Yi guan tian ji zhi jiang 一貫天機直講 [Straightforward Lectures on Connecting with the Heavenly Secrets]

Illus. & diagrams in the text. Four vols. 8vo, orig. printed wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: n.d. but [1941].




An early and rare edition of this collection of lectures on Quanzhen Daoism, which "appeared around 1170 in North China under the Jürchen Jin 金 empire (1115-1234), as one among a number of new Daoist movements founded by charismatic leaders teaching self-cultivation techniques, healing arts, and other rituals...Quanzhen rose to fame when the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan summoned Qiu for an audience in 1223 and granted him extensive privileges and a leading role in supervising Daoist affairs in North China...Its fortunes waned and waxed under the various regimes" (Liu & Gossaert, "Introduction," 1-2). The sect is still in existence today.


The book contains two Prefaces, one by Gao Enhong 高恩洪, who published it, and one by Ye Yian 葉一盦. Gao explains how he came across the book and how it came to be published:

When I served as supervisor of trade at Kiautschou (Jiaozhou, in Shandong), I studied Quanzhen learning, but because of the commitments of my job, I was not able to fully devote myself to it...Then, in the old metropolis [of Beijing], I found a book titled Yi guan tian ji zhi jiang in a bookstore. Reading it, I learned that it was the most recent collection of lectures given by the spiritual master Wei Zezhi [i.e., Wei Yao] of Sichuan in Beijing in 1924 (jiazi of the Republic).

Gao learned many Daoist truths from the book, and decided that he wanted to publish it:

Initially I wanted to publish it as soon as possible, to give it wide circulation and help set right the way of the present generation. It was just that one page was missing from the notes to the 17th chapter of the work Yinfu jing 陰符經 [Classic on Military Stratagems], a lacuna for which I could not but feel somewhat uncomfortable. I looked for it for a couple of years, but was unable to find it. Seeing no other way, I decided to have the work printed while leaving that page blank. Then the most miraculous thing happened. The day before the book was supposed to get set in type, Mr. Li Wenhao 李文浩, the bookdealer, had by chance found three stray volumes at a stall at Desheng Gate, with the notes to chapter 17 of Yinfu jing among their contents! It was as if I had gotten hold of jade treasures. I quickly copied the page into the original book, and gave it to the typesetter for printing. What could explain how something like this could happen, if not the silent protection and care of the spirits?

Gao (1875-1943) was a late Qing and Republican-era civil servant, political figure, and entrepreneur (Zhongguo qixiang xuehui shi, 266). We find no information on Wei Yao, the author of our book.


Fine and fresh set.


❧ Liu, Xun & Vincent Gossaert. "Introduction." In Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture, 1500-2010. Edited by Xun Liu & Vincent Gossaert. University of California, Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies, 2013. Zhongguo qixiang xuehui shi 中国气象学会史. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong daxue chubanshe, 2008.