Gazetteer of Mount Mao茅山志

Also known as

Gazetteer of Mount Gouqu (Maoshan)

Author / transmission

Liu Dabin (styled Yuxuzi)

Period

Yuan · Compiled by Liu Dabin, forty-fifth-generation patriarch of Mount Mao in the Yuan (a native of Qiantang, who received the imperial mandate to succeed to the teaching in the fourth year of Yanyou, 1317); the author's own preface is dated to the first year of Tianli (1328). Originally twelve sections in fifteen scrolls, it was divided into thirty-three scrolls when incorporated into the Zhengtong Daozang.

Canon division

Dongzhen Section, Records and Biographies Category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongzhen Section, Biographies category

Category

Mountain Gazetteers

Fascicles

33 juan (originally 15 juan)

Synopsis

The Gazetteer of Mount Mao is one of the most complete and rigorously organized of the surviving Daoist mountain gazetteers, recording the full history of Mount Mao (Mount Gouqu) in Jurong, Jiangsu, and of the Shangqing patriarchal seat there. The work is divided into twelve sections: scrolls one through four, the Gaofumo, record imperial edicts and titles through successive dynasties; scroll five, the Sanshenji, recounts the Three Mao Lords; scrolls six and seven, the Kuoshenshu, record the Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands and the mountain's topography; scroll eight, the Jigu, investigates its ancient remains; scroll nine, the Daoshan Ce, is a catalogue of the scriptures held at Mount Mao, beneath which are further sections including the Shangqing Pin, Xiancao Shu, Cai Zhen You, Louguan Bu, Lingzhi Jian, Lu Jinshi, Feiyinwei, and Shiwen, recording respectively the biographies of the patriarchs, the temple halls and towers, medicinal plants, epigraphy, and literary writings. Because Mount Mao has been the principal place of practice of the Shangqing School since the Six Dynasties, with an orderly succession of patriarchs from the Tang and Song onward, the lineage genealogies and epigraphic documents recorded in this gazetteer are core material for reconstructing the religious history of Shangqing (the Maoshan Lineage); its sectional structure was also emulated by later works such as the Comprehensive Collection of the Perfected of the Blessed Land of Wudang and the Gazetteer of Mount Longhu.

Key Ideas

• One of the most complete surviving Daoist mountain gazetteers
• Twelve sections covering imperial edicts, divine chronicles, Grotto-Heavens, patriarchs, scriptures, and epigraphy
• Core material for the religious history of Shangqing (the Maoshan Lineage)
• Preserves stele inscriptions and literary writings from the Tang and Song onward
• Its structure was emulated by later mountain gazetteers

Structure

Twelve sections (thirty-three scrolls in the Daozang edition): Gaofumo, Sanshenji, Kuoshenshu, Jigu, Daoshan Ce, Shangqing Pin, Xiancao Shu, Cai Zhen You, Louguan Bu, Lingzhi Jian, Lu Jinshi, Shiwen, and others.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition (thirty-three scrolls)
• Fragmentary Yuan-dynasty printed edition
• Zhonghua Daozang edition
• Punctuated and collated edition, Shanghai Guji Publishing House

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikisource: Maoshan Zhi
• CTEXT search

Related scriptures

Related figures