Illustrated Biographies of the Immortal Origins of the Orthodox Golden Lotus Lineage金莲正宗仙源像传
- Also known as
- Illustrated Biographies of the Immortal Origins
- Author / transmission
- Liu Tiansu, Xie Xichan
- Period
- Yuan · Compiled by the Yuan Daoists Liu Tiansu and Xie Xichan, completed around the mid-Yuan period (early fourteenth century); one scroll, with portraits and biographies.
- Canon division
- Dongzhen Section, Records and Biographies Category
- Collected in
- Zhengtong Daozang, Dongzhen section, Biographical category
- Category
- Immortal Biographies
- Fascicles
- One Fascicle (Juan)
Synopsis
The Illustrated Biographies of the Immortal Origins of the Orthodox Golden Lotus Lineage (Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan), in one scroll, records the patriarchs of Quanzhen Daoism in the form of portraits paired with biographies, beginning with Donghua Dijun and continuing through Zhongli Quan, Lü Dongbin, Liu Haichan, and Wang Chongyang — the 'Five Patriarchs' — and the 'Seven Perfected' from Ma Yu onward, extending further to heads of the order such as Yin Zhiping and Li Zhichang, more than twenty figures in all, each given one portrait and one biography. Its format resembles that of the Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus but is more concise, and its outstanding feature is its woodblock illustrations — very few Yuan-dynasty portraits of Daoist figures survive in the Daozang, making the patriarch portraits preserved here valuable material for the study of Yuan Daoist iconography, patriarch veneration, and the conventions of temple enshrinement. Its biographical texts largely follow the Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus, the Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui, and Jin-Yuan stele inscriptions, with occasional textual variants useful for collation. The arrangement of statues in the 'Five Patriarchs and Seven Perfected' halls of Quanzhen temples follows the same genealogical sequence established in illustrated biographies of this kind.
Key Ideas
- A genealogy of patriarchs combining portraits and biographies
- Records more than twenty figures — the Five Patriarchs, Seven Perfected, and later heads of the order
- A rare surviving example of Yuan-dynasty Daoist woodblock illustration
- The iconographic basis for patriarch veneration and temple enshrinement
- Its text largely follows the Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus
Structure
One scroll, one portrait and one biography for each patriarch.
Editions
- Zhengtong Daozang edition
- Zhonghua Daozang edition
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus, Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui, Inner Biographies of the Immortals of the Ancestral Court on Mount ZhongnanRelated figures
Wang Chongyang, Lü Dongbin, Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji, Yin Zhiping, Li Zhichang- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 2004
- 《中华道藏》第 47 册
- 李养正《新编北京白云观志》相关论述