On the cult of Chang San-feng and the authenticity of his works

Abstract

Chang San Feng was a Taoist master who Has honoured by the Taoist inclined Emperors T'ai-tsu (reigned 1368--1398), Ch'eng-tsu(reigned 1403-1424) and Ying-tsung (reigned 1436-1449, 1457-1464) of the Ming dynasty, The first two emperors dispatched delegates to invite him to court, but he never Pesponded to imperial invitation. Many legends were woven around him and he was transmuted into an immortal. As his biography in the Ming-shih remarks, no one knew when he died. It is also problematic whether he was a historical figure or not. This thesis is an attempt to reveal the true facts about this noted Taoist. This study consists of two parts. The first part, an examination and review of the biographical accounts of Chang San-feng as found in important historical compilations, local histories of the Ming dynasty and literary notes written by Ming authors, reflects the evolution of his biography from one of the earliest extant records, which was written during the Hsuan-te reign (1426-1435), to its inclusion into the Ming-shih, and reveals the discrepancies existing in many records, Evidence is cited to prove that some sayings concerning Chang San-feng are unfounded. By making use of comparatively reliable biographical accounts and analysing the records relating to the imperial search for Chang San-feng, which is a historical fact, it is argued that it is possible that Chang San-feng was a historical figure. Also, the dates of one of the disciples of Chang San-feng, and the discontinuation of Emperor Ch'eng-tsu's search for the Taoist, lead to the deduction that Chang San-feng lived approximately between the Yen-yu period (1314-1320) and 1419, Part II of this thesis is an investigation into the authenticity of the Chang San-feng ch 'Uan-chi, the complete works attributed to Chang San-fengo Nany ser'ious discrepancies existing in these works have been cliscover·ed, namely, the appearance of historical persons and mention of historical facts in periods remote from the time when Chang San-feng was believed to have flourished, anti-Taoist overtones, resentment against Emperor Ch'eng-tsu, a sentiment incapable of finding expression in the time and milieu of Chang San-feng dnd anachronistic use of terms and names of places current during the Ch'ing period. All these serve to betray that these works are spurious, and chat they were forged or produced from planchette writing by Ch'ing Taoist devotees. Such clues also indicate that some of them were written by an unknown author in late Ming period To sum up Chang San-feng was not the author of these works. Show more