The Record of the Dadi Grotto Heaven

The 3-volumed Record of the Dadi Grotto Heaven ( 《大滌洞天記》 Dadi Dongtian Ji ) is a Daoist geographical book compiled by Deng Muxin of Yuan Dynasty. Deng, a hermit who lived from the end of the Song to the beginning of the Yuan, dwelled in the Pervasive Heaven Palace in the Dadi Mountain (in present Yuhang county, Zhengjiang province). He cooperated with a Daoist named Sun Zongbao and wrote the 6-volumed Charted Records of the Pervasive Heaven Palace ( 《洞霄圖志》 Dongxiao Tuzhi ), which was not collected in the Daoist Canon of Zhengtong Era. By comparison, the two books are actually the same in contents but with different titles. So the Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of the Four Repositories ( 《四庫提要》 Siku Tiyao ) hold that the Record of the Dadi Grotto Heaven is just a renamed and abridged version of the Charted Records of the Pervasive Heaven Palace republished by Daoists in Ming Dynasty. The book has several prefaces by different people in different times: the 43rd-generation Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu in the 31st year Hongwu era of Ming, Wu Quanjie in the 3rd year Zhida era and Shen Duofu in the 9th year Dade era of Yuan Dynasty. The book records the sceneries, history of the temples and anecdotes of immortals in the Dadi Mountain, one of the 72 blissful lands, in five sections: Palaces and Temples, Various Sceneries, Grotto Mansions, Historic Sites and Tablets. Collected in the Biographies Class, Pervasive Divinity Section ( 洞神部 Dongshen Bu ), Daoist Canon of Zhengtong Era ( 正統道藏 Zhengtong Daozang ), this book is valuable material for the study of grotto heavens ( 洞天 Dongtian ) and blissful realms ( 福地 Fudi ) as well as the history of Daoist temples. 大滌洞天記