Yuánshǐ tiānzūn shuō gānlù shēngtiān shénzhòu miàojīng 元始天尊說甘露昇天神咒妙經
Marvellous Scripture of the Divine Formulas for Sweet Dew and Ascension to Heaven, Preached by Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn
Sòng Daoist funerary ritual scripture, three folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0075 / CT 75), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A three-folio Daoist funerary ritual scripture. At the request of Prince Moonlight (Yuèguāng tóngzǐ 月光童子), Yuánshǐ tiānzūn reveals how to save the unfortunate dead: the officiant must first take a handful of dirt from the place where the person died and place it in a clean container; then spread a feast-offering for the soul of the dead person and pronounce two formulas — one to give the soul sweet dew (gānlù 甘露), the other to enable it to ascend to heaven (shēngtiān 昇天). These two formulas are reused in the Pǔdù 普度 (Universal Salvation) ritual of Jiǎng Shūyú 蔣叔輿 ([[KR5a0508|DZ 508 Wúshàng huánglù dàzhāi lìchéng yí]] 30.8b–9b) and Jīn Yǔnzhōng 金允中 ([[KR5a1223|DZ 1223 Shàngqīng língbǎo dàfǎ]] 38.28b–29a).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:984 (§3.B.3, Língbǎo), identifies the scripture as a standard Sòng Daoist funerary-ritual scripture. The recitation is mentioned in the Bìshū shěng xùbiàndào sìkù quèshū mù catalogue (see Van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period, 14), and required in DZ 219 Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngjīng dàfǎ 71.8b. The relationship to the Buddhist apocrypha on Yuèguāng tóngzǐ (Prince Moonlight) — treated by Erik Zürcher, “Eschatology and Messianism in Early Chinese Buddhism,” in W. L. Idema ed., Leyden Studies in Sinology (Brill, 1981), 34–56, and “‘Prince Moonlight’: Messianism and Eschatology in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism,” T’oung Pao 68 (1982), 1–75 — remains to be fully elucidated. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1100 / notAfter 1279, with dynasty 宋. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Yuanshi tianzun shuo ganlu shengtian shenzhou miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 984. On Prince Moonlight in Buddhist apocrypha: Erik Zürcher, “Prince Moonlight: Messianism and Eschatology in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism,” T’oung Pao 68 (1982), 1–75.
Other points of interest
The scripture is a compact Daoist funerary-ritual witness in which the Buddhist Yuèguāng tóngzǐ figure is appropriated as interlocutor in a Daoist gānlù (sweet-dew) funerary-libation ritual, then reused in the full Sòng Daoist Pǔdù Universal-Salvation liturgy. It is a useful primary text for Buddhist-Daoist ritual translation at the late-Sòng moment of Daoist funerary consolidation.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0075
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 984 — DZ 75 entry (John Lagerwey).