Tàishàng dòngfáng nèijīng zhù 太上洞房內經註
Hymn to the Gods of the Cave-Chamber, with Commentary
Anonymous Six-Dynasties Shàngqīng commentary to a hymn on the dòngfáng 洞房 (“Cave-Chamber”), the residence of inner deities in the brain, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0133 / CT 133 = TC 132), 洞真部 玉訣類, in the same Dàozàng fascicle as [[KR5a0135|DZ 134 Yīn zhēnjūn huándān gē zhù]].
About the work
A twelve-folio Shàngqīng compilation in two parts: (i) a preface attributed to the immortal Zhōu Yìshān 周義山 (周真人; see his biography in [[KR5a0303|DZ 303 Zǐyáng zhēnrén nèizhuàn]], from which the preface borrows heavily) that narrates Zhōu’s encounter with HuángLǎo jūn 黃老君 and the transmission of the dòngfáng visualization technique; and (ii) the hymn proper to the dòngfáng deities (Wúyīng jūn 無英君 and Báiyuán jūn 白元君), with an anonymous interlinear commentary. The text closes with two short hymns excerpted from a Zhèngyī xuándū lù 正一玄都錄 (7a), still traceable in [[KR5a0188|DZ 188 Xuándū lǜwén]] 4a–b. A Dòngfáng xiānjīn jīng 洞房仙經 is mentioned at [[KR5a1016|DZ 1016 Zhēngào]] 17.16b in connection with Jī Kāng 嵇康 (223–262) and is said to have been owned by Sīmǎ Jìzhǔ 司馬季主 (fl. ca. 170 BCE), implying that a related text existed before the Shàngqīng revelations, though the present work is unquestionably a later Shàngqīng adaptation.
Prefaces
The volume opens with a preface (Tàishàng dòngfáng nèijīng xù 太上洞房內經序) attributed to Zhōu zhēnrén 周真人 (Zhōu Yìshān). He declares that the Way can be studied but that its fine points are hard to grasp; that immortality, seeing true persons, and commanding jade maidens are all attainable only through extreme refinement of intent. He sets the eight sù 素 with true thought at their head, places the secret words of the nine perfected as the inner core, and lists the ten visible signs (jade names, heavenly registers, the great-character on the left palm, the azure marks on the back, the seven-star pattern on the body, etc.) by which an adept may be recognized as destined for ascent. He then recounts how he himself, at age seventy, met HuángLǎo jūn at Mount Sōng 嵩, obtained the Dòngfáng nèijīng after a three-month fast at Shàoshì 少室, and after twenty-seven years of visualization saw Wúyīng jūn as well as Báiyuán jūn, whereupon HuángLǎo bestowed on him the Dàdòng zhēnjīng and he ascended in broad daylight.
Abstract
Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:186–187 (§1.B.2, Shàngqīng), classes the text among Shàngqīng works not belonging to the original revelation but adopted by the school early on, as is shown by Táo Hóngjǐng’s 陶弘景 commentary to the corresponding passage in Zhēngào. The text is also cited in [[KR5a0302|DZ 302 Zhōu shì míngtōng jì]] and in the Biànzhèng lùn 辨正論. The anonymous commentary appears in Sāndòng zhūnáng 三洞珠囊 (SDZN) 8.20a, and must therefore antedate the seventh century. The hymn in the present shorter version is an abridgment of the longer one in [[KR5a1313|DZ 1313 Dòngzhēn gāoshàng yùdì dàdòng cíyī yùjiǎn wǔlǎo bǎojīng]] 24.2–27.2; a single verse in 4a and the two closing verses are unique to the present version. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 420 / notAfter 589.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Taishang dongfang neijing zhu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 186–187. Background on the dòngfáng tradition: Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme (Paris: EFEO, 1984), 2 vols.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0134
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 186–187.