Jiǔtiān yīngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn yùshū bǎojīng jízhù 九天應元雷聲普化天尊玉樞寶經集註
Collected Glosses on the “Precious Book of the Jade Pivot”
Yuán collected-glosses commentary on [[KR5a0016|DZ 16 Yùshū bǎojīng]] attributed to Bó Yùchán 白玉蟾 and other Shénxiāo authorities, rediscovered and printed by Xú Dàolíng 徐道齡 (hào Xuányángzǐ 玄陽子), colophon dated 1333; two juan; preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0100 / CT 100 = TC 99), 洞真部 本文類
About the work
A two-juan collected-glosses commentary on [[KR5a0016|DZ 16 Jiǔtiān yīngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn yùshū bǎojīng]] — the central Thunder-rite scripture. The attributions are stratified across four divine-and-quasi-divine authorities:
- Zhù 註 (principal glosses): attributed to the Nánzōng 南宗 patriarch Bó Yùchán 白玉蟾.
- Yì 義 (general meaning): attributed to Zhāng Dàolíng 張道陵, the First Celestial Master.
- Shì 釋 (interpretation): attributed to the Thunder-deity Zhāng tiānjūn 張天君.
- Zàn 讚 (hymns): attributed to Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓.
The text quotes no other source, presenting itself instead as a compilation of commentary-strata from these four highest authorities of the Shénxiāo and Nánzōng traditions.
Prefaces
Colophon by the thirty-ninth Celestial Master Zhāng Sìchéng 張嗣成 (hào Tàixuánzǐ 太玄子, d. 1344), recording that the present work was “found” and printed by Xuányángzǐ 玄陽子 — i.e. Xú Dàolíng 徐道齡. In 1334, the same scholar published a related commentary on the Běidǒu jīng ([[KR5a0752|DZ 752 Tàishàng xuánlíng běidǒu běnmìng yánshēng zhēnjīng zhù]]) that resembles the present in many respects; like the present glosses, the Běidǒu commentary also appears to be based on divine inspiration (in its case by Zǐtóng dìjūn 梓潼帝君).
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1092–1093 (§3.B.6, “Shenxiao Fa and Related Thunder Rites”), discusses the commentary. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1333 (the dated colophon) / notAfter 1334 (publication of Xú’s cognate Běidǒu commentary), with dynasty 元. Xú Dàolíng (Xuányángzǐ) is the sole catalog-meta person wikilinked — as the work’s kānjì (imprint-recorder).
The attribution of the various commentary-strata to Bó Yùchán, Zhāng Dàolíng, Zhāng tiānjūn, and Lǚ Dòngbīn is a classic medieval Daoist legitimation device that should not be taken as an indication of actual authorship; the glosses were almost certainly compiled by Xú Dàolíng or his immediate circle on the basis of divinatory-dream revelation (jiàngbǐ 降筆 planchette) from the named deities. The whole constitutes an Yuán Daoist scripture-and-commentary assemblage in the style of the fújī 扶乩 mediumistic revelations of the late-Yuán Shénxiāo milieu.
Translations and research
No translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Jiutian yingyuan leisheng puhua tianzun yushu baojing jizhu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.6, 1092–1093. For the parent scripture DZ 16 and the Shénxiāo Thunder-rite tradition more broadly see KR5a0016 and the cognate S-V entries in §3.B.6.
Other points of interest
The commentary is a signal specimen of the Yuán-era Daoist legitimation strategy of distributing commentary-strata among multiple high-authority divine-and-historical figures — producing a single composite text whose four components claim radically distinct celestial or hagiographical provenances. This is a formally distinct editorial procedure from the unified-single-author commentary of the earlier Dùrénjīng commentarial tradition.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0100
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.6, 1092–1093 — DZ 100 (Kanripo) / DZ 99 (TC) entry (Kristofer Schipper).