Page 661 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LAOZI HESHANG GONG ZHANGJU 619

huang ms.); Robinet 1997b, 51-52; Seidel 1969, 59-75 (trans.), 131-36 (reprod. of
the Dunhuang ms.); Seidel 1978b; SuJinren 1998

* Laozi and Laojun; MESSIANISM AND MILLENARIANISM

Laozi Heshang gong zhangju

The Laozi Divided into Sections and Sentences by Heshang gong

The version of the Daode jing of Laozi ascribed to Heshang gong, "The Gentle-
man of the River Bank," covers both the text of the classic, as divided into
sections and sentences, zhangju, and a commentary (eT 682). Their supposed
originator is said to have been a recluse who instructed Han Wendi (r. 180-157
BC E) from a position of levitation. More than one early Han transmitter of the
meaning of Laozi with a similar name is mentioned from the time of Sima
Qian ·nJ .'i!§ ~ (I45?-86? BCE) onward, but the fully developed legend of Heshang
gong is not attested until the Six Dynasties period; it is not possible to make
any identification between Heshang gong and any specific Han figure. Nor
is it possible to date the editing of the Heshang gong text of the Daode jing,
though it has certainly had a very wide influence, supplanting even the slightly
different version of the classic that once circulated with the commentary of
*Wang Bi (226-49), so that the latter work no longer exactly fits with the text
which accompanies it.
The commentary, too, has been extremely influential, for example monopo-
lizing the interpretation of Laozi in Japan for many centuries. Its sequential
explanation of the text phrase by phrase marks it out as a work of an earlier
type than that of Wang Bi, which attempts to keep the overall meaning of the
text in mind, but this by no means suggests that Heshang gong's remarks were
actually composed earlier. Its dual approach, summarized by some scholars as
stressing both "controlling the state" (zhiguo 1fT \BXI) and "controlling one's self"
(zhishen {i1 ~), is not entirely alien to Wang Bi, either; the one feature which
has been seen as distinctive is the suggestion in some passages that the latter
aim could be achieved in part through techniques visualizing the interior of
the body after the manner of some *Shangqing texts. The main proponent of a
late date of final composition on that basis is Kusuyama Haruki (1979), though
his case for the addition of this meditational element to an earlier version of
the commentary is from the start complicated by the fact that Shangqing texts
themselves were recapitulating techniques for which traces may already be
found in epigraphic materials of the second century CE.