Tàishàng dòngzhēn zhìhuì shàngpǐn dàjiè 太上洞真智慧上品大誡
The Most-High Cavern-Perfection Wisdom Superior-Grade Great Precepts
a foundational Língbǎo 靈寶 precept-collection of the late fourth/early fifth century
About the work
A sixteen-folio precept-collection from the original Língbǎo 靈寶 corpus, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0177 / CT 177 = TC 177), 洞真部 戒律類. Although the canonical placement is now Dòngzhēn 洞真 (“Cavern of Perfection”), the work belonged in earlier Língbǎo book-lists (the Língbǎo jīngmù 靈寶經目, Wúshàng bìyào 無上祕要) under the heading Dòngxuán língbǎo 洞玄靈寶. Often abbreviated as Dàjiè jīng 大誡經, it is one of the basic precept-collections of the Língbǎo tradition. The text describes the transmission, by Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 to Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君, of six successive series of precepts: the Ten Precepts (1b–2b), the Twelve Things to Be Followed (2b–4b), the Six Precepts on Closing the Sense-Faculties (6a–7a), the Six Precepts on Saving Life (7a–8a), the Ten-Good Encouragements (8a–9b), and seven Precepts on the Recompense of Merit (13b–15b). Acceptance of the Ten Precepts and the Twelve Followings raises the adept to the grade of qīngxìn dìzǐ 清信弟子, a junior ordination later codified by [[KR5b0091|DZ 1125 Sāndòng fèngdào kējiè 三洞奉道科戒]] 4.5a.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The work opens directly with the standard Língbǎo revelatory frame: “Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊, on the first day of the seventh month of the Kāihuáng 開皇 first year, at the wǔ 午 hour, in the country of Xī’nuóyùguó 西那玉國, on Yùcháshān 鬱刹之山 at Fúluóyuè 浮羅之嶽, amid the Chángsāng grove 長桑林, transmitted to Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君 the canon-text of the Wisdom Superior-Grade Great Precepts.”
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:224–225 (§1.B.3, Língbǎo), identifies the work as one of the basic Língbǎo precept-collections, datable to ca. 400 (i.e. the period of the original Língbǎo revelation between Gě Cháofǔ 葛巢甫 and Lù Xiūjìng 陸修靜). The text’s later reclassification under the Dòngzhēn rubric — reflected in the present canonical title — is a Táng-period rearrangement and contradicts the early book-lists, which place it under Dòngxuán língbǎo. Substantial passages (1a–6a of the present version) were excerpted in abridged form by Lù Xiūjìng (d. 477) into [[KR5b0237|DZ 524 Dòngxuán língbǎo zhāi shuō guāng zhújiè fǎdēng zhùyuàn yí 洞玄靈寶齋說光燭戒法燈祝願儀]] 8a–10b, securing a terminus ante quem in the third quarter of the fifth century. Dūnhuáng manuscripts of the scripture were catalogued by Ōfuchi Ninji, Tonkō dōkyō: Mokurokuhen 29–33; Zurokuhen 30–37. The text corresponds to number 9 in the Língbǎo corpus reconstruction (Ōfuchi). The frontmatter brackets composition late-fourth to early-fifth century, with TC’s ca. 400 as the central date.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Taishang dongzhen zhihui shangpin dajie,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 224–225. On the formation of the Língbǎo precept-corpus see Stephen R. Bokenkamp, “The Prehistory of Laozi: His Prior Career as a Woman in the Lingbao Scriptures,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 14 (2004), 403–421; and the foundational Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾, “On the Formation of the Lingbao Canon,” Acta Asiatica 27 (1974), 33–56. On the Língbǎo precept corpus more broadly, Maeda Shigeki 前田繁樹, Shoki dōkyō kyōten no keisei 初期道教經典の形成 (Tokyo: Kyūko shoin, 2004).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0178
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 224–225.