Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns三洞珠囊
- Author / transmission
- Wang Xuanhe (early Tang Daoist)
- Period
- Tang · Compiled by the early Tang Daoist priest Wang Xuanhe, completed around the late 7th century; ten juan survive today (the original is said to have had thirty).
- Canon division
- Taiping Section
- Collected in
- Zhengtong Daozang, Taiping Section.
- Category
- Encyclopedic Compendia (Leishu)
- Fascicles
- 10 juan
Synopsis
The Sandong zhunang (Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns) is a Daoist encyclopedic compilation assembled in the early Tang; organized by topic, it excerpts from the scriptures and immortal biographies of the Three Caverns and Four Supplements, under headings such as 'Salvation and Guidance,' 'Auspicious Marks,' 'Ingestion,' 'Sitting in Oblivion and Concentrated Reflection,' 'Scriptures of the Three Caverns,' 'Laozi as Teacher of Emperors,' 'Offering Rites of the Various Schools,' and 'The Thirty-six Sections of Venerated Scriptures,' with the source scripture noted for each entry. Its value lies not in original thought but in the preservation of texts: a large number of lost Six Dynasties Daoist scriptures, and fragments of the Daoxue zhuan (Biographies of Students of the Dao), the Dongxian zhuan (Biographies of Grotto Immortals) and old editions of the Taiping jing survive today thanks to this work, making it one of the core reference tools — since Chen Guofu's Daozang yuanliu kao — for reconstructing Six Dynasties Daoist scriptures. Other Tang-dynasty Daoist encyclopedias of the same kind include the Wushang biyao (Northern Zhou) and the Yunji qiqian (Northern Song); together the three form the backbone of Daoist encyclopedic literature, with the Sandong zhunang standing between them and particularly valued by scholars for its citations from the Daoxue zhuan. Its compiler, Wang Xuanhe, also compiled the similarly structured Shangqing daolei shixiang.
Key Ideas
- Early Tang Daoist encyclopedic compilation
- Excerpts organized by category with sources noted
- Preserves a large number of lost Six Dynasties Daoist scriptures
- Principal source of surviving fragments of the Daoxue zhuan
- Ranked alongside the Wushang biyao and the Yunji qiqian
Structure
Ten juan, divided into a number of thematic sections, each citing scriptures entry by entry.
Editions
- Zhengtong Daozang edition
- Zhonghua Daozang edition
Commentaries
- Related textual studies in Chen Guofu's Daozang yuanliu kao
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Supreme Secret Essentials (Wushang biyao), Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds (Yunji qiqian), Biographies of Grotto ImmortalsRelated figures
Chen Guofu- Chen Guofu, Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon
- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 2004
- 朱越利《道藏分类解题》