Integrating Inner Alchemy into Late Ming Cultural History A Contextualization and Annotated ...

253 Pages·2009·6.64 MB·English

Integrating Inner Alchemy into Late Ming Cultural History
A Contextualization and Annotated Translation of Principles of the Innate Disposition
and the Lifespan (Xingming guizhi 性命圭旨) (1615)
by
Daniel Burton-Rose
B.A. Oberlin College 1998

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado
in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts
Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations
2009
This thesis entitled:
“Integrating Inner Alchemy into Late Ming Cultural History
A Contextualization and Annotated Translation of Principles of the Innate Disposition
and the Lifeforce (Xingming guizhi 性命圭旨) (1615)”
Written by Daniel Burton-Rose
Has been approved for the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations

_____________________________

Terry Kleeman, Committee Chair

_____________________________
Keller Kimbrough, Committee Member

_____________________________
J.P. Park, Committee Member

_____________________________
Antje Richter, Committee Member

Date_________
The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we
Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards
Of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline.
Burton-Rose, Daniel J. (M.A., Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations)
Integrating Inner Alchemy into Late Ming Cultural History:
A Contextualization and Annotated Translation of Principles of Innate Disposition and
the Lifespan (Xingming guizhi 性命圭旨) (1615)

Abstract
This thesis provides new perspective on elite and popular culture in late Ming and
early Qing China by an in-depth examination of the devotional practices of literati and
officials. I do so through a close examination of Principles of the Innate Disposition and
the Lifespan (Xingming guizhi 性命圭旨), which was first published in 1615 and has
been consistently reprinted down to the present day.
Chapter One provides a historical overview of the unfolding of Inner Alchemical
traditions and an overview of the contents of Principles, as well as a glimpse into the
social context of its initial audience through a discussion of the prefaces and its later
publication history down to the present day.
Chapter Two discusses the personal cultivation practice of Gao Panlong, a
prominent member of the upright Ruist Donglin Faction, contrasting it to the benign
attitude toward diverse teachings exhibited by Donglin associate and Principles preface
author Zou Yuanbiao. In so doing I aim to recast late Ming intellectual history as a
history of praxis, in which mental capabilities of perception and response were predicated
upon physically-rooted cultivation techniques.
In Chapter Three I survey the history of the male pregnancy motif which plays
such a prominent role in the rhetoric and iconography of Principles. Moving from the
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scriptures that depict early Daoist body gods from at least the 3rd century on to parodic
depictions of would be “immortal embryos” in Ming and Qing fiction such as Xiyouji and
Liaozhai zhiyi, I argue that a grasp of inner alchemical cultivation practices is necessary
to understand late imperial culture.
In addition I provide an annotated translation of roughly a fifth of Principles,
marking the first appearance in English of this material. Three appendices: translate the
entire Table of Contents of Principles; list editions of Principles; and identify the
numerous works cited in Principles.
Taken together this material provides long overdue attention to an important work
fast approaching its 400th year of publication. Beyond a narrow textual study, I aim to
open a fresh window through which to perceive literati and official culture in a period of
relative openness in late imperial China.

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Acknowledgments

In chronological order of aid given, I first wish to thank Li Chang-jun 李昌駿
patiently guided me through this text during the initial years of this project despite my
beginning from a point of illiteracy in Classical Chinese. It is on account of Professor Wu
Yi吳怡 of the California Institute of Integral Studies that Chang-jun assented to these
sessions, for which I thank Professor Wu. I would not have had the good fortune of
attending Professor Wu’s Saturday classes on various classics had not my godmother
Candace Falk, who always keeps my well-being in mind, discovered this opportunity.
Reaching further back I am grateful that my mother Julianne Burton-Carvajal
overpowered my wariness of white instructors of embodied Asian spiritual traditions and
encouraged me to attend classes at Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson’s International Institute of
Medical Qigong in Pacific Grove, California. Dr. Johnson first set me to translating
Principles, without he or I having any idea of just how long I’d stick with it.
I was extremely fortunate to encounter Professor Liu Xun 劉迅 in the spring of
2006 when he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Chinese Studies at UC
Berkeley. Already well-acquainted with Principles, he shared his knowledge generously,
provided encouragement and direction in research, and has aided me in every step of my
academic progress. The interest of Professor Ling Hon Lam, currently at Vanderbilt,
when he was at UC Berkeley also benefited Chapter One.
At the University of Colorado-Boulder my greatest debt is to Professor Terry
Kleeman, whose challenge of notions of Daoism I came in with prompted me to examine
Principles without recourse to comfortable categories. He generously met with me once a
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week for over a year to read together and discuss the text, clarifying passages and
enabling me to trace phrases and motifs to early occurrences or their origins. Likewise
Professor Antje Richter did me the wonderful favor of reading my translations against
Martina Darga’s rendition into German (a language of which I remain ignorant). Both she
and Professor Kleeman closely examined my translations against the original Chinese,
correcting passages I had misunderstood and improving my command of Chinese syntax
and grammar.
Professor Li Yuanguo 李遠國 of the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences in
Chengdu was an invaluable resource with fine details and the big picture. His enthusiastic
support from our first meeting in the summer of 2006 on not only improved this work
immeasurably but kept me convinced of its value. In the summer of 2008 he provided the
immense favor of going over with me all the names and titles that appear in Appendix III.
Professor Emeritus John Dardess graciously provided assistance in Ming particulars on
several occasions.
I delivered an early draft of portions of Chapter One at the International Forum of
Daoist Culture organized by the Institute of Daoism and Religious Studies at Sichuan
University in Chengdu, China, on August 25, 2006. The abstract appeared in the
published proceedings Daojiao wenhua guoji luntan 道教文化国际论坛as “Alchemical
Transportation—75 Years of Xingming guizhi in the West.” Professor Liu provided me
with the invitation while Gil Raz graciously provided an extemporaneous translation.
Zhang Guangbao 張廣寶 served as panel chair.
I first delivered a version of Chapter Two at the 11th Annual Harvard East Asia
Society Graduate Students Conference, February 29-March 2, 2008. My thanks to fellow
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panel participants, as well as to Professor Michael Puett, who served as discussant. I
presented a portion of this material under the title “Confucian Enlightenment: Gao
Panlong’s Writings on Quiet-Sitting” at the March 6-7, 2009 CUEGA conference.
Professors Peter Bol and Benjamin Elman also read this chapter, providing comments
and suggesting additional sources.
I delivered drafts of Chapter Three at the annual conference of the Colorado
University East Asia Graduate Association (CUEGA), April 12, 2008 (Richard von
Glahn, discussant), Stanford University Graduate Conference on Religion, April 25-26,
2008 (Fabrizio Pregadio and Robert Sharf, discussants), and the Western Conference of
the Association for Asian Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, September 12-14,
2008 (Terry Kleeman, Panel Chair). I also delivered a version at the 18th Annual
Graduate Student Conference on East Asia at Columbia University, February 6-7, 2009. I
wish to thank my fellow panelists Alexandre Iliouchine and Daniel Trambaiolo, as well
as our discussant Stephen Boyanton. I am also grateful to Douglas Gildow and Elena
Valussi for their comments. Professor Clarke Hudson provided extremely helpful
remarks on Chapters Two and Three, not all of which, I regret, I’ve been able to act on at
this time.
Finally, I presented selected translations from Part II at the Daoist Historical
Documents Conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder from March 8-9. Some of
this material, in conjunction with Chapter Three, will appear as a chapter in a
forthcoming anthology edited by Terry Kleeman tentatively titled Eight Doors to the Dao.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.........................................................................................................v
List of Illustrations.......................................................................................................xiii
Introduction...................................................................................................................xvi
Conventions......................................................................................................xvii

I. Contexts
Chapter One Alchemical Transformation: Late Imperial, Modern and Contemporary
Discourses on the Principles of Innate Disposition and the Lifespan…………2
The Unfolding of Inner Alchemy……………………………………………...2
The Title……………………………………………………………………….6
Overview of the Contents……………………………………………………...8
Textual History………………………………………………………………...9
Daoist Modern: Chen Yingning’s Transcendents’ Path……………………...15
Fanning the Flames of Qigong Fever: Contemporary Editions………………18
The Yin and Yang of Imperialist Spiritualism………………………………..20
Daoist Studies………………………………………………………………...23
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………25

Chapter Two Cultivation Practices of Donglin Faction (1604-1626) Members: Eclectic
Influences Evident Among Archetypal Ruist Reformers……………………..26
Inner Alchemy and Conservative Political Factions in the Northern Song…..28
At What Price Orthodoxy?:
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Song Dynasty Learning of the Principles Revisited…………………..29
Zhu Xi’s Works in Daoist Collections………………………………………..34
Gao Panglong and Quiet-sitting………………………………………………36
Ruist Enlightenment…………………………………………………………..38
Zou Yuanbiao, Champion of Unorthodox Teachings………………………...44
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….52

Chapter Three Nurturing the Holy Embryo, Birthing the Yang Spirit: The Male
Pregnancy Motif in Daoist Meditation and Inner Alchemy………………….53
Inner Alchemy Prefigured: The Infant as Early Daoist Body God…………..54
The Ordered Work…………………………………………………………...58
Tangible Results……………………………………………………………..59
Sexing Sexlessness…………………………………………………………..62
Competitive Transcendence: Inferior Practices and Failed Practitioners…....65
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...72

II. Translations
Prefaces1
1a. Zou Yuanbiao 鄒元標 (1551-1624) undated “Dedicatory Inscription on the
Complete Edition of the Perfected Yin’s Principles of the Innate Disposition
and the Lifespan”………………………………………………………74
1c. Wu Zhihe 吳之鶴 1615 “Postscript to Principles of the Myriad

1 Prefaces are listed in chronological order, the opposite of how they appear in the original. The sequence of
their alphabetical designation reflects their actual position. All numbers identifying translations correspond
to the full table of contents of Principles provided in Appendix I.
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Spirits Dual Cultivation of Innate Disposition and the Lifespan”…..77
1d. You Tong 尤侗 (1618-1704) 1669 “Preface”……………………………..79
1e. Li Pu 李樸 1670 “Preface to Principles of the Myriad Spirits Dual
Cultivation of Innate Disposition and the Lifespan”………………...82

Part I
1. Three Sages (Image)………………………………………………………………84
5. The Heterodox and the Orthodox (Partial Translation)…………………………...88
7. Reverse Illumination………………………………………………………………95
8. Illumination of Time………………………………………………………………100
9. Inner Illumination…………………………………………………………………104
6-9. [Three Registers]………………………………………………………………..106
10. The Supreme Polarity (Diagram and Instructions for Bringing the Supreme Polarity
into Play)……………………………………………………………………….108
12. The Fire Dragon and the Water Tiger (Image and Discourse)…………………...113
13. The Sun Raven and the Moon Hare (Image and Discourse)……………………..116
14. The Greater and the Lesser Cauldrons and Their Furnaces (Image and Discourse)118
16. Following and Reversing Course and the Three Passes (Image and Discourse)…122
19. The Whitesouls and the Cloudsouls (Image and Discourse)……………………...126
20. Light of the Toad………………………………………………………………….129
21. Subduing the Dragon……………………………………………………………...133
22. Taming the Tiger………………………………………………………………….136
23. The Three Families Call Upon One Another (Image and Discourse)…………….139
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