History
The Xiuzhen tu text probably dates "from the early 19th century" (Komjathy 2004:53) and exists in several versions, some with variant titles like Xiuzhen quantu 修真全圖 "Cultivation of Perfection Complete Diagram". All editions are associated with the Longmen "Dragon Gate" sect of the Quanzhen school of Daoism. Catherine Despeux (2008:770) lists five extant versions: a stele at the Sanyuan Gong 三元宮 "Three Primes Palace" in Guangzhou (dated 1812); printed versions from the Wudang Mountains (1924 reprint of 1888), Shanghai (1920), and Chengdu (1922); and a version at the White Cloud Temple in Beijing (undated).
The Xiuzhen Tu resembles the better-known Neijing Tu 內經圖 "Inner Pathways Diagram". Both these anatomical charts with Daoist Neidan symbolism derive from the earliest diagrams attributed to Yanluozi 煙蘿子 (fl. 10th century) and conserved in the 1250 CE Xiuzhen shishu 修真十書 "Cultivating Perfection Ten Books" (Kohn 2000:521).
Read more about this topic: Xiuzhen Tu
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)