Shàngqīng qiónggōng língfēi liùjiǎ zuǒyòu shàngfú 上清瓊宮靈飛六甲左右上符
Six-Jiǎ Talismans for Summoning the Língfēi [Maidens] of the Qiónggōng Palace
Eastern-Jìn Shàngqīng talisman-scripture of the Liùjiǎ 六甲 maidens, twenty-three folios, closely paired with DZ 83 and attested in Yáng Xī’s revelations (364–370); preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0084 / CT 84), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A twenty-three-folio Shàngqīng talisman-scripture centred on the six Liùjiǎ 六甲 jade-maidens of the Qiónggōng 瓊宮 (“Jasper Palace”), who are in charge of the days marked with the cyclical signs beginning with jiǎ 甲 (i.e., the six jiǎ 甲子, 甲寅, 甲辰, 甲午, 甲申, 甲戌 days of the sexagesimal cycle). The scripture is authenticated by a quotation in [[KR5a1016|DZ 1016 Zhēngào]] 14.15a–16a (present text 22a–23a) and corresponds — with few variants — to [[KR5a1391|DZ 1391 Shàngqīng qiónggōng língfēi liùjiǎ lù]]; however, neither of the two texts is complete, and some quotations referring to these titles in the Wúshàng bìyào and the Tàipíng yùlǎn cannot be traced.
Originally the Liùjiǎ scripture was linked to the Sùzòu dānfú 素奏丹符 (cf. [[KR5a1016|Zhēngào 5.4b]] and WSBY 43.14a), under which title it is sometimes quoted. The Bàopǔzǐ 抱朴子 (Gě Hóng 葛洪, fl. 317) 19.307 mentions the six-jiǎ talismans, which must therefore have had a history prior to their incorporation into the Shàngqīng corpus (cf. Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing, 1:12–13, 24–25). Tradition holds that these talismans were connected to the Shízhōu zhēnxíng 十州眞形 (“True Form of the Ten Regions”) scripture. The text mentions several persons of the Zhōu, Hàn, and Wèi periods to whom the talismans were purportedly transmitted; per Tao Hongjing’s glosses on the Zhēngào (13.2a, 20.7b–8a), Xǔ Mài 許邁 — brother of Xǔ Mì 許謐 — once received these talismans from the jìjiǔ 祭酒 libationer Lǐ Dōng 李東, suggesting that the talismans may have existed in several versions, one belonging to the Heavenly-Master Way (see [[KR5a1210|DZ 1210 Zhèngyī fǎwén shìlù]]).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:148–149 (§1.B.2, Shàngqīng), identifies the scripture as an Eastern-Jìn Shàngqīng talisman-scripture incorporated into the Yáng Xī revelations (364–370). The Zhēngào authentication and the parallel Liùjiǎ lù recension (DZ 1391) establish continuous Shàngqīng transmission. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 317 / notAfter 420, with dynasty 東晉. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Shangqing qionggong lingfei liujia zuoyou shangfu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 148–149. For the Liùjiǎ tradition: Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing (EFEO, 1984), vol. 2 on the Wǔdì língfēi liùjiǎ jīng cluster; Mugitani Kunio 麥谷邦夫’s work on Shàngqīng talismanic texts.
Other points of interest
The scripture is one of the core Eastern-Jìn Shàngqīng liùjiǎlǐngfēi talisman-scriptures — the other being the closely-paired [[KR5a0083|DZ 83 Báiyǔ hēihé língfēi yùfú]] — which together preserve the foundational talisman-lore of the Liùjiǎ maidens within the Shàngqīng revelations. The Bàopǔzǐ citation confirms their pre-Shàngqīng circulation.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0084
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 148–149 — DZ 84 entry (Isabelle Robinet).