Tàishàng ānzhèn jiǔlěi lóngshén miàojīng 太上安鎮九壘龍神妙經
Marvellous Scripture of the Most High for the Settling in Place of the Dragon-Spirits of the Nine Layers of the Earth
Daoist construction-ritual scripture on the Thirty-Six Sovereigns of the Earth, two folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0068 / CT 68), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A two-folio Daoist construction-ritual scripture. Tàishàng Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 太上元始天尊 holds court in the Dòngyáng 洞陽 heaven when a zhēnrén, “holding upright his court tablet,” asks for a fāngbiàn 方便 (“expedient method”) that will help the inhabitants of the Yánfú 閻浮 world overcome the misfortune caused by their building projects. Tiānzūn responds with a text describing the origin in Chaos (hùndòng 混洞) of the thirty-six sovereigns of the Earth. Although the present text does not say so, these are the same sovereigns who, according to [[KR5a1373|DZ 1373 Shàngqīng wàiguó fàngpǐn qīngtóng nèiwén 上清外國放品青童內文]], rule over the Nine Layers (jiǔ lěi 九壘) of the Earth — four sovereigns per layer, one for each direction. Only these sovereigns have “received their position from the emperor”; all other spirits (listed by Tiānzūn at the end of his hymn) who might take offence at various types of construction must, upon recitation of this text, “hide themselves, return whence they came, secure (zhèn 鎮) their corner or direction, and cause no ill.” The function of the text is thus to “settle in place” (ānzhèn 安鎮) the dragon-spirits of the Nine Layers and to “thank and dismiss” (xièxiè 謝謝) all other Earth-spirits.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:956 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī), does not commit to a narrow date for the scripture, noting its Sòng-liturgical-cluster membership. The doctrinal apparatus — the jiǔ lěi dìhuángdì 九壘地皇帝 thirty-six-earth-sovereigns framework, the ānzhèn 安鎮 ritual-technical term — is compatible with Táng or Sòng composition. The frontmatter brackets composition conservatively notBefore 618 / notAfter 1279, with dynasty 唐—宋. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Taishang anzhen jiulei longshen miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 956.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a primary witness to the Daoist appropriation of the classical jiǔ lěi 九壘 “nine-layers-of-the-earth” cosmography into construction-apotropaic ritual practice: the ānzhèn 安鎮 ritual genre — “settling the earth-spirits in place” before construction — becomes, from the Táng onward, a standard component of Daoist community-and-domestic ritual service, with parallels in modern Taiwanese and Fujianese temple practice.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0068
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 956 — DZ 68 entry (John Lagerwey).