Collected Compilation on the Treatise on Action and Response感应篇汇编

Also known as

Collected Compilation on the Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response

Author / transmission

compiled in the Qing; current editions are mostly attributed to annotations by Huang Zhengyuan with supplements by Mao Jinlan (according to one account)

Period

Qing · A Qing-dynasty compilation, taking the text of the Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response as its framework and gathering commentaries and evidentiary stories from across the ages; the commonly circulated edition is usually attributed to Huang Zhengyuan's annotations with additions by Mao Jinlan, though attribution varies somewhat between editions. Eight fascicles (varying by edition).

Canon division

Outside the Canon (Qing-dynasty morality book)

Collected in

Outside the canon.

Category

Morality Books (Shanshu)

Fascicles

8 juan (editions vary)

Synopsis

The Collected Compilation on the Treatise on Action and Response is the most widely circulated and voluminous of the many commentarial editions of the Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response. The work takes the original text of the Treatise — a little over twelve hundred characters — as its framework, appending to each line explanatory glosses, citations from the scriptures of the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism), and a great number of 'evidentiary cases' — illustrative anecdotes of good and evil retribution across the ages, often several stories attached to a single line of scripture, amounting in total to well over a thousand entries. These stories are drawn from official histories, biji notebooks, local gazetteers, and popular hearsay, involving officials, merchants, scholars, women, and Buddhist and Daoist clergy of every description, forming a vast compendium of popular moral narrative. Because of its high readability and its balance of moral argument and storytelling, the work was repeatedly printed by commercial presses and charitable halls from the Qing dynasty onward, and was further promoted in modern times by Master Yinguang, becoming one of the most widely circulated morality-book commentaries in the Chinese-speaking world. Scholastically, its value lies not only in Daoist thought but also in the vast trove of narrative material it provides for the social history, law, and everyday ethics of the Ming and Qing; however, since the authenticity of its stories is mixed, they must be cross-checked against historical sources before use.

Key Ideas

• The most widely circulated large-scale commentary on the Treatise on Action and Response
• Line-by-line annotation with over a thousand appended evidentiary-case stories
• A syncretic approach citing the scriptures of the Three Teachings
• A vast compendium of Ming–Qing popular moral narrative
• Story authenticity is mixed and must be cross-checked against historical sources

Structure

Organized around the sentences of the Treatise text, with commentary and evidentiary-case stories appended to each.

Editions

• Various Qing-dynasty printed editions
• Modern circulating edition promoted by Master Yinguang
• Related material included in the Daoist Texts outside the Canon

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: search
• Wikisource: Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response

Related scriptures