Yuánshǐ tiānwáng huānlè jīng 元始天王歡樂經
Scripture of Happiness of the Heavenly Kings, [Spoken by the Heavenly Worthy] of the Primordial Beginning
Táng Daoist state-and-society moral programme scripture, fifteen folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0062 / CT 62), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A fifteen-folio Táng Daoist scripture on the Daoist moral and ritual programme for securing state and social happiness. After a tour of inspection in the countries of the Ten Directions, and before returning to the supreme Dàluó 大羅 Heaven, Yuánshǐ tiānzūn entrusts (fùzhǔ 付囑) the True Books in Thirty-Six Sections to the heavens of the three thousand worlds. The Heavenly Lord of the Nine Qì then asks the Heavenly Worthy what should be taught to the evil kings who inhabit the Yuánlì 元利 Heaven below. Tiānzūn responds that evil is due to the people’s disbelief in moral causality, and accordingly preaches the present scripture “so that the kings of all countries may know happiness (huānlè 歡樂) and bring peace to their territories” (2a). The Merciful Worthy then describes a complete Táng-style programme of rites for ensuring the happiness of the country.
The king of the country of True Patience (shànrén 善忍; 3a), after listening, puts the programme into practice: he gives up his palace, parks, and all the beautiful sites in his country, builds abbeys (guàn 觀) in them, and chooses the best of his subjects to “enter the Way, promote orthodox rites, and help the state transform the people.” Soon the wealthy imitate the king by donating money for the Field of Virtue (yìtián 義田; 4a). Some practise the Shàngqīng dàdòng jīnfāng tiānbǎo dòngzhēn sānyuán xíngdào 上清大洞金房天寶洞眞三元行道 “so as to sublimate matter”; others perform twelve different kinds of ritual, including those of the Dòngyuán shénzhòu 洞淵神咒 cluster.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:541–542 (§2.B.7), dates the scripture to the Táng on the strength of its characteristic Táng ritual vocabulary and the Buddhist-calqued state-protection rhetoric. The opening formula — “When Yuánshǐ tiānzūn had completed [a tour of inspection] of the Ten (or Five) Directions…” — is shared with [[KR5a0051|DZ 51 Dàyǔ lóngwáng jīng]], which uses the same opening with “Five” in place of “Ten.” 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, “Yuanshi tianwang huanle jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 541–542.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a substantial specimen of the Táng Daoist “happy-state” programme: a scripture-sized narrative of the ideal Daoist polity as transformation of the existing imperial state into a network of abbeys and yìtián 義田 charitable estates, with the king as the model convert. Its narrative detail — the specific name Yuánlì 元利 for the heaven of evil kings, the shànrén country, the range of rites practised — supplies one of the most concrete Táng Daoist utopian political visions.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0062
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 541–542 — DZ 62 entry (John Lagerwey).