Zhūtiān língshū dùmìng miàojīng yìshū 諸天靈書度命妙經義疏
Commentary on the “Marvellous Book of Salvation in the Numinous Writing of the Numerous Heavens”
Táng commentary on [[KR5a0023|DZ 23 Tàishàng zhūtiān língshū dùmìng miàojīng]], fifteen folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0099 / CT 99 = TC 98), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A fifteen-folio Táng commentary on [[KR5a0023|DZ 23 Tàishàng zhūtiān língshū dùmìng miàojīng]], offering a free philosophical interpretation of the scripture with strong Buddhist overtones. The commentary provides no clue as to its date or provenance. According to the author’s reading, Yuánshǐ tiānzūn’s renewed revelation aims at making the inhabitants of the five paradises conscious of the relative and illusory nature of the happiness they take to be everlasting (wúcháng 無常, xiécháng 邪常), thus leading them toward the realisation of the truly eternal (zhēncháng 真常). Understanding that blessed existence is merely based on the residue-force (yúshì 餘勢) resulting from the earlier revelation of the Língbǎo scriptures is, according to this commentary, the first step to overcoming sensory perception (shìmíng 識命) and karma (yèmìng 業命), and to breaking through to one’s true nature (zhēnxìng 真性) and original destination (dàomìng 道命).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source.
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:232 (§1.B.3, Língbǎo — Commentaries), dates the commentary to the Táng on internal evidence — the distinctively Táng Mahāyāna-Daoist doctrinal vocabulary (wúcháng / zhēncháng, shìmíng / yèmíng, zhēnxìng / dàomìng) — though no direct external citation anchors the date. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 618 / notAfter 907, with dynasty 唐. No author is attributed.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “Zhutian lingshu duming miaojing yishu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 232.
Other points of interest
The commentary’s deployment of the zhēncháng vs. wúcháng doctrinal pair — a direct calque on the Buddhist anitya / nitya opposition — is one of the clearer Táng Daoist applications of Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha doctrinal categories to a Language-of-the-Way scriptural commentary.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0099
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 232 — DZ 99 (Kanripo) / DZ 98 (TC) entry (U.-A. Cedzich).