Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn jīngfǎ 太上洞玄靈寶無量度人上品經法
Scriptural Method of the “Wondrous Scripture of Limitless Salvation”
Southern-Sòng Língbǎodàfǎ 靈寶大法 tradition commentary on the Dùrén jīng 度人經 by the Zhèngyī priest Chén Chūnróng 陳春榮, five juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0094 / CT 94 = TC 93), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A five-juan Southern-Sòng commentary on the Dùrén jīng whose title, jīngfǎ 經法 (“scriptural method”), explicitly links it to the Língbǎo dàfǎ 靈寶大法 movement — jīngfǎ being an alternative name for this form of the “great method” (cf. [[KR5a0219|DZ 219 Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngjīng dàfǎ 靈寶無量度人上經大法]] title and 71.23b). The text is preceded by a brief introduction to the rules of recitation, the cosmic origins of the scripture, and the salutary effects of its recitation.
Nothing is known of the commentary’s author, Chén Chūnróng 陳春榮, except that — to judge by his ritual title Tàishàng sānwǔ dūgōng zhílù dìzǐ 太上三五都功職籙弟子 — he was a Zhèngyī 正一 priest. Chén refers frequently to the “great method,” both to indicate the source (àn 案) of his viewpoint (3.16b, 19a) and to tell the reader where to find further details (1.24a, 3.4a, 4.3b). Most — though not all — of the citations attributed to the “Master in the Beyond” (xuánshī 玄師) are found in DZ 219 or in [[KR5a1221|DZ 1221 Shàngqīng língbǎo dàfǎ]] (especially juan 4, 10, and 26). Chén’s division of the Dùrén jīng in forty-seven paragraphs is, with two exceptions, identical to the division in juan 26 of DZ 1221, but differs from that of Jīn Yǔnzhōng in juan 2 and 3 of DZ 1223. The similarity of the drawings at 1.5b–6a, 2.10b, and 3.8b–13a with those in juan 4 of DZ 1221 confirms the commentary’s link to the Tiāntāi 天台 Língbǎodàfǎ version that Jīn Yǔnzhōng associates with Tiāntāi.
In addition to the Língbǎo dàfǎ texts and the traditional commentaries of Chén Jǐngyuán (DZ 87) — whom Chén Chūnróng cites frequently, sometimes implicitly — Chén also uses an imperial commentary (probably that of Huīzōng; VDL 134) and the Shénxiāo writings (cf. 2.47a–50b and 3.2b–3b with [[KR5a0147|DZ 147 Língbǎo dùrén jīng fútú]] 3.1a–10a and 12a–15b). For the Língshū zhōngpiān 靈書中篇 (4.4b–29b), he uses the correspondences with the hexagrams first given in [[KR5a0090|Xiāo Yīngsǒu’s Nèiyì (DZ 90)]] — although Chén may have taken this from Xiāo’s source rather than from Xiāo himself, since in the rest of the commentary he attributes parallels to a (Língbǎo) nèixiàng dānzhǐ 內象丹旨 rather than to Xiāo directly.
Prefaces
Brief introduction at the head of the commentary, on the rules of recitation, the cosmic origins of the scripture, and the efficacy of recitation.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:721–722 (§3.A.1), dates the commentary to the Southern Sòng on internal evidence (integration with the Língbǎodàfǎ ritual programme, relation to DZ 1221 Tiāntāi version, use of DZ 90 but possibly via its source). The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1127 / notAfter 1279, with dynasty 南宋. Chén Chūnróng is the sole catalog-meta person wikilinked.
Translations and research
No complete translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin jingfa,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 721–722. For the Língbǎo dàfǎ tradition into which the commentary inserts itself see Schipper’s and Lagerwey’s treatments of DZ 219 and DZ 1221 in the same volume.
Other points of interest
The commentary is one of the most direct witnesses within the Dùrénjīng commentarial tradition to the Southern-Sòng TiāntāiLíngbǎodàfǎ ritual milieu. Its forty-seven-paragraph division of the scripture matches DZ 1221’s ritual-liturgical division, confirming the commentary’s status as a companion-text to the Tiāntāi Língbǎodàfǎ liturgical programme.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0094
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 721–722 — DZ 94 entry (John Lagerwey).