Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui甘水仙源录

Also known as

Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui, 10 juan

Author / transmission

Li Daoqian

Period

Yuan · Compiled by the Yuan-dynasty Quanzhen Daoist Li Daoqian (1219–1296), completed around the Zhiyuan and Dade reigns; ten scrolls.

Canon division

Dongzhen Section, Records and Biographies Category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongzhen section, Biographical category

Category

Immortal Biographies

Fascicles

10 juan

Synopsis

The Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui (Ganshui xianyuan lu) is a general compilation of Quanzhen stele inscriptions, edited by Li Daoqian, who served as prior of Chongyang Palace on Mount Zhongnan and as Daoist prior for the Five Circuits of Shaanxi and for Xishu Sichuan. The title 'Ganshui' (Sweet Water) refers to the Ganhe area of Dawei village in Xianyang, Wang Chongyang's native place — the very spot where Wang Chongyang encountered the immortals at the Gan River — carrying the sense of the wellspring of the Quanzhen dharma. The work collects more than a hundred stele records, epitaphs, biographical steles, and temple gazetteers composed for Quanzhen Daoists during the Jin and Yuan dynasties, most of them written by leading literary figures of the time such as Yuan Haowen, Wang Yun, Yao Sui, and Shang Ting, in the standard genre of stele biography rather than tales of the miraculous. Because most of the stele texts have clearly identified authors, dates of erection, and factual details, this work has become one of the most reliable repositories for the study of Quanzhen institutional organization, its network of temples, church-state relations, and the chronology of its figures — its importance exceeding even that of the heavily hagiographic biographies produced within the tradition — and it has served, since Chen Yuan's Study of the New Daoism of Hebei in the Early Southern Song, as the basic source scholars use to establish the history of Quanzhen Daoism.

Key Ideas

• A general compilation of Quanzhen stele inscriptions
• Collects more than a hundred Jin- and Yuan-dynasty stele records and epitaphs
• Composed mostly by leading literary figures such as Yuan Haowen
• More reliable as historical evidence than hagiographic biographies
• The basic source for scholarly study of Quanzhen history

Structure

Ten scrolls, arranging stele records, epitaphs, and temple gazetteers by figure.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Zhonghua Daozang edition
• Partially collated in the Daojia jinshi lüe

Commentaries

• Related textual studies in Chen Yuan's Study of the New Daoism of Hebei in the Early Southern Song

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT Search
• Wikipedia: Quanzhen Daoism

Related scriptures

Related figures