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Wuzhen pian
The Wuzhen pian (Chinese: 悟真篇; pinyin: Wùzhēn piān; Wade–Giles: Wu-chen p'ien; lit. 'Folios on Awakening to Reality/Perfection') is a 1075 Taoist classic on Neidan-style internal alchemy. Its author Zhang Boduan (張伯端; 987?–1082) was a Song dynasty scholar of the Three teachings (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism).
Wuzhen pian combines three Chinese words.
The Chinese character wu 悟 "awaken; realize", which is written with the "heart/mind radical" 忄and a phonetic of wu 吾 "I; my; we; our", has a literary variant Chinese character wu 寤 "awake; wake up" with the "roof radical" 宀, qiang 爿 "bed", and this wu 吾 phonetic. Compare the given name of Sun Wukong 孙悟空, the central character in Journey to the West, which literally means "Awaken to Emptiness".
The ambiguity of the Wuzhen pian title, and by extension the text itself, is illustrated by these English renderings:
Zhang Boduan, or Zhang Ziyang (張紫陽), was a native of Tiantai in present-day Zhejiang. After passing the Imperial examination, he began a career as a civil servant, but was banished to the frontier in Lingnan, where he served as a military commissioner. Zhang was later transferred to Guilin and Chengdu, where in 1069 he allegedly experienced sudden realization from a Taoist master who instructed him in Neidan internal alchemy. Zhang wrote the Wuzhen pian, its appendices, and a few other texts, including the Jindan sibai zi (Chinese: 金丹四百字; lit. 'Four hundred words on the Golden Elixir'). He was additionally an authority on Chan Buddhism.
Biographical sources agree that Zhang Boduan died in 1082 CE during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, but disagree whether he was born in 983, 984, or 987. Zhang was honorifically called Ziyang Zhenren (紫陽真人), ranking him as a Taoist zhenren, a title that shares the word zhen (real/true/authentic) with Wuzhen pian.
The Quanzhen School of Taoism originated in the 12th century with the Five Northern Patriarchs (Wang Chongyang and his successors). In the 13th century, Zhang Boduan posthumously became the second of the Five Southern Patriarchs in the so-called Nanzong (南宗; 'Southern Lineage'), which Boltz refers to as "ex post facto".
In Shaanxi, Hong Kong, and Singapore, there are Zhenren Gong (真人宮; 'Real/Perfected Person Temples') dedicated to Zhang Boduan.
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Wuzhen pian
The Wuzhen pian (Chinese: 悟真篇; pinyin: Wùzhēn piān; Wade–Giles: Wu-chen p'ien; lit. 'Folios on Awakening to Reality/Perfection') is a 1075 Taoist classic on Neidan-style internal alchemy. Its author Zhang Boduan (張伯端; 987?–1082) was a Song dynasty scholar of the Three teachings (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism).
Wuzhen pian combines three Chinese words.
The Chinese character wu 悟 "awaken; realize", which is written with the "heart/mind radical" 忄and a phonetic of wu 吾 "I; my; we; our", has a literary variant Chinese character wu 寤 "awake; wake up" with the "roof radical" 宀, qiang 爿 "bed", and this wu 吾 phonetic. Compare the given name of Sun Wukong 孙悟空, the central character in Journey to the West, which literally means "Awaken to Emptiness".
The ambiguity of the Wuzhen pian title, and by extension the text itself, is illustrated by these English renderings:
Zhang Boduan, or Zhang Ziyang (張紫陽), was a native of Tiantai in present-day Zhejiang. After passing the Imperial examination, he began a career as a civil servant, but was banished to the frontier in Lingnan, where he served as a military commissioner. Zhang was later transferred to Guilin and Chengdu, where in 1069 he allegedly experienced sudden realization from a Taoist master who instructed him in Neidan internal alchemy. Zhang wrote the Wuzhen pian, its appendices, and a few other texts, including the Jindan sibai zi (Chinese: 金丹四百字; lit. 'Four hundred words on the Golden Elixir'). He was additionally an authority on Chan Buddhism.
Biographical sources agree that Zhang Boduan died in 1082 CE during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, but disagree whether he was born in 983, 984, or 987. Zhang was honorifically called Ziyang Zhenren (紫陽真人), ranking him as a Taoist zhenren, a title that shares the word zhen (real/true/authentic) with Wuzhen pian.
The Quanzhen School of Taoism originated in the 12th century with the Five Northern Patriarchs (Wang Chongyang and his successors). In the 13th century, Zhang Boduan posthumously became the second of the Five Southern Patriarchs in the so-called Nanzong (南宗; 'Southern Lineage'), which Boltz refers to as "ex post facto".
In Shaanxi, Hong Kong, and Singapore, there are Zhenren Gong (真人宮; 'Real/Perfected Person Temples') dedicated to Zhang Boduan.