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

3. Ming and Qing Dynasties 161
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contains the text found in Zhang Wenlong’s commentary of 1566,
which in turn is based on Chen Zhixu’s redaction. 7
During the Ming period, Du Yicheng created the “Ancient
Text” (“Guwen”) version of the Cantong qi, which Yang Shen later
republished under his own name (see pp. 185 ff.). Ten commentaries
to this version are extant. The Ancient Text also inspired the new,
atypical formats of the standard version of the Cantong qi contained
in the commentaries by Xu Wei, Li Guangdi, and Li Shixu. Finally,
several commentaries to the standard text—those by Peng Xiao, Chen
Xianwei, Yu Yan, Chen Zhixu, Lu Xixing, and Zhu Yuanyu—were
adapted to the format of the Ancient Text and republished in miscellanea
by Jiang Yibiao, Ji Dakui, and Gong Yitu. 8 A related but inverse
phenomenon also occurred: from the Ming period onward, the authors
of several Ming and Qing commentaries to the standard version
of the Cantong qi increasingly discuss its authorship in terms of a
“Canon” (“Jing” 經 ) attributed to Wei Boyang, and a
“Commentary” (“Zhu” 注 ) attributed to Xu Congshu, a view directly
inspired by the format of the Ancient Text.
7
The 1592 expanded version of the collection is entitled Guang Han Wei
congshu 廣 漢 魏 叢 書 . All the main indicators of textual filiation show that it
contains Chen Zhixu’s text in the version edited by Zhang Wenlong, but two
details are sufficient to demonstrate it. (1) The text is divided into the same 35
chapters of Chen Zhixu, but the first chapter is not numbered, and the
remaining chapters are numbered from 1 to 34, as in Zhang Wenlong’s text.
(2) The redactions prior to Chen Zhixu record verse 32:8 as “The Flowing
Pearl is the mother of Water” ( 流 珠 水 之 母 ). Chen Zhixu changes this verse to
“The Flowing Pearl is the child of Water” ( 流 珠 水 之 子 ), and adds a gloss
saying “The graph mu 母 (‘mother’) is wrong” (「 作 『 母 』 字 非 」). Zhang
Wenlong, in turn, alters Chen Zhixu’s text into “the Flowing Pearl is the child
of Wood” 流 珠 木 之 子 . In order to account for this change, but nevertheless
preserve the gloss, Zhang Wenlong also alters the gloss into “The graph xiao
孝 (‘filial son’) is wrong” (「 作 『 孝 』 字 非 」). The same variant and the
same gloss are found in the Han Wei congshu.
8
Despite its title, the Chongzheng Guwen zhouyi cantong qi zhenyi (True
Meaning of the Ancient Text of the Zhouyi cantong qi, Newly Emended; no.
17), by Huang Shiying 黃 士 英 (prob. late sixteenth century), does not follow
the arrangement of the Ancient Text. This work includes the commentaries
by Peng Xiao, Chen Xianwei, and Chen Zhixu.
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