Gāoshàng tàixiāo lángshū qióngwén dìzhāng jīng 高上太霄琅書瓊文帝章經
Scripture of the Emperor’s Stanzas in Precious Writing, Jewel Book of the High Heavens
Six-Dynasties Shàngqīng apocryphal scripture of nine hymns and talismanic characters addressed to the Kings of the Nine Shàngqīng Primordial Heavens, twenty-nine folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0055 / CT 55), 洞真部 本文類 — corresponds to no. 30 of the Shàngqīng dàdòng zhēnjīng mù 上清大洞真經目
About the work
A twenty-nine-folio Shàngqīng 上清 apocryphal scripture composed of nine hymns and talismanic characters. The scripture declares itself to belong to the Huífēng 迴風 (“whirling wind”) method and to [[KR5a1313|DZ 1313 Dòngzhēn gāoshàng yùdì cíyī yùjiǎn wǔlǎo bǎojīng 洞真高上玉帝慈一玉檢五老寶經]], showing a programmatic link with the Formula of the Dàdòng zhēnjīng. The nine hymns are addressed to the Kings of the Nine Shàngqīng Primordial Heavens, and are to be sung on the days when the envoys of these kings perform their inspection-tour on Earth. The talismanic characters are said to be formed by the essence of the Nine Heavens; they should be engraved on jujube kernels (zǎoxīn 棗心; 26b) and carried to summon the officers of the Five Peaks who drive away malefic creatures.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:180–181 (§1.B.2, Shàngqīng), identifies the scripture as a Six-Dynasties Shàngqīng apocryphal text, corresponding to number 30 of the Shàngqīng dàdòng zhēnjīng mù 上清大洞真經目. Quotations from the text in the late-sixth-century Wúshàng bìyào 無上秘要 (see John Lagerwey, Wu-shang pi-yao, EFEO, 1981, 225–226) confirm the Six-Dynasties circulation. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 420 (LiúSòng, when the apocryphal Shàngqīng expansion of the original revelations begins) / notAfter 589 (end of Six Dynasties), with dynasty 六朝.
The scripture is paired with [[KR5a0129|DZ 129 Tàixiāo lángshū qióngwén dìzhāng jué 太霄琅書瓊文帝章訣]] — the jué 訣 (“formula”) companion scripture — which is identical to juan 5 of [[KR5a1332|DZ 1332 Dòngzhēn tàishàng tàixiāo lángshū 洞真太上太霄琅書]] and contains prescriptions for copying sacred scriptures, rules on gifts to be offered at transmission, and various other ritual prescriptions.
No author is attributed; no persons are listed in the catalog meta.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Gaoshang taixiao langshu qiongwen dizhang jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 180–181. On the Shàngqīng jūhè yù-dǎ stellar-tour tradition and the paired DZ 129, see Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing (2 vols., EFEO, 1984), and her Taoist Meditation (SUNY, 1993).
Other points of interest
The Jiǔ hymn 九讚 structure of the scripture — nine hymns addressed to the Kings of the Nine Primordial Heavens — is a standard Shàngqīng cosmological expansion of the earlier Celestial-Master Sānqì 三氣 liturgy, and provides a key example of the Shàngqīng editorial practice of elaborating existing ritual-text structures through threefold or ninefold replication across the celestial geography.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0055
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 180–181 — DZ 55 entry (Isabelle Robinet).