Chronological Biographies of the Seven Perfected七真年谱
- Author / transmission
- Li Daoqian
- Period
- Yuan · Compiled by the Yuan-dynasty Li Daoqian, completed around the xinmao year of the Zhiyuan era (1291); one scroll, recording in annalistic form the activities of Wang Chongyang and the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen.
- 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 Chronological Biographies of the Seven Perfected (Qizhen nianpu), in one scroll, records year by year in annalistic form the births, deaths, ordinations, teaching activities, temple foundations, and imperial summonses of Wang Chongyang and the Seven Perfected — Ma Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, and Sun Bu'er — beginning with Wang Chongyang's birth in the second year of the Zhenghe era of Emperor Huizong of Song (1112) and continuing to the successive ascensions of the Seven Perfected in the early Yuan. Unlike the biography-and-eulogy form of the Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus and the Illustrated Biographies of the Immortal Origins, this chronology adopts the historian's method of the year-by-year table, with clearly fixed dates and frequent annotation of the stele records and recorded sayings on which it draws, making it the most practically useful source for dating the early history of Quanzhen. Scholars generally take this chronology as the baseline for such key dates as Wang Chongyang's encounter with the immortals at the Gan River, the tomb of the 'living dead man' on Mount Zhongnan, the founding of the Quanzhen Hermitage at Ninghai, and Qiu Chuji's response to the imperial summons in the Snowy Mountains, cross-checking it against the stele texts collected in the Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui. Its compiler Li Daoqian also compiled the Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui and the Inner Biographies of the Immortals of the Ancestral Court on Mount Zhongnan; together the three works form the core of Yuan-dynasty documentation on Quanzhen history.
Key Ideas
- An annalistic history of Quanzhen Daoism
- Clearly dated and annotated with its sources
- Key dates from Wang Chongyang to the Seven Perfected
- A baseline text for cross-checking against stele inscriptions
- One of Li Daoqian's three core works on Quanzhen history
Structure
One scroll, arranged by year, with occasional annotations.
Editions
- Zhengtong Daozang edition
- Zhonghua Daozang edition
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui, Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus, Inner Biographies of the Immortals of the Ancestral Court on Mount ZhongnanRelated figures
Wang Chongyang, Ma Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, Sun Bu'er- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
- 陈垣《南宋初河北新道教考》
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 2004
- 郑素春《全真教与大蒙古国帝室》