Shàngqīng huángqì yángjīng sāndào shùnxíng jīng 上清黃氣陽精三道順行經
Shàngqīng Scripture on Following the Three Ways and [Absorbing] the Yellow Pneuma and Yang Essence
Shàngqīng scripture of the original Yáng Xī 楊羲 revelations (364–370), twenty-nine folios; preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0033 / CT 33), 洞真部 本文類 — alternative title Cángyuè yǐnrì 藏月隱日
About the work
A twenty-nine-folio Shàngqīng 上清 visualisation-scripture on the absorption of solar and lunar energies and the celestial-body-circuit practice of following (shùnxíng 順行) the three trajectories (sāndào 三道) of the sun, moon, and Dipper. The huángqì 黃氣 (“yellow pneuma”) is the energy of the moon; the yángjīng 陽精 (“yang essence”) is the energy of the sun. The scripture is divided into two main parts: (1) solar and lunar visualisation practice (1b–12a and 12b–33a respectively), consisting of mentally ascending through the palaces that the sun or moon passes on the first day of each season or on solstices/equinoxes, meeting the Lord of each palace, purifying oneself in the waters of immortality, and eating the fruit of the tree of life; and (2) Dipper visualisation practice (25a–27b), in which the adept rests atop the seven stars of the Dipper, inhabited by seven divine youths who shower the practitioner with the radiance of the seven jewels. The practice-tradition is illustrated by the mention of antique worthies and immortals who have previously practised these methods, and the text closes with a colophon recording its transmission to Lady Wèi Huácún 魏華存 (251?–334), the patron-ancestor of the Shàngqīng lineage.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens with the direct speech of the Nánjí shàngyuán jūn 南極上元君 and closes with the transmission-colophon to Wèi Huácún. Folios 3b, 4, and 5 (blocks 3 and 4 in the original Dàozàng edition) are lost.
Abstract
The scripture is one of the original Shàngqīng revelations received by Yáng Xī 楊羲 between 364 and 370 — its title is enumerated in the Shàngqīng dàdòng zhēnjīng mù 上清大洞真經目 as number 8 (Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon 2004, 1:158–159). The dating is thus fixed within the generation of the Shàngqīng revelations, and the frontmatter brackets the composition notBefore 317 (opening of the Eastern Jìn) / notAfter 420 (fall of the Eastern Jìn, with the Shàngqīng manuscript corpus then passing into the LiúSòng editorial apparatus), with dynasty 東晉. Quotations of the scripture in the late-sixth-century Wúshàng bìyào 無上秘要 (WSBY) and the early-Táng Sāndòng zhūnáng 三洞珠囊 (SDZN) correspond to the received text, securing textual continuity from the Six Dynasties through the Táng. Extensive parallel quotations appear in the Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 9.12b–13a, 23.1a–2a, 11a–12b, 14a–b, and in [[KR5a1333|DZ 1333 Shàngqīng dàobǎo jīng 上清道寶經]] 2.3b, 4a, 5a, 5b, 8b.
The scripture is closely linked to the other Shàngqīng texts that treat solar and lunar absorption practice: [[KR5a0639|DZ 639 Huángtiān shàngqīng jīnquè dìjūn língshū zǐwén shàngjīng]]; [[KR5a0426|DZ 426 Tàiqīng tàishàng bāsù zhēnjīng]]; and [[KR5a1315|DZ 1315 Dòngzhēn shàngqīng qīngyào zǐshū jīngēn zhōngjīng]]. It stands as a primary witness to the continuity between the Shàngqīng revelations and the wider Chinese mythological tradition — the names of the stations of the sun and the lunar lodges that appear in the scripture are shared with the Língbǎo texts and with the broader liturgical repertoire.
No author is attributed (per the Shàngqīng revelation-convention); no persons are listed in the catalog meta.
Translations and research
A partial translation and substantial study is in Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme (2 vols., EFEO, 1984), and in her Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity (SUNY, 1993), chs. 3–5. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Shangqing huangqi yangjing sandao shunxing jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.3, 158–159. For the wider Shàngqīng solar-lunar visualisation complex see Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars (University of California Press, 1977), and Paul W. Kroll, Dharma Bell and Dhāraṇī Pillar (Institute of East Asian Studies, 2001).
Other points of interest
The scripture belongs to the inner circle of the original Yáng Xī revelations and is one of the most important textual witnesses to the Shàngqīng visualisation-programme of absorbing astral energies through ascent-to-the-palaces meditation. Its closing colophon-transmission to Wèi Huácún is one of the standard Shàngqīng legitimation devices — scripturally transmitted lineages are authenticated by ritual bestowal on the cult-founding goddess — and is shared with the related scriptures DZ 639, DZ 426, and DZ 1315.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0033
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.3, 158–159 — DZ 33 entry (Isabelle Robinet).