Yùqīng wúshàng nèijǐng zhēnjīng 玉清無上內景真經
True Scripture from the Yùqīng Heaven on the Supreme Inner Landscape
Sòng-era inner-alchemy cultivation scripture, two folios, transmitted by Zǐguāng tiānmǔ 紫光天母, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0064 / CT 64), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A two-folio inner-alchemy scripture transmitted, like DZ 63 and [[KR5a0644|DZ 644 Tàishàng nèidān shǒuyī zhēndìng jīng]], by the goddess Zǐguāng tiānmǔ 紫光天母 (the mother-goddess of the Nine Luminaries of the Northern Dipper; see [[KR5a0045|DZ 45 Yùqīng wúshàng língbǎo zìrán běidǒu běnshēng zhēnjīng]]). The scripture treats the creation by Yuánshǐ zhìzhēn dàshèng 元始至真大聖 of the external images in the Brahmā heaven as symbols of the Inner Landscape (nèijǐng 內景), and the differentiation of the pneumata of the Five Directions and their divinities in correspondence to the five organs of the human body. As a result, the inner-alchemical process (nèidān 内丹) can be started and completed. The restriction of the senses (jiè 戒) and mental concentration (dìng 定) lead to wisdom (zhì 智), or in other words, “inner illumination through reversed contemplation” (fǎnguān nèizhào 反觀內照).
Simultaneously, the revelation of the scripture symbolises the enlightenment resulting from the completion of the inner-alchemical process. Yuánshǐ’s rays of light evoke the awakening of the original mind (běnxīn 本心). In the empty darkness of the Yùqīng heaven, the moon (symbol of Zǐguāng mǔ) appears, and in it, in the midst of a purple pneuma, the newborn — who praises the teaching once more in a gāthā.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1232–1233 (§3.B.14, “Other Popular Cults”), dates the scripture to the Sòng. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1100 / notAfter 1279, with dynasty 宋. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “Yuqing wushang neijing zhenjing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.14, 1232–1233.
Other points of interest
The scripture’s integration of nèijǐng 內景 (“inner landscape”) visualisation — a doctrine from the classical Huángtíng nèijǐng jīng 黃庭內景經 — with the nèidān 内丹 inner-alchemical programme, under the authority of Zǐguāng tiānmǔ, supplies a key primary witness to the mature Sòng synthesis of the Shàngqīng visualisation heritage and the Sòng internal-alchemy movement.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0064
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.14, 1232–1233 — DZ 64 entry (U.-A. Cedzich).