Guanyinzi关尹子

Also known as

Wenshi Zhenjing (Perfect Scripture of the Origin of Culture), Wushang Miaodao Wenshi Zhenjing (Supreme Wondrous-Dao Scripture of the Origin of Culture)

Author / transmission

Guan Yin (Yin Xi)

Period

Pre-Qin (received text Tang-Song) · Attributed to Yin Xi, Warden of the Pass under the Zhou; the nine chapters recorded in the Bibliographic Treatise of the History of the Han were lost early on, and the received nine-chapter text, appended with a "preface by Liu Xiang's collation," is generally held by scholars to have been written in the late Tang, Five Dynasties or Northern Song period.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Original Texts (Benwen) category

Collected in

Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongshen Section, Benwen Category (as the Wenshi Scripture)

Category

Daoist Philosophy

Fascicles

one scroll, nine chapters

Synopsis

The Guanyinzi is attributed to Yin Xi, the Warden of Hangu Pass, the legendary figure said to have asked Laozi to write the Daodejing. The received text, in nine chapters titled "One: Cosmos, Two: Pillar, Three: Culmen, Four: Talisman, Five: Mirror, Six: Dagger, Seven: Cauldron, Eight: Reckoning, Nine: Medicine," is written in terse, richly metaphorical language that blends Daoism, Buddhist Consciousness-Only thought, and internal-alchemical teaching, discussing the principles that "the Dao cannot be spoken," that "mind and things are one," and the theory of essence, spirit, hun and po souls; it bears clear traces of Tang–Song thought and has accordingly been judged a later imitation. In the Yuan dynasty Yin Xi was enfeoffed as the Perfected of Wenshi, and the book was accordingly titled the Wenshi Scripture; it was especially esteemed by Quanzhen Daoism, and received commentaries from Chen Zhixu in the Yuan and Wang Yiqing in the Ming, among others. Although a work attributed to antiquity, its formulations on mind-nature theory and alchemical doctrine had considerable influence within Daoism.

Key Ideas

• The Dao is present everywhere yet cannot be spoken
• Mind is all things; self and things are one
• The theory of essence, spirit, hun and po souls, and their refinement and cultivation
• The sage treats things as illusion and responds to illusion with illusion

Structure

Nine chapters: Cosmos, Pillar, Culmen, Talisman, Mirror, Dagger, Cauldron, Reckoning, and Medicine.

Editions

• Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era edition
• Siku Quanshu edition

Commentaries

• Chen Xianwei, The Purport beyond Words of the Wenshi Scripture
• Niu Daochun, Direct Explanation of the Wenshi Scripture
• Wang Yiqing, Explanation of Terms in the Wenshi Scripture

Translations

• English translation by Thomas Cleary (included in Vitality, Energy, Spirit)

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: Wenshi Scripture
• Wikipedia: Guanyinzi

Related scriptures

Related figures