Dòngxuán língbǎo dùrén jīng dàfàn yǐnyǔ shūyì 洞玄靈寶度人經大梵隱語疏義
Explanation Concerning the Esoteric Speech of Great Brahmā (Dàfàn yǐnyǔ) from the “Dùrén jīng”
Sòng-era specialised commentary on the Dàfàn yǐnyǔ 大梵隱語 passage of the Dùrén jīng 度人經, twenty-two folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0095 / CT 95 = TC 94), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A twenty-two-folio specialised commentary on the paragraph at the end of the original one-juan Dùrén jīng (DZ 1 juan 1) known as the Dàfàn yǐnyǔ 大梵隱語 (“Esoteric Speech of Great Brahmā”) — also the primary subject of [[KR5a0097|DZ 97 Tàishàng língbǎo zhūtiān nèiyīn zìrán yùzì]]. The passage consists of 256 characters, a number corresponding to the Thirty-Two Heavens multiplied by eight (the eight sets of “esoteric sounds” attached to each heaven). This paragraph was singled out for special ritual attention in the Shénxiāo and Língbǎodàfǎ traditions of the Southern Sòng, and the present text is likely to have been transmitted separately from the main scripture for that reason (cf. the warning against “divulging [the esoteric sounds] to lay people” in [[KR5a1221|DZ 1221 Shàngqīng língbǎo dàfǎ]] 26.26b).
The commentary reproduces separately a paragraph of explanation for each of the Thirty-Two Heavens — essentially reproducing Lǐ Shàowēi’s commentary from [[KR5a0087|DZ 87 Sìzhù]] — together with three introductory and two concluding paragraphs. The introductory paragraphs explain the terms zhūtiān 諸天 (“All the Heavens”), dàfàn 大梵 (“Great Brahmā”), yǐnyǔ 隱語 (“Esoteric Speech”), and wúliàng 無量 (“Measureless”). The concluding paragraphs treat the final paragraph of the Dùrén jīng as a postface to the “esoteric sounds.” It is noteworthy that this text — devoted to the Sanskrit-like quality of the sounds — nonetheless insists that they were originally Chinese (1b, 20b).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:722–723 (§3.A.1), dates the commentary to the Sòng on internal and contextual grounds (its position in the Sòng Shénxiāo and Língbǎodàfǎ specialised commentary tradition; its reliance on Lǐ Shàowēi’s commentary from the 1067 Sìzhù). 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, “Dongxuan lingbao duren jing dafan yinyu shuyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 722–723.
Other points of interest
The Dàfàn yǐnyǔ passage of the Dùrén jīng — the 256 “esoteric sounds” of Great Brahmā — is one of the most distinctive Daoist scripture-elements, pioneering the Daoist deployment of pseudo-Sanskrit dhāraṇī-style language in a doctrinal scripture. The present commentary’s insistence on the Chineseness of the sounds (1b, 20b) — despite their Sanskrit-like appearance — is a significant primary witness to the Daoist theological claim that its pseudo-Sanskrit apparatus is not a Buddhist borrowing but a revealed celestial language.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0095
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 722–723 — DZ 95 entry (John Lagerwey).