Register of the Cinnamon of Cinnabar丹桂籍

Also known as

Register of the Cinnamon of Cinnabar of Lord Wenchang, Annotated Cases of the Register of the Cinnamon of Cinnabar

Author / transmission

Qing-dynasty compilation; commentators said to include Huang Zhengyuan and others

Period

Qing · A Qing-dynasty compendium of Wenchang-cult morality-book texts, centered on the Tract on Hidden Merit of Lord Wenchang with appended stories, annotated cases, and related scriptures; editions are numerous, with compilers and annotators varying between them.

Canon division

Outside the Canon (Qing-dynasty morality book)

Collected in

Outside the canon.

Category

Morality Books (Shanshu)

Fascicles

Juan count varies by edition

Synopsis

The Register of the Cinnamon of Cinnabar is a Qing-dynasty compilation of morality-book texts centered on the cult of Wenchang Dijun; 'cinnabar cinnamon' (dangui) alludes to 'breaking off a branch of cinnamon' as a metaphor for success in the imperial examinations, and 'register' (ji) refers to the roster of examination success kept by the Celestial Bureaucracy, conveying the idea that 'doing good may earn one a place on the roster of examination success.' The work typically takes the Tract on Hidden Merit of Lord Wenchang as its trunk, appending annotations and 'evidentiary cases' (verifying anecdotes) to each line, together with related texts such as the Tract of Lord Wenchang Admonishing against Lust, the Statutes on Cherishing Written Paper, the Classic of Filial Piety of Lord Wenchang, and the Treatise on Action and Response, forming a comprehensive volume of moral exhortation aimed at the scholar class. Its core message binds examination success to virtuous conduct: success or failure in the examinations depends not only on literary talent but also on hidden merit, cherishing written paper, abstaining from lust, and helping others; the book is full of stories following the pattern of a candidate who passes because he has accumulated merit, or fails because his conduct has been corrupt. Texts of this kind circulated widely in Qing-dynasty academies, Wenchang temples, and paper-cherishing societies, and are important material for studying the social psychology of the examination system, the moral anxieties of the literati class, and the publishing of morality books. Because so many commercial editions were printed, the number of fascicles, the table of contents, and the compilers and annotators vary considerably between editions.

Key Ideas

• A morality-book compilation built around the Tract on Hidden Merit
• Binding examination success to hidden merit
• An exhortatory pattern built on evidentiary-case anecdotes
• Scholarly virtues such as cherishing written paper and abstaining from lust
• Many commercial editions, with considerable variation between them

Structure

Organized around the Tract on Hidden Merit, divided into chapters with annotations and appended cases, with related scriptures attached.

Editions

• Various Qing-dynasty commercial and charitable-hall editions
• Related compendia within the Wendi quanshu

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: search
• Wikipedia: Wenchang Dijun

Related scriptures