Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng fútú 靈寶無量度人上品妙經符圖
Talismans and Charts for the Wondrous Scripture on Universal Salvation, Supreme Numinous-Treasure Volume
with a preface attributed to 徽宗 (序, attributed)
About the work
A three-juan late-Northern-Sòng compendium of fú 符 (talismans) and cosmic tú 圖 (charts) functioning as a graphic commentary to [[KR5a0001|DZ 1 Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng]], the “Book of Universal Salvation,” in its expanded sixty-one-juan Sòng recension. The work is one of the principal Shénxiāo 神霄 productions of Huīzōng’s 徽宗 (r. 1100–1126) reign and a key source for the talismans and cosmic diagrams later codified in the [[KR5a0220|DZ 219 Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngjīng dàfǎ]] and Lǎo Lóngxiáng’s Língbǎo dàfǎ compilations. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0147 / CT 147 = TC 147), 洞真部 靈圖類.
Prefaces
The volume opens with an unsigned, undated preface (Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén jīng fútú xù 靈寶無量度人經符圖序) headed Sòng Huīzōng yùzhì 宋徽宗御製. It begins by deriving the Língbǎo 靈寶 from the primordial chaos: in the obscure splendour of the huálíng 華靈 are hidden the Three Pneumas (sān qì 三炁) of the cosmic mist; numinous radiance harbours its glow, concealing the myriad perfected in the supreme germ; in the kalpic transformations of self-so empty Nothingness there is a marvellous extreme, and the Unitary Spirit, leaping forth, is the Most Honoured of Primordial Beginning (Yuánshǐ zhī zūn 元始之尊), who unfurls the chart of cosmic precedence and crystallises the root-substance of all flowing form. Hence Heaven and Earth are split, yīn and yáng are ordered, the Four Origins course in their measure, the Eight Pivots wax and wane — all received from supreme Virtue, all subject to the One who weighs and assigns destiny. This Way, since it cannot be exhausted, is forcibly given a name: Língbǎo, the root and source of the Great Origin’s living transformation. The text was committed to writing by the Mighty Person (huángrén 皇人), its meaning expounded by the Most High; sometimes given as talisman or chart, sometimes hidden in yǐnpiān 隱篇, sometimes manifested above the Floating Veil, sometimes concealed in the millet-grain Pearl, kept in the RuìZhū Zhī Palace 蘂珠芝宫. The preface continues that, having been entrusted with this Numinous Treasure scripture, the imperial author has prayed to the Supreme Thearch to descend and save mankind; that “five renchen and gengzi years from now” (here understood as 1112 rénchén 壬辰 and 1120 gēngzi 庚子), the qì of the Nine yáng will respond, heterodox methods will be swept away, and the True Way will spread; the present cinnabar-sealed scripture is therefore opened and revealed, and the talismans and charts are now displayed for those of seekers’ lot.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1083 (§3.A.1, Philosophy / Scriptural Commentaries), classes this as one of the principal Shénxiāo writings; he follows Strickmann (“The longest Taoist scripture”) in linking the preface’s rénchén / gēngzi allusion to the persecution of Buddhism under Huīzōng (1112 rénchén; 1120 gēngzi). Lagerwey nevertheless cautions that the attribution of the preface to Huīzōng is open to question: the preface is neither signed nor dated, and the author refers to himself with the ordinary wǒ 我 rather than the imperial zhèn 朕. The cosmic charts at 2.5b and 3.4b–5b also appear in the parallel Shénxiāo work [[KR5g0028|DZ 1219 Gāoshàng shénxiāo yùqīng zhēnwáng zǐshū dàfǎ]] (2.18b, 22b–23a), and the basic Língbǎo dàfǎ talismans, the liàndù 鍊度 ritual (3.6a–b) and the yuángāng liúyǎn 元罡流眼 method (3.16a) are already present here. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1112 / notAfter 1125, the latter the end of Huīzōng’s reign.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing futu,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 1083. Foundational study: Michel Strickmann, “The Longest Taoist Scripture,” History of Religions 17 (1978): 331–354. On the Shénxiāo movement see Judith M. Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1987), 26–32; Patricia B. Ebrey, Emperor Huizong (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard, 2014).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0148
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.1, 1083.