The Seal of the Unity of the Three — Vol. 2 - The Golden Elixir

190 II. Commentaries, Essays, and Related Works
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1. PENG HAOGU
[16] Guwen cantong qi 古 文 參 同 契 , 1599
No precise details about Peng Haogu 彭 好 古 (fl. 1586–99, from
Hubei) and his life appear to be available. His upholding the “joint
cultivation of xing and ming” (xingming shuangxiu 性 命 雙 修 )
suggests, however, that he was in touch with Taoist circles. In this
perspective, Peng Haogu also rejects the commentaries by Chen Zhixu
and Yu Yan, which he deems to be respectively related to the “Yin-
Yang” and the “Qingxiu” (Pure Cultivation) branches of Neidan. 11
The Guwen cantong qi (Ancient Text of the Cantong qi) is divided
into the sections Jingwen 經 文 (3 pian), Jianzhu 箋 注 (3 pian), and
San xianglei 三 相 類 (2 pian), and follows the sequence of the “original”
Ancient Text (see the table on p. 189).
2. JIANG YIBIAO
[18] Guwen cantong qi jijie 古 文 參 同 契 集 解 , 1614
According to his own statement, Jiang Yibiao 蔣 一 彪 (fl. 1614, from
Zhejiang) based his Guwen cantong qi jijie (Collected Explications on
the Ancient Text of the Cantong qi) on an edition of the Ancient Text
containing Yang Shen’s preface, but no commentary. To this edition he
added selections from the commentaries by Peng Xiao, Chen Xianwei,
Yu Yan, and Chen Zhixu, rearranged according to the ordering of the
Ancient Text. The work follows the sequence of the “original” Ancient
Text (see the table on p. 189), except that the portion corresponding
to section 27 is found after sections 72–73. 12
11
These remarks are found in the preface to the Daoyan neiwai bijue
quanshu and in the preface to the Cantong qi commentary, respectively. On
Peng Haogu and his works see the entry by Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein in
Pregadio, ed., The Encyclopedia of Taoism, 2:785–86.
12
On Jiang Yibiao’s work see the descriptive note in Siku quanshu
zongmu, 146.1249–50, which consists, however, almost entirely in a criticism
of the Ancient Text.
© Fabrizio Pregadio and Golden Elixir Press 2012