Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan: Alchemical Writer, Religious Leader, and Publisher in Sichuan

《道教研究學報：宗教、歷史與社會》第四期（2012） Daoism: Religion, History and Society, No. 4 (2012), 1–52

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan: Alchemical Writer, Religious Leader, and Publisher in Sichuan

Elena Valussi

Abstract

This article explores the life and work of a 19th century author of Daoist alchemical works, religious leader and publisher: Fu Jinquan傅金銓(fl. 1800). Fu, a native of Jiangxi and a very active Daoist intellectual, moved to Sichuan in 1817, attracted by the fertile religious milieu, the possibility of establishing an altar for the reception of writing from Lü Dongbin and the creation of vibrant community around this altar, as well as the flourishing printing culture, of which he took full advantage when he published his opera omnia at the

Elena Valussi teaches Chinese and East Asian History at Loyola University. She obtained her Ph.D. from the School of Asian and African Studies, University of London, in 2003, with a dissertation about Daoist meditaton techniques for women (Beheading the Red Dragon: A History of Female Inner Alchemy in China). She has published several articles on female alchemy in peer reviewed journals, among them: “Female alchemy and paratext: how to read nüdan in a historical context,” Asia Major, 21.2 (2008): 153-193; “Blood, tigers, dragons. The physiology of transcendence for women,” IASTAM Journal of Asian Medicine, 4.1 (2009): 46–85; “Men and women in He Longxiang’s Nüdan hebian (Collection of female alchemy),” Nannü, Men, Women and Gender in Early and Imperial China (Leiden: Brill), 10.2 (2008): 242–278. She is interested in the intersection between gender medicine and religion. More recently, she has been interested in the transmission of Daoist knowledge and texts among intellectuals in Qing China. She is one of the editors of the “Daozang Jiyao Project.”

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printing press previously established by his relative Fu Jinduo傅金鐸. Fu’s case speaks to elements that are typical of the development of Daoist intellectual communities in the Qing (1644–1911) period: greater geographical mobility; the unprecedented spreading of alchemical literature through a wide network of writers and practitioners; widespread use of spirit writing séances as a means to receive and produce new writings; the growing influence of Daoist immortal Lü Dongbin in these séances; the use of Confucian as well as Buddhist ideas deeply interwoven with Daoist ideas and practices; the use of printing as a means to spread alchemical knowledge, the localization of production of religious knowledge through small printing houses, and the growth of lay organizations and politics. Despite the fact that Fu is only one example of the strengthening of local religious arenas, studying him highlights previously less known Daoist networks in Sichuan, as well as powerfully connecting the diffusion of religious knowledge to the rising of local commercial printing in Sichuan.

Keywords: Fu Jinquan, Daoism, Qing dynasty, printing, Sichuan

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan

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In this article I wish to explore the life and work of nineteenth-century

author of Daoist alchemical works, religious leader and publisher Fu

Jinquan 傅 金 銓 (active 1800–1842), zi 字 : Dingyun 鼎 雲 ; hao 號 : Jiyi

zi 濟 一 子 (Master Who Saves the One), Zuihua daoren 醉 花 道 人 (The Daoist who gets drunk [and loves] flowers).1 His case speaks to elements

that are typical of the development of the Daoist intellectual community

in the Qing (1644–1911) period: greater geographical mobility; the

unprecedented spreading of alchemical literature through a wide network

of writers and practitioners; widespread use of spirit writing séances as

a means to receive and produce new writings; the growing influence of

Daoist immortal Lü Dongbin in these séances; the use of Confucian as

well as Buddhist ideas deeply interwoven with Daoist ideas and practices;

the use of printing as a means to spread alchemical knowledge; the

localization of production of religious knowledge through small printing

houses. I will discuss these issues in detail below.

First I will describe briefly Fu’s life and works. I will then discuss

the state of the printing business in Eastern Sichuan, where Fu, originally

from Jiangxi 江 西 , settled for the last 30 years of his life, and where the

printing press he used was based. I will finally talk about religious life

1 Research on Fu Jinquan is scarce. There is a short note about Fu by the late Qing early Republican alchemical practitioner and scholar Fangnei sanren 方 內 散 人 (Wan Ligeng 萬 立 賡 , 1848–?), “Lun Jiyizi Fu Jinquan xiansheng pizhu geshu 論 濟一子傅金銓先生批注各書 ,” in Daoshu yangsheng miku 道書養生秘庫 , ed. Hong Jianlin (Dalian: Dalian chubanshe, 1991). More recent studies are: Zeng Zhaonan 曾 昭 南 : Zhongguo daojiao shi 中 國 道 教 史 4, ed. Qing Xitai 卿 希 泰 (Chengdu: Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe, 1995), 195–211; “Daoshi Fu Jinquan sixiang shulue” 道士傅金銓思想述略 , in Daojia wenhuan yanjiu 道家文化研究 9, ed. Chen Guying 陳 鼓 應 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1996), 177–189. A book devoted to Fu Jinquan was also recently published: Xie Zhengqiang 謝 正 強 , Fu Jinquan neidan sixiang yanjiu 傅 金 銓 內 丹 思 想 研 究 (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 2005).

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of that area and the community of religious practitioners that Fu was

part of.

Life

Fu was born in Jiangxi, in the village of Shancheng 珊 城 , north of the

small town of Jinxi 金 谿 , south east of Nanchang 南 常 , some time after the middle of the 18th century. According to his own writing and those

of his friends and acolytes, he spent most of his youth in his native area,

where he read extensively in alchemical classics and Buddhist treatises. In

his middle years he travelled throughout China in search of teachers and

scriptures, finally settling in Sichuan later in life. There, he spent the last

30 years of his life printing his collected writings at a printing house, the

Shanchengtang 善 成 堂 (Hall of Achieving Goodness), established earlier

by a relative, Fu Jinduo 傅 金 鐸 . There he formed a religious community

around several altars for the transmission of writings from Lü Dongbin 呂 洞賓 and other divinities. He died in Sichuan in his eighties.2

According to his own accounts, in his early years in Jiangxi Fu

spent some time on Beishan 杯 山 , a mountain in Central Jiangxi, south

2 The main resources for Fu Jinquan’s life are the following: Hechuan xianzhi 合 川 縣志 (Gazetteer for Hechuan county), juan 58:20a–23b, ed. Zhang Senkai 張森楷 et al. (yingyin chuban 景 印 初 版 , 1920), reprint (Taibei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, Minguo 57 [1968]). A shortened version of this account appears in Minguo Baxianzhi 民 國 巴 縣 志 (Republican Period Gazetteer of Ba county), Sichuan fu xianzhi ji 四州府縣志輯 , volume 6, Zhongguo difangzhi jicheng 中國地方志集成 , compiled by Meng Guo 夢 國 , 1939, juan 5:62b. Another biography is the Zuihua daoren zhuan 醉花道人傳 (Biography of the Daoist Who Gets Drunk [and Loves] Flowers), in Ziti suohua 自 題 所 畫 (Self-signatures to What I Have Drawn), in Zangwai daoshu 藏 外 道 書 (Daoist Texts Outside the Canon) in 36 volumes, compiled by Hu Daojing 胡 道 靜 et al. (Chengdu: Bashu Shushe, 1992–1994) 11: 618–619. The first two accounts discuss mostly Fu’s activities after he moved to Sichuan in 1817. The Hechuan xianzhi puts Fu’s age at 80 when he died. Hechuan xianzhi, juan 6:23b.

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of Nanchang and west of Jinxi where he was born. There, he wrote a

collection of poems called Beixilü 杯溪錄 (Records from the Bei stream).

A Yinglin 阿 應 麟 , a jinshi graduate from Gansu 甘 肅 , appointed to

Guangfeng 廣 豐 county (in Eastern Jiangxi, on the border with Zhejiang 浙江 ), wrote a preface for this work in 1815.3 The poems Fu wrote while there show a deep interest and passion for his natural surroundings. This

is how he describes his time there in the preface to this work:

I lived to the East of Bei mountain and drank water from the Bei river.

Daily I would travel with people from the Bei area. The water of the Bei

river is clear and shallow, the Bei mountains are low and beautiful, the

customs in Bei are simple and pure, the dwellings in Bei are secluded and

elegant; green bamboo parts willingly. Purity flows, revolving around, the

people explore at length and search deeply for the unusual. [They]

investigate the constancy. They examine changes in flying, diving, moving,

and growing. The flying of the birds, the jumping of the fish, the

transformation of insects, the call of the cicadas; who makes them fly,

jump, transform, call? What we call Dao resides in Heaven and Earth, but Heaven and Earth don’t know it.4

3 A Yinglin, zi Jing Tan 鏡 潭 , from Zhangye 張 掖 county in Gansu. A was the only jinshi 進 士 graduate from Gansu in the Qing dynasty. He passed the jinshi examination in 1802, served as a prefect in Guangfeng county, eastern Jiangxi, on the border with Zhejiang. Since he served well there, he was quickly moved to the capital Nanchang, where he subsequently died on the post. The Qingshigao yiwenzhi sheyi 清 史 稿 藝 文 志 拾 遺 indicates that he compiled a gazetteer of Nanchang, the Nanchang xianzhi 南昌縣志 , in 40 juan (1826). More information about his life can be found in the Xinxiu Zhangye xianzhi 新 修 張 掖 縣 志 (1949), (reprint: Zhangyeshi zhi bangongshi jiaodian zhengli 張掖市志辦公室校點整理 , 1998), renwuzhi 人物志 , where there is a short biography of him. A Yinglin must have come into contact with Fu Jinquan while serving in Nanchang; he was the only supporter of Fu in Jiangxi about whom we have extensive information.

4 Beixilü, preface, in Zangwai daoshu 11:2.

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This preface betrays not only an intense interest in nature but also

provides an attempt to explain natural processes in terms of the Dao.

In prefaces and letters, there are mentions of Fu as an ordained

Daoist priest. For example, in one of the prefaces to the Beixilü

mentioned above, one of his admirers laments that Fu decided to join the “Yellow Caps” (huangguan 黃 冠 ) instead of using his worldly talents.5 The woodblock illustration that portrays Fu’s face at the beginning of

the Beixilü also clearly depicts him wearing a Daoist headdress (see illusstration 1). However, there is little evidence of Fu’s official affiliation

with any Daoist school. Although Fu’s birth-place, Jinxi, is very close to

Longhu shan 龍 虎 山 , a famous mountain within the Zhengyi Daoist

tradition, he does not mention Longhu shan in his writings and his name

does not appear in the gazetteer that holds the list of Longhu shan Daoist

officials between the mid-eighteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century.6 Thus there is no way to confirm whether Fu was ordained in

the Zhengyi lineage there.

Illustration 1: Fu Jinquan’s image in Beixilü 杯 溪 錄 , Zangwai daoshu 11:3

5 Beixilü preface, 5a, in Zangwai daoshu 11:3. 6 Tongzhi Guangxin fuzhi 同治廣信府志 (Tongzhi period Gazetteer for Guangxin),

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Whether or not he was a properly ordained Daoist priest, Fu had already

become an accomplished religious practitioner and alchemical writer while

still in Jiangxi. He had a teacher, Qingxu 清 虛 , and an immortal master, Lü

Dongbin, as well as an altar, the Xingzhai tang 星 齊 堂 in Xinjiang 信 江 (a

few miles north of Jinxi), where he received the direct transmission of Lü Dongbin’s words.7 Lü was the pre-eminent immortal presence in Fu’s life and work.8

ed. Jiang Jizhu 蔣 繼 洙 et al. (1873; reprint Taipei: Chengwen chubanshe, 1970), 10:27a–31b. Quoted in Vincent Goossaert, “Bureaucratic Charisma: The Zhang Heavenly Master Institution and Court Taoists in Late-Qing China,” Asia Major 17.2 (2004): 121–159. The Longhu shan zhi 龍 虎 山 志 (Gazetteer for Longhu Mountain), ed. Lou Jinyuan 婁 近 垣 (1689–1776), (1740) juan 7, lists several Ming high priests who came from Jinxi, and some of them had the surname Fu. 7 In the preface to the Beixilü, dated 1815, A Yinglin mentions Fu’s close connection to Lü Dongbin and the fact that he had received writings from him, before Fu’s move to Sichuan. Beixilü, preface, 2a, in Zangwai daoshu 11:1. In a letter to Zhou Luan 周鸞 , Fu mentions receiving a transmission from Lü Dongbin at the Xinzhai altar. Chishuiyin 赤 水 吟 (Chants from Chishui), 1823, in Zangwai daoshu 11:53. In the same letter, he talks about his master Qingxu. Also, in the preface to the Lüzu wupianzhu 呂 祖 五 篇 註 (Commentary on Five Works by Lüzu), written by Fu himself, he mentions the Xinzhai altar as well as the fact that the “phoenix flew” to Xinjiang, a common metaphor to indicate the arrival of spirit written texts, Zangwai daoshu 11:720.

8 This connection with Lü Dongbin was not unusual at this time. Lü was one of the main divinities associated with spirit writing in the Qing. Many alchemical authors of this period received texts from him. See Paul Katz, “Enlightened Alchemist or Immoral Immortal? The Growth of Lü Dongbin’s Cult in Late Imperial China,” in Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China, ed. Meir Shahar and Robert P. Weller ( Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1996), 70–104. By the same author, see also Images of the Immortal: the Cult of Lü Dongbin at the

Palace of Eternal Joy (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999). See also

Mori Yuria 森 由 利 亞 , “Identity and Lineage: the Taiyi Jinhua Zongzhi and the

Spirit Writing Cult to Patriarch Lü in Qing China,” in Daoist Identity: History,

Lineage, and Ritual, ed. Livia Kohn and Harold Roth (Honolulu: University of

Hawai‘i Press, 2002), 150–165.

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There is no evidence that Fu gained any official degrees throughout

his life, and despite having home-town relatives who held posts at different levels in the government,9 Fu himself did not hold any official posts.10 Only a few of his friends and followers, mentioned in his

writings, had received jinshi or juren 舉 人 degrees and gained a mention

in the gazetteers. Most of them, along with Fu himself, are ignored in

these official records. Thus, despite being a prolific writer, as is attested

by his opera omnia, the Jiyizi zhengdao mishu shiqi zhong 濟 一 子 證 道

秘 書 十 七 種 (Jiyizi’s Seventeen Secret Books on the Verification of the

Dao), only three works attributed to Fu are catalogued at the very end of the Yiwenzhi section of the gazetteer for his county, Jinxi,11 and this

number goes down to one if we look in the gazetteer for the whole province of Jiangxi.12 One work by Fu is recorded in the gazetteer of

9 Fu Xiangong 傅 顯 功 , juren 1793 (Jiangxi tongzhi, juan 154, 22a, liezhuan section), and his son Fu Xun 傅馴 , jinshi 1856, Jinxi xianzhi 金谿縣志 (Gazetteer for Jinxi county), 1870, juan 36.

10 It is indicative that his biography in the Hechuan xianzhi is recorded in the section entitled “wanderers” (liuyu 流 寓 ). This may be because he was not born in Sichuan. However, many of the people included in the mingchen 名 臣 (famous officials) section of the gazetteer were also not from Sichuan. One of them was a good friend of Fu’s, Ji Dakui, an official from Jiangxi who will be discussed in detail below.

11 Jinxi xianzhi, juan 32, Yiwenzhi, 11a. 12 This text is the Pizhu Cantongqi 批 註 參 同 契 (Annotations and Comments on the Cantongqi). Jiangxi tongzhi, juan 106, Yiwenlue, 33b. This work is reproduced in the Jiyizi zhengdao mishu shiqizhong as the Dingpi Shanyangzi yuanzhu Cantongqi 頂 批 上 陽 子 原 注 參 同 契 , Zangwai daoshu 11:744. Furthermore, the catalog of the National library of China lists only two stand-alone titles by Fu: A Commentary on the Wuzhenpian 悟真篇 and the Shijinshi 試金石 (The touchstone) Both of these books are also part of the Jiyizi zhengdao mishu shiqizhong, Zangwai daoshu 11:790–859, and 877–888.

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Hechuan 合川 , the county in Sichuan where he moved.13

In a long letter to his friend Ji Sima 紀 司 馬 (1746–1825) (Ji Dakui

紀 大 奎 ), collected in the Chishuiyin 赤 水 吟 (Chants from Chishui), (1823), Fu describes his life and his interests.14 He reveals the telltale

signs of a serious alchemist in, for example, his accounts of reading

works of inner and external alchemy and, though unsatisfactorily,

Buddhist treatises. He also comments on his desire to practice double

cultivation techniques (shuangxiu 雙 修 ) but not being able to find the

logistical and monetary means to do it. This comment will become more

relevant as we discuss the nature of his alchemical practice below. In his

middle years, Fu left Jiangxi and travelled throughout China — to Hunan,

Hubei, Guangdong and Fujian — in search of teachers and scriptures:

In the past I read books, discussed the Dao, and in my inner nature I loved

mountains; recently, I hurried around [soliciting help]for 20 years, [I went]

East and West of the river [Jiangxi and Jiangdong], Hunan, Hubei,

Guangdong, Fujian; my footprints passed through [all of them] and the

sound of my voice was received [everywhere], eminent men and

outstanding people, yellow hats [Daoists] and Buddhist monks, there were not few of them.15

In Sichuan

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sichuan’s population saw an

enormous increase, and according to Skinner’s calculations it went from 3

13 The only work by Fu recorded in the Hechuan gazetteer is the Ziti suohua. The short note mentions that “Fu was not born in Hechuan, nor did he die in Hechuan, but he left this work behind.” See Hechuan Xianzhi, Yiwenzhi section, juan 34: 21b.

14 Zangwai daoshu 11:54. 15 Ibid., 11:55; Zhongguo daojiao shi 4, 196–197.

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million people in 1673 to 22 million people in 1813.16 Chinese official data

then show another significant increase, from the 22 million mentioned above, to 85 million by 1898.17 This relatively young population included

a large number of migrants from other regions of China who moved

from coastal areas and repopulated the region after centuries of war and population decline.18 This increase in migration happened specifically

in the area of Chongqing 重 慶 , the seat of which was Baxian 巴 縣 ,

where Fu had moved in 1817. Judith Wyman says, “As Sichuan’s

primary commercial port on the Yangzi River, Chongqing prefecture, an

administrative unit of fourteen counties in the southeastern region of the

province, also experienced a population increase by migrants from different

provinces. Over the course of the nineteenth century the population of Chongqing prefecture tripled, reaching seven million in 1910.”19 The wave of immigration and the unstable political and social situation left a lot of

space for private enterprises; the area was also an extremely fertile ground

16 William Skinner, “Sichuan’s Population in the Nineteenth Century: Lessons from

Disaggregated Data,” Late Imperial China, 8.1 (1987): 1–79.

17 Qingdai Sichuan caizheng shiliao 清代四川財政史 , 1984: 737–738. 18 Robert E. Entenmann, Migration and Settlement in Sichuan, 1644–1796 (Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1982). On migration into the regions, see also Suzuki Chusei, Shincho Chukishi Kenkyu (A Study of mid-Qing History), (Toyohashi: Aichi University Research Institute on International Problems, 1952), 69–71; Susan Mann Jones and Philip A. Kuhn, “Dynastic Decline and the Roots of Rebellion,,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 10: Late Ch’ing, 1800– 1911, part 1, ed. J. K. Fairbank (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 109; Susan Naquin and Evelyn Rawski, Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 130, 158. Liu Yu specifically discusses the fact that most of the intellectual elite in Sichuan had been wiped out during the Ming-Qing transition, and that this had left a void not easily filled in the subsequent centuries. “Social Change During the Ming-Qing Transition and the Decline of Sichuan Classical Learning in the Early Qing,” Late Imperial China 19.1 (1998): 26–55.

19 Judith Wyman, “The Ambiguities of Chinese Antiforeignism: Chongqing, 1870–

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for religious activities, and, as will be discussed below, for the diffusion of printing houses.20 Fu was probably attracted by the possibilities in

both fields when he moved to Sichuan. After many years of wandering

around the country to meet teachers and gather scriptures, according to

the 1920 gazetteer for Hechuan, in 1817 Fu settled in Baxian county,

Eastern Sichuan. From various sources we can gather that he was already

in his fifties when he moved to Eastern Sichuan and that, specifically,

he settled in Chishui 赤 水 , where the above-mentioned Chishuiyin was

written. There, he set up a daotan 道 壇 , defined by Shiga as a “religious

organization centered on spirit writing and the worship of Daoist deities.”21 This daotan was connected to an altar, the Liuyun danshi 流 雲 丹 室 (Alchemical chamber of the floating clouds), also called the Liuyun

shanguan 流 雲 山 館 (The mountain abode of the floating clouds), where Fu wrote or received many of the writings collected in his opera omnia.22

However, the Liuyun danshi is not the only altar at which Fu received the

immortal’s writings; in fact, there are other altars connected to his spirit-

writing activity. One of them, of course is the above mentioned Xingzhai

tang in Xinjiang (Jinxi, Jiangxi), used by Fu at the beginning of his career.

1900,” Late Imperial China, 18.2 (1998): 89.

20 Wyman discusses the various activities of heterodox religious groups in the area, and the distinction local officials made between them and local Daoist and Buddhist priests. Wyman, “The Ambiguities of Chinese Antiforeignism,” 95.

21 Ichiko Shiga 志 賀 巿 子 , “Manifestations of Lüzu in Modern Guangdong and Hong Kong: the Rise and Growth of Spirit Writing Cults,” in Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual, ed. Livia Kohn and Harold Roth (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002), 185.

22 At least three of his writings, the Chishuiyin, the Lüzu wupian zhu, 1823, attributed to Lü Dongbin 呂 洞 賓 , collected by Fu Jinquan, and the Xinxue 心 學 (The study of the Heart), 1844, were written or received there; Zangwai daoshu 11:720–743 and 674–719 respectively. The Hechuan xianzhi discusses a place, deep in the mountains, called Liuyun 流 雲 , where Fu retreated for his meditations, juan 6:22b.

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Another one is the Jishantang 積 善 堂 (Hall of Accumulating Goodness),

located in Qianzhong 黔 中 , on the southeast border of Sichuan, not far

from Chongqing and very close to Chishui; this altar is mostly noted for the reception of female alchemy texts.23 Another altar, the Heyang danshi

合陽丹室 , where the Tianxian zhengli dufa dianjing 天仙正理讀法點睛

(Last Minute Notations on the Interpretation of the Correct Principles of Celestial Immortality)24 (1821) and the Daohai jinliang 道海津梁 (Bridge over the Sea of the Dao)25 (1822) were received, unfortunately has no

specific location, but was most probably also located in the same area of

Sichuan.

23 Qianzhong is an area variously located somewhere at the convergence between Guizhou, Sichuan and Hunan, southeast of Chongqing; some texts locate it in either Guizhou or Sichuan. Many of the female alchemy texts in the Nüjindan fayao 女金丹法要 (Essential Methods for the Female Golden Elixir), compiled by Fu Jinquan in 1813, were received there, therefore a few years prior to Fu’s final settling to the Chongqing area of Sichuan in 1817. The Nüjindan fayao is found in the Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijianlu 道 書 一 貫 真 機 易 簡 錄 (Daoist Books that Record the Single Thread and the Ease and Simplicity of the True Mechanism), 1814, a compilation of various texts Fu and others received by spirit writing; reprint Zangwai daoshu 11:512–541. The Kunning miaojing 坤寧妙經 (Wondrous Scripture on Kun’s Peace) also collected in the Nüjindan fayao, but not received by Fu, was received in 1743 at an altar close to a place called Qingshui 清 水 . Both prefaces to this text indicate this place as being called Qiandi 黔 地 or Qianjiang 黔 疆 . Qianzhong features as a spirit writing altar in other texts as well, for example the Xianfo zhenzhuan 仙佛真傳 (True Transmission of Immortals and Buddhas), listed in the Guochao fangke daoshu mulu 國 朝 坊 刻 道 書 目 錄 section of the Daomen yiqiejing zongmu, included in the 1906 edition of the Daozang Jiyao, 3b; the province given is Guizhou. The Pangmenlu 旁 門 錄 , later collected in the Nüdan hebian, was also received there. For a description of culture and religion in Qianzhong in the Qing, see Yan Jianhua 顏 建 華 , “Qingdai de Qianzhong jingsheng wenhua” 清代的黔中精神文化 , Guiyang shiwei dangxiao xuebao 貴陽市委黨校學報 , vol. 4 (2010): 113.

24 Zangwai daoshu 11:353–365. 25 Ibid., 11:366–394.

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Fu would live in the Eastern area of Sichuan, between Chishui and

Hechuan, for the remaining 30 years of his life, or at least until 1844, when his last work, the Xinxue 心 學 (The Study of the Heart), is dated.26 His long stay there was probably also influenced by the fact that Chishui

is not far from Guang’an 廣 安 , the headquarters for the Shanchengtang,

a private printing business set up by Fu’s older relative Fu Jinduo. It was

in fact at the Shanchengtang that Fu printed his collected writings.

As mentioned above, it is not completely clear at what specific age

Fu finally settled in Sichuan, and what the precise reasons for his move

were. While details about his life are very scarce, we can uncover some

more information in the Duren tijing 度 人 梯 經 (The Path of Universal

Salvation), a text received by Fu Jinquan from Lü Dongbin, the immortal

that Fu considers as his primary teacher, and by far the immortal that has transmitted the most writings to Fu.27 In the text, Lü Dongbin talks about

Fu in this manner:

My disciple is benevolent and hard working, but if we think about his age,

he is over 50; how fast time flies! You turn your eyes and there is no

constancy. This deeply increases my anxieties. Because his clothes and food are scarce, his ascent to the skies will be hard.28

My disciple for many years has made a living through writing, he has no

means on which to subsist, and he is like a hanging flag wavering gently

26 Fu’s biography in the Hechuan xianzhi mentions that Fu remained in the area of Hechuan for 30 years, but that he did not die there. Hechuan xianzhi, juan 58: 21b.

27 Fu refers to himself at the beginning of this text in this manner: “the lay disciple (guiyi 皈 依 ) Jiyizi Fu Jinquan, with a clean heart respectfully explains (the following text),” Zangwai daoshu 11:542.

28 Duren tijing , juan 6, 16a, Zangwai daoshu 11:591.

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which does not know where to point. His intention and desire is to travel

westwards, to Shu [Sichuan]; . . . Fu, you have read all the books by the

sages [which say that] if father and mother are still alive, [you should] not

travel far. Your mother is old, how can you travel far? The possession of riches and wealth does not make the person strong.29

The passages above mention several revealing elements: Fu’s acknowledged

desire to travel to Sichuan, the fact that Fu was in his fifties before

moving there in 1817, that he was in dire economic trouble, and that he

was held back for a while by the need to care for an aging mother. There

is no information about the location of the reception and printing of this

text, but the fact that one of the its editors came from Linchuan 臨 川

in Jiangxi, as well as the discussion of Fu’s desire to move to Sichuan,

strongly indicates that it was received by Fu before he moved permanently

to Sichuan, possibly while still in Jiangxi.

Sichuan responded to Fu’s needs at several different levels: a place

where a family member had a printing business, the Shangchengtang,

where he could print his works, and a place to finally settle down and

start forming a community of like-minded people around one or more

altars for the transmission of texts from Lü Dongbin. These topics will

be taken up below.

Personality, Beliefs and Practices

What kind of person was Fu? In his own preface to the Beixilü, he

describes himself in this way:

I search for what is unconventional; I seek the abysses and search for the grottos.”30

29 Duren tijing, juan 6, 20a, Zangwai daoshu 11:593. 30 Beixilü, 3a, Zixu, Zangwai daoshu 11:3.

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan

15

Friends and collaborators who wrote prefaces for his works describe him

as unconventional, even revolutionary in his style and in the content of

his works. The constant trait of his work and of his person seems to be an

innate ability to startle and amaze. In a preface to the Beixilü, A Yinglin

describes him and his work in this way:

The purple skies sent this book [the Beixilü] down, transformed from their

mist; it possesses an extremely unique spirit and a distinct understanding,

as well as the ability to originate new ideas, breaking open fresh ground.

He [Fu] has surpassed the people of old, and of the newcomers no-one can match him. This book approaches such [amazing feats].31

Gracefully and effortlessly, he [Fu] shakes the Great Void from the

foundations; forcefully, like a rhino or an elephant, he battles the tiger and

the leopard. Brilliant like a star shining in the high skies, beautiful like a

butterfly dancing among the flowers, like thunder and lightning in the clear

skies, the seas all around transmit this sound [of the revelation within the book].32

He speaks the words that conventional intellectuals do not speak of, [thus]

his tongue is two feet long. He leaks out the secrets that Heaven and Earth

have not yet released, [thus] his understanding completely comprises the treasures [of the Dao].33

A Yinglin also hints at his unique personality —“his energy is bright and

scintillating, transparent and deep like autumn water”— and describes

his uncommon vision, so unlike that of common people like himself, who see things from a very narrow perspective, like that of frogs in a well.34

31 Beixilü, 5b, Xiangzan, Zangwai daoshu 11:3. 32 Beixilü, 6a, Zan, Zangwai daoshu 11:3. 33 Beixilü, 4a, Zan, Zangwai daoshu 11:2. 34 Beixilü, Xu, 1a, Zangwai daoshu 11:1.

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A also describes him as a very talented and accomplished poet, a painter

and a musician,

Nothing pleases him more than his qin. He likes books, poems and drawings and he enjoys writing.35

According to the same preface by A, Fu also believed deeply in the

Confucian values of filiality, reciprocity, humaneness, respectfulness,

and love. In fact, A places Fu’s work within an unobstructed line of

transmission of Confucian teachings, starting from Yao and Shun, carried

through Yu, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius:

The Daoist master [Fu Jinquan] said that he received the example from

Master Lü Chunyang, and responded with 800 instructions: first and

foremost honesty and filiality, like Yao, Shun, Yu, the Duke of Zhou, and

Kongzi; the Confucian orthodoxy (daotong 道 統 ) is [thereby] carried on.

As a junzi, you need to be humane to the utmost; as a minister, you need

to be respectful to the utmost, as a father, you need to be loving to the utmost, as a son you need to be filial to the utmost.36

Jingmingdao 淨明道

The above passage, and the reference to the 800 instructions, suggests that

Fu might have had close connections with the teachings of Jingmingdao, a

school of Daoism that had a strong base in the Confucian notions of zhong (忠 loyalty) and xiao ( 孝 filiality).37 Other indications of this affiliation are the fact that Fu collected, in his opera omnia, both the Qiaoyang zi

yulu 樵陽子語錄 (Recorded Sayings of Master Qiaoyang), which contains

35 Zuihua daoren zhuan 醉花道人傳 in Ziti suohua, Zangwai daoshu 11:618–19. 36 Beixilü, Xu, 2a, Zangwai daoshu 11:1. 37 The Jingmingdao is a Daoist school initiated by Xu Xun 許 遜 (239–272 or 274); its teachings, still practiced today, integrated Confucian ethical values with Daoist

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan

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an abridged version of the sayings of the Yuan dynasty Jingming master

Liu Yu 劉 玉 (1257–1308), and the Qiaoyang zi jing 樵 陽 子 經 (Scriptures

of Master Qiaoyang), a collection of Ming and Qing writings related

to Liu Yu but received through spirit writing. Zeng Zhaonan, the first

contemporary Chinese scholar to discuss Fu Jinquan in detail, claims that Fu in fact was an affiliate of Jingmingdao,38 although Xu Xun, the

founding patriarch of Jingmindao or writings related to him do not appear

in Fu’s collected works. Fu’s affiliation with Jingmingdao cannot be

definitively proven, but Confucian notions in general, and those of zhong

and xiao in particular, are pervasive in Fu’s writings, and he indicates that

practicing them is the first and necessary step to becoming immortal:

Therefore, as for people who are not loyal and filial, their hearts will lack extreme sincerity, they will not have principles.39

I lived in Chishui for a long time; I guided [there] the coming worthies, putting sincerity and filiality first.40

Loyalty and filiality are the steps to immortality.41

Many of the texts Fu wrote, received, or collected also strongly reinforce

more general ideas of Confucian moral duties and virtuous behavior. One

example is the Nüjindan fayao, a guide to alchemical practice for women,

ideas, making them the central precepts necessary to attain immortality. On the

Jingmingdao, see Richard Shek, “Daoism and Orthodoxy — the Loyal and Filial

Sect,” in Heterodoxy in Late Imperial China, ed. Kwang-Ching Liu and Richard

Shek (Horolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004), 139–171.

38 “Daoshi Fu Jinquan sixiang shulue” 177–189. A similar argument is made in Qing, ed. Zhongguo daojiao shi 4, 195–211, especially 201–202. Esposito repeats this argument in “Daoism in the Qing,” in Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 635.

39 Lüzu wupian zhu, preface:1a, Zangwai daoshu 11:720. 40 Chishuiyin, preface: 2b, Zangwai daoshu 11:43. 41 Beixilü, juan shang.

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more than two third of which discusses women’s proper demeanor and societal duties.42 Another example, from the end of his career, is the

Xinxue, published in 1844, which discusses the fundamental notion that

the Dao is to be found in one’s heart. However, his collected writings also

present a different side of his interests. His insistence on moral behavior

might at first seem at odds with what emerges from other parts of his

work, discussed below.

Sexuality and Paired Practices

Despite Zeng Zhaonan’s claim, historians of Daoism in China and in

Taiwan have traditionally categorized Fu as belonging to the “Eastern

School,” or Dongpai 東 派 , whose founder was allegedly Lü Xixing 陸 西 星 (1520–1606).43 One of the main proponents of this interpretation of Fu’s work was Xiao Tianshi 蕭 天 石 (1909–1986), a Daoist intellectual

and practitioner who had a great influence on the categorization of

Daoist schools in the post World War II period, through his publications,

in Taiwan, of the Daozang Jinghua, a large collection of mostly late

imperial Daoist texts together with his own reflections on Daoist practice.

This affiliation with Lü Xixing and the Eastern School would make Fu

42 Collected in the Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijianlü, Zangwai daoshu 11:512–541. 43 The categorization of Daoist teachers and intellectuals into different “schools” distinguished by geographical location is quite forced. In the case of the Dongpai, we know that this term was never used by Lü Xixing himself, but was later coined by Li Xiyue 李 西 月 (1806–1856) who wanted to distinguish his school, based in Sichuan and called Xipai, from the one developed by Lü Xixing. Therefore, most probably, Li Xiyue was the first one to create the terms Dongpai and Xipai, later adopted by the Daoist intellectual Xiao Tianshi and others to bring some order into the complex reality of Daoist intellectual lineages. See Li Xiyue, Lüzu nianpu, Haishan qiyu 祖 年 譜 , 海 山 奇 遇 (Biography of Master Lü—A Strange Encounter on the Mountain by the Sea) juan 6. See also Xiao Tianshi, ed. Daozang Jinghua 道 藏 精 華 (The Essence of the Daoist Canon) (Taibei: Ziyou Chubanshe 1956–1983), vol. 9.5: 452.

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a proponent of paired sexual practices, plainly advocated by Lü Xixing.

While there are in fact very few references to the work of Lü Xixing in Fu

Jinquan’s Shiqizhong, many of the writings he collected and wrote in fact

do mention paired and/or sexual practices. We already find some clues of

his interest in sexual practices in his style name, Zuihua daoren. In the Ziti

suohua 自 題 所 畫 (Self-signature to What I Have Drawn) there is a short

passage called Zuihua daoren zhuan:

The Daoist master has a beautiful name, some say he is the famous Wu Hui;44 he has forgotten his dwelling, but his inner nature is leisurely, he

wanders serenely. He likes “flowers” and wine. Every time he sees a

“flower” he drinks; every time he drinks he must get drunk. At times slow,

at times quick, he can even drink through his nose. He can make the waters

of a river flow in reverse. During the game of little coming and a lot going

[a drinking game], of course he ends up getting drunk. This is why he is

called the Daoist drunken on “flowers.” He achieved his perfection through “flowers” and alcohol.45

The term “flower” is often associated with women, and especially

prostitutes. Specifically, its pairing with the term “alcohol” in an

alchemical context is directly reminiscent of a passage in the Wugenshu 無

根樹 (The Rootless Tree) by Zhang Sanfeng 張三丰 , which says:

44 Wu Hui 吴 會（?–1388) zi Qingbo 慶 伯 , hao Shushan 書 山 , was a famous recluse poet of the early Ming who came from the same home-town as Fu Jinquan, Jinxi in Jiangxi.

45 In Ziti suohua, Zangwai daoshu 11:618–619. This description of Fu as a person who enjoyed the company of women and the drinking of alcohol is also found in his biography in the Hechuan xianxzhi, juan 6:22b–23a. The account is clearly taken from the Ziti suohua by the compiler of the biography, but it is commented on in more detail and accompanied by quotes from Lü Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng supporting the use of alcohol and women in the path to immortality.

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The rootless tree, its flowers are truly blue (qing 青 );46 flowers and alcohol,

the immortals [have used them] from antiquity until today. Redolent

flowers everywhere, vast quantities of meat and alcohol; this does not

violate rules about proper diet and licentiousness. . . Speak to the master; without alcohol and “flowers” the Dao cannot be achieved. 47

In this context, it is clear that “flowers” is a sexual metaphor for women.

Zhang Sanfeng is famous for having openly advocated the use of women

as “cauldrons” in alchemical practices. These practices saw men engaging

in sexual union with women in order to “capture” their essence, thereby

extending their own life-span. Fu Jinquan knew works by Zhang Sanfeng,

including the Wugenshu, very well; in fact one of the 17 works in Fu’s

opera omnia is the Sanfeng danjue 三 丰 丹 訣 (Alchemical instructions of [Zhang] Sanfeng),48 in part related to the Zhang Sanfeng xiansheng

quanji 張 三 丰 先 生 全 集 (Collected works of Master Zhang Sanfeng), previously published in Sichuan by Li Xiyue, but much shorter.49 Fu also

quotes Zhang Sanfeng widely in his works, and more specifically, the

passage about “flowers and wine” mentioned above is to be found in the Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijianlu,50 among a series of quotes on paired sexual

techniques. It would then seem that Fu Jinquan’s sobriquet is a homage to

Zhang Sanfeng and to his ideas about achieving the Dao through drinking

and spending time with women.

This view is supported by Xie Zhengqiang, who recently wrote a

scholarly work on Fu Jinquan. According to Xie, Fu’s desire to move to

46 Qing can also have sexual connotations; qinglou 青 樓 is the brothel. This interpretation is especially fitting since in the next few lines flowers are equated with beautiful women.

47 Wugenshu, Xuanyao pian xia: 42a–b. In Zhang Sanfeng Quanji, Zangwai daoshu 48 Sanfeng danjue (n.d.), Zangwai daoshu 11:322–352 49 Zhang Sanfeng xiansheng quanji, 1844, collected by Li Xiyue 李西月 (1806–1856),

Daozang jiyao: 17–18:7641–7905. Also in Zangwai daoshu 5:378–637.

50 Dinglü, juan 3:5b, Zangwai daoshu 11:437.

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Sichuan was mainly due to his need to find partners to help him in his

quest of immortality, to be achieved through paired sexual practices or shuangxiu.51 Shuangxiu practices were very popular in the Ming dynasty

(Zhang Sanfeng being a great proponent of them) and still had many

followers in the Qing. However, there was growing criticism directed at

them by proponents of qingxiu 清 修 (pure cultivation), who rejected the

sexual component altogether, and advocated instead a practice that saw

the union of yin and yang elements from within the practitioner’s own

body. Shuangxiu, on the other hand, involved the preparation of a

secluded space (or alchemical chamber, danfang 丹 房 ) for the practice

and the location and payment of female sexual partners (called

cauldrons, ding 鼎 ) and required loyal followers (lüban 侶 伴 ) to help set

up the ritual space and provide help during the practice. Because of the

expenses involved, there was also the need for a wealthy donor or sponsor who could provide funding (cai 財 ) for the whole enterprise.52 According to Xie, because Sichuan was away from the centre of power

and from the attention of the bureaucracy, because it was populated by

recent migrants, and because of its many religious communities, it

offered optimal conditions for Fu and his interest in shuangxiu. Fu

indeed talks extensively about the necessities revolving around

alchemical practice. For example, the whole second juan of the Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijianlu53 is devoted to an in depth discussion of four

51 Xie, Fu Jinquan neidan sixiang yanjiu, 11. 52 Xun Liu has discussed in detail this side of the alchemical process in traditional China and up to the Republican period in Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, and the Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai (Boston and New York: Harvard University Press, 2009), 138–147.

53 In the preface to this work, Fu explains that the single thread is a reference to the uninterrupted link between the old sages and contemporary Daoists.

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elements: fa 法 (methods), cai 財 (wealth), lü 侶 (companions), and di 地 (space).54 Fu also discusses openly his wish to set up the alchemical chamber in his writings, and his lack of funds to accomplish this goal.55

Fu’s biography in the Hechuan xianzhi mentions that, in 1845, friends of

Fu managed to build an alchemical chamber (danshi), and invited Fu to

use it. Fu went and even wrote congratulatory words in honor of the

alchemical platform (dantai 丹臺 ). However, unfortunately he never saw its completion as he died shortly after at age 80.56

In other of his works, Fu also talks freely about using women as

cauldrons in alchemical sexual unions. For example, the third juan of the above mentioned Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijianlu57 is devoted to discussion

of the “crucible” (dinglu 鼎 爐 ), of the tally (fu 符 ) and of fire (huo 火 ) all elements for the refinement of the adept.58 In the section on the

crucible, Fu quotes various texts that unmistakably talk about using

women, especially virgins, as crucibles, and that claim that the Dao can

Their wisdom is still apparent and their message comes through clearly. The ease and simplicity refers to the Dao itself, the simplest and most easy mechanism. In Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijianlu, preface: 1a–b, Zangwai daoshu 11:395. The term guan 貫 goes back to the Analects of Confucius, where Confucius says: “Wu dao, yi yi guan zhi” 吾道一以貫之 (As for my way, there is only one thread binding it together), Lunyu, chapter 4. The locus classicus of the term yijian 易 簡 is the Xicizhuan 繫 辭 傳 of the Yijing 易 經 . There, yi refers to the male and jian to the female, Xici, shang juan. 54 Zangwai daoshu 11:416–433. 55 In a letter to Zhou Luan, he clearly describes what the necessities are if one wants to construct an alchemical chamber, including sexual partners. Chishuiyin, Zangwai daoshu 11:53. Fu also talks about the alchemical chamber and the needs for assistants and a wealthy donor in the Huanghefu 黃 鶴 賦 (Fu on the Yellow crane), 6b, Zangwai daoshu 11:722.

56 Hechuan xianzhi, juan 6:23b–24a. 57 Zangwai daoshu 11:435–455. 58 These elements are borrowed from the language of external alchemy, in which

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan

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be achieved only if men and women join together sexually.59 Another

work that discusses paired sexual techniques openly is the Huanghefu 黃 鶴賦 (Fu on the Yellow crane) chapter of the Lüzu wupian zhu.60

Fu also openly accepts the physical “use” of women by men in

alchemical practice, but does not accept the opposite. In the Shijinshi 試

金石 (The Touchstone), he writes:

From old, perfected women have been many, like Magu, Miaogu, He

Xiangu, Xu Feihuan, etc. You cannot fully cite them all! Men using

women, it is not harmful at all, but women using men: this is the Dao of great chaos. It cannot be trusted; it does not have any principle.61

As in other works, Fu Jinquan here speaks clearly against solitary

refinement (qingxiu):

The Yijing says: “One Yin and one Yang, this is called the Dao.” The

Wugenshu says: “If you divide Yin and Yang, the Dao will not be

mineral substances were smelted in a crucible to obtain the elixir. In internal alchemy, all these elements are internalized. The crucible becomes the body of the practitioner, the elements to be smelted are his/her internal fluids, the fire is the internal heat produced by meditation and, the elixir is a metaphor for the final attainment.

59 Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijianlu, juan 3, Dinglü: 4a–b. Zangwai daoshu 11:435. In the Nüdan yaoyan 女 丹 要 言 (Fundamental Sayings on Female Alchemy), a text collected in the Nüdan hebian 女 丹 合 編 (Collection of Female Alchemy), edited by He Longxiang 賀 龍 驤 (Chengdu: Erxian’an 二 仙 庵 , 1906), and annotated by Fu Jinquan but not found in the Nüjindan fayao, the importance of paired cultivation of men and women is emphasized. Maybe Fu did not include this text in the collection for fear that it would be interpreted wrongly.

60 Huanghefu, Zangwai daoshu 11:721–729. The Lüzu Wupianzhu consists of 5 long poems attributed to Lü Dongbin and commented upon by Fu Jinquan, Zangwai daoshu 11:720–743. 61 Zangwai daoshu 11:877.

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complete: this Dao necessarily needs to match Yin and Yang, unite water

and fire.” Today’s people enter the mountain to meditate, they do not

marry and do not enter public life, and say that this is “to practise the

Dao.” They do not know that the Dao resides amongst people, not inside a

mountain. . . . The Dao of people produces men and women; practising alchemy imitates that.62

In the same work, Fu also explains this union of male and female

principles from a cosmological point of view:

[The trigram] Li is empty, [the trigram] Kan is full. Li is Yang on the

outside and Yin on the inside, Kan is yin on the outside and yang on the

inside. Thus it is necessary to grasp the fullness of Kan’s center, and transform Li’s inner Yin in the central palace63

The capturing of the inner Yang line of Kan (the trigram symbolizing the

female) by the trigram Li (symbolizing the male) parallels the capturing

of female essence on the part of the male practitioner during alchemical

sexual intercourse. This eventually produces a purely Yang trigram,

Qian, and, similarly, the Yang energy of the male practitioners will be

replenished by the sexual intercourse.

The question of shuangxiu in the Qing deserves a discussion of its

own, but it is clear that in this period there is a re-orienting from

practices of a clearly sexual and exploitative nature towards practices

that range from the sexual to the solitary, with a variety of grades in between.64 For example, the sexual practices advocated by Lu Xixing in

the Ming dynasty were re-interpreted in a non-sexual way by Li Xiyue,

62 Huanghefu, 5a, Zangwai daoshu 11:722. 63 Huanghefu, 9b, Zangwai daoshu 11:724. 64 Xun Liu has discussed in detail the presence, especially in the late Ming but also before, of sexual practices of a non-exploitative nature, alongside more

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active in Sichuan at the same time as Fu Jinquan.65 Fu himself, despite

the statements quoted above, also proposes chaste practices. In the same

Huanghefu, Fu describes a paired but chaste practice, where a male and

a female partner meditate in front of each other. In the commentary, Fu

says that, despite the use of the terms bi 彼 (you) and wo 我 (I), specific

terms always used to describe the woman and the man in alchemical

sexual practices, his notion of paired practice does not really involve sexual intercourse.66 In his Duren tijing, he says “to be pure and calm and to cut desires is the first requirement in alchemical practice.”67 The same message is conveyed in the Xingtian zhenghu 性 天 正 鵠 (The

Heaven of Inner Nature is Proper and Stands Erect), where he discusses

the importance of xing ( 性 inner nature), and how in order to purify it one needs to conquer desires and feelings.68

Thus, Xie Zhenqiang’s view of Fu as solely a proponent of paired

sexual practices is complicated by the wealth of writings he left behind,

a testament to his wide interests and multiple practices, as well as a

changing environment.

Works

Fu’s biography mentions that he leaves behind thirty three works, in 140

chapters, for a total of more than 10,000 words: “all of them words of the

exploitative practices. Liu claims that the late Ming proponents of dual practices, many of whom Fu Jinquan was reprinting in his opera omnia, actively criticized the sexual exploitation of women, but advocated a dual union in which men and women were on the same plane, as both would eventually attain immortality. Liu, Daoist Modern, 151–161.

65 Qing, Zhongguo daojiao shi 4, 357. 66 Huanghefu, Zangwai daoshu 11:726. 67 Ibid., 11:569. 68 Ibid., 11:639–651.

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immortals.”69 Fu did leave many writings, and they have been published together as a collection called Jiyizi zhengdao mishu shiqi zhong 濟 一 子

證 道 秘 書 十 七 種 (Jiyizi’s Seventeen Secret Books on the Verification of

the Dao) at the Shanchengtang in Eastern Sichuan. Eventually containing

seventeen works, this collection went through several incarnations, the

Jiyizi daoshu qizhong 濟 一 子 道 書 七 種 (Jiyizi’s seven books on the

Dao), the Jiyizi zhengdao mishu shizhong 濟一子證道秘書十種 (Jiyizi’s

Ten Secret Books on the Verification of the Dao), the Jiyizi daoshu shier

zhong 濟 一 子 道 書 十 二 種 (Jiyizi’s Ten Books on the Dao), the Jiyizi

dingpi daoshu sizhong 濟 一 子 頂 批 道 書 四 種 (Jiyizi’s Four Books of

Commentaries on Daoist Works). All the above were published at the

Shanchengtang, with dates ranging from 1825 to 1842, the last bearing several prefaces dating to 1842.70

In the final collection, his writings can be divided into 3 categories:

(a) those written by Fu himself, which include collections of poetry,

captions to art, personal letters as well as prose on alchemy; (b) the

collected writings of earlier authors, especially alchemical texts popular

during the Ming and Qing; and (c) works received by spirit writing.

To the first category belong works such as the above mentioned

Beixilü, written in 1815 while Fu was still living in Jiangxi and

composed of 222 short prose paragraphs, divided into 3 categories:

human matters (renshi 人 事 ), principles of nature (wuli 物 理 ), and

human nature and destiny (xingming 性 命 ); the Chishuiyin, a poetry

69 Hechuan xianzhi, juan 6:23a. 70 Harvard University Library has a complete original copy of the Jiyizi zhengdao mishu shiqizhong 濟 一 子 證 道 秘 書 十 七 種 (1920.3 3110). The frontispiece specifies that it was published at the Shudong Shanchengtang 蜀 東 善 成 堂 . This is the version reprinted in the Zangwai daoshu (vol. 11), except for the missing frontispiece and editorial information. The Zhongguo congshu conglu 中國叢書綜 錄 (Bibliography of Chinese Collectanea) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1959–62), lists 2 works by Fu, both printed at the Shangchengtang: the

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27

Illustration 2: Fu Jinquan’s image in Beixilü 杯溪錄 (Taibei: Xinwenfeng, 1978), 166.

Jiyizi daoshu (containing 7 works) and the Zhengdao mishu (containing 10 works). These two lists correspond to the 17 book titles in the Shiqizhong. The Guochao fangke daoshu mulu (Index to privately published Daoist books of the Qing dynasty) section of the Daomen yiqiejing zongmu 道門一切經總目 (General index of all Daoist Scriptures), in the 1906 edition of the Daozang Jiyao, lists a Daoshu qizhong (25a–b). Fu Jinquan is listed as the collator, but no indication is given as to the place of publication. The list corresponds almost completely to the above mentioned Jiyizi daoshu with 7 titles, except that one of the texts is the Xiuzhen biannan 修 真 辯 難 (Discriminating Difficult Points in the Cultivation of Perfection), by Liu Yiming 劉 一 明 (1734–1821), which does not appear in any other configuration of Fu’s collection. Wang Shaozeng, ed., The Qingshigao Yiwenzhi heyi 清 史 稿 藝 文 志 拾 遺 (Draft Standard History of the Qing-Yiwen Section) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2000), 1484, lists a Jiyizi daoshu shier zhong in 37 juan, and a Zhengdao mishu shi zhong in 16 juan, both printed at the Shanchengtang. It does not give details of the contents. A more recent publication is the Jiyizi zhengdao mishu shiqizhong 濟 一 子 證 道 祕 書 十 七 種 (Taibei: Xinwenfeng, 1978), a reprint of the 1923 edition published by Shanghai jiangdao shulin. This edition has a slightly different list of texts from the one found in the Harvard and Zangwai daoshu version.

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collection dated to 1823 and written in Chishui, Sichuan; the Ziti suohua

自 題 所 話 , a collection of captions to Fu’s own works of art and other

writings. To the second category belong works like the Waijindan 外金丹

(External Alchemy), which is composed of texts on external alchemicyal

texts popular during the Ming and Qing; the Neijindan 內 金 丹 (Inner

Alchemy), mainly a reprint of Wu Shouyang’s 伍 守 陽 Tianxian Zhengli

天 仙 正 理 (Correct Principles of Celestial Immortality), which Fu

Jinquan deemed essential reading for anyone interested in inner alchemy;

the Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong 濟 一 子 頂 批 道 書 四 種 (Four Books on

Jiyizi’s Annotations of Daoist Scriptures), published in 1842 and

comprising Fu’s own annotations to four alchemical books: the

Cantongqi 參 同 契 (Token of the Agreement of the Three) by Wei

Boyang 魏 伯 陽 (fl. 121 A.D.), the Wuzhenpian sanzhu 悟 真 篇 三 註

(Three Commentaries to the Book of Awakening to Reality) by Xue

Shi 薛 式 (d. 1191), the Jindan zhenchuan 金 丹 真 傳 (True Transmission

of the Golden Elixir), by Sun Ruzhong 孫汝忠 (1574–?) and the Shijinshi

by Fu himself. The choice of these four alchemical books reveals Fu’s

interest in inner alchemy and in shuangxiu, particularly prominent in the

last three works. To the third category belong works received by spirit

writing, like the above-mentioned Duren tijing, but also the Lüzu wupian

zhu and the Nüjndanfayao 女金丹法要 (Essential Instructions on Female

Alchemy), a collection on alchemy for women; this last category makes

up about one third of Fu’s collected writings. Some of these works were

received in Jiangxi, before his move to Sichuan; most of them, however,

were received at altars in Sichuan.

On looking at the titles and contents of Fu’s writings one thing

becomes immediately clear: he was committed to assembling and

clarifying late imperial works on alchemy, including his own, as well as

disseminating them as widely as possible. One important means of

dissemination was, of course, by printing them.

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29

Printing in Sichuan and the Shangchengtang

Fu’s older relative Fu Jinduo had established the Shanchengtang in

the Guyu 古 渝 area, near Hechuan in Baxian county, in 1751, several

decades before Fu’s arrival in Sichuan. This printing house would provide

an outlet for Fu to print the numerous works he had been writing and

compiling throughout his life. Thus, one of the reasons for Fu’s move to

Sichuan was the fact that he had easy access to printing for his growing

corpus of scriptures.

Sichuan had a long history of printing, but this trade had

deteriorated during the turbulent transition between the Ming and the

Qing. In the mid to late Qing, there was a new influx of skilled printers

from other provinces where commercial printing was already flourishing, such as Jiangnan and Jiangxi.71 During the early Qianlong years, at least

three printers from Jiangxi moved to Sichuan and established what

would later be important printing businesses there. The first was Yang

Hongdao 楊 宏 道 , who established the Hongdaotang 宏 道 堂 (Hall of the

Expansive Way) in Luzhou 瀘 州 (southwest of Chongqing, on the Yangzi

river) in 1716. By 1850 this publishing house had branches on Leshan 樂

山 (south of Chengdu) and in Yibin 宜賓 (south of Chengdu, southwest of

Chongqing), and later it would expand down the Yangzi river all the way

to Nanjing and Shanghai. After becoming one of the major printing

houses in Sichuan and eventually in the whole country, by the beginning

71 On the printing business in general in late imperial China, and in Sichuan in particular, see Cynthia J. Brokaw, “Commercial Woodblock Publishing in the Qing (1644–1911) and the transition to Modern Print Technology,” in From Woodblocks to the Internet: Chinese Publishing and Print Culture in Transition circa 1800 to 2008, ed. Cynthya Brokaw and Christopher A. Reed (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010); Commerce in Culture, the Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods, Harvard East Asian Monographs (Cambridge and

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of the Republican era the Hongdaotang was going bankrupt, and started

selling off all of its branches; the Chongqing branch, interestingly, was

sold to the Fu family’s Shanchengtang in 1925 for 1500 yuan. The

second and perhaps best known of these Jiangxi emigré publishers,

famous for his excellent and flawless editions, was Zhou Dasan 周 達 三 .

He was the son of Zhou Chengyuan 周承元 , who had come from Jiangxi

and established the Shanyoutang 善友堂 (Hall of goodness and friendship)

in Chengdu. Zhou Chengyuan’s apprentice Wang Shuzhai 王 述 齋

established the Zhigutang 志 古 堂 (Hall of Recording Antiquity) in

Chengdu in 1848; this publishing house was soon taken over by Zhou Dasan.72 The third publisher was Fu Jinduo himself, the older relative of Fu Jinquan who established the Shanchengtang in Chongqing in 1750–

London: Harvard University Press, 2007); and “Commercial Publishing in Late Imperial China: the Zou and Ma Family Businesses,” Late Imperial China, 17.1 (1996): 49-92. Brokaw often draws examples from the Sichuan printing business. See also Lucille Chia, Printing for Profit, the Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th–17th Centuries) (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2002). For more information about publishing in the lower Yangzi delta, see Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984), esp. 151–159. On the printing business in Jiangxi, see Ye Shusheng 葉樹聲 , Yu Minhui 余敏輝 , Ming Qing Jiangnan siren keshu shilue 明清江南私 人刻書史略 (Anhui: Daxue Chubanshe, 2000).

72 For a complete description of the printing business in Sichuan in the Qing, see Wang Xiaoyuan 王孝源 , “Qingdai Sichuan muke shufang shulue” 清代四川木刻 書坊述略 , in Zhongguo jindai xiandai chuban shi xueshu taolunhui wenji 中國近 代現代出版史學術討論會文集 (Beijing: Zhongguo shuji chubanshe, 1990), 185– 191. See also an expanded version of this article: “Qingdai Sichuan muke shufang shulue” 清代四川木刻書坊述略 , in Sichuan Xinwen chuban shiliao 四川新聞出 版 史 料 (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1992), 43–65. See also Liu Dongfu 劉 東 父 , “Qingdai Chengdu muke shuye he waisheng shushang de fazhan” 清代成都木刻書尚的發展 , in Sichuan wenshi ziliao jicuii, di si juan 四 川文史資料集粹 , 第 4 卷 , wenhua jiaoyu kexuebian 文化教育科學版 (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1996), 361–365.

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51.73 These three printing houses would become among the more prominent in the area. However, there were many other smaller publishing houses active in the area at this time;74 many of them were located at the same site, Xuedaojie 學 道 街 in Chengdu, and published

similar materials, specifically booklets and primers for students going

through the examination system, but also ballad librettos, calendars, and

New Year pictures. Fu Jinduo had been a book peddler in his early years

in Sichuan, selling ballad librettos in markets, before establishing the

Shanchengtang. The Shanchengtang, like many other local commercial

presses, also produced a wide variety of publications, according to public

demand: treatises on medicine, divination, astrology, physiognomy, the classics, history, and geography, and also fiction.75 Mainly thanks to entrepreneurs from other provinces, who brought in people with the

skills necessary for wood-carving and block-printing, and because of the growing demand, private printing started developing in Sichuan,76 and

73 Wang Xiaoyuan, “Qingdai Sichuan” (1990), 190. 74 Wang Xiaoyuan, “Qingdai Sichuan” (1992), 53–64, gives a comprehensive list of

names of 115 printing houses in Chengdu, 20 in Chongqing, and several dozen others in other areas of Sichuan.

75 The Xiaoshuo shufang lu 小 說 書 坊 錄 (Record of Fiction Publishing Houses), compiled by Wang Qingyuan 王 清 原 , Mou Renlong 牟 仁 隆 , and Han Xiduo 韓 錫 鐸 (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan Chubanshe, 2002), 18, 78–79, lists extant Shanchengtang editions in Chinese collections. This list does not include Fu Jinquan’s works. There is more information about what the Shangchengtang published in Wang Xiaoyuan, “Qingdai Sichuan” (1992), 45. General information about the kinds of publications produced in these commercial publishers in Chengdu and Chongqing is found in Wang Gang 王 綱 , “Qingdai Sichuan de yinshu ye” 清代四川的印書業 , in Zhongguo shihui jingji shi janjiu 中國社會經 濟史研究 (1991) 4: 62–70.

76 The Qianlong (1736–1796) and Jiaqing (1796–1821) reign periods saw a boom in the privately owned printing business in Sichuan. Before then, printing was mainly done within monasteries for religious publications or for the publication of government sponsored materials. See Wang Gang, Qingdai Sichuan shi 清代四 川史 (Chengdu: Chengdu keji daxue Chubanshe, 1991), 698–702.

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the Shanchengtang quickly grew to become the largest of the Sichuan

commercial publishers. In a normal year, it would employ 20 to 30

skilled carvers and about 120 to 130 printers. Every year, it printed 180,000 to 240,000 sheets from printing blocks.77 By the time Fu

Jinquan settled in Sichuan in 1817, the publishing house had five

branches in several parts of town and another eighteen in other cities in

China, including Shanghai, Beijing, Jinan 濟 南 , Hankou 漢 口 , Shashi 沙

市 , Dongchang 東 昌 , Chengdu, Guang’an. The company had its

headquarters in Guang’an, a city north of Chongqing, since that is where

the paper was produced; a few miles west was Yuechi 岳 池 , called the

“hometown of character carving” (kezi zhi xiang 刻 字 之 鄉 ), which

provided the publishing house with skilled carvers (see map for these

locations). Yuechi had been known for skilled carvers since the Ming;

this town of farmers contracted with publishing companies in Chengdu

and Chongqing to carve wood-blocks in their spare time — especially for

lengthy publications, those beyond the capacity of a small sized

publishing house. Since the whole family would contribute to the design

and carving of the wood-blocks in periods when they were not farming,

their prices were considerably lower than the going rate in a big town

where the different stages of the preparation of a woodblock were

completed by different workers. The wood used for woodblocks, pear-

wood, was also considerably cheaper in Yuechi, where it could be

gathered in quantity from adjacent mountains, than it was in bigger cities

like Chengdu or Chongqing. One of the main reasons behind the

Shanchengtang’s rapid growth and success during the Qianlong and

Jiaqing periods was its successful use of the Yuechi carvers. Thus, in

Yuechi the business of carving grew alongside the booming of Sichuan

77 Wang Xiaoyuan, “Qingdai Sichuan” (1990), 189.

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan

33

commercial presses.78 The Shanchengtang publishing house functioned

until the second Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945) and was run by four successive generations of the Fu family.79 Unfortunately, we do not know

very much about Fu Jinduo, but like other intellectuals running similar

family-owned printing houses in other parts of China, he probably had close connections to the bureaucratic elite and was fairly well-educated.80

There is also very little information about the Shanchengtang’s

publication on religious matters, but there was at least one precedent to

Fu’s collection: the Tianxian zhengli by Wu Shouyang (1565–1644), a

famous author in the alchemical tradition, was published there in 1802, before Fu ever got to Sichuan.81

78 For more information on the history of Yuechi as the site of woodcarving, see Wang Gang “Qingdai Sichuan de yinshu ye,” 63. Cynthia Brokaw devotes a few pages on the printing business in Yuechi, based on personal interviews and previous research by Wang Gang, see Brokaw, Commerce in Culture, 540–544. It is indicative of the importance of this village as a provider of skilled carvers, and of its longevity in the business, that the woodblocks for the Chongkan Daozang Jiyao 重 刊 道 藏 輯 要 (Re-publication of the Collected Essentials of the Daoist Canon), ed. He Longxiang, Peng Hanran 彭 翰 然 , Yan Yonghe 閻 永 和 (Chengdu, 1906), a large multi-volume Daoist collection, were carved by the Yuechi artisans. Incidentally, many of Fu Jinquan’s works were reprinted in this Daoist collection. For more information, please see Elena Valussi, “The Nüdan hebian,” Daozang Jiyao Project, forthcoming.

79 Wang Xiaoyuan, “Qingdai Sichuan” (1990), 189. 80 For information on private publishers and owners of private libraries in the same period but in a different area, see also Swann, Nancy Lee, “Seven intimate Library Owners,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, I:3–4 (Nov. 1936): 363–390. This study details the activities of seven owners of private libraries and publishing houses in the Hangzhou area in the period between 1740 and 1790. Like Fu Jinquan and his brother, none of them was a member of the bureaucrat-literati group, and only one of them ever entered public life. They were, nonetheless, well-educated people of some means, as we can infer of Fu and his brother. See also Brokaw, “Commercial Wookblock Publishing.” 81 Shanghai library woodblock printed book 37887–88.

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Before the advent of private commercial publishing, as already

noted, the main motor behind printing was state sponsored projects, such

as the issuing of imperial ordinances or the publication of local

gazetteers; at the same time, there was a small amount of temple

publication, works created mostly for internal use. Small presses

connected to Buddhist or Daoist temples and academies of learning did

survive alongside the fast growing group of private enterprises. The

growth of these privately owned, for-profit printing and publishing

houses all over China, the dissemination of knowledge about wood-block

printing, the experimenting with moveable-type printing, and, not least,

the surplus of well-educated people in the Qing who did not make it into the bureaucratic machine,82 led to an increase in the numbers of

publications in all areas of knowledge and fostered the establishment of

new fields of inquiry; new materials were published, from technical

manuals, primers for examinations, personal biographies and collected

writings, to local histories and also a wider variety of religious writings,

with inner alchemy appearing more prominently on the market also.

There is an ongoing debate about the price and quality of the books

printed at this time; while some scholars believe that this increase in the

availability of printed works did not mean that they were sold at lower

prices, other scholars believe that there was a democratization of the

access to printed works, and therefore a wider diffusion of texts and of the information in them.83 This development boosted the diffusion of the

language, ideas and practices of inner alchemy deeply into various layers

of society and was a fundamental impetus behind the development of

82 Benjamin Elman, 1984, From Philosophy to philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), 130–137.

83 Brokaw sums up these arguments succinctly, and weighs in on the side of broader

accessibility and lower prices; Brokaw, Commerce in Culture, 548–553.

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35

numerous rich, diverse intellectual communities practising Daoism and alchemy during the period.84

Religion, Spirit Writing and Community

As briefly described above, Qing dynasty Sichuan saw a wave of

immigration which, coupled with an unstable political and social situation,

left a lot of space for private enterprises; the business of printing was

certainly one of them, as described above. It also was an extremely fertile

ground for religious activities. The Qing government, and especially

the Qianlong emperor, was worried about the high influx of migrant

undocumented people entering Sichuan from adjoining provinces such

as Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, and Guangdong, some of whom participated in popular unrests of a religious nature.85 Common

descriptions of the Daoist tradition in the Qing see it as declining; in

fact it was flourishing, especially the extremely popular new school, the

Longmen, a branch of the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection). In the years

1736–1739, the emperor held a new census of Daoist and Buddhists

throughout the whole country, to detail the exact number of active monks

and nuns, to curb their growth, and to issue new ordination certificates

or dupai 度 牌 , without which one could not travel or claim to be part of

84 Liu Ts’un Yan has discussed at length the interaction between Confucianism and Daoism as well as the dissemination of Daoist ideas in popular novels in the late Ming, testifying to the wide-ranging adoption of inner alchemical language and knowledge by all layers of society. See the following works by Liu Ts’un Yan: Buddhist and Taoist Influences on Chinese Novels (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1962), “Mingru yu daojiao” 明儒與道教 , The New Asia Journal, 8.1(1967): 259– 296; “Taoist self-cultivation in Ming thought,” in Wm. Theodore de Bary, Self and Society in Ming Thought (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1970), 291–330.

85 Gaozong chunhuangdi shilu 高宗純皇帝實錄 (True Records of the Pure and August Emperor Gaozong), juan 203. Quoted in Wang Gang, Qingdai Sichuan shi, 915.

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a religious school. The census mainly took into consideration Daoists of the Quanzhen school because they were celibate and lived in temples.86

It did not, with rare exceptions, take into account those of the Zhengyi

school whose monks were married and lived at home, donning robes

and going to the temples only for ceremonies. This of course left out a

large percentage of the Daoists, since the Zhengyi school was very well

established, especially in South China, whereas the Quanzhen school was

only just then spreading to southern provinces and establishing temples

there. In eastern Sichuan, the area where Fu Jinquan was active, the

Zhengyi school had been predominant, and it was still a stronghold of the

Celestial Masters; the Longmen school was slower to enter this area. The 10th generation Longmen patriarch Chen Qingjue 陳 清 覺 (1606–1705), entered Western Sichuan in 1669 to settle on Qingcheng shan; he then

moved to the Qingyang gong in 1687, and in 1695, together with Zhao

Liangbi 趙 良 璧 , officially consecrated the Erxian’an an Daoist temple in Chengdu.87 This was where he became the abbott. In 1702, the Kangxi

Emperor gave Chen the appellation Bidong zhenren 碧 洞 真 人 . Thus

the Dantai bidong 丹 台 碧 洞 branch of the Longmen School was born.

However, the Longmen did not really take root until 1739, when Zhu Yipin 朱 一 品 (11th generation Longmen patriarch), from the Baiyunguan temple in Beijing, traveled to the Chongqing area to open an ordination

platform at the Nanyan Laojun dong 南 岩 老 君 洞 , where he transmitted

86 See Vincent Goossaert, “Counting the Monks. The 1736–1739 Census of the

Chinese Clergy,” Late Imperial China, 21.2 (2000): 21–22.

87 L ongmen zhengzong bidongtang shang zhipu 龍門正宗碧洞堂上支譜 (Register of the Bidong branch of the Longmen True Tradition), manuscript kept at the Tianshidong temple on Qingchengshan. Quoted in Qing, Zhongguo daojiao shi, 4, 136. See also Li Hechun 李合春 , Ding Changyun 丁常雲 , eds., Qingyang gong Erxian’an zhi 青 常 宮 二 仙 庵 誌 (Chengdu: Chengdu minsu zongjiao wenhua congshu bianweihui, 2006), 16–18.

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan

37

the ordination of the 12th generation.88 Thereafter, several Longmen

temples were erected and older temples (possibly Zhengyi) were restored

and converted to Longmen. However, Fu does not mention dealing with

any of the local Zhengyi or Longmen priests of whom we have records.

Sichuan was thus an incredibly fertile ground for religious activities

at the time Fu arrived, and he must have been well aware of it. Only a

few miles north of Hechuan was Dingyuan 定 遠 , the location of a very vibrant community around the cult of Longnü 龍 女 89 and the birthplace of many of Fu’s collaborators in the editing of his opera omnia. Leshan,

a mountain west of Baxian county, also housed a very lively and well

known Daoist community headed by Li Xiyue, later named the Western School of Daoism (Xipai 西 派 ).90 This community revered the immortal Zhang Sanfeng, and writings by him, as well as by Lü Dongbin, were

received at their altar. (Li Xiyue is mostly remembered for his Zhang

Sanfeng Quanji). Mount Emei 峨 眉 山 , a few miles west of Leshan, was

at that time a flourishing religious location with both Buddhist and

Daoist temples and communities, and this is where, at age twenty-four,

Li Xiyue claimed to have met the immortal Lü Dongbin who gave him

the names Xiyue and Hanxu 涵 虛 and inspired him to found a religious

88 C hongqing zongjiao 重 慶 宗 教 (Chongqing’s religions) (Chongqing: Chongqing

Chubanshe, 2000), 168.

89 Takeuchi Fusashi 武 內 房 司 , “Qingmo Sichuan de zongjiao yundong” 清 末 四 川 的宗教運動 , in Mingqing yilai minjian zongjiao de tansuo 明清以來民間宗教的 探 索 , ed. Wang Jianchuan 王 見 川 and Jiang Zhushan 蔣 竹 山 (Taibei shi: Shangding wenhua chubanshe, 1996), 240–265.

90 For more information on Li Xiyue and the Xipai, see Wong Shiu hon: Investigations into the Authenticity of the Chang San feng Ch’uan-chi; the Complete Works of Chang San-feng, Faculty of Asian Studies Monographs, (Honolulu, University of Hawai‘i Press, 1982), and Daojiao yanjiu lunwen ji 道教 研 究 論 文 集 (Hong Kong: Zhongwen wenxue, 1988); see also Qing, Zhongguo Daojiao shi 4, 344–360.

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community on Leshan.91 Between Leshan and the areas north of

Chongqing where Fu Jinquan was active, we find Fushun 富 順 , where

the Leyutang 樂 育 堂 was located. This is the name of the altar around

which another Daoist community was gathering, active in the same

period of time and headed by Huang Shang 黃裳 (Huang Yuanji 黃元吉 ) .

Huang Shang was a native of Fengcheng 豐 城 in Jiangxi, located just a

few miles west of Jinxi, Fu Jinquan’s native place, and, though the exact

dates of his life are unknown, we do know that he moved from Jiangxi

to Sichuan between the Daoguang (1823–1850) and the Xianfeng (1850– 1861) era, a few years after Fu.92 Huang Shang’s disciples put together

the recorded sayings of their master, the Leyutang yulu 樂 育 堂 語 錄 ,

which includes commentaries on several Daoist and alchemical treatises.93 (See map of Sichuan on page 51.)

There is as yet no research detailing any interaction between Fu

Jinquan, Li Xiyue, and Huang Shang in the Sichuan area, but they

shared many characteristics. First, they were all interested in inner

alchemy, as attested by their published works. Fu and Li both had a

91 Li Hanxu zhenren xiaozhuan 李 涵 虛 真 人 小 傳 (Biography of the Perfected Li Hanxu), in Sanche bizhi 三 車 祕 旨 (Secret Principles of the Three Carts), 1a, Zangwai daoshu 26:627.

92 Huang Shang is often confused with a Yuan dynasty Daoist, Huang Yuanji (1271– 1325), because they share the same surname and sobriquet (Yuanji 元 吉 ). One of the few sources on Huang Shang’s life is the Huang Yuanji xiansheng yulu xu 黃 元吉先生語錄序 (Preface to the sayings of Mr. Huang Yuanji), in Leyutang Yulu. The contemporary scholar Ge Guolong also discusses briefly Huang’s biography in his book on the Leyutang yulu: Ge Guolong 戈 國 龍 , Dandao jinquan: Leyutang yulu zhujie 丹道今詮：樂育堂語錄註解 (Beijing: Huaxia Chubanshe, 2007), 1.

93 Because the preface to one of the works included in the Leyutang, the Daodejing jiangyi 道 德 經 講 義 by Huang Shang, dates the printing of this work to 1884, historian Ge Guolong dates the compilation of the whole collection by Huang’s disciples to the second part of the nineteenth century. See Ge, Leyutang Yulu, 1.

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close connection with Lü Dongbin94 and Zhang Sanfeng,95 from

whom they both received texts through spirit writing. As mentioned

above, like many other alchemists of the time, they all were also

grappling with the question of shuangxiu, or dual cultivation, and how to interpret and practice it.96 Finally, they were all also interested in

94 Li Xiyue claims to have met Lü on Emeishan; Fu Jinqan claims a close relationship with Lü, who directly discusses Fu Jinquan’s circumstances. Li Xiyue wrote a preface to the Lüzu nianpu, Haishan qiyu, a chronology of Lü Dongbin’s life and miracles divulged to Lü Xixing by the immortal himself in his retreat in Jiangsu. See Xiao Tianshi, ed., Daozang jinghua 9. Fu Jinquan received many texts from Lü Dongbin and/or commented on texts received by him: the Duren tijing, Zangwai daoshu 11:542, the Qiaoyangjing 樵 陽 經 (Qiaoyang’s Scripture), with a preface by Lü Dongbin, Zangwai daoshu 11:652–673, the Lüzu wupian zhu, commentaries on texts received by Fu from Lü, Zangwai daoshu 11:720– 743, and the Lüzu qinyuanchun zhu 呂 祖 沁 園 春 註 (A Commentary on Lü Dongbin’s Qinyuanchun), a commentary on a text attributed to Lü, Zangwai daoshu 11:894–895.

95 In 1844, Li Xiyue published the Zhang Sanfeng xiansheng quanji. He also published the Erzhu Wugenshu 二 註 無 根 樹 (Two Commentaries on the Wugenshu), on the Wugenshu by Zhang Sanfeng; Zangwai daoshu 5:576–603. Fu Jinquan collected the Sanfeng danjue, mentioned above.

96 Farzeen Baldrian Hussein described Li Xiyue’s practice as solitary at the first stage and dual at the second stage. Baldrian-Hussein, “Li Xiyue,” Encyclopedia of Daoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio (Routledge, 2008), 646. Qing, Zhongguo Daojiao shi 4, 344–360, acknowledges the influence on Li Xiyue by advocates of sexual paired techniques like the Ming Daoist author Sun Jiaoluan 孫 教 鸞 (1504—1612), as well as Zhang Sanfeng, and remains vague as to the actual nature of some of the dual practices discussed in his works. Xu Zhaoren 徐 兆 仁 , Hanxu mizhi 涵虛祕旨 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue Chubanshe, 1990), 2–3, acknowledges that Li Xiyue’s alchemical language could be interpreted both as indicating sexual practices as well as solitary ones; both Fu and Li use similar language when discussing dual practices. Huang Shang’s disciple Deng Dunshou 等 頓 首 mentions dual practices (xingming shuangxiu 性 命 雙 修 ) as one of Huang’s main concerns in his preface to the Leyutang yulu. Leyutang yulu, preface: 1a. Huang Shang himself discusses shuangxiu and qingxiu in the first juan of the Leyutang yulu: 3b–4b.

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women’s practices.97 These traits are definitely not shared only by these

three alchemical writers in Sichuan — they are commonly found in

writings by other alchemical authors of the time, like Min Yide 閔 一 得

(1758–1836) in Jiangsu and Liu Yiming 劉 一 明 (1734–1821) in Shanxi,

and to a certain extent they would continue to interest alchemical writers and intellectuals into the Republican era.98

How did Fu interact with the local religious milieu once he settled

in Sichuan? We can gather some more specific information about his

activities from his biography and from prefaces to his works. According

to the Hechuan xianzhi, the specific place where Fu moved to in the area

of Chishui, and more specifically the Xiyuezhao xiang 西 月 照 巷 , was a well known community of Jiangxi emigrés.99 And where Fu decided to

settle as well as open one of his altars, the Liuyun danshi. The

Chishuiyin, dated 1823, was written at the Liuyun danshi in Chishui.

97 Fu Jinquan received a whole compilation on women’s practice by spirit writing, the Nüjindan fayao; Huang Shang discussed female practice, in a similar way to Fu, in his Leyutang yulu, juan 3:18b–19b, and Li Xiyue is thought to have written the Kunwei mizhi 坤 維 秘 旨 (Secret Principles of the Female-kind), which was, much later, included in the Nüzi daojiao congshu 女 子 道 教 叢 書 (Encyclopedia on Women’s Daoism) compiled by Yi Xinying 易 心 瑩 (1896–1976). There is also evidence that one of Li Xiyue’s disciples, Wang Qihuo 汪 啟 濩 (1838–1917) included, in his Daotong dacheng 道統大成 (Great Collection on the Transmission of the Dao), the Kundao danjue 坤 道 丹 訣 (Alchemical Formulae for Female Daoists), a work on female alchemy that is almost the same as the Qunzhen shijue 群 真 詩 訣 (Poetic Formulae by all the Perfected) received in Sichuan by Fu Jinquan, and compiled in the Nüjindan fayao.

98 Both Min Yide and Liu Yiming produced extensive collections on alchemy, and included female alchemy texts in their collections. See also Liu, Daoist Modern, a book on Chen Yingning 陳 櫻 寧 (1880–1969) who, in his writings and in his discussions with readers, often touched upon the meaning of shuangxiu, women’s practices, and the revealed nature of Daoist texts.

99 Hechuan xianzhi, juan 6:20a.

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41

The preface describes the way Fu attracted followers and friends to this

area:

I lived in Chishui for a long time; I guided [there] the coming worthies,

putting sincerity and filialityity first, and [obtained] companions with great

strength and energy; death could not be reached [by us] — we all lived a long time.100

Indeed, in Sichuan Fu did find many like-minded friends and collaborators

in his religious and literary endeavors; they edited, annotated and proofread the texts to be printed.101 Many of them also wrote prefaces and

post-faces. Some of Fu’s collaborators in the printing and editing of his

own works came from his native Jiangxi; others he met upon his arrival

in Sichuan. Some came from Dingyuan, a town extremely close to both Yuechi and Guang’an.102 My contention is that these collaborators in Fu’s

printing endeavors were also part of a religious community that Fu was

actively organizing.

The most prominent of his friends, who wrote prefaces to several of

Fu’s works, was Ji Dakui 紀 大 奎 (1746–1825), zi Xiang Chen 向 辰 , hao

Shen Zhai 慎齋 , originally from Linchuan, a town in Jiangxi a few miles

east of Jinxi, where Fu was born. He was a juren who had been

appointed in 1780 as the district magistrate of Hechuan, after having served in Shandong.103 When Fu arrived in Sichuan, Ji had been there for

100 Chishuiyin, preface, Zangwai daoshu 11:43–44. 101 The Hechuan xianzhi mentions, in the first few paragraphs of Fu’s biography, that Fu opened an altar for the transmission of alchemical works as soon as he arrived in Sichuan, and that he disseminated these works among the wider population, thus drawing a lot of people to him and to the altar. Hechuan xianzhi, juan 6:20a.

102 Takeuchi, “Qingmo Sichuan,” 247–249. 103 An extensive biography of Ji is to be found in the mingchen 名 臣 (notable ministers) chapter of the Hechuan Xianzhi, juan 38:20a–26b. A much shorter mention of Ji is to be found in Minguo Baxian zhi, juan 5:62b.

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nearly 40 years.104 He was a prolific scholar whose works far outnumber

those of Fu Jinquan in the records of the Jiangxi tongzhi 江 西 通 志 (Jiangxi gazetteer).105 A committed intellectual, in his later years, maybe

after returning to Jiangxi, he compiled, together with Jiang Quan

姜 銓 (?–?), a gazetteer of Linchuan (in Jiangxi), the Linchuan xianzhi

臨 川 縣 志 (Gazetteer of Linchuan), published in 1823, two years before his death.106 Ji Dakui had been interested in alchemy, Daoism, and the

Yijing long before he met Fu. While in Sichuan, Ji also operated a

private printing press, the Shuangguitang 雙 桂 堂 (Hall of the Double Laurel), in Shifang 什 邡 (northeast of Chengdu — part of his district).107

There, in the first years of the nineteenth century, he published several

works on alchemy and on the Yijing, commentaries on famous Daoist

scriptures like the Zhouyi Cantongqi 周易參同契 and the Wuzhenpian 悟 真 篇 , collected in the Shuangguitang gao.108 Because he was involved in

104 Takeuchi infers that Ji must have met Fu through the community of Jiangxi emigrés that was gathering around Fu in Hechuan. See Takeuchi, “Qingmo Sichuan,” 250. 105 Chongxu Jiangxi tongzhi 重 修 江 西 通 志 (Revised Edition of the Jiangxi Gazetteer), compiled by Liu Kun 劉 坤 and Liu Yi 劉 繹 , 1880. This gazetteer, in the Yiwenzhi section, lists fourteen works by Ji Dakui, with topics spanning from the Yijing, the Diamond Sutra, and the Cantongi, to geography, mathematics, local customs, and an autobiography (the Shenzhai waiji 慎 齋 外 集 —Ji Dakui’s hao is Shen Zhai 慎 齋 ). Jiangxi tongzhi, juan 105:14–34, and juan 106:6–33. Ji’s opera omnia is the large collection Ji Shenzhai xian sheng quan ji, 紀慎齋先生全集 , in 48 volumes, published in the period between 1808 and 1852. Ji’s own preface to the collection dates to 1805, the first publication dates to 1808, but it also includes, in the last juan, eulogies written after Ji’s death in 1825, and some works dated as late as 1841, 1842, and 1843. The copy of the collection in the Shanghai library was published in 1852.

106 In the Shanghai Tushuguan 571970–73, not complete. 107 On this printing house, see Wang Gang “Qingdai Sichuan de yinshu ye,” 64; and

Wang Xiaoyuan, “Qingdai Sichuan” (1992), 64.

108 The Zhouyi Cantongqi Jiyun erjuan 周 易 參 同 契 集 韻 二 卷 (with a preface dated 1797), which includes poems on the Cantongqi, and a reprint of the Wuzhenpian

Printing and Religion in the Life of Fu Jinquan

43

the private printing business, and because he was part of the Jiangxi

emigré group, Ji Dakui might very well have already known Fu’s relative

Fu Jinduo.

In his career as a magistrate, Ji had encountered and tried to disperse various religious groups, one of which was in Shifang itself.109

However, Ji was very interested in Daoism, Yijing cosmology, and other

religious practices; he frequented Buddhist temples and had Daoist

friends. His religious eclecticism is evident in his most prominent

accomplishment: he remains famous as a magistrate for his invention

and diffusion of a “rainmaking method” that was based on Yijing cosmology, and involved Buddhist and Daoist practitioners.110 From his

collection of writings, it is clear that Ji was particularly drawn to Yijing

studies and Daoist alchemy, and his relationship with Fu must have been

close. Reading a letter that Fu sent to Ji after one encounter, we may

perceive how much Fu admired Ji:

Honorable [Ji Sima], your spiritual demeanor and your posture, resembling

bright moonlight, are still with me after you received me. Your virtuous

semblance is still in my bosom. Today the horse you were riding was

going east [you were leaving] and we will [sadly] not have the opportunity

to meet again . . . . Now I have received a letter from you [together with a

book]. . . . The Shuangguitang commentary to the Yijing with images.

I respectfully bow to you and at night sit up properly, burn incense and read the book out loud.111

悟 真 篇 (Awakening to Reality). These writings are printed in the Shuangguitang gao 雙 桂 堂 稿 (A Manuscript from the Hall of the Double Laurel), in 4 volumes, part of the Ji Shenzhai xian sheng quan ji, juan 1–11.

109 Takeuchi, “Qingmo Sichuan,” 250. 110 On Ji Dakui’s rainmaking method, see Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke, “Dry Spells: State Rainmaking and Local Governance,” in Late Imperial China, (2009): 119–148.

111 Letter to Ji Sima, Chishuiyin 20a–24a, Zangwai daoshu 11:54–56.

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In the 1939 Baxian gazetteer, Ji Dakui is said to be only the most famous of a large group of followers of Fu.112 Others were, for example,

Zhou Luan, to whom Fu wrote a letter, contained in the Chishuiyin,

discussing in detail the issue of paired practices; Yao Yizhi 姚 一 智 ,

who must have known Fu fairly well, since he is the author of a preface to the Chishuiyin113 and, with Liu Jingdu 劉 經 讀 , of Fu’s biography

Zuihua daoren zhuan mentioned above. Zhou Zhengru 周 正 儒 , who

wrote a preface to Fu’s Ziti Suohua, a collection of poems to accompany

Fu’s paintings, was a follower who admired mostly Fu’s artistic skills.

Unfortunately, there is no officially recorded information on any of these people.114

We also have the names of several people who helped to edit Fu’s

many works, but again very little information about them apart from

their place of origin. Some came from Dingyuan, just to the north of

Hechuan. Some came from Jingxi, Fu’s province of origin. Others came

from different parts of China (Hunan, Hubei). All of them have a

religious name, and most of them share the second (generation name) and third character of such names (yangzi 陽 子 ).115 This might indicate

that they all belonged to a single lineage of pupils of Fu, but this is a

speculation that I do not have enough facts to corroborate at this point.

112 Minguo Baxian zhi, juan 6:62b. 113 Zangwai daoshu 11:53, 59. 114 Liu is mentioned in Fu’s biography in the Hechuan xianzhi as one of Fu’s

disciples. See Hechuan xianzhi, juan 6:23a.

115 Here are their names as mentioned in Fu’s opera omnia: Qianyangzi Macheng Yu Muchun 乾 陽 子 麻 城 俞 慕 純 (Yu Muchun from Macheng, [Hubei]), Qianyangzi Macheng Zhu Zhongtang 潛 陽 子 麻 城 朱 仲 棠 (Zhu Zongtang from Macheng), Dingyangzi Yiling Xiong Huaishan 定 陽 子 彝 陵 熊 懷 善 (Xiong Huaishan from Yiling), Jiyangzi Xiao Kangli 集陽子蕭康理 , Laiyangzi Ling Guangyi 來陽子淩 光彝 , Zongyangzi Tang Shoulin 宗陽子唐壽林 , Zhenyangzi Li Gongchen 貞陽子 李拱辰 , Xinyangzi Yang Chunpu 心陽子楊春圃 .

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This group of editors/followers must have been connected to the altar of

transmission that Fu opened as soon as he entered Eastern Sichuan.

Setting up an altar to receive writings from the gods has multiple

meanings. It means setting up a place where there is contact with the

gods and where the gods transmit texts to humans. In addition to

facilitating communication with the spirits, and in Fu’s case especially

with Lü Dongbin, an altar creates and fosters a religious and social

community around it. In the Qing, many Daoist texts come from spirit

writing séances, and this procedure may be related to the need for

legitimacy and authority conferred by a supernatural being in the

increasingly competitive and fractured spectrum of Daoist schools and

Daoist groups. Spirit writing was one of the new forces behind the deep-

rooted change in the Daoist intellectual community and its intellectual

output. But spirit writing was not the domain of Daoist schools alone; as

has been described by many scholars, it was a practice enjoyed at all

levels of society, regardless of faith or social role and had multiple meanings.116 Examples of other spirit writing altars or tan are numerous

in Sichuan, Jiangnan, and especially in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Taiwan in this period.117 The religious organizations behind them,

associated with different popular cults, not always Daoist, were

116 Some representative examples are Xu Dishan 許地山 , Fuji mixin di yanjiu 扶箕迷 信 底 研 究 (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1941); David K., Jordan, and Daniel Overmeyer, The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism in Taiwan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985); Xun Liu, Daoist Modern; Philip Clart, “The Ritual Context of Morality Books: A Case-Study of a Taiwanese Spirit-Writing Cult” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of British Columbia, 1996); Yuria, “Identity and Lineage.”

117 Shiga, “Manifestations of Lüzu,” 187 and passim. Also: Graeme Lang and Lars Ragvald, “Spirit-Writing and the Development of Chinese Cults,” Sociology of Religion, 59.4 (Winter, 1998): 309–328.

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interested not only in communications from the Gods, but also in being part of a network of social welfare.118 There is evidence that similar

societies founded in Taiwan during this period were interested in the

“reformation of a decadent age by means of instructions and exhortations handed down by the Gods.”119 We can find parallels of this attitude in

Fu’s own writings, and in the writings he received at the altar. But this

message is clear in many other of his writings as well, and in this his

sentiments follow closely those displayed in contemporary morality

books as well as the “Sanjiao 三 教” literature of the time. In the preface to the 1823 Lüzu wupian zhu,120 received at the Sichuan altar, Fu clearly

sets the texts he has received against the context of contemporary

“unorthodox” instructions:

All the sages will have only this ladder [this way up to Heaven]; they will

have no other alternative in the unorthodox writings (pangjing 旁 經 ).

Otherwise, people will not be honest and filial, their hearts will lack

extreme sincerity, and they will not have principles.

So what was the nature of Fu’s complex role within the religious

community?

We know from his writings that he strongly believed that the Daoist

call could and should be followed from within society. In his role as a

religious leader, he was an intermediary between the gods and the religious community around the altar/s.121 Fu also comments on his own

role within the religious community. In the preface to the Lüzu wupian

118 Yamada Masaru 山 田 賢 points out that, in late Qing Sichuan, local elites formed associations around spirit-writing altars that were mainly interested in social welfare. Yamada Masaru, Ijumin no chitsujo—Shinda shisen chiiki shakaishi kenkyu (Nagoya: Nagoya University Press, 1995), 249–251.

119 Clart, “The Ritual Context of Morality Books,” 16. 120 Zangwai daoshu 11:720–743. 121 Mori Yuria, “Identity and Lineage,” 165–184.

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zhu, Fu describes how he received the texts and then how he edited them

for the community.

Think daily of revering the refining of the heart, concentrate on the spirit,

nurture inner nature, and hope for a proof of the attainment, which will be

the phoenix flying to Xinjiang, receiving instructions and stopping in a restful place.122

This humble student [Fu], has reverently explained [the text] with a

cleansed heart, words have been selected carefully, phrases have been

commented upon, and I did not avoid mistakes. Generally I took as a model my teacher’s unbound, extreme determination in saving people.123

Fu describes himself as the person in charge of receiving the texts

(symbolized by the phoenix flying to its resting place, the altar), as well

as a faithful editor of his master’s writings; he is the person in charge of

understanding and explaining his master’s words.

Fu also became an intermediary between the text received and its

printing and diffusion; once a text was received and made intelligible to

the religious community, Fu printed it and distributed it. In another letter

to his friend Ji Dakui, Fu discusses in more detail the importance of

writing (for the benefit of the religious community). He praises the work

on the Yijing that Ji had published at the Shuangguitang as a great

service to the religious community, and continues by underlying the

difference between oral and written instruction:

. . .[such concepts] can be transmitted through oral instructions, but it is difficult to transmit them through writing. 124

However, publishing for Fu was not only a religious act for the accretion

122 Lüzu wupian zhu: preface, 1a. Zangwai daoshu 11:720. 123 Ibid., preface, 2b. 124 Zangwai daoshu 11:55.

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of merit, and an intellectual act for the preservation of the works of

previous alchemists, but probably also led by commercial choices.

We do not know how Fu made a living, but, as mentioned above, his

decision to move to Sichuan was possibly prompted by economic needs;

his involvement in receiving texts at more than one altar, as well his

ability to print them must have been a source of revenue. (He may also

have received donations from his followers.) Thus, what was chosen

for publication must have also been inspired by what the audience was

interested in. Texts on meditation for women for example, were geared

towards a growing audience of educated and semi-educated women who

were already interested in alchemical texts. Reprinting compendia like the

Waijindan and the Neijindan might have responded to a growing demand

from intellectuals who dabbled in alchemy. The rearrangement of Fu’s

collection over the three decades that he spent in Sichuan may tell us

more about what he saw as his audience’s changing needs. The fact that

part of Fu’s work was collected and reproduced only decades later (in

1906. in an important collection like the Chongkan Daozang Jiyao 重 刋 道 藏 輯 要 125 might also attest to the continuing value of his work and the

continuing interest of the audience in new Daoist knowledge. It is also of

note that some of Fu Jinquan writings, including his Nüjindan fayao, were

reprinted by the Daoist intellectual Xiao Tianshi in his Daozang Jinghua

in the 1950s.

125 Many of Fu Jinquan’s texts on female alchemy were reproduced in He Longxiang’s Nüdan hebian, a part of the Chongkan daozang jiyao publishing project at the Erxian’an in Chengdu in 1906. Fu’s opera omnia was well known to the compilers of the Daozang jiyao, who listed all of his works in the Guochao fangke daoshu mulu Daozang jiyao 國朝坊刻道書目錄輯要 . For more information of this, see Valussi’s forthcoming “The Nüdan Hebian,” in the Daozang Jiyao Project.

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Conclusion

To see Fu’s life and work in a broader light, we need to understand the

momentous changes that were underway in the late Qing. As described by

Esposito, Qing Daoism is characterized by the growth of lay organizations

and practices, by the production of morality books and by the flourishing of spirit writing cults, especially those to Lü Dongbin.126 At the same

time, throughout China, there was a strengthening of local arenas,

especially at the religious level. “The decline of state power, intensified

commercialization of society, the cumulative effect of long term local

militarization, population pressure, and the decline of the large lineages

and religious institutions all led by the turn of the nineteenth century

to the formation of new arenas for the production of truth at the local level.”127 This statement describes the situation in southern China, but

can be easily applied to what happened in Sichuan a few decades later. Fu

was already involved in a religious community in Jiangxi; what led him

to Sichuan was the possibility of both commercial activity in the printing

business, already very active there through a network of Jiangxi emigrés,

and the possibility of creating new local religious arenas on the pattern

of those that had already been fully established in Jiangnan. In Sichuan,

he found a flourishing of local religious activities and like-minded people

with whom to correspond and collaborate. Many of them were also part of

a close Jiangxi network.

However, his experience was not unique. Other Daoist intellectuals

found themselves at the center of religious communities where they

interpreted and made sense of the words of the spirits. Local Sichuan

examples are Li Xiyue and Huang Shang, but throughout China there

was a growing localization of the production of Daoist texts through the

126 Esposito, “Daoism in the Qing,” 624. 127 Kenneth Dean, Lord of the Three in One: The Spread of a Cult in Southeast

China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 55.

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use of altars and spirit writing techniques; many of these altars were

devoted to the cult of Lü Dongbin and produced extensive neidan literature.128 These altars worked at the same time as centers where the

religious needs of the community were met, centers for the production

of religious texts, and centers for the espousing of moral and ethical

values. The altars also gave legitimacy to the texts thereby produced

through the connection with supernatural beings. Printing, too,

functioned as a religious act, an act of accretion of merit that had

transformative powers both on the people who performed it and on the

people who benefited from it, thus adding a religious dimension to the role of publishers.129 These acts strengthened the community as well as

the role of the religious leader. Many of the Daoist intellectuals

concerned were receiving, collecting, and disseminating works of inner

alchemy; within this framework, they were all, in differing degrees,

contending with shifting meanings and interpretations of inner alchemy,

they were exploring how and where to practice it, and they were all

vying for an audience.

Fu’s case is emblematic for many reasons: first, because of the wide

range of texts he received and published in the Daoshu shiqizhong; by

looking at this work, it is clear that he was attempting not only to

disseminate the texts he received, but also to compile a corpus of

128 One important example is the Lüzu quanshu 呂 祖 全 書 (Complete Works of Patriarch Lü) received at the Hansangong 涵 三 宮 temple in Wuchang (Wuhan) and published in 1744. This and many other texts received through spirit-writing, together with texts from the Daozang, were later collected in the Daozang jiyan, a large Daoist collection that came together around the Jueyuantan 覺源壇 altar in Beijing, under the direction of Jiang Yupu 蔣予蒲 (1755–1819), and was published in 1806.

129 This issue is discussed, for a later period and in Taiwan, by Philip Clart, in “Merit Beyond Measure: Notes on the Moral (and Real) Economy of Religious Publishing in Taiwan,” in The People and the Dao: New Studies in Honour of Daniel L. Overmeyer, ed. Philip Clart and Paul Crowe, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series (Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2009).

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influential works of late imperial alchemy that included his own. Second,

his direct connection to a large publishing house allows us to see more

clearly the multiple interactions between local religious and commercial

activities. Third, Fu’s case is an example of how a group of recent

migrants collaborated closely in both religious and publishing endeavors.

Fu had multiple identities. Alchemist, intellectual, religious leader,

publisher, Jiangxi emigrant, he was an intermediary between the gods

and the religious community, as well as between the texts and their

audience. These multiple identities intersected seamlessly in his work.

Map of Sichuan :

Chengdu 成都 Chongqing 重慶 Dingyuan 定遠

Larger cities in the area

Site of a fervent cult of Longnü, and place of origin of several editors of the Daoshu shizhong Emei shan 峨眉山 Several Daoist and Buddhist monasteries, where Li Xiyue

Fu Shun 富順 Guang’an 廣安 Hechuan 合川 Le Shan 樂山 Shifang 什邡 Yuechi 岳池

first met immortal Lü Dongbin Where Huang Shang and his religious group were based Headquarters of the Shanchengtang The area where Fu settled as he arrived in Sichuan Base of Li Xiyue’s religious group Where Ji Dakui was posted as a magistrate "The town of character carving"

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內丹作家、宗教領袖和四川出版家傅金銓與印刷及宗教

阿琳娜

摘要

這一篇文章探討的是十九世紀的道教煉金術家、宗教領袖和出版商作者，

傅金銓（活動於 1800 年）的生活和工作。傅，江西人，同時是一個非常活躍

的道教知識分子，於 1817 年搬到四川。他這樣做，一是為四川肥沃的宗教

氛圍所吸引，二是想在四川東部建立接受呂洞賓的真言的道壇，以創造充

滿活力的宗教社區，三則希望推動四川的印刷文化蓬勃發展。其中，他充

分地利用了四川的印術文化，在他親戚傅金鐸成立的印刷所裏出版了他自

己的全集。在清朝道教知識界的發展中，傅的情況是非常典型的，這表現

在：在地域上具有更大的流動性；通過廣泛的作者和實踐者的網絡，前所

未有地傳播煉丹文化；廣泛使用扶乩方式接受真言，從而產生新的著作；

在扶乩活動中，道教神仙呂洞賓的影響力越來越大 ; 將儒家和佛教思想與道

教的思想和實踐深深交織在一起 ; 利用印刷手段傳播煉丹知識，以及藉助小

型印刷廠在當地傳播宗教知識小冊子等。儘管事實上傅只是發展地方宗教

者的其中一位，然而對他的研究，將會凸顯之前未知的四川道教網絡，並

將有力地將四川宗教信息的傳播與四川當地的商業印刷的興起連接起來。

關鍵詞：傅金銓、道教、清代、印數、四川