Tàishàng shuō liùjiǎ zhífú bǎotāi hùmìng miàojīng 太上說六甲直符保胎護命妙經
Marvellous Scripture of the Officers in Charge of the Six-Jiǎ Energies, for Protecting the Embryo and Guarding Life, Spoken by the Most High
Táng prophylactic scripture for mother-and-child protection at birth, eight folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0050 / CT 50), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
An eight-folio Táng prophylactic Daoist scripture addressed to protection of the pregnant mother and the unborn child against malign spiritual forces at the moment of birth. The scripture is framed as the revelation of Yuánshǐ tiānzūn (Lǎozǐ in Táng popular belief) to Yǐn Xǐ 尹喜, the scripture’s standard HànTáng disciple-interlocutor. The prophylactic programme is based on the register of yuánchén 元辰 officers of the sexagesimal cycle (“Jiǎzǐ Wáng Wénqīng” 甲子王文卿 etc.) drawn from the Heavenly-Master tradition — spirits of the Original Destiny (yuánchén) attached to the six jiǎ 六甲 days. These officers are ritually invited to protect mother and child against evil spirits and gǔ 蠱 black magic (2b) at the moment of birth. Women are invited to copy the scripture and worship it (7b).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Yǐn Xǐ question-audience and proceeds through the register of officers.
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:432–433 (§2.B.2, “The Orthodox One Way of the Heavenly Master”), dates the scripture tentatively to the Táng, noting the prophylactic-scripture genre’s Táng-era flourishing and the integration of the early Celestial-Master yuánchén 元辰 officer-register under a Shuō 說 revelation-frame. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 618 / notAfter 907, with dynasty 唐. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Taishang shuo liujia zhifu baotai huming miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.2, 432–433. On the Celestial-Master yuánchén 元辰 officer-register see Florian C. Reiter, Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Harrassowitz, 2007), and Marc Kalinowski, “La Divination par les Nombres dans les Manuscrits de Dunhuang,” in Nombres, Astres, Plantes et Viscères: Sept Essais sur l’Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques en Asie Orientale (Collège de France, 1994).
Other points of interest
The scripture is a useful primary witness to the Táng Daoist ritualisation of the early-Celestial-Master yuánchén officer-register in the context of midwifery and childbirth protection — an important specimen of the wider Táng Daoist appropriation of Hàn-era sexagesimal-officer ritual lore for family and household use. The explicit invitation to lay women (7b) to copy and worship the scripture documents the Táng scripture’s intended domestic female readership.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0050
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.2, 432–433 — DZ 50 entry (Kristofer Schipper).