Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao)真诰

Author / transmission

Tao Hongjing

Period

Liang of the Southern Dynasties · Compiled by Tao Hongjing (456–536), completed between the Yongming era of the Qi and the early Liang (around 499, with subsequent additions). The material gathered was recorded by Yang Xi, Xu Mi, and Xu Hui between the second year of the Xingning era and the Taihe era of the Eastern Jin (364–370).

Canon division

Taixuan Section

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Taixuan Section

Category

Early Daoist Scriptures

Fascicles

Twenty scrolls, seven chapters

Synopsis

The Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao) is the fundamental text of the Shangqing School, compiled by Tao Hongjing from the handwritten records of "declarations descended from the assembled Perfected" made by Yang Xi, Xu Mi, and Xu Hui of the Eastern Jin. The work is in seven sections: "Yuntixiang," "Zhenmingshou," "Xiechangqi," "Jishenshu," "Chanyouwei," "Wozhenfu," and "Yizhenjian"; the first six sections contain the poetic declarations, instructions for cultivation, and the geography of the immortal realms and the underworld handed down by the assembled Perfected (Wei Huacun, Wang Yuan, the Perfected of Pure Numen, and others), while the final section, "Yizhenjian," is Tao Hongjing's own narrative account examining the authenticity of the scriptures and the lineage of their transmission. The content touches on visualization and breath ingestion, taboos of the bedchamber, liberation from the corpse, the subterranean officials of the dead, sacred mountains and Grotto-Heavens, and assessments of historical figures in Daoism, all rendered in elegant prose, much of it in four- or five-character verse. Tao Hongjing distinguished authentic from spurious material by examining the handwriting of Yang Xi and the Xu family, with meticulous textual criticism that anticipated the field of Daoist textual scholarship. This work is the single most important source for the study of the rise of the Shangqing School, the religious life of the great clans of the Six Dynasties, and Daoist conceptions of the pantheon and the underworld.

Key Ideas

• The tradition of revelation through declarations descended from the assembled Perfected
• The system of Shangqing immortals and the underworld (Mount Luofeng)
• Methods of visualization, breath ingestion, and liberation from the corpse
• The theory of earthly immortal realms and Grotto-Heavens
• Textual scholarship using handwriting to establish the transmission of scriptures

Structure

Seven sections in twenty scrolls: "Yuntixiang," "Zhenmingshou," "Xiechangqi," "Jishenshu," "Chanyouwei," "Wozhenfu," and "Yizhenjian."

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Yoshikawa Tadao and Mugitani Kunio, Annotated Edition of the Zhengao (Chinese translation, China Social Sciences Press, 2006)
• Zhao Yi's punctuated and collated Zhengao (Zhonghua Book Company, 2011)

Commentaries

• Yoshikawa Tadao and Mugitani Kunio, eds., Annotated Edition of the Zhengao

Translations

• English translation by Thomas E. Smith, Declarations of the Perfected, scrolls 1–4 (2013–)
• Japanese translation by Yoshikawa Tadao and others

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: Zhengao
• Wikipedia: Zhengao

Related scriptures

Related figures