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

1. Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties 113
—————————————————————————————————————————
however, describes the work as divided into three parts, the last of
which was entitled The Five Categories (Wu xianglei 五 相 類 ) and is
said to have consisted of explications on the first two parts. 8
Moreover, the commentary refers twice to passages that are found in
the latter parts of the text. This shows that the commentary originally
included the whole Cantong qi. 9
In addition to mentions of place names officially adopted together
only between the years 686 and 760 (with the important indication
that those places were the current sources of certain minerals), other
details support Chen Guofu’s suggestion. All texts and authors
quoted in the commentary were written or lived before or during the
early Tang period. The evidence provided by tabooed graphs is not
unequivocal, but the graphs forming the personal names of Taizong
太 宗 (r. 626–49) and Gaozong 高 宗 (r. 649–83) are often replaced by
other graphs. 10 Meng Naichang has provided another substantial
indication on the date of the commentary, pointing out that a verse in
the anonymous preface is quoted in two Tang texts. 11
8
Zhouyi cantong qi zhu (CT 1004), 1.2a.
9
See Zhouyi cantong qi zhu, 1.19b ( 故 下 文 云 「 諕 諕 如 嬰 兒 慕 母 」,
compare verses 78:9–10); and 1.20a ( 下 篇 又 云 「 挺 除 武 都 」, verse 87:19).
These statements show that the second and third chapters are missing in the
present version because they were lost by the time the Taoist Canon was
compiled—and not (as suggested in Schipper and Verellen, eds., Taoist
Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang, 1:331) because the author
“considers only [the first juan] to be the authentic work of Wei Boyang.” In
fact, the preface to this commentary states that Wei Boyang played no active
role in the composition of the Cantong qi, which is Xu Congshi’s 徐 從 事
work (see Pregadio, The Seal, vol. 1, p. 10 note 14).
10
Two of five occurrences of shi 世 (part of the personal name of
Taizong) are replaced with su 俗 in the main text (1.42a and 2.31a). Both
characters, however, are found in the commentary, where shi 世 appears ten
times and su 俗 nine times. Min 民 (also part of Taizong’s name) does not
occur at all in the whole text. One of three occurrences of zhi 治 (part of the
personal name of Gaozong) in the main text is replaced with li 理 (1.34b). Zhi
治 appears twelve times in the commentary, while li 理 —the most common
replacement for zhi 治 for taboo avoidance—appears about three dozen times.
To further contradict any clear pattern, this redaction of the Cantong qi reads
zhi 治 in verse 36:12, where other redactions have fei 飛 or zhi 之 . A possible
reason of these inconsistencies is that, after the Tang dynasty, the tabooed
graphs found in this commentary were replaced with the original forms, but
not in a consistent way.
Visit the Web page on this book • www.goldenelixir.com