Tàishàng Yuánshǐ tiānzūn shuō xùmìng miàojīng 太上元始天尊說續命妙經
Marvellous Scripture for the Prolongation of Life, Spoken by the Most High Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn
short one-folio Táng Daoist scripture on the invocation of the two dàcíbēi 大慈悲 perfected beings for life-prolongation, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0048 / CT 48), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A brief one-folio Táng Daoist devotional scripture framed as the pronouncement of Yuánshǐ tiānzūn to Tàishàng Dàojūn 太上道君. Tàishàng Dàojūn having been commissioned to save beings from suffering by spreading “his method,” the scripture enjoins human beings to invoke two zhēnrén 真人 of Great Mercy — the Dàhuì zhēnrén 大慧真人 (“Perfected of Great Charity”) and the Jiùkǔ zhēnrén 救苦真人 (“Perfected Who Saves from Distress”) — whenever they are sick or in difficulty. The mere indication of the Perfected’s names will save them and “prolong their lives.” A closing hymn recapitulates the invocation programme.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with Yuánshǐ’s charge to Tàishàng Dàojūn.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:557 (§2.B.7.a.3), assigns the scripture to the Táng. In the closing hymn the laity are addressed as Qīngxìn nánnǚ 清信男女 (“Men and Women of Pure Faith”) — a calque of the Sanskrit upāsakaupāsikā (“male and female lay-devotees”) that entered Chinese Buddhist vocabulary in the Táng and is characteristic of the Táng Mahāyāna-Daoist lay-devotional register. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 618 / notAfter 907, with dynasty 唐. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Taishang yuanshi tianzun shuo xuming miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7.a.3, 557.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a clean Daoist adaptation of the Buddhist Guān-yīn 觀音 / Dìzàng 地藏 invocation pattern: the mere mention of the compassionate being’s name — here, the two zhēnrén of Great Mercy — is sufficient to save the devotee from distress. The “qīngxìn nán-nǚ” lay-addressee vocabulary fixes this as a Táng Mahāyāna-Daoist ecumenical scripture, contemporary with the wider Jiùkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 (Daoist parallel to Guān-yīn / Kṣitigarbha) cult.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0048
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7.a.3, 557 — DZ 48 entry (John Lagerwey).