Comprehensive Collection of the Perfected of the Blessed Land of Wudang武当福地总真集

Also known as

Comprehensive Collection of the Perfected

Author / transmission

Liu Daoming (styled Dongyangzi)

Period

Yuan · Compiled by Liu Daoming, a Daoist priest of the Wulong Palace on Wudang in the Yuan dynasty (a native of Jingzhou who studied under Perfected Huang of Leiyuan and practised Qingwei ritual methods); completed in the twenty-eighth year of the Zhiyuan era (1291); three juan.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Records and Biographies category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongshen Section, Records and Biographies category

Category

Mountain Gazetteers

Fascicles

3 juan

Synopsis

The Wudang Fudi Zongzhen Ji (Comprehensive Collection of the Perfected of the Blessed Land of Wudang), in three juan, is the earliest surviving gazetteer of the Wudang Mountains. The first two juan record in detail the physical features of Wudang — its seventy-two peaks, thirty-six cliffs, twenty-four ravines, ten pools and nine wells — together with the history and construction of temples such as the Wulong Palace, Zixiao Palace, Taihe Palace and Nanyan, among other halls and shrines; the final juan records the mythological genealogy of the Dark Emperor of Heaven (Zhenwu), the imperial edicts and titles conferred by successive Song emperors, and biographies of those who cultivated the Dao and became immortals at Wudang (such as Yin Xi, Dai Meng, Xie Yun, Sun Simiao, Chen Tuan and Zhang Shouqing). The work was compiled during the Yuan dynasty, when Wudang Daoism was flourishing, more than a century before the Yongle Emperor's great reconstruction of Wudang beginning in 1412, and thus preserves the original appearance of the temples and beliefs of Wudang before the Ming dynasty's large-scale building projects; it is a key text for studying the formation of the cult of Zhenwu and the mountain-dwelling Daoist communities of the Qingwei–Wudang tradition in the Yuan. Ren Ziyuan's Chi Jian Da Yue Taihe Shan Zhi of the Xuande reign in the Ming was substantially expanded on the basis of this work.

Key Ideas

• The earliest surviving gazetteer of the Wudang Mountains
• A topographical record of the seventy-two peaks and thirty-six cliffs
• The mythological genealogy of the Dark Emperor of Heaven and Song-dynasty imperial titles
• Biographies of Yuan-dynasty cultivators at Wudang
• Preserves the mountain's original appearance before the Yongle reconstruction

Structure

Three juan: the first two record the physical features and temples, the last records the divine genealogy of Zhenwu and biographical figures.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Zhonghua Daozang edition
• Collated edition in the Collected Annotations of Successive Gazetteers of Wudang

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikisource: Wudang Fudi Zongzhen Ji
• CTEXT: Wudang Fudi Zongzhen Ji

Related scriptures

Related figures