Weng Baoguang's Commentary on the Wuzhen pian紫阳真人悟真篇注疏（翁葆光）

Also known as

Commentary on Awakening to Reality, Direct Pointers to the Wuzhen Pian and Detailed Explanation of the Secret Essentials of the Three Vehicles, Commentary and Subcommentary on Awakening to Reality

Author / transmission

Weng Baoguang

Period

Southern Song · Weng Baoguang (sobriquet Wumingzi) wrote the commentary in the ninth year of the Qiandao era of the Southern Song (1173); Dai Qizong of the Yuan wrote the subcommentary.

Canon division

Dongzhen Section, Jade Instructions Category

Collected in

Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongzhen Section, Jade Instructions category

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

8 scrolls (with A Detailed Direct Explanation of the Secret Essentials of the Three Vehicles appended)

Synopsis

Weng Baoguang's Commentary on the Wuzhen pian is one of the earliest and most influential commentaries on Awakening to Reality; in the Yuan dynasty Dai Qizong wrote a subcommentary, and the two were published together as the Commentary and Subcommentary on the Perfected Ziyang's Awakening to Reality. Weng Baoguang claimed to have received the teaching in a further transmission from Zhang Boduan, and his commentary interprets the alchemical method through “dual cultivation of yin and yang” and “like joining with like,” distinguishing the “outer medicine” from the “inner medicine” and holding that one must first use the true lead of the “other house” to activate the true mercury of one's “own house” — an interpretation strikingly different from that of the later pure-cultivation school, and one that became the classic scriptural basis for the “yin-yang dual-cultivation branch of the Southern Lineage.” His Zhizhi Xiangshuo Sancheng Miyao (直指详说三乘秘要, Direct Pointers and Detailed Explanation of the Secret Essentials of the Three Vehicles) further distinguishes the alchemical methods of the Human, Earthly, and Celestial Vehicles. This commentary, together with the Three Commentaries by Xue Daoguang, Lu Shu, and Chen Zhixu, forms one of the two great commentarial traditions on Awakening to Reality in the Song and Yuan, and is also one of the sources of the dispute between the pure-cultivation and dual-cultivation branches.

Key Ideas

• Dual cultivation of yin and yang; like joining with like
• The outer medicine and the inner medicine
• The Three Vehicles of Human, Earthly, and Celestial Origin
• The commentarial tradition of the Southern Lineage's yin-yang branch

Structure

Eight scrolls, with commentary on each poem in turn, appended with the Sancheng Miyao (Secret Essentials of the Three Vehicles).

Editions

• Edition in the Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era
• Volume 19 of the Zhonghua Daozang

Commentaries

• Subcommentary by Dai Qizong

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Awakening to Reality
• CTEXT: Three Commentaries on Awakening to Reality

Related scriptures

Related figures