Tàishàng shēngxuán sānyī róngshén biànhuà miàojīng 太上昇玄三一融神變化妙經
Marvellous Book of the Ascent to Mystery through the Transformations by Means of the Fused Spirit of the Three Ones, Spoken by the Most High
two-juan Táng Daoist patchwork scripture combining a Language-of-the-Way dàshèng 大乘 discourse (juan 1) with an archaic Sānyī 三一 / Nine-Ones inner-body visualisation text (juan 2), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0038 / CT 38), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A two-juan Táng Daoist scripture whose two parts differ markedly in provenance and style. Juan 1 is a Mahāyāna-Daoist Lingbao-style discourse by Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 on kárma and xūwú zìrán 虛無自然 (“Void Spontaneity”): most people are subject to reincarnation (1.1b) because they do not know that the real nature is essentially pure and quiet and are unacquainted with the Single Vehicle (yīshèng 一乘; 1.2a). Consequently they rely on yǒuwèi 有為 (“active methods”), whose rewards gradually decrease (1.3b); the non-active method consists in fǎn yuán 返原 (returning to the origin, 1.4a). Juan 2 is presented as the “Words of the Dào” and suggests an ancient yǎngshēng 養生 text, with descriptions of the Sānyī 三一 (“Three Ones”) and Jiǔyī 九一 (“Nine Ones”) body-deities, the palaces of the body, and their cosmological counterparts; the non-active method consists in preserving one’s yuánqì 元氣 and nourishing the shén 神 (2.7a). The text closes with multiple definitions of the terms hùndùn 混沌 and qì 氣. The title’s róngshén 融神 (“fused spirit”) does not occur in the scripture itself but in the cognate [[KR5a0039|DZ 39 Dǎoyǐn sānguāng jiǔbiàn miàojīng]].
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The two juan each open directly with their respective discourses.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:594–595 (§2.B.8, Dòngzhēn Division), identifies the scripture as a Táng patchwork — a juxtaposition of two materials of different provenance under a single scripture-title. Juan 1 is in the mature Táng Mahāyāna-Daoist idiom (yīshèng, yǒuwèi / wúwèi, xìng / yè); juan 2 uses archaic Sānyī / Jiǔyī body-deity vocabulary consistent with earlier Shàngqīng visualisation material that has been absorbed into the Táng compilation. The frontmatter accordingly brackets composition notBefore 618 / notAfter 907, with dynasty 唐.
No author is attributed; no persons are listed in the catalog meta.
Translations and research
No translation or dedicated scholarly study is known. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Taishang shengxuan sanyi rongshen bianhua miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.8, 594–595. For the Sānyī / Jiǔyī body-visualisation tradition to which juan 2 belongs: Isabelle Robinet, Taoist Meditation (SUNY, 1993); Poul Andersen, “The Practice of Bugang,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 5 (1989).
Other points of interest
The scripture is a useful witness to the Táng editorial practice of compound-compiling a single scripture-title from disparate textual layers of Daoist cultivation-literature — a practice that produces texts like the present whose two juan do not cohere stylistically but are unified by the framing scripture-title.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0038
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.8, 594–595 — DZ 38 entry (John Lagerwey).