The Seal of the Unity of the Three (Cantong qi)

Guwen zhouyi cantong qi zhu 古文周易參同契注, 1732

Commentary on the Ancient Text of The Seal of the Unity of the Three

In addition to the Guwen zhouyi cantong qi zhu, Yuan Renlin is known for a study of grammatical particles entitled Xuzi shuo 虛字說.

His commentary is inspired by the principles of Neo-Confucianism. The arrangement of the text follows the sequence of the original “Ancient Text.” The commentary contains illustrations.

This page is reproduced from the reprint of the Xiyin xuan congshu 惜陰軒叢書 edition (1846) found in Xuxiu Siku quanshu 續修四庫全書 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995–99), vol. 1292.

The Seal of the Unity of the Three, Vol. 2, pages 67–68 and 194

Du Cantong qi 讀參同契, ca. 1750

A Reading of The Seal of the Unity of the Three

Wang Fu was an independent scholar who never held official positions and supported himself by teaching. His extant works include commentaries and studies on the classics and on early Confucian works, and a commentary to the Yinfu jing.

Wang Fu arranges the Cantong qi into two main parts and a postface, containing altogether 67 sections. The first part, which is untitled, corresponds to Book 1 in most other editions, and Wang Fu deems it to contain the Cantong qi proper. The second part is entitled San xianglei 三相類 and contains the remaining portion of the text. At the end is found Wei Boyang’s “Postface.”

Wang Fu relied mainly on Chen Zhixu’s text (no. 9 above), but intralinear glosses that point out variant readings show that he knew several earlier commentaries, including those by Zhu Xi (no. 4) and Yu Yan (no. 8).

This page is reproduced from the exemplar of the Wang Shuangchi xiansheng congshu 汪雙池先生叢書 edition (1895) preserved at the Kyōto Daigaku Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūjo 京都大學人文科學研究所 (Institute for Research in the Humanities, Kyoto University).

The Seal of the Unity of the Three, Vol. 2, pages 69 and 178

Zhouyi cantong qi zhengyi 周易參同契正義, 1787

The Correct Meaning of The Seal of the Unity of the Three

Dong Dening, who was associated with the Longmen lineage, wrote commentaries to the Daode jing, the Wuzhen pian, the Yinfu jing, and the Huangting jing, and edited the works of several masters of the Nanzong lineage in his Daoguan zhenyuan 道貫真源, published ca. 1788 to ca. 1804.

Disagreeing with the arrangement of the “Ancient Text,” Dong Dening maintains that the division of the standard text into three Books is the most appropriate because each part focuses on one of the main subjects of the Cantong qi: cosmology, inner cultivation, and alchemy. Despite Dong Dening’s views, it is evident that these subjects correspond to those at the basis of the threefold subdivision of the “Ancient Text”.

Dong Dening established his text on the basis of more than one earlier redaction. Nevertheless, he appears to have mainly accepted readings found in Yu Yan’s and Chen Zhixu’s redactions (nos. 8 and 9 above, respectively).

The Daozang jinghua lu 道藏精華錄 (1922), of which one page is reproduced here, contains the second edition of Dong Dening’s work, which was first published in the Daoguan zhenyuan.

The Seal of the Unity of the Three, Vol. 2, pages 70 and 178–79

Zhouyi cantong qi jiyun 周易參同契集韻, 1797

The Verses of The Seal of the Unity of the Three

Ji Dakui served the Qing administration in various offices before being named District Magistrate of Shifang (Sichuan). His wide literary production includes a work on the Daode jing, but he has been known especially for a manual on rainmaking entitled Qiuyu jing 求雨經.

The Zhouyi cantong qi jiyun includes quotations from Zhu Yuanyu’s commentary (no. 20 above) rearranged according to the ordering of the “Ancient Text,” with additional notes by Ji Dakui.

This page is reproduced from the exemplar of the Ji Shenzhai xiansheng quanji xuji 紀慎齋先生全集續集 edition (1852) preserved at the Tōyō Bunko 東洋文庫 (Oriental Library) in Tokyo.

The Seal of the Unity of the Three, Vol. 2, pages 70–71 and 194