Cheng Xuanying's Subcommentary on the Zhuangzi南华真经注疏（成玄英）
- Also known as
- Subcommentary on the Zhuangzi, Subcommentary on the Nanhua zhenjing
- Author / transmission
- Cheng Xuanying
- Period
- Tang · Written by Cheng Xuanying (active c. 631–655) in the early Tang.
- Canon division
- Dongshen Section, Yujue Category
- Collected in
- Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongshen Section, Yujue Category
- Category
- Daoist Philosophy
- Fascicles
- Thirty-five scrolls
Synopsis
Cheng Xuanying's Subcommentary on the Zhuangzi is the subcommentary written on Guo Xiang's commentary by Cheng Xuanying, the great master of Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) learning in the early Tang, and is a representative work of Tang-dynasty Daoist philosophy. Cheng Xuanying interpreted the Zhuangzi using the Buddhist Madhyamaka method of "double negation," promoting the doctrine of "Twofold Mystery": negating both being and non-being, and then negating that very negation, "mystery upon mystery," thereby arriving at freedom from all attachment; he held, through the notions of "Dao-nature" and "true nature," that all people can return to the Dao, and spoke of the state of realization as "the mutual effacement of object and wisdom." The subcommentary explains the text passage by passage, drawing on both Wang Bi and Guo Xiang as well as Buddhist technical terms, in elegant prose, and is a key document for understanding how Tang Daoism responded to the challenge of Buddhist thought. Cheng Xuanying also wrote a Subcommentary on the Meaning of the Daodejing, which together with this work forms the twin pillars of Chongxuan learning. The Qing scholar Guo Qingfan's Collected Explanations of the Zhuangzi recorded Guo Xiang's commentary and Cheng Xuanying's subcommentary together, ensuring their transmission to the present.
Key Ideas
- Chongxuan's double negation: mystery upon mystery
- The theory of Dao-nature: all beings possess Dao-nature
- The mutual effacement of object and wisdom, an empty mind merging with things
- A method of interpretation reconciling Buddhism and Daoism
Structure
A passage-by-passage subcommentary following Guo Xiang's thirty-three-chapter text, preceded by a Preface to the Zhuangzi.
Editions
- Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era edition
- Included in Guo Qingfan's Collected Explanations of the Zhuangzi
- Cao Chuji and Huang Lanfa (punct. and coll.), Subcommentary on the Zhuangzi (Zhonghua Book Company, 1998)
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Zhuangzi, Guo Xiang's Commentary on the Zhuangzi, Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist TeachingRelated figures
Cheng Xuanying, Guo Xiang- 卢国龙《中国重玄学》
- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
- 曹础基等点校本前言