Yùqīng wúshàng língbǎo zìrán Běidǒu běnshēng zhēnjīng 玉清無上靈寶自然北斗本生真經
True and Unsurpassed Língbǎo Scripture from the Yùqīng Heaven on the Spontaneous Origin of the Northern Dipper
short Sòng Daoist cult-scripture on the divine-origin of the stars of the Northern Dipper, transmitted by Bǎomìng dà tiāndì 保命大天帝, four folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0045 / CT 45), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A four-folio Daoist cult-scripture on the divine origin of the stellar deities of the Northern Dipper, transmitted according to the interlinear note at the opening by Sānshíliù tiān Dàsīmìng Chénjīng Bǎomìng dà Tiāndì 三十六天大司命宸京保命大天帝 — the “Great Tiāndì of the Thirty-Six Heavens, Great Director of Destiny, Celestial Capital’s Preserver-of-Life” — a combined divine title reflecting the mature late-Sòng Daoist cult-pantheon. The scripture opens with an invocation of the Dàdào 大道 and the Chìmíng Yuánshǐ 赤明元始, and narrates a revelation in the Yùqīng Huángjí Palace (玉清皇極宫) in which Yuánshǐ dàdì 元始大帝 (also called Tàijí Zhēnzūn 太極真尊) transmits the scripture to Bǎoshàng zhēnrén 寶上真人 on the origin of the Dipper. The origin-narrative: while the goddess Zǐguāng fūrén 紫光夫人 was bathing, nine lotus blossoms unfolded, from which Tiānhuáng dàdì 天皇大帝, Zǐwēi dàdì 紫微大帝, and the other seven stars of the Dipper were born.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the cosmogonic invocation and proceeds into the revelation-scene.
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1233 (§3.B.14, “Other Popular Cults”), dates the scripture to the Sòng. The recitation is recommended on the first day of the New Year in connection with an offering to the Nine Luminaries (Jiǔguāng jiào 九光醮), and the work — alternatively titled Jiǔguāng zhēnjīng 九光真經 — is cited in [[KR5a1167|DZ 1167 Tàishàng gǎnyìng piān 太上感應篇]] 29.3b (commentary of Lǐ Chānglíng 李昌齡) and [[KR5a0752|DZ 752 Tàishàng xuánlíng běidǒu běnmìng yánshēng jīng zhù 太上玄靈北斗本命延生經注]] 2.19a–20a (commentary of Fù Dòngzhēn 傅洞真), both Sòng works. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1100 / notAfter 1279, with dynasty 宋.
No author is attributed. The deities Bǎomìng dà Tiāndì, Zǐguāng fūrén, Tiānhuáng dàdì, Zǐwēi dàdì are divine figures, not historical persons.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “Yuqing wushang lingbao ziran beidou bensheng zhenjing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.14, 1233. On the Běidǒu cult complex: Poul Andersen, “The Practice of Bugang,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 5 (1989), 15–54; Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void (California, 1977); Robert F. Campany, Making Transcendents (Hawai’i, 2009), for the Hàn-to-Six-Dynasties background.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a primary witness to the mature Sòng Daoist cult-origin story of the Northern Dipper as the divine issue of the goddess Zǐguāng fūrén (also styled Zǐguāng tiānmǔ 紫光天母), whose cult played a central role in late-Sòng and Yuán popular religion. The nine-lotus-blossom birth-scene from Zǐguāng’s bath supplies one of the most iconographically distinctive origin-myths in the Daoist pantheon.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0045
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.14, 1233 — DZ 45 entry (Ursula-Angelika Cedzich).