《張三丰先生全集》Vol. 2

General Editorial Principles for The Complete Works of Master Zhang Sanfeng (Twelve Items)

This text is the editor's twelve-point statement of principles on how Master Zhang Sanfeng's works were collected and collated; it is not itself a cultivation scripture.

First, although omissions in this book are unavoidable, the collected poems, ancient-style prose, ci, reflective discourses, and scriptural instructions are all intended to harmonize the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism) and to be transmitted far into the future. It also encompasses material of the kind described by the Three Officials as the Complete Works of Patriarch Lü: the compilation need not be exhaustive, but its meaning and principles strive for completeness; hence it is called a "Complete Works."

Second, with regard to provenance and manifestations: fictitious and baseless material, play scripts, and idle tales are all excluded. Only historical gazetteers, biographies, and Daoist veritable records are used, for readers' reference.

Third, many dharma images of the Master appear in stone carvings and are difficult to transmit in full. Now only the standing, sitting, walking, and sleeping portraits have been selected and copied into four plates, simplifying to show the essentials.

Fourth, "Correcting Errors and Manifesting Traces," "Compiled Records," and other pieces overlap, with differing detail. If readers compare beginning and end, the Master's actual deeds become clearer.

Fifth, this book is based on editions carved in various places and transcripts by Daoist priests, and contains many errors; only the Wang edition (the version held by Immortal Wang) is relatively reliable. In the present edition, anything derived from Immortal Wang's collection is marked "Collected by Yuantong Daoren" to indicate its source.

Sixth, the Former Collection of Cloud and Water consists entirely of works from when the Master was in the world; arranged by year and month, it lets one see his life as if before the eyes. Poems scattered in provincial gazetteers and biographies are all already present in the collection, so they are no longer annotated "such-and-such poem appears in such-and-such gazetteer."

Seventh, the Later Collection of Cloud and Water and the Third Collection: one was written when he converted Immortal Wang, the other when he resided at Kongqing; they are still arranged chronologically and record his spirit journeys. I have heard that elsewhere there are the Master's planchette writings (texts obtained through spirit writing), but I fear humans and ghosts are mixed together and they cannot be fully trusted. Occasionally credible ones are recorded in Compiled Records; the main collection does not presume to include them indiscriminately.

Eighth, in the previous large-block printing, many top marginal annotations were lost and pages were disordered; within it, the Cloud and Water Poetry Collection is difficult to put in order. Recently Zhang Zhidong, while serving as education commissioner in Sichuan, donated funds for a pocket edition, corrected without error and convenient for a traveling bookcase; all supplements in this printing are arranged therein.

Ninth, in the book there is the Lingbao Bifa Danjing, a shortcut to cultivating immortality. Those who read this scripture and devote themselves to cultivating the body—what difficulty could there be in the great Dao of the Golden Elixir? (This is an editor's note, not a substitute for the Master's original admonition.)

Tenth, the poems of Xuan Yao Pian and Gudao Qing were mixed into one volume in separate printings; now, following Immortal Wang's collected edition, poetry and ancient-style works are divided into two.

Reading Note: "Complete Works" means seeking completeness in doctrine and editorial principles; it does not mean that every piece has been strictly verified historically. The editorial principles themselves already acknowledge "knowing many omissions" and that planchette texts are "hard to fully trust"; they may be read in contrast with modern philological attitudes.

Plain-Language Interpretation

The upper volume presents the Master’s Daoist sensibility and inner state; the lower volume contains whatever does not duplicate Cloud-Water Poems—Cloud-Water Poems records the Master’s life and deeds, while Mysterious Essentials consists of the Daoist teachings spoken by the Master himself.

Among the catalog of Daoist books recorded in the Ming History’s “Wenhan zhi” (Treatise on Letters and Literature) are the Master’s one-volume Direct Pointers to the Golden Elixir (Jindan Zhizhi) and one-volume Secret Formulas of the Golden Elixir (Jindan Mijue); these correspond to the present edition’s Treatise on the Great Dao (Dadao Lun), Direct Lectures on the Mysterious Mechanism (Xuanji Zhijiang), and Chapter on Mysterious Essentials (Xuanyao Pian). These works are also known by the titles Jieyao (Essential Selections) and Jieyao (Quick Essentials), and they can also be found in the Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals (Shenxian Tongjian). The title of the present book follows the Master’s self-edited edition held by Wang Xian (Wang the Immortal), and no alternative title has been adopted.

After this book has been carved and printed, it is still hoped that learned and cultivated scholars will emulate the ancient method of recovering lost writings, collect scattered and lost chapters, and append them to the end of the volume; if further discoveries are made in the future, they may likewise be continued according to this example.