Tàishàng Yuánshǐ tiānzūn shuō jīnguāngmíng jīng 太上元始天尊說金光明經
Scripture of the Golden Light, Pronounced by the Most High Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn
two-folio Daoist eye-healing scripture, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0070 / CT 70), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A short two-folio Daoist scripture in which Yuánshǐ tiānzūn promises to cure all those who have lost their eyesight as a result of epidemic diseases or whose eyes have been damaged by other unlucky circumstances. If the devotee establishes a sacred area (dàochǎng 道場) and recites this scripture, twelve Divine Lads — named Jīnguāng 金光 (Golden Light), Yuèguāng 月光 (Moonlight), Rìguāng 日光 (Sunlight), etc. — will appear, put an end to all calamities, and restore the believer’s eyesight.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:958–959 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī), does not commit to a narrow date for the scripture. The title Jīnguāngmíng jīng deliberately echoes the famous Buddhist Sūvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra 金光明經, of which it is a Daoist structural counterpart — short scripture with a specific promise of healing (here, eye disease) through the appearance of divine apparitions after proper ritual recitation. 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: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Taishang yuanshi tianzun shuo jin guangming jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 958–959.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a Daoist parallel to the Buddhist Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra 金光明經, appropriating the latter’s title and its medical-healing efficacy-structure (the divine apparition of named light-deities in response to ritual recitation) for a specifically Daoist context. The twelve Divine Lads named after forms of light are Daoist adaptations of the classical Buddhist jyotiṣprabha (“Shining-Light”) bodhisattva archetype.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0070
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 958–959 — DZ 70 entry (H.-H. Schmidt).