Taishang Chiwen Donggu Jing Zhu — The Commentary of Changquanzi

This is Changquanzi's commentary on the Ancient Cavern Scripture of the Crimson Text (赤文洞古經), a short scripture of unknown authorship attributed, as many such texts are, to the Most High — the deified Laozi. Scripture and commentary together survive in the Daoist Canon as a single scroll, classed in the Dongzhen section under Jade Instructions (洞真部玉訣類) and numbered DZ 106.

Changquanzi (長筌子) was a Quanzhen Daoist priest active at the turn from the Jin dynasty into the Yuan, in the first half of the thirteenth century; the scripture he comments on gives no date for itself and calls itself only "ancient." He takes the scripture's own short aphorisms — mostly four characters each — as headings, and writes a prose commentary beneath every one, the whole gathered under a preface and three chapter titles: Grasping the Real, Entering Sagehood, and Dwelling in the World.

The teaching moves from the stillness and forgetting of the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi into the vocabulary of inner alchemy — lead and mercury, water and fire, the Golden Elixir — and borrows freely from Buddhist terms already at home in Daoist writing by Changquanzi's day: kalpas, sentient beings, the Dharma-eye. Its recurring word is zhen 真, "the real" or "the true": what stillness grasps, what long cultivation of spirit and qi arrives at, and what one becomes, at the last, as a zhenren — a Perfected Person.

Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, printed in full below. Published English treatments of this text are recorded and named in the colophon; this Good Works Translation was made independently from the Chinese and did not consult them.

Translation

Preface

The Ultimate Way has no words; true emptiness has no form. Those who ponder it cannot know it; those who look for it cannot see it; those who probe it cannot grasp it; those who walk toward it never arrive. It molds and casts heaven and earth; it governs and follows the working of creation. Still and unmoving, it yet fills the six directions in response, granting the ten thousand things their rest and returning the multitude of the living to their true destiny. How towering, how complete is it! Who but a sage could penetrate it?

How much more so the great sage of Primordial Beginning, whose compassionate heart spreads wide and whose wisdom illumines the ten directions. He saw that living beings had forgotten the way home and lost their root, turning and turning through the world, transmigrating without rest, suffering through long kalpas, unable to enlighten themselves. Moved, he let the rain of the Dharma fall and nourish; he proclaimed the wondrous Way and drew all sentient beings onward, leading them out of the sea of birth and death to roam the realm of clarity and emptiness, the country of tranquil plainness — transcending the world's dust, walking the vast void, wandering free and transforming of themselves, subtle and mysteriously penetrating, non-active and spontaneous, returned to what is pure, plain, utterly dark, and boundlessly one.

Grasping the Real — Chapter One

The motion that moves comes forth from what does not move.

That which moves is what answers to circumstance. That which does not move embraces the source and holds fast to the One — it returns to the root and reverts to true destiny. Thus it is said: the clear is the wellspring of the turbid; stillness is the foundation of motion. Be discerning, be single-minded, and hold fast to the Mean. The ten thousand things grow in rich profusion, and each returns again to its root. To return to the root is called stillness: stillness carried to its utmost is the unmoving.

The action that acts comes forth from non-action. Where there is non-action, the spirit returns.

Spirit is by nature deep and still; when stirred, it thereupon connects through. It rises only when it cannot do otherwise, meeting things as circumstance brings them, its wondrous working inexhaustible. Discard cleverness, discard even benevolence, and so follow the pattern of Heaven. Remain placid and without limit, and the manifold wonders will return to you.

When the spirit returns, the ten thousand things fall still.

Concentrate the vital breath and bring it to suppleness, and you can be like an infant. Embrace and preserve the blended harmony, and the true qi will swirl in rich abundance, so that the ten thousand things all attain long life. To know harmony is called constancy; to let the mind drive the breath is called forcing. What is forced hardens, stiffens, and grows old — this is the way of death.

If there is no movement, the qi dissolves; when the qi dissolves, the ten thousand things have no life.

When the qi is severed and the spirit departs, the nine orifices and hundred bones are transformed and dissolve into dust — what doubt could there be of this?

Spirit sustains spirit, and thing relies on thing — this is their very root.

Nurture emptiness with emptiness, nurture substance with substance. Why so? Forget the body to nurture the qi; forget the qi to nurture the spirit; forget the spirit to nurture emptiness. In the empty chamber, brightness is born; where all is auspicious, one comes to rest. Spirit and qi grow harmonious and calm, the numinous root deepens and grows firm — and so one completes the way of long life and lasting vision.

Awaken to it in silence — know it of yourself.

The mystery of the Utmost Way is attained without borrowing anything external. Silent, silent; dim, dim — with nothing responding, nothing asking — the numinous light shines alone, far removed from the senses and their objects. The substance reveals what is truly constant, and follows none of the ten thousand phenomena: by this one may keep life whole, by this one may return to the root.

Entering into what has no gap,

"No gap" means there is no separate being at all. This is the wordless teaching, the benefit of non-action: perfectly penetrating and unobstructed, responding and transforming without end, filling the ten directions completely, moving at every moment without any break or gap.

not dying, not being born,

The dark pearl gleams and gleams, bright now as in ancient times. The ten thousand things blend into one; every phenomenon is equal to every other. Centered in stillness, untainted, without beginning and without end — thus it is called not dying and not being born.

one with heaven and earth.

The Way of Heaven is clear and empty, and so can endure; the Way of Earth is calm and still, and so can last. If a person can awaken to this principle and reach its wondrous Way — attaining emptiness to the utmost, guarding stillness with utter sincerity, placid and tranquil, unburdened by the ten thousand things, pure, clear, and non-active — then indeed one may become one with heaven and earth!

Entering Sagehood — Chapter Two

Forget the eyes, and light overflows without limit.

The five colors confuse clarity and leave people blind. "Color" means what is made manifest — but that which colors every color has itself never been made manifest. What does this mean? The Dharma-eye penetrates all things perfectly, illuminating clearly the ten directions and the three realms. Beholding things, it sees no things; beholding emptiness, it finds no emptiness; looking upon it all, everything is dark and hidden — yet within that very darkness, it alone perceives the dawn. The numinous light fills and floods everything, without end or limit.

Efface the ears, and mind's awareness stays ever deep.

The five tones confuse hearing and leave people deaf. The mind is a clear abyss, deep and limpid of itself. Words of right and wrong, sounds of beauty and ugliness — these are all delusive feeling, false and unreal things. Whirling wind and sudden rain stir and trouble the mind's wellspring, and the chamber of spirit loses its power. But if one can efface right and wrong and refuse to let them in, then within utter soundlessness one alone hears harmony — and only then can one listen to the mysterious song of White Snow, needing not even to strike up Sunny Spring: the very melody of the immortals' own music.

When both workings are forgotten together, one goes beyond the gate of all wonders.

Sound and sight both effaced, motion and stillness both forgotten. Listening to it, not with the breath; seeing it, not with the spirit — this is called the wonder of the Great Mystery, the numinous quality of the vast void. Deep, and ever deeper, and still it can bring forth things; spirit upon spirit, and still it can distill the essence. It is action that is non-action, knowing that does not know. Numinous and bright, vast and penetrating, expansive and empty and still — its wonder has no boundary at all.

Wholly pure, wholly whole, it accords with the Great Square.

Thing and self both forgotten, being and non-being no longer standing apart. Dim, dim; silent, silent; obscure, obscure; dark, dark. Without border, without limit, neither outside nor within. Its wandering has no starting point, its emergence has no direction; it transforms and nurtures the ten thousand things, yet cannot be made into any image — blended into wholeness, it has no corners at all.

Vast and dim, formless and primal, it accords with what has no peer.

The Utmost Way, mystery upon mystery, vast and sweeping beyond measure — its principle has no equal anywhere. Stored within, it becomes the primal essence; put to use, it becomes the ten thousand numinous powers; held close, it becomes the Great Unity; released, it becomes the Great Clarity. Without form, without name, the most honored and the most precious of all things — confused about it, one remains an ordinary person; awakened to it, one becomes a sage.

Great as heaven and earth are, I am what holds them together.

The sages and worthies of past and present, the Perfected who have attained the Way, raise up heaven and earth, grasp yin and yang, shape and carve the ten thousand things, and let their bounty reach every kind of being — is this not a mighty thing?

Many as the ten thousand things are, I am what sustains them.

The whole universe lies within their hands; the ten thousand transformations are born from a single body.

How could it ever come to an exhausted end, that mere words could speak its limit?

The sage speaks directly of the wondrous Way, letting it appear everywhere and shine everywhere, fearing only that ordinary people of later ages would disbelieve and doubt. So he speaks with great humility, as though his own words could never exhaust its principle, treating language itself as a limitation — hating any talk that is mistaken or corrupt.

Dwelling in the World — Chapter Three

Nurture what has no image, and the image will endure forever.

The true qi steams and suffuses, so that the seasons know no cold or heat; pure yang flows and pours through, so that the people know no death or birth. Thus it is said: when the lamp of the mind shines bright, the Dharma-body endures forever — but if the candle of wisdom is not bright, how could the countenance of the Way ever be carried?

Guard what has no body, and the body will be wholly real.

Heaven and earth join together and let sweet dew fall, nourishing every kind of being into flourishing. If a person can be tranquil and at harmonious ease, the precious vessel grows firm, the jade nectar turns fragrant and sweet, the true water descends and nourishes the wondrous body — turning old age back into the likeness of a child. Is this not excellent!

Wholeness and reality complete each other; thus one may endure long.

Water and fire completing each other, hun-soul and po-soul guarding each other, lead and mercury congealing as one — refining the Great Medicine to completion, binding together the Golden Elixir, brilliant and resplendent, lighting every darkness, purely white and returned to plainness, non-active and returned to the uncarved block: long in life and never extinguished, to the very end of the body without danger — such a one is called a Perfected Person.

Heaven attains its reality, and thus is enduring.

Heaven attains the Way in its pure and unmixed form, and so is able to cover and shelter every being, enfolding the ten thousand forms within it. Through kalpa after kalpa it stays clear and settled, mirroring all things without partiality, responding though it never speaks, its wondrous working never exhausted — lofty and empty, vast and far-reaching, so great that nothing lies outside it, enduring on and on without change.

Earth attains its reality, and thus is lasting.

Earth attains its reality, and so nurtures and rears the ten thousand things, deepening its roots and firming its stems, tranquil, still, and non-active — and so it endures and lasts.

A person attains their reality, and thus has long life.

One who dies yet does not perish — this is true long life. If only people of the world would awaken to its true purport, attain its wondrous source, and merge with the Way in reality, they would go to the end of the body without danger, becoming one with the sages and worthies, so that later generations would offer them sacrifice without ceasing. What could surpass this?

The reason people of the world cannot endure long is that they lose their imagelessness and scatter their bodilessness,

The five flavors muddy the mouth; the five odors choke the nose; sound and sight stop up the ears and eyes. Choosing and rejecting throw the mind into disorder, causing one's nature to fly off and scatter; deluded feelings chase after things, thought after thought entangling one another, until mind and intellect wander outward and disordering spirits enter within. Right and wrong, favor and disgrace, throw the numinous source into confusion and disturbance; clashing against things like blades, grinding against them, one is wearied and enslaved for an entire lifetime — caught up pettily in the net of one's own deeds, not knowing where one is bound. Is this not sad? When the body is at ease in rich comfort, wrapped in brocade and fine silk, the mind grows deluded with deviant views, its fantasies turned upside down, so that to the very end of one's years one does not know the mandate of Heaven. One who loses himself in things and loses his nature to vulgar custom — such a person is called one of "the people turned upside down." How could this not be lamentable!

unable to let the hundred bones and nine orifices exist together with the true body, and so they die.

Within, one is originally pure, still, and bright, empty and white, gleaming and radiant — yet how is it, then, that one comes to love and be stained by the ten thousand entanglements, never once turning the light back upon oneself? Adrift, one's single nature scatters; sinking, one is lost through ten thousand kalpas of confusion, hard-pressed even to recognize the true body, shifting from one discarded shell into the next, ever more confused about its true source, ruining what lies within. Transmigrating through ten thousand kalpas, in the very sea of birth and death, unable to be carried across and saved — how deeply lamentable, how pitiable this is!

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Daoist shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The source alternates short aphorisms from the base scripture with Changquanzi's prose commentary beneath each; that lemma-and-commentary structure is kept visible below by setting each scripture line in bold before the commentary that follows it as prose. The bibliographic headnote and the preface that stand before the commentary proper in the source are both kept complete in the Source Text section below: the headnote (title, author, scroll count, and Canon edition) is catalogue apparatus rather than scripture, so it is not reproduced as a heading in the translation, though its facts inform the introduction above, while the preface is translated in full as the opening of the Translation section.

Before the claim above was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed. Purple Cloud Press's Daoist Texts in Western Languages (2023) records this exact text — 太上赤文洞古經注 by 長筌子, DZ 106 — against three prior English treatments: F. Balfour's Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political and Speculative (1894); S. Marshall's Overflowing with Light: The Teachings of the Taoist Classic Entitled the Ancient Secret Written in Red (2015); and an edition titled The Taoist Classic of the Ancient Secret Written in Red: The Chi Wen Dong Gu Jing, catalogued under the ancient author's own name, "Changquanzi" (2013); a fourth rendering was announced as forthcoming, as of 2023, in J. Hausen and A. Tsaur's The Dragon Gate's Core Methods, Vol. 2. A live web search confirmed the existence of the Marshall and 2013 titles. Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation was also checked and does not list this text under any transliteration we tried. Given the prior English treatments on record, no claim of firstness is made for this translation; it was made independently from the classical Chinese printed below, and none of the works named above was consulted in making it.

A note on terms. Zhen 真 ("the real," "the true") runs through the whole text and is rendered "real" or "true" by context; it is the word behind zhenren 真人, "Perfected Person," at the close of the third chapter. The third chapter's phrase quanzhen 全真, here "wholeness and reality," is the same two characters as the name of the Quanzhen school to which Changquanzi himself belonged — probably a deliberate resonance, though the commentary never remarks on it directly, and this translation does not add the connection into the English. The title's dong 洞, "cavern," is kept in line with the Canon's own classification of this text within the Dongzhen ("Cavern of Realization") division, though the character can equally carry the sense of "penetrating" or "profound," and the English here should be held loosely. One apparent transcription slip in the witness text was corrected in translation only: 嬰兄 in the line quoting the Daodejing's image of the infant was rendered as the evidently intended 嬰兒 ("infant"); the source reading is kept as transcribed, uncorrected, in the Source Text section below.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.

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Source Text: 太上赤文洞古經註

Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

太上赤文洞古經註。金末元初全真道士長筌子註

一卷。底本出處：《正統道藏》洞真部玉訣類。

太上赤文洞古經註序

　　夫至道無言，真空非色，思之者莫能知，觀之者不可見，賾之不可得，行之不到，陶鑄天地，率循造化，寂而不動，應滿六虛，令萬物蒙休，羣生復命。巍巍乎至矣哉！非聖人孰能通之者耶？況元始大聖，慈心廣布，慧照十方，觀見眾生忘歸失本，宛轉世間，輪迴不息，長劫受苦，不能自明。遂感法雨敷滋，宣揚妙道，引接有情，出生死海，遊清虛之境、恬惔之鄉，超乎塵垢，步乎寥廓，逍遙獨化，微妙玄通，無為自然，返於純素冥極混茫者也。

正文

太上赤文洞古經註

操真章上

有動之動，出於不動。

　　有動者，應機也。無動者，抱元守一也，歸根復命也。故經云：清者濁之源，靜者動之基。唯精唯一，允執厥中。夫物芸芸，各復歸其根。歸根曰靜，至靜不動也。

有為之為，出於無為。無為則神歸。

　　神本湛寂，感而遂通，不得已而後起，隨機接物，妙用無窮。去智與仁，故循天之理。淡然無極，而眾妙歸之。

神歸則萬物云寂。

　　專氣致柔，能如嬰兄。抱守沖和，真氣氤氳，萬物皆長生也。知和曰常，心使氣曰強。強者堅強壯老，死之徒也。

不動則氣泯，氣泯則萬物無生。

　　氣絕神逝，九竅百骸，變滅塵土也，更何疑之。

神神相守，物物相資，厥本其根。

　　以虛養虛，以實養實。何以故？忘形養氣，忘氣養神，忘神養虛，虛室生白，吉祥止止，神氣沖寧，靈根深固，故成長生久視之道也。

默而悟之，我自識之。

　　至道之玄。不假外物而得。默默昏昏，無應無問，靈光獨耀，迥脫根塵。體露真常，不隨萬法，可以全生，可以復本也。

入乎無間，

　　無間者，無有也。是不言之教，無為之益。圓通無碍，應化無窮，遍滿十方，時時運動，無有間斷也。

不死不生，

　　玄珠燦燦，今古常明。萬物混成，法法平等。中靜非染，無始無終，故曰不死不生者也。

與天地為一。

　　天道清虛，所以能長。地道寧靜，所以能久。人能悟理，達其妙道，致虛極，守靜篤，恬惔寂然，不為萬物之所累，清淨無為，可以與天地為一者哉。

入聖章中

忘於目，則光溢無極。

　　五色亂明，令人目盲。色者，彰也。色色者，未嘗顯。何謂也？法眼圓通，明照十方三界，觀物無物，觀空不空，視之冥冥。杳冥之中，獨見曉焉。靈光充塞，無窮極也。

泯於耳，則心識常淵。

　　五音亂聰，令人耳聾。心是清淵，本自湛澄。是非言語，美惡聲音，皆為妄情偽物。飄風驟雨，動擾心源，神室不靈。若能泯絕是非，不受於中，無聲之中，獨聞和焉，然後可以聽玄歌白雪，不鼓陽春，仙音之曲調也。

兩機俱忘，絕眾妙之門。

　　聲色雙泯，動靜兩忘。聽之不以氣，視之不以神，是謂太玄之妙，虛曠之靈。深之又深，而能物焉。神之又神，而能精焉。無為之為，不知而知。靈明曠徹，廣大虛寂，妙無邊際也。

純純全全，合乎大方。

　　物我俱忘，有無不立。昏昏默默，杳杳冥冥。無邊無際，非外非中。其游無端，其出無方，化育萬物，不可為象，混成無方隅也。

溟溟涬涬，合乎無倫。

　　至道重玄，浩浩蕩蕩，理無等倫；藏之則為元精，用之則為萬靈，含之則為太一，放之則為太清；無相無名，至尊至貴，迷之則凡夫，悟之則聖賢。

天地之大，我之所維。

　　古今聖賢、得道真人，提挈天地，把握陰陽，雕琢萬物，澤及羣品，不為難乎？

萬物之眾，我之所持。

　　宇宙在乎其手，萬化生乎一身。

曷有窮終，以語其弊哉。

　　聖人直說妙道，普現普光，惟恐後世凡夫不信疑惑，大發謙辭，若言不盡其理，以語為弊，惡舛訛之說也。

住世章下

養其無象，象故常存。

　　真氣薰蒸，而時無寒暑。純陽流注，而民無死生。故曰心燈朗照，法身長存。慧燭不明，道容豈載？

守其無體，體故全真。

　　天地相合，以降甘露，滋榮羣品。人能安靜和暢，寶瓶堅固，玉漿香美，真水下降，滋養妙體，返老如童孩，不亦善乎。

全真相濟，可以長久。

　　水火既濟，魂魄相守，鉛汞相凝，鍊成大藥，結就金丹，燦斕光輝，無幽不燭，純白入素，無為復朴，長生不滅，沒身不殆，號曰真人者也。

天得其真，故長。

　　天得純粹不雜之道，則故能覆蓋羣有，包羅萬象，歷劫清凝，鑒物無私，不言而應，妙用無窮，高虛長遠，大無不包，久而不易也。

地得其真，故久。

　　地得其真，則育養萬物，深根固蒂，安靜無為，乃長久也。

人得其真，故壽。

　　死而不亡者壽。但世人悟其真趣，得其妙元，與道合真，沒身不殆，同其聖賢，令後代祭祀不輟，何以加此焉。

世人所以不能長久者，為喪其無象，散其無體，

　　五味濁口，五臭熏鼻，聲色閼塞耳目。取捨滑心，使性飛揚，迷情徇物，念念相嬰，使心智遊乎外，鬼神入其內，是非寵辱亂擾靈源，與物相刃相靡，終身疲役。區區業網而不知其歸，可不悲乎？身適美厚，錦繡羅穀，意迷邪見，顛倒妄想，至於窮年，不知天命。喪己於物，失性於俗者，謂之倒置之民，可不哀哉！

不能使百骸九竅與真體並存，故死矣。

　　內本清靜光明，虛白晃耀，奈何愛染萬緣，不生返照，飄飄一性之散，沉沉萬劫之迷，難省真身，遷於別蛻，迷其真源，壞其內也。萬劫輪迴，生死海中，不能超度，甚可哀憐矣。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 太上赤文洞古經註, revision of 29 December 2016), inspected from a witness copy captured on 8 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the text itself is ancient and in the public domain. The wiki header and license templates have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.

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