Tàishàng língbǎo zhūtiān nèiyīn zìrán yùzì 太上靈寶諸天內音自然玉字
Língbǎo Scripture on the Esoteric Sounds of the Spontaneously Created Jade-Characters in the Various Heavens
early-Língbǎo gǔjīng 古經, four juan (originally two), corresponding to number 7 of Lù Xiūjìng’s Língbǎo jīngmù 靈寶經目, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0098 / CT 98 = TC 97), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A four-juan early-Língbǎo scripture (originally two juan) revealing the names of the Thirty-Two Heavens — eight in each of the four directions — and eight jade-characters in celestial script scattered throughout each of the heavens (1.1b–14a). These characters, intended for the salvation of believers and their ancestors, are the dàfàn yǐnyǔ 大梵隱語 (“hidden language of the Great Brahmā”) — the same 256 characters that form the key centrepiece of the original one-juan Dùrén jīng (DZ 1 juan 1, 1.7b–9b, 1.16b–17b). The text gives details about the celestial palaces, gates, and so on where the characters are located, their functions, the times at which the adept is to write and ingest them, and the effects of this practice (1.15a–2.18b).
The second half of the text provides the “terrestrial reading” of the characters and explains the meaning of each individual jade-character, giving for each heaven a “cavern-stanza” (dòngzhāng 洞章) in which the eight characters are interwoven, and illustrating the effect of their recitation.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:222–223 (§1.B.3, Língbǎo), places the scripture within the early Língbǎo corpus as number 7 of Lù Xiūjìng’s catalogue. Listed in the Língbǎo jīngmù as having two juan, the text was probably divided into four juan by the sixth century, and the present version may be incomplete (cf. Ōfuchi Ninji, “On Ku Ling Pao Ching,” 37, 48). The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 395 / notAfter 402 (parallel to other gǔLíngbǎo scriptures, corresponding to the Gě Cháofǔ revelation-milieu), with dynasty 東晉. No author is attributed.
The scripture’s 256 characters are identical with those in [[KR5a0001|DZ 1 Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng]] 1.7b–9b and 1.16b–17b; the present scripture supplies the philological apparatus (characters + glosses) for the dàfàn yǐnyǔ that is cited in brief form in the Dùrén jīng. The pair DZ 1 / DZ 98 together preserves both the scriptural-functional deployment and the philological-explicatory apparatus of the dàfàn yǐnyǔ.
Translations and research
No complete translation. Standard scholarly entry: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Taishang lingbao zhutian neiyin ziran yuzi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 222–223. For the early-Língbǎo corpus context: Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (California, 1997); Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾, Shoki no dōkyō 初期の道教 (Sōbunsha, 1991); Wáng Chéngwén 王承文, Dūnhuáng gǔ língbǎo jīng yǔ Jìn-Táng dàojiào 敦煌古靈寶經與晉唐道教 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 2002).
Other points of interest
The scripture is the philological companion to the Dùrén jīng’s most distinctive formal element — the dàfàn yǐnyǔ 大梵隱語 — and thus supplies a critical textual tool for Daoist Dùrénjīng exegesis from the Six Dynasties onward. Schipper & Verellen note the “terrestrial reading” section’s insistence on the Chinese (non-Sanskrit) character of the sounds — a theological position also maintained in [[KR5a0095|DZ 95 Dàfàn yǐnyǔ shūyì]], reflecting an ongoing Daoist anxiety about being charged with Buddhist borrowing.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0098
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 222–223 — DZ 97 (TC) / KR5a0098 (Kanripo) entry (H.-H. Schmidt).