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Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Fortified Walled City墉城集仙录

Also known as
Records of the Assembled Immortals
Author / transmission
Du Guangting
Period
Late Tang and Five Dynasties · Compiled by Du Guangting (850–933), completed around the end of the Tang; the original work is said to have had ten juan and recorded 109 female immortals — the Zhengtong Daozang edition in six juan survives, preserving thirty-seven biographies, with another version collected in the Yunji qiqian, juan 114–116.
Canon division
Dongshen Section, Genealogies and Records category
Collected in
Zhengtong Daozang, Dongshen Section, Genealogies and Records category.
Category
Immortal Biographies
Fascicles
6 juan (originally 10 juan)

Synopsis

The Yongcheng jixian lu (Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Fortified Walled City) is China's first collective biographical compilation devoted exclusively to female immortals. 'Yongcheng' (the Fortified Walled City) refers to the golden city where the Queen Mother of the West dwells; Du Guangting took the Queen Mother of the West as the matriarch of the female immortals, and in turn recorded the deeds of the Golden Mother, Sovereign of the Prime, the Lady of the Upper Prime, Lady Yunhua (Yaoji), the Lady of Great Perfection, the Lady King-Mother of the Southern Culmen, Wei Huacun, Magu, Lady Fan, Lady Hua, Xie Ziran and other perfected women, drawing on Shangqing scriptures, local legends and events of the Tang. The book systematically constructs a lineage of female immortals headed by the Queen Mother of the West, incorporates the doctrine that women too can attain immortality into its teaching, and preserves extensive records of the activities of Tang-dynasty Daoist priestesses (nüguan), such as the sensational broad-daylight ascension of Xie Ziran. This work influenced the later construction of the lineages of Song- and Yuan-era female internal alchemy and of goddess cults such as Bixia Yuanjun and Mazu, and is also primary material for the study of women's religious life in the Tang.

Key Ideas

  • First collective biographical compilation of female immortals
  • Queen Mother of the West as matriarch of the female immortals
  • Doctrinal argument that women can attain immortality
  • Firsthand record of the activities of Tang-dynasty Daoist priestesses
  • Influenced later female internal alchemy and goddess cults

Structure

Six juan, opening with the Golden Mother, Sovereign of the Prime, followed by the biographies of the various perfected women.

Editions

  • Zhengtong Daozang edition
  • Yunji qiqian edition (juan 114–116)

Translations

  • Suzanne Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood (2006), English translation

Full Text & Online Resources

Related scriptures

Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds (Yunji qiqian), Biographies of Divine Immortals, Collected Texts on Female Alchemy

Related figures

Du Guangting, Wei Huacun
References
  1. Suzanne Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood, 2006
  2. 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
  3. 孙昌武《道教与唐代文学》
  4. 维基百科「墉城集仙录」条