The Zhengao (真誥, Declarations of the Perfected) written in 499 CE is the Shangqing Daoist patriarch Tao Hongjing's comprehensive collection of poetry and prose from the original "Shangqing revelations", which were supposedly given to the mystic Yang Xi by a group of Daoist zhenren Perfected Ones from 364 to 370. This classic text has long been famous both as a foundational text of religious Daoism and as a brilliant exemplar of medieval Chinese poetry.
History
The Zhengao is a compendium of Shangqing Daoist materials transmitted by the Eastern Jin dynasty scholar and mystic Yang Xi (330-c. 386) and his patrons Xu Mi (許谧, 303–376) and Xu Hui (許翽, 341-c. 370). The large, aristocratic Xu (許) family was from Jurong, Jiangsu, which was the Eastern Jin capital Jiankang (modern Nanjing) from 317 to 420. Following the Xu family tradition of government service, Xu Mi and his son Hui were officials in the court of Emperor Ai, unlike Xu Mi's elder brother Xu Mai (許邁, 300–348) who converted to the Way of the Celestial Masters, resigned from his official career and devoted himself to Daoist studies and practices. In 362, the Xus employed Yang Xi as their household shaman and spiritual advisor, and two years later when he first established contact with the Perfected Ones from the previously unknown heaven of Shangqing (上清, Highest/Supreme Clarity), they prophesied that the Xu family would have an important role in transmitting the prophetic revelations.
According to Shangqing School tradition, between 364 and 370, Yang Xi had a series of midnight visions in which Perfected Ones appeared to him in order to reveal their sacred scriptures, talismans, and secret registers, as well as their instructions concerning personal matters such as health and longevity. Yang wrote down the content of every vision in ecstatic verse, recording the date along with the name and description of each Perfected who appeared. The purpose of the revelations was to set up a new syncretic faith that claimed to be superior to all earlier Daoist traditions. Most texts revealed by Yang Xi were intended for the family patriarch Xu Mi, his relatives, and friends.
The visions appeared to Yang Xi alone, and he said the Perfected directed him to transcribe the revelations for transmission to Xu Mi and Xu Hui, who would make additional copies. The Zhengao says the Perfected women told Yang that since they could not express themselves in debased human writing, he would act as an intermediary, rendering their words in his own outstanding calligraphy. After each transmission the Perfected checked that he transcribed their words correctly and then "presented" it back to him as if they had written it themselves. The heavenly maidens who visited Yang at night "never write themselves, neither with their hands nor with their feet", but instead would take his hand and engage him in a "sublime relationship" while he transcribed the sacred textsTr. .
The Perfected who appeared to Yang Xi constituted three groups. The first were early saints in the Shangqing movement. The three brothers Mao Ying (茅盈), Mao Gu (茅固), and Mao Zhong (茅衷), referred to as the Three Lords Mao, supposedly lived in the Western Han dynasty. Perfected Lady Wei Huacun (252–334), a Way of the Celestial Masters adept proficient in Daoist meditation techniques was among the Perfected, and she became Yang's xuanshi (玄師, Teacher in the Invisible World). Another notable example is the legendary xian transcendent Zhou Yishan (周義山, b. 80 BCE). The second group includes Yang Xi's bride, the Perfected Consort An (安妃), the Ninefold Florescent Perfected Consort in the Upper Palace of Purple Clarity, and her mythological parents Master Redpine and Lady Li (李夫人). The third are the Queen Mother of the West's daughters, such as the Lady of Purple Tenuity (紫微夫人) who served as matchmaker between Yang Xi and Consort An.
After Xu Mi died in 376, Xu Hui's son Xu Huangmin (許黄民, 361–429) spent several years compiling all the available Yang-Xu transcribed texts. He first distributed copies among the Xu family and their friends. Early readers of these revealed texts were impressed both by the erudite literary style of ecstatic verse and the artistic calligraphy of Yang Xi and Xu Hui.
Manuscripts concerning the Shangqing revelations later were collected by several eminent Daoists. Notably, Gu Huan (顧歡, c. 425-c. 487) edited a compilation of Yang-Xu texts entitled Zhenji (真跡, Traces of the Perfected), which became the model for Tao Hongjing's 499 Zhengao. Tao's postface notes differences between the two collections of Yang-Xu manuscripts. The Zhenji includes secondary texts such as biographies of the Daoist hermit Xu Mai by his famous calligrapher friends Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, while the Zhengao is restricted to the revealed texts and their historical context. Gu's work was composed of facsimile tracings of the manuscripts, while Tao's more accessible work included his calligraphic analysis of who wrote each component text.
The eminent Shangqing scholar and alchemist Tao Hongjing (456–536) collected, annotated, and redacted all the available autograph fragmentary Yang-Xu manuscripts. Based upon his remarkable familiarity with the calligraphy of Yang Xi, Xu Mi, and Xu Hui, Tao was able to judge authenticity and to eliminate forgeries, resulting in an early example of text-critical scholarship. Tao's painstakingly endeavors resulted in two texts. The esoteric c. 493-514 Dengzhen yinjue (登真隱訣, Concealed Instructions for the Ascent to Perfection), which provides technical guidance for Shangqing adepts, and the 499 Zhengao, which was intended for a broader audience of laypeople.
Tao Hongjing's Zhengao Declarations of the Perfected survives as a complete work, with interpolations and commentarial additions. Standard editions are found in the 1444 Daozang Daoist Canon (CT 1016) and the 1782 Siku Quanshu literary collection. The received text of Zhengao is dated 499, with a preface by Gao Sisun (高似孫) dated 1223.
In English, there are only partial translations of the Zhengao. Bokenkamp translated some prose and seven poems, Kroll translated nine poems, and Schipper two. Smith made an annotated translated of Chapter 1.
In Japanese, there are Zhengao (Shinkō) reference works and a full translation. Ishii (1971–72) and (1987) compiled indexes of the people, places, and titles mentioned in the text, and Mugitani created a concordance. Yoshikawa and Mugitani wrote an annotated translation.
Title Tao Hongjing titled his book with zhēn (真 or 眞, "real; true; perfected"; as in Gu Huan's Zhenji Traces of the Perfected) and gào (誥, "proclamation; announcement"), denoting that its contents were divinely inspired. Daoist zhenren "Perfected" deities gao "dictated" the Shangqing revelations to highly literate medium and shaman Yang Xi.
In the historical linguistics of the Chinese language, "Medieval Chinese" was used in texts during the 4th and 5th centuries when the Zhengao was written and compiled. Owing to the significant differences in word meanings between Medieval and Modern Chinese, the following semantic discussion of zhen and gao will summarize English translation equivalents from Paul W. Kroll's dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese.
Zhēn (from Middle Chinese tsyin) (眞 or 真) had complex abstract meanings. real, true < true to its own nature; natural, authentic, genuine. ... a. what really is supposed to be ... b. pure, perfect, of thoroughgoing genuineness ... c. realize(d), perfect(ed), actualize or bring to completion one's inherent qualities ... d. ideal, worthy to be imitated. true < what is real and not illusory ... a. consistent with fact or reality ... b. accurate; truthful(ness); verity ... really, actually, truly, indeed. ...
The Daoist term zhēnrén (真人) has many English translations such as "Real Person", "Authentic Person", "True Person", "Perfected Person", and "Perfected". Kroll clarifies the difference between Daoist and Buddhist usages: "(1.c.) zhēnrén, Realized Persons, the Perfected, term found as early as the 6th chapter of Zhuangzi and used in various movements, but esp[ecially] influential in Shangqing Dao[ism] to designate the highest class of divine beings whose home is in the Shangqing heaven and who are completely spiritualized."; "(2.) … zhēnrén, "one who embodies truth," [transcription] of Sanskrit arhat...
Chinese zhēn "real; true; genuine; etc." is written with several variant characters in East Asian languages, illustrating the Unicode compatibility difficulties with encoding CJK [Chinese, Japanese, and Korean] characters.
The early graph 眞 (U+771E) is now an outdated traditional Chinese character, Korean hanja, Vietnamese Chữ Nôm, and Japanese kyūjitai ("old character form") kanji. There are variations of the calligraphic strokes below the mù 目 "eye" component in 眞. This 10-stroke 眞 graph has a single "down and right" pattern (cf. 乚); which the 11-stroke 眞 (U+2F945) replaces with a 2-stroke "down and stop, right" version.
The modern 真 is both the traditional and simplified Chinese character, and the Japanese shinjitai ("new character form"). Note the change of the original bǐ 匕 "spoon" at the top of 眞 (compare the Small seal script in the infobox above) to shí 十 "ten". There are Sino-Japanese variations on the horizontal line below the 目 "eye" element; Chinese (U+771F) connects it with the horizontal line, while Japanese (U+2F947) separates them.
Gào (Middle Chinese kawH) 誥 had comparatively more concrete semantics. proclaim, proclamation; announce(ment); from med[ieval] times exclusively superior to inferior. ... a. royal proclamation conferring noble title or special recognition; entitlement. exhortation; advisory instruction to subordinate, monition. oracle, announcement from a divinity. The traditional Chinese character 誥 or simplified 诰 is classified as a radical-phonetic character, composed from the "speech" radical yán 言 and a gào (MC kawh or kowk) 告 "announce, proclaim; report; exhort; accuse" phonetic element.
Scholars either transliterate the title (Zhengao, Zhen Gao, Chen-kao, etc.) or translate it: True Reports Declarations of Perfected Immortals Proclamations of the Perfected Pronouncements of the Perfected Authentic Declarations and Declarations of the Perfected The Proclamation of the Perfect
Content The Zhengao primarily contains Yang Xi's writings that purport to convey the teachings revealed in his spiritual visions. Tao Hongjing's redacted fragments relate the circumstances of the revelations, the Perfected Ones' explanations and interpretations of their scriptures and methods, private correspondences between Yang and the Xus, and responses to their direct questions addressed to the Shangqing divinities. Tao regularly comments on the authenticity of a text and whether he considered it an original Shangqing fragment. Gao Sisun's preface uses the weaving terms jīng (經, warp) and wěi (緯, weft)—alluding to the literary terms jīngshū (經書, classics; scriptures) and wěishū (緯書, esoteric glosses on the classics) —to describe the Zhengao as the "weft" background of the Shangqing revelations.
Tao Hongjing's received Zhengao is divided into seven piān (篇, chapters) and twenty juǎn (卷, volumes), but this was not the original format. It was initially arranged into ten juan, or ten pian according to some later references. In the present text, chapters 1, 2, and 4 are each split in two parts, making ten chapters altogether, and the arrangement into twenty volumes results from the further subdivision of each chapter into two parts.
Each chapter has a three-character title, emulating the New Text school's apocryphal chènwěi (讖緯, "mystical Confucian prophetical works of Eastern Han"). In the table below, chapter 1 and 2 translations are by Smith while the others are tentative.