Page 600 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

TH E ENCYCLOPED IA OF TAOISM A-L

disciples, emphasizes the necessity of not getting attached to alchemical
metaphors.
7. The seventh juan (j. 13 and 14) is devoted to dialogues with disciples on
various subjects; the version in the Daozangjiyao contains fifteen more
pieces than the one in the Taoist Canon.
8. The eighth juan probably corresponded to the present Jindan dayao tu
(CT I068).
9- 10. In the last two juan (j. 15 and 16), Chen Zhixu adopts a Buddhist language
with a strong Chan flavor, and equates the achievement of the Golden
Elixir (*jindan) with "seeing one's (Buddha-)nature" (jianxing Ji!:I1).
Chen Zhixu draws extensively on the Daode jing, the *Zhuangzi, the *Wuzhen
pian, the *Yinju jing, the *Zhouyi cantong qi and related works, and several
Quanzhen masters. He refers to *Zhang Boduan as his zushi mlfr!i (Ancestral
Master), and identifies himself as the heir of the Quanzhen tradition transmit-
ted by Zhao Youqin M1bi~ (fl. 1329), whom he often mentions as his master.
Like *Li Daochun, whom he frequendy quotes, Chen considers the central
point injindan to be the intuitive recognition of one's precosmic and peren-
nial inborn nature (xing '11; see *xing and ming), which he equates with the
Buddha-nature (fOxing {JJi'11 or buddhata).

Isabelle ROBINET
W Boltz J. M. I987a, 184- 86; Li Yuanguo 1991; Qing Xitai 1994, 2: 171-73; Robinet
1995a, II4-19 and passim
* Chen Zhixu; neidan

Jindan sibai zi

Four Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir

This alchemical treatise ascribed to *Zhang Boduan consists of twenty penta-
syllabic poems. A lengthy undated preface states that it was intended for Ma
Ziran ,If!f; § ~ , a contemporary of Zhang Boduan and a putative disciple of
*Liu Haichan. The first allusion to the text is in a letter of thanks addressed
by *Bai Yuchan to Zhang Boduan in 1216. Bai claims to have come across the
writings and commentaries by Ma Ziran on Mount Wuyi (*Wuyi shan, Fujian),
where he first read a work entided "Sibai yan" [9 S § (Four Hundred Words;
*Xiuzhen shishu, 6-4b). While the commentator Huang Ziru Jt § ~O (fl. 1241)