Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching道教义枢
- Author / transmission
- Meng Anpai
- Period
- Tang · Compiled by Meng Anpai, around the period of Wu Zetian's Zhou dynasty to the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (late 7th to early 8th century); the present text has ten scrolls and thirty-seven entries, though the original list must have contained more.
- Canon division
- Taiping Section
- Collected in
- Zhengtong Daozang, Taiping Section
- Category
- Encyclopedic Compendia (Leishu)
- Fascicles
- In ten scrolls, thirty-seven topical entries.
Synopsis
The Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching (Daojiao yishu) is a compendium of Daoist doctrine compiled by the Tang priest Meng Anpai of Qingxi, expounding fundamental Daoist concepts entry by entry in the format of Buddhist doctrinal treatises. Thirty-seven entries survive today, including: the Meaning of Dao and De, the Meaning of the Dharma Body, the Meaning of the Three Treasures, the Meaning of Rank and Karma, the Meaning of the Two Halves, the Meaning of the Dao's Intent, the Meaning of the Ten Good Deeds, the Meaning of Cause and Effect, the Meaning of the Five Aggregates, the Meaning of the Six Sense Faculties, the Meaning of the Three Karmas, the Meaning of the Ten Evils, the Meaning of the Three Ones, the Meaning of the Two Contemplations, the Meaning of the Three Vehicles, the Meaning of the Six Perfections, the Meaning of the Four Equalities, the Meaning of the Three Realms, the Meaning of the Five Paths, the Meaning of Chaos-Prime, the Meaning of Principle and Teaching, the Meaning of Object and Wisdom, the Meaning of Naturalness, the Meaning of Dao-Nature, the Meaning of the Field of Blessing, the Meaning of the Pure Land, the Meaning of the Three Ages, the Meaning of the Five Turbidities, the Meaning of Motion and Stillness, the Meaning of Response and Resonance, the Meaning of Being and Non-Being, the Meaning of the Provisional and the Real, and the Meaning of the Three Caverns, among others. Each entry first gives an "entry says" (yi yue) summary, followed by an "explanation says" (shi yue) detailed exposition citing scriptural evidence. This work is, after the Xuanmen Dayi, a systematic summation of the Daoist doctrinal scholarship that developed from the Northern and Southern Dynasties onward, absorbing a great deal of Buddhist terminology and modes of argument, and fully displaying the interaction between the Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) school and Buddhism in the early Tang; it is essential reading for the study of the systematization of Daoist philosophy.
Key Ideas
- Systematic organization of Daoist doctrine in the format of doctrinal treatises
- Core concepts such as Dao-nature, the Dharma Body, the Three Ones, and the Two Contemplations
- Explanation of the scriptural-teaching system of the Three Caverns and Four Supplements
- Fusion and correspondence between Buddhist and Daoist concepts
Structure
Ten scrolls, thirty-seven entries, each entry divided into an "entry says" and an "explanation says" section.
Editions
- Zhengtong Daozang edition
- Wang Zongyu, Study of the Daojiao Yishu, with an appended punctuated and collated text (Shanghai Culture Publishing House, 2001)
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Treatise on the Substance of the Dao, Scripture of the Original Bound (Benji jing), Record of the Mysterious Pearl, Sequence of the Transmission of Daoist Scriptures and MethodsRelated figures
Meng Anpai, Cheng Xuanying, Song Wenming- 王宗昱《道教义枢研究》
- 卢国龙《中国重玄学》
- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》