Tàishàng chángshēng yánshòu jí fúdé jīng 太上長生延壽集福德經
Scripture of the Most High on Long Life, Prolongation of Years, and the Accumulation of Felicity-Merit
anonymous Táng two-folio short dharma-gate scripture, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0021 / CT 21), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A short two-folio Daoist scripture in which, during a gathering at the Magic-City Country (Huàchéng guó 化城國) in the Zhīyīng tái 芝英臺 of the Shànfú táng 善福堂 in the Xiāolíng 霄陵 garden in the Chìmíng 赤明 great-kalpa, the Divine King of Long Life and the Protection of Felicity (Chángshēng hùfú shénwáng 長生護福神王) asks Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 what rites should be performed by beings overwhelmed with misfortune who wish to enter the Fǎmén 法門 (“Gate of the Dharma”). Yuánshǐ replies that they must first purify body, heart, and mouth — the sānqīngjìng 三清淨 — before they may be granted the superior methods of the Three Caverns (sāndòng shàngfǎ 三洞上法). He then bestows two short incantations: the Chángshēng yánshòu zhòu 長生延壽呪 (“Spell for Long Life and Prolongation of Years”) and the Jí fúdé zhòu 集福德呪 (“Spell for the Accumulation of Felicity-Merit”), to be recited on the Sānyuán 三元, Wǔlà 五臘, Bājié 八節, and Sìshí běnmìng 四時本命 ritual dates in a pure chamber, facing east, kneeling, after incense, with tooth-clapping and saliva-swallowing. The scripture closes with the Divine King’s hymn of thanks and the audience’s vow to follow the Great Dào.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Chìmíng-kalpa revelation-scene.
Abstract
The scripture is anonymous and carries no internal date. John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:555–556 (§2.B.7.a.3, “Short Doctrinal and Prophylactic Texts”), assigns the text to the Táng on the strength of its language, its characteristic Táng Lingbao-scripture ritual apparatus (the sānqīngjìng, the three-Cavern graduated bestowal, the formulae framed by tooth-clapping and saliva-swallowing), and its circulation within the Táng short-scripture corpus. No author is attributed, and Chángshēng hùfú shénwáng is the scripture’s fictional divine interlocutor, not an authorial figure. The frontmatter brackets the composition notBefore 618 (opening of the Táng) / notAfter 907 (close of the Táng), with dynasty 唐.
Translations and research
No translation or dedicated study is known. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Taishang changsheng yanshou ji fude jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7.a.3, 555–556.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a clean specimen of the Táng “short dharma-gate admonitory + spell” genre: a brief narrative frame justifies the bestowal of two calendar-specific recitation-formulae, which then circulate independently as devotional mantras. The text’s calendar — Sānyuán / Wǔlà / Bājié / Sìshí běnmìng — is the standard Táng Daoist ritual-year programme for personal longevity-and-merit cultivation.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0021
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7.a.3, 555–556 — DZ 21 entry (John Lagerwey).