Yuánshǐ tiānzūn shuō xuánwēi miàojīng 元始天尊說玄微妙經
Marvellous Scripture of Mysterious Subtlety, Spoken by Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn
Six-Dynasties Shàngqīng scripture on the Wǔdǒu sānyī 五斗三一 visualisation-method, seven folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0060 / CT 60), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A seven-folio Six-Dynasties Shàngqīng scripture containing one of several versions of the Wǔdǒu sānyī 五斗三一 (“Five Bushels and Three Ones”) method — also called Wǔdǒu nèiyī 五斗內一 — a variant practice of shǒuyī 守一 (“Keeping the One”). The present method is given in the biography of Sū Lín 蘇林 as the Zhōujūn kǒujué 周君口訣 (“Oral Formula of Lord Zhōu”; cf. YJQQ 49 11b), Lord Zhōu being Zhōu Jǐtōng 周季通 (Zǐyáng zhēnrén 紫陽真人, the “author” of Sū Lín’s biography). The practice is said to have been known to Sīmǎ Jìzhǔ 司馬季主 (d. c. 170 BCE) and to other masters of antiquity, including Master Zhāng of Hándān 邯鄲張先生 (DZ 1016 Zhēngào 10.6a–b).
The text divides into two parts: (i) folios 1a–2b: a method to rise up to the Dipper, escorted by the Three Ones, the gods of the Three Cinnabar Fields (dāntián 丹田) — this portion is also found in [[KR5a1314|DZ 1314 Dòngzhēn tàishàng sùlíng dòngyuán dàyǒu miàojīng]] 38a–b and 39a–41b. (ii) folios 2b–7b: different methods concerning the Three Ones coming out of the Cinnabar Fields or coming down from the Dipper, spewing coloured qì. The same text is reproduced, in much condensed form, in [[KR5a1404|DZ 1404 Shàngqīng tàijí zhēnrén shénxiān jīng]].
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:190–191 (§1.B.2, Shàngqīng), dates the text to the Six Dynasties. The most complete version of the method is found in [[KR5a1032|YJQQ Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤]] 49.11a–17b, with cognate versions in [[KR5a0765|DZ 765 Shàngqīng Jīnquè Dìjūn wǔdǒu sānyī tújué 上清金闕帝君五斗三一圖訣]] and [[KR5a0140|DZ 140 Shàngqīng wòzhōngjué 上清握中訣]] 2.2a–4b and 3.3a–5a. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 420 / notAfter 589, with dynasty 六朝. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Yuanshi tianzun shuo xuanwei miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 190–191. For the Wǔ-dǒu sān-yī / shǒu-yī tradition see Robinet, Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity (SUNY, 1993); Livia Kohn, Sitting in Oblivion: The Heart of Daoist Meditation (Three Pines Press, 2010); Poul Andersen, “The Practice of Bugang,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 5 (1989), 15–54.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a key witness to the continuity of the Hàn-to-Six-Dynasties shǒuyī tradition — through the figures of Sīmǎ Jìzhǔ and Master Zhāng of Hándān — into the fully-developed Shàngqīng Wǔdǒu sānyī visualisation method. Its placement of the practice’s origin in pre-Shàngqīng antiquity is a standard Shàngqīng legitimation device.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0060
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 190–191 — DZ 60 entry (Isabelle Robinet).