Sāndòng shénfú jì 三洞神符記
Notes on the Divine Talismans of the Three Caverns
composite Daoist treatise-compilation on talismans in twenty-three folios, drawing material from the Táng-era Dàomén dàlùn 道門大論 and the Qīngwēi 清微 school, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0079 / CT 79), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A twenty-three-folio Daoist compilation on divine-talisman lore (shénfú 神符) drawn from two distinct sources. The first part (1a–14a) is taken without modification from [[KR5a1032|YJQQ Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤]] juan 7, constituting a small treatise on divine writings that quotes many sources from the Six Dynasties (220–589) and Táng (618–907) periods. This portion presumably formed part of a larger work known as the Dàomén dàlùn 道門大論.
The second part (14a onward) contains instructions for writing fú 符 talismans in the style of the modern Qīngwēi 清微 school, followed by reproductions of five cosmic writs called Tàishàng fūluò wǔpiān 太上敷落五篇 of that same school.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1101–1102 (§3.B.7, “The Qingwei School”), identifies the compilation as a late Sòng or Yuán compilation drawn from two distinct earlier sources. The Dàomén dàlùn excerpts in the first part reflect early-Táng talisman-treatise material, while the second part belongs squarely within the Qīngwēi school’s editorial programme of the late Sòng and Yuán. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1100 / notAfter 1300, with dynasty 宋元. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Sandong shenfu ji,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1101–1102. For the wider Daoist fú 符 literature: Kristofer Schipper, Le Fen-teng, rituel taoïste (EFEO, 1975); Mark Meulenbeld, Demonic Warfare (Hawai’i, 2015). For the Qīngwēi school talisman-style: Schipper, The Taoist Canon 2:1096–1102.
Other points of interest
The text is a useful primary witness to the Qīngwēi school’s claim of inheritance of the ancient Fūluò wǔpiān 敷落五篇 talisman-tradition — a claim decisively critiqued by Zhāng Shànyuān 張善淵 in his preface to DZ 3 — and thus supplies a direct counterpoint within the Daozang to Zhāng’s philological critique of the Fūluòwǔpiān / Xiāntiān dàodé jīng conflation.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0079
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1101–1102 — DZ 79 entry (Kristofer Schipper).