Gazetteer of the Palace of Longevity 万寿宫志
Paul PengGazetteer of the Palace of Longevity
Full title: Records of Xiaoyao Wanshou Palace.
Compiled and edited by Jin Guixin and Qi Fengyuan. Printed in the fourth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, totaling fifteen volumes, included in Daoist Books Outside the Canon · Topography of Temples and Abbeys.
Gazetteer of the Palace of Longevity
Wanshou Palace is located on Xishan Mountain in Xinjian County, Jiangxi Province. According to tradition, Xu Xun of the Jin Dynasty cultivated and attained ascension here. Later generations built “Immortal Xu Temple” in his memory, which was renamed “Youwei Guan” during the Southern and Northern Dynasties — the predecessor of Wanshou Palace.The special records of Wanshou Palace began in the Ming Dynasty. During the Hongwu reign, Master Xiong Changjing first compiled Classified Compilation of Records of Tiezhu Yanzhen Wannian Gong. During the Zhengde reign, Deng Jiyu revised and expanded it.
In the fourth year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty, Cheng Yigui and Xiong Yihua of Xinjian collected and researched materials, and obtained a manuscript from Mr. Yu Feizhi of the same village, thus completing the full book. Later the printing blocks were destroyed by fire. In the nineteenth year of the Kangxi reign, Huang Yu compiled and reprinted the blocks, making it widely circulated.
In the fifth year of the Qianlong reign, the halls of Xiaoyao Mountain were rebuilt, and Ding Bushang, a provincial graduate of Xinjian, edited and expanded it into twenty volumes. In the twenty-sixth year of the Daoguang reign, Liu Fang of Fengcheng used the surviving damaged blocks, deleted redundancies, supplemented omissions, and revised it again.
In the fourth year of the Guangxu reign, Jin Guixin, Qi Fengyuan and others revised Records of Wanshou Palace again, taking the old records as the basis, extensively collecting materials, and expanding and revising it into fifteen volumes.
The gazetteer includes: illustrations, chronicles, tables, biographies, mountains and rivers, palaces and halls, ancient sites, scriptures and books, sacrificial ceremonies, figures, anecdotes, literature and art, etc., with more detailed content than the old records.
For example, the anecdotes in the old records were mostly hearsay, while the new records extensively drew from the Daozang and various works, recording all materials related to Lord Jiyang’s deeds for documentary evidence.
In addition, imperial ceremonies through the ages were most prominent in the Song Dynasty, leading to the establishment of official positions such as supervisor in Yulong Palace. The old records only included Mr. Zhen Xishan, listed among the notable officials, with no others recorded. The new records added a research section on worship ceremonies with detailed accounts.
Therefore, the revised Records of Wanshou Palace in the Daoguang reign is rich in content. It not only includes items similar to general gazetteers, such as the historical evolution of Xiaoyao Mountain and Wanshou Palace, and scenic landscapes, but also records sectarian and folk activities with local characteristics. All contents quoted from old records are clearly annotated.
