Scarlet Script Ancient Insight - Commentary 太上赤文洞古经注

Annotated by Changquanzi, a Quanzhen Taoist priest at the end of the Jin Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty.

Consisting of one volume, it is included in the Yujue (Jade Secrets) category of The Dongzhen Section in The Daozang.

Scarlet Script Ancient Insight - Commentary

This work is an annotated version of The Supreme Red Text Cave Antiquity Scripture. The original scripture is divided into three chapters: Chapter on Cultivating Truth, Chapter on Entering Sagehood, and Chapter on Abiding in the World. Each chapter contains only a few dozen characters, expounding the way of cultivating truth and nourishing nature. It holds that non-movement and non-action are the foundation of all things, and non-seeing and non-hearing are the gate to all subtleties. Nourishing the formless and upholding the insubstantial enables one to attain longevity. The annotations interpret the scripture by incorporating both Taoist and Buddhist doctrines, stating that those who cultivate the Dao should embrace the primordial and uphold unity, maintain purity and non-action, and return to the origin to fulfill one’s destiny. The Daozang also contains Changquanzi’s Commentary on the Primeval Heavenly Lord’s Primordial Antiquity Scripture, which is similar in content but different in wording from this book. For example, the scripture text of that work has no chapter titles, and its end includes an additional concluding remark and eulogy compared to this book. Other textual passages also have similarities and differences. They are presumably different versions of the same work, which can be collated and supplemented with each other.

See the corresponding entry.