Yuánshǐ tiānzūn jìdù xuèhú zhēnjīng 元始天尊濟度血湖真經
True Scripture for Salvation from the Lake of Blood, [Revealed] by Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn
three-juan scripture of the Língbǎo dàfǎ 靈寶大法 tradition for saving the souls of women who have died in childbirth, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0072 / CT 72), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A three-juan scripture describing the creation and unfolding of a heavenly ritual for the salvation of the souls of women who have died in childbirth, confined to the Xuèhú 血湖 (“Lake of Blood”) hell. The ritual includes the singing of the name of Jiǔkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 (who vowed to save all souls from the Lake-of-Blood hell), the promulgation of a writ of pardon, the destruction of the hell, an ablution, a sermon, and the Pǔdù 普度 (Universal Salvation) ritual. At the end of the book, Yuánshǐ tiānzūn declares that the ritual is to be revealed on Earth.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:984–985 (§3.B.3, Língbǎo), identifies the scripture within the school of the Língbǎo dàfǎ 靈寶大法 on the strength of several internal references: to the Língbǎo dàfǎ method directly (1.2b, 3.2a); the “grand circulation of Brahman energies” (dàxíng fànqì 大行梵氣, 1.3a; cf. [[KR5a0466|DZ 466 Língbǎo lìngjiào jìdù jīnshū]] 116.2b); Yuánhuáng 元皇 (2.3a); and so on. The “secret language of Brahman qì” (fànqì yǐnyǔ 梵氣隱語, 1.5a–b) first appears in the Dùrén jīng 度人經 commentary tradition in the latter half of the thirteenth century (e.g. [[KR5a0091|DZ 91 Dùrén jīng zhùjiě]] 3.22b–23a), securing a late-thirteenth-century terminus post quem. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1250 / notAfter 1368 (end of Yuán), with dynasty 南宋—元. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No complete translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Yuanshi tianzun jidu xuehu zhenjing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 984–985. The Lake-of-Blood hell and the ritual programme surrounding it are treated in Suzanne Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood (Three Pines, 2006); Maram Epstein’s work on Sòng family ritual; and the broader late-Imperial women’s-religious-history literature.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a central primary source for the Sòng-Yuán Daoist theology of women’s childbirth-death, the Xuèhú hell cosmology, and the ritual programme for posthumous salvation through Pǔdù. Its integration of the Jiǔkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 (Daoist parallel to Kṣitigarbha) as the central salvific deity links the scripture to the mature Sòng-Yuán Daoist afterlife-salvation apparatus.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0072
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 984–985 — DZ 72 entry (John Lagerwey).