Gazetteer of the Wanshou Palace on Mount Xiaoyao逍遥山万寿宫志

Also known as

Gazetteer of the Wanshou Palace, Gazetteer of Yulong Wanshou Palace

Author / transmission

Jin Guixin, Qi Fengxiang

Period

Qing · Compiled jointly by Jin Guixin and Qi Fengxiang of the Qing, completed and printed in the fourth year of the Guangxu era (1878); twenty-two scrolls.

Canon division

Outside the Canon (Qing-dynasty printed edition)

Collected in

Outside the Canon (Qing Guangxu-era printing, later included in the Daoist Texts outside the Canon)

Category

Mountain Gazetteers

Fascicles

22 juan

Synopsis

The Gazetteer of the Wanshou Palace on Mount Xiaoyao, in twenty-two scrolls, records the history, institutions, and cult of Xu Xun at the Yulong Wanshou Palace on Mount Xishan (Mount Xiaoyao) in Xinjian, Jiangxi. Its contents, comprehensive in scope, include astrological correspondences and scenic features, illustrated studies of the temple halls, biographies of Xu Xun and the patriarchs of the Jingming tradition, imperial edicts and titles conferred through successive dynasties, stele inscriptions and literary writings, temple lands and incense revenue, pilgrimage ritual, and literary compositions. The Yulong Wanshou Palace is the site of Xu Xun's ascension; Emperor Zhenzong and Emperor Huizong of the Song repeatedly bestowed titles on it and expanded it, and from the Southern Song onward it served as the ancestral seat of the Jingming Way of Loyalty and Filial Piety; by the Ming and Qing it had become the center of 'pilgrimage to the immortal' for the people of Jiangxi and even the middle Yangzi region, its eighth-month incense fair drawing vast crowds, and merchant guilds from Jiangxi built Wanshou Palaces (temples to the Perfected Lord Xu) across all the southwestern provinces. This gazetteer records in detail the temple-fair rituals, pilgrim routes, and local administration, making it a precious source for the study of Qing-dynasty local Daoist organization, temple-fair economies, and migrant networks of belief, and an important supplement to Jingming literature outside the Daozang.

Key Ideas

• A complete temple gazetteer of the Yulong Wanshou Palace of Xishan
• The cult of the Perfected Lord Xu and the ancestral seat of the Jingming Way
• Imperial titles and stele inscriptions through successive dynasties
• Pilgrimage temple-fair ritual and pilgrim routes
• The network of Wanshou Palace worship built by Jiangxi merchant guilds

Structure

Twenty-two scrolls, divided into sections on illustrated studies, biographies, imperial edicts, stele inscriptions, literary writings, and incense-fair ritual.

Editions

• Guangxu fourth-year printed edition
• Facsimile in the Daoist Texts outside the Canon
• Punctuated and collated edition, Jiangxi People's Publishing House

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT search
• Wikipedia: Wanshou Palace

Related scriptures

Related figures