Tàishàng hùguó qíyǔ xiāomó jīng 太上護國祈雨消魔經
Demon-Slaying Scripture for Protecting the State and Praying for Rain, Spoken by the Most High
Táng Daoist drought-rain-ritual scripture, four folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0052 / CT 52), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A four-folio Táng Daoist scripture on the combined state-protective and rain-producing ritual. The scripture opens with the Yuèguāng zhēnrén 月光真人 (“Moonlight Perfected”) arriving at Yùjīng shān 玉京山 on a white crane and announcing to Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 his desire to save the people of the Yánfú 閻浮 world (= Jambudvīpa, the Buddhist world of humans) from all natural calamities. The zhēnrén requests the fāngbiàn 方便 (“expedient means,” a direct calque of upāya) for accomplishing this task. Tiānzūn first lists his own spiritual powers that “abide in this world and save from all difficulties” (2a): whenever people encounter difficulties, they need only recite this scripture. The zhēnrén then asks for a ritual (fǎshì 法事) by which to obtain rain. Tiānzūn replies that the teaching should be transmitted in the Yánfú world, and that practitioners, wherever they may be, should create altars (tánchǎng 壇場) with images of the Worthies (zūnxiàng 尊像) and banners, then recite this scripture and perform a Retreat-and-Offering (zhāijiào 齋醮). These acts cause the gods to send dragon-kings and the masters of thunder and rain to create the clouds. At the end of the book, Tiānzūn gives the scripture an alternative title beginning with Tiāngōng 天功 instead of Tàishàng 太上.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:558 (§2.B.7), assigns the scripture to the Táng. The Buddhist-calqued vocabulary — Yánfú, fāngbiàn, Yuèguāng zhēnrén (a Daoist reflection of Candraprabha-bodhisattva) — places the text within the mature Táng Mahāyāna-Daoist stratum. The Tiāngōng fùmǔ 天功父母 (“Father and Mother of Celestial Merits”; 3a) listed among the offering-receiving divinities reflects a distinctive Táng-era Daoist celestial-bureaucracy. 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 huguo qiyu xiaomo jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 558.
Other points of interest
The scripture combines three ritual functions — state-protection (hùguó 護國), rain-praying (qíyǔ 祈雨), and demon-slaying (xiāomó 消魔) — in a single short text, reflecting the Táng Daoist tendency to bundle multiple ritual-occasions under a single scripture-title for practical liturgical deployment.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0052
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 558 — DZ 52 entry (John Lagerwey).