Tàishàng dǎoyǐn sānguāng jiǔbiàn miàojīng 太上導引三光九變妙經
Marvellous Book of the Daoyin Exercises Using the Three Luminaries and Nine Transformations, Spoken by the Most High
Táng Daoist solar-and-astral breath-cultivation scripture, ten folios, companion-paired with [[KR5a0040|DZ 40 Dǎoyǐn sānguāng bǎozhēn miàojīng]], preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0039 / CT 39), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A ten-folio Táng Daoist scripture on dǎoyǐn 導引 (“conducting and pulling”) breath-and-astral-energy exercises using the Sānguāng 三光 (Three Luminaries: sun, moon, stars) and the Jiǔbiàn 九變 (Nine Transformations). The Jiǔbiàn likely refer to the Lǎozǐ jiǔ biàn 老子九變 (“Lǎozǐ of the Nine Transformations,” 10a) — the transformations of Lǎozǐ linked to the sun’s course across the sky (cf. Anna Seidel, La divinisation de Lao Tseu, EFEO, 1969, 92ff); the companion DZ 40’s reference to “the nine transformations of the eight assemblies” confirms this, since the “sounds of the eight assemblies” (Bāhuì yīn 八會音) that DZ 40 names correspond to those given in DZ 39 2a–5b.
Two distinct rites are described, both to be performed during yáng (“odd”-number) months. The first rite consists of “conducting and pulling” (dǎoyǐn) the eight different forms of the qì of the Three Luminaries; the exercises are accompanied by hymns (the “sounds” of the eight assemblies) and by the swallowing of talismans. The second rite consists of salutations and confessions addressed to thirty-two (four × eight) Lǎozǐ tiānzūn 老子天尊. Two of three lines cited from a Dǎoyǐn sānguāng jīng in the early-Táng Sāndòng zhūnáng 三洞珠囊 (SDZN 3.24a) are found here (at 1b), confirming the mid-Táng circulation of the text.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the dǎoyǐn programme.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:595 (§2.B.8, Dòngzhēn Division), assigns the scripture to the Táng. The SDZN citation fixes the terminus ante quem in the mid-seventh century. The frontmatter 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. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Taishang daoyin sanguang jiubian miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.8, 595. For the Lǎozǐ jiǔ biàn solar-transformation tradition see Anna Seidel, La divinisation de Lao Tseu dans le taoïsme des Han (EFEO, 1969); Paul W. Kroll, “In the Halls of the Azure Lad,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 105 (1985), 75–94, for related solar-cult practice.
Other points of interest
The integration of Sānguāng astral energies with Lǎozǐ jiǔ biàn solar-transformation doctrine stands as a primary Táng witness to the fusion of two distinct earlier Daoist traditions — the Shàngqīng astral-absorption programme and the older Celestial-Master / Hàn Lǎozǐ-deification lore — under a single dǎoyǐn rubric, an editorial move characteristic of the mature Táng doctrinal apparatus.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0039
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.8, 595 — DZ 39 entry (John Lagerwey).