Tàiqīng zhēnrén luòmìng jué 太清真人絡命訣
Methods for a Lasting Life of the True Persons of the Great Purity
Anonymous third- or fourth-century manual of yǎngshēng 養生 (“nourishing life”) techniques, nine folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0132 / CT 132 = TC 131), 洞真部 玉訣類, transmitted in the same Dàozàng fascicle as [[KR5a0131|DZ 130 Tāixī jīng zhù]] and [[KR5a0132|DZ 131 Tāixī bìyào gējué]].
About the work
An early, hitherto understudied manual of body-visualization and breathing techniques, organized as a dialogue. It opens (1a–2b) with theoretical explanations placed in the mouth of HuángLǎo 黃老, the composite saint of early Hàn Daoism, on the nature of the hún 魂 / pò 魄 souls, the correspondences between sun–moon and liver–lung, and the governance of body and cosmos by paired yīn–yáng forces. A master’s (shī 師) instructions follow, prescribing confession of transgressions, visualization of the Five Beasts (cún wǔshòu 存五獸: 青龍, 白虎, 朱雀, 玄武, 黃龍) and a systematic traversal of the five viscera (lìzàng 歷藏) with names, colors, and dimensions of the resident deities. The final section (5a–9b) consists of a discourse spoken by a deity (神) on how neglected body-gods abandon their hosts: he recounts the practices by which male and female adepts may preserve their vital energies, culminating in an elaborate account of the three Cinnabar Fields (sān dāntián 三丹田 — xiàbù 下部 below the navel, zhōngbù 中部 at the heart, shàngbù 上部 between the eyebrows).
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
The text is anonymous. Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:92 (§1.A.1, Hàn-era yǎngshēng literature), identifies it as a third- or fourth-century manual, attested under its present title in Sòng catalogues (Bìshěng lù (Mìshū shěng xùbiān dào sìkù quèshū mù 秘書省續編到四庫闕書目 92). Its Shénxiān tú 神仙圖 citation at 2a corresponds to section 12 of [[KR5a1168|DZ 1168 Tàishàng lǎojūn zhōngjīng]] (1.7b), and the body-deity names on 3b–4b parallel that text’s section 26 (1.21b); the naming of three dāntián, however, already anticipates the Shàngqīng tradition, suggesting the text sits at the transition between Hàn–Wèi bodyspirit literature and the emergent Shàngqīng system. The frontmatter therefore brackets composition notBefore 200 / notAfter 399 and marks the dynasty as 漢魏.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Taiqing zhenren luomingjue,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.1, 92. On the Hàn body-spirit system see Kristofer Schipper, “Le Calendrier de Jade: Note sur le Laozi zhongjing,” Nachrichten der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens 125 (1979): 75–80.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0133
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.A.1, 92.