141.
- Liu Zhongyu.〈內丹家眼中的莊子〉 (Neidan jia yanzhong de Zhuangzi), in《全真道與老莊學國際學術研討會論文集》 (Quanzhendao yu laozhuang xue guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwen ji) (vol. 1), ed. Xiong Tieji and Zifei Mai (Wuhan, China: Central China Normal University Press, 2009), 518-528.
- Lu Miawfen.《成聖與家庭人倫：宗教對話脈絡下的明清之際儒學》(Chengsheng yu jiating renlun: Zongjiao duihua mailuo xia de mingqingzhiji ruxue) (Taipei, Taiwan: Linking Publishing Co., 2016).
- Mozias, Ilia. The Literati Path to Immortality: The Alchemical Teachings of Lu Xixing (St. Petersburg, FL: Three Pines Press, 2020).
- Pregadio, Fabrizio. “Laozi and Internal Alchemy,” in Reading the Signs: Philology, History, Prognostication. Festschrift for Michael Lackner, eds. Iwo Amelung and Joachim Kurtz (Munich, Germany: Iudicium, 2018), 271-302.
- Puett, Michael. “Violent Misreadings: the Hermeneutics of Cosmology in the Huainanzi,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 72 (2000): 29-47.
- Reiter, Florian. Leben und Wirken Lao Tzu’s in Schrift und Bild: Lao-chün pa-shih-i-hua-t’u-shuo (Würzburg, Germany: Königshausen und Neumann, 1990).
- Robinet, Isabelle. “Chuang-tzu et le taoïsme ‘religieux,’” Journal of Chinese Religions, 11.3 (1983): 59-105.
- Xiong Tieji, ed. 《太上道德寶章翼》 (Taishang Daode baozhang yi). Vol. 8,《老子集成》 (Laozi jicheng), by Ming‧Cheng Yining (Beijing, China: China Religious Culture Publisher, 2011), 231-291.
- Yan Lingfeng, ed. 《無求備齋莊子集成續編》 (Wuqiu beizhai Zhuangzi jicheng xubian). Vol. 28, no. 29,《南華真經注疏》 (Nanhua zhenjing zhushu), by Ming‧Cheng Yining (Taipei, Taiwan: Yeewen Publishing Co. 1974).
- Yang Rurbin.《儒門內的莊子》 (Rumen nei de Zhuangzi) (Taipei, Taiwan: Linking Publishing Co., 2016).
- Ziporyn, Brook. Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2020).