Zhuangzi’s Posthumous Titles and Teachers: How Did Zhuangzi Continue Speaking to the Heart?

Abstract

Tang Studies 26 (2008) ZHUANGZI'S POSTHUMOUS TITLES AND TEACHERS: HOW DID ZHUANGZI CONTINUE SPEAKING TO THE HEART? SHIYI Yu Tsinghua University, Beijing In the Daoist biographical sketches of Zhuangzi handed down from the Tang and Song period, we find a few new episodes added to Zhuangzi's life story that was first crafted by Sima Qian =P] }~!~ ~ (145-86 BCE) in his Shiji. Among them the most noticeable are Zhuangzi's ascension to the Daoist heavens and imperial sanctification in the year of 742, during the Tang dynasty.! The episode of Zhuangzi's ascension to the heavens can be traced back to the Daoist recount of his life in the fourth century CE, first revealed as a secret message from the Daoist immortals to Yang Xi t18_ (330-387), the second great transmitter of the Upper Clarity Daoist scriptures (shangqing jing l::1Fi#~) at the time.2 According to this revelation, Zhuangzi was lifted up after consuming an elixir, and he was thereafter granted a position as Librarian of the Heaven of the Great Ultimate (taiji weibianlang *f?ffil1lJ*i~~).He first became a Transcendent (xianren {LilA) and later was promoted to a Perfected Master (zhenren _A). In contrast, Zhuangzi's imperial sanctification in the Tang is more or less a historical event, marking the culmination of a secular respect for Zhuangzi that had been in existence since the Wei-Jin period (220-420). It also serves as an official reaffirmation of Zhuangzi's transcendental status with the titles conferred upon him and the book that bears his name-the Perfected Master of Nanhua (nanhua zhenren l¥f~_A) and Nanhua zhenjing l¥f~~#~ (True Scripture ofNanhua). A draft of this article was presented at the Western Branch annual meeting of the American Oriental Society in Tempe, Arizona, in November 2000, and later at the International Conference on Taoism and Nature, held in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in May 2004. I would like to thank Timothy Wai Keung Chan for reading and commenting on this article. 1 See Shiji, 63.2142 (unless otherwise indicated, all references to the twenty-four dynastic histories are to the Beijing Zhonghua shuju edition); Tao Hongjing ~§L~ (456-536), Zhengao ~§~ (HY 1010), 14.11b-12a, and Dongxuan lingbao zhenling weiye tu rlPJ~Ii.~Ii{ir*lJi (HY 167), lOb; Jiu Tang shu, 9.215. Cheng Xuanying's p)G~~ (631-652) Preface to Nanhua zhenjing shu r¥f~~~m, in Nanhua zhenjing zhushu (HY 745), 2b; Chu Boxiu m{S* (fl. 1270), Nanhua zhenjing yihai zuanwei r¥f~~#~~$.~ (HY 734), 1a/b; Lin Xiyi ***~(fl. 1260), Nanhua zhenjing kouyi r¥f~~#~D~ (HY 735), 3a/b. 2 See Michel Strickmann, "The Mao-shan Revelations: Taoism and Aristocracy," T'oung Pao 63 (1977): 1-64, and Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999),6-7. 85 Yu: Zhuangzi's Posthumous Titles and Teachers These new episodes are significant events in the reception of the Zhuangzi, but to what extent they reflect the changes in its understanding in medieval times and the general cultural climate that went with it remains a question. The present study is an attempt to explore the possible meanings of these titles that were retrospectively given to Zhuangzi and the teachers mentioned in the new biographical notes to gauge their implications for understanding Zhuangzi's status in medieval and early modern China. This exploration has a focus on the meaning of the terms the Transcendent, Perfected Master, and Nanhua. There are two major arguments in the present study. First, the change of his title from a Transcendent to the Perfected Master in about the eighth century points to the circumstance that Zhuangzi was given a promotion in rank in the Daoist world. Second, the term Nanhua has an origin in the early Upper Clarity Daoist scriptures. When used for Zhuangzi, Nanhua indicates metaphorically that Zhuangzi was a great teacher of the heart, as understood in the Daoist tradition of this strand since the Jin dynasty (265-420). This interpretation was later amplified in the legend of Zhuangzi's teachers that appears in Daoist writings about Zhuangzi and has become a trademark of Zhuangzian Daoism since...