Collection of the Common Return of All Goodness

宋延寿Jul 2024

4.2

Word count: 60K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Traditional Chinese culture has a long and profound intellectual history, marked by a high degree of originality, inventiveness, and literary quality. Early forms of thought are highly distinctive: religious theology, classical texts of Chinese medicine, ancient military strategy, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and the Hundred Schools of Thought, feng shui and metaphysics, the Twenty-Four Histories, customs and local gazetteers—these and other fields are vast and profound. This series, "Essential Classics of Chinese Traditional Culture: Original Texts," preserves the appearance of the original books and focuses on conserving and transmitting traditional Chinese thought and culture. By reading the literary essence left by ancient sages, readers can cultivate their temperament and quietly absorb the classics of Chinese learning.

Editor's review

Wanshan Tonggui Ji (A Compendium of the Common Return of All Good Deeds) was written by Yanshou of the Song dynasty and is included in the series "Essential Classics of Chinese Traditional Culture: Original Texts," which aims to preserve the appearance of the original books and transmit traditional Chinese thought and culture. Its content touches on strands of traditional thought such as religious theology and Buddhist thought, and it is a useful reference for readers who wish to understand the character of ancient Buddhist treatises. Editorially, the emphasis is on presenting the original text as it was, without extensive modernization, so that readers can come into direct contact with the expressive mode of the traditional text. This book is not meant to be read quickly from cover to cover; it should be understood step by step with the help of basic Buddhist concepts and historical context. It is suitable as supplementary reading for those interested in traditional culture or as an introduction to Buddhist studies, and can also serve as a reference for educators teaching courses on traditional culture. Readers without relevant background are advised to use a reliable annotated edition or introductory guide alongside it, so as not to give up partway through because of the difficulty of the original text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in Buddhist thought and traditional religious culture
Enthusiasts of Chinese learning who wish to encounter the original character of ancient Buddhist treatises
Teachers of traditional culture courses who need primary-source references
Readers with some grounding in classical Chinese who are willing to read traditional texts slowly

Not a good fit for

Readers with no classical Chinese at all who need sentence-by-sentence vernacular explanation
General readers looking for light entertainment or narrative reading
Specialist scholars who need modern academic textual criticism and systematic research conclusions

Reading tips

First learn about the era in which Yanshou lived and the basic background of Buddhist thought, then move on to the original text.
Read alongside a reliable annotated edition or introductory Buddhist reader to reduce obstacles to understanding.
Read only a small section at a time, then organize the core concepts and questions afterward; do not aim for speed.
Compare with other traditional thought classics in the same series to appreciate the differences between different strands of thought.

版权信息
万善同归集序
万善同归集卷上
万善同归集卷中
万善同归集卷下

FAQ

Can I read this book without any background in Buddhism?

You can try, but it is advisable first to acquire some basic Buddhist concepts and knowledge of the background of Buddhism in the Song dynasty. This book preserves the original text and is not a vernacular introduction; without some foundation it is easy to get stuck. Using it with an annotated edition or introductory materials and treating it as an encounter with the original text, rather than expecting to understand everything at once, is more appropriate.

Is this book suitable for academic research?

This book is intended to organize and transmit a traditional cultural original text, with emphasis on preserving its original character; it is not a work of modern academic textual criticism. It can serve as reference material for understanding the original text, but for systematic research conclusions, textual collation of editions, or detailed scholarly investigation, professional academic works and critical editions should also be consulted.

Where should I start when reading this book?

It is advisable to begin with the preface, table of contents, or publisher's note to understand the structure of the book and the background of its composition, then choose a section that interests you. Mark concepts you do not understand and look them up after finishing a short section; this is easier to sustain than forcing your way through word by word.

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About the author

宋延寿 Author

Song Yanshou's biographical details are extremely limited in publicly available sources, and his name appears mainly in the headings of Buddhist texts. The library holds one work under his name, the Wan Shan Tong Gui Ji (A Collection on the Common Return of Myriad Good Deeds). The book belongs to the genre of Buddhist exhortations to virtue and discussions of practice, centering on the idea that all good deeds converge upon a single principle. It guides readers toward an understanding of the relationship between virtuous action and cultivation through clearly organized argument. In the existing classification the work is placed under literary appreciation, suggesting that its prose combines readability with a reflective quality; the style is plain and expository rather than ornate. Because the author's dates, native place, lineage, and life events cannot be verified, this note offers no speculation and instead points to the work's reading value: it suits readers interested in Buddhist ideas of exhortation to virtue and in the prose style of ancient discursive writing, and may also serve as a clue for understanding how such texts were transmitted.