Sāndòng zhòngjiè wén 三洞眾戒文
Comprehensive Texts of the Precepts of the Three Caverns
compiled by 張萬福 (編, fl. ca. 700–730), with autograph preface
About the work
A two-juan precept-anthology compiled by the early-Táng Daoist liturgist Zhāng Wànfú 張萬福 (fl. ca. 700–730), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0178 / CT 178 = TC 178), 洞真部 戒律類. Originally a much longer work in twenty-one juan (so [[KR5b0228|DZ 1240 Dòngxuán língbǎo dàoshì shòu sāndòng jīngjiè fǎlù zélì 洞玄靈寶道士受三洞經戒法籙擇日曆]] 2a), the present Sāndòng zhòngjiè wén survives only as a two-juan fragment. The work extracts and arranges the precept-texts proper to the Táng ordination hierarchy, organised in step with the Daozang’s tripartite scripture-classification — for each rank of ordination, Zhāng provides the model precept-texts the candidate is to receive at that rank, drawing the materials directly from the canon. Among the surviving sections are the Sānguīi jiè 三歸戒 (Triple Refuge), opening religious life, and a series of thirty-six paragraphs on disciples’ conduct toward their masters (Dìzǐ fèngshī kējiè wén 弟子奉師科戒文).
Prefaces
Zhāng Wànfú’s autograph preface (致雨二): “Of the precepts laid down by the texts of the Three Caverns, there are many and various; one cannot specify them all in detail. The student of the Way and the seeker of the True both, in the first place, must keep abstinence and uphold the precepts. Therefore the Língbǎo shēngxuán bùxū 靈寶昇玄歩虛 chapters say: ‘All begin with abstinence and the precepts; merit is built up, the predestined affinities knotted.’ Tàijí zuǒxiāngōng 太極左仙公 (Gě Xuán 葛玄) said: ‘For the student of the Way not to keep abstinences and precepts is to labour his hills and forests in vain.’ Hence: the precepts protect against evil acts and stop the mass of conduct in advance; without holding to the precepts there is no path to the Way. Yet the canon-texts, if not received from a master, when practised yield no efficacy. The protocols of the Three Caverns have their tabulated grades; but masters and disciples in their training each rest on a single tradition — Wú, Shǔ, the capital, in their lineages, sometimes differ. This is because the teaching-and-precepts proceed gradually, awakening comes suddenly, and people have their bright and their dull. The setting-up of the rites must accord with the Way: I fear the narrow-eyed scholars will give rise to vain doubts. As to the order in which scripture and ritual are conferred, my Sāndòng fǎmù 三洞法目 has already laid it out. Now I again, on the precepts I have drawn from the scriptures and registers, append the various precept-texts to the order of ritual, that on the day of conferral they may be transmitted in turn — that the Daoist may chant and study them, defend against wrong, halt evil, hold his Six Faculties in restraint, advance through the grades into the higher immortals’ rank, and far transcend the Three Worlds. From the shallow to the deep, there are not lacking gradations of better and worse; from the ordinary into the holy, each grade has its level…” There follows the full ordination-sequence: from the Sānguī jiè 三歸戒 of the Lùshēng 籙生, the Five Precepts and the Eight Precepts of the lay believers, the Wúshàng shíjiè 無上十戒 for laity, the Chūzhēn jiè 初真戒 for novices, the Seventy-two Precepts for Zhèngyī disciples, the One-hundred-and-eighty Precepts of Lǎojūn for ranked male and female officiants, and so on up to the Língbǎo Three-element Hundred-and-eighty-grade Precepts and the Shàngqīng Zhìhuì guānshēn èrbǎi dàjiè 智慧觀身二百大戒 (Two-hundred Wisdom Body-contemplation Great Precepts).
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:469–470 (§2.B.2 The Orthodox One Way of the Heavenly Master), identifies the work as roughly contemporary with [[KR5b0241|DZ 1241 Chuánshòu sāndòng jīngjiè fǎlù lüèshuō 傳授三洞經戒法籙略說]] (also by Zhāng Wànfú); the original 21-juan arrangement corresponded to the Táng-period ordination hierarchy, itself related to the layout of the Daozang (cf. TC introduction to part 2.B.1; Schipper, “Taoist ordination ranks,” 128–131). Zhāng compiled the precept-materials directly from canonical originals to provide ordinands with proper transmission-models. According to the preface, [[KR5b0129|DZ 445 Dòngxuán língbǎo sānshī mínghuì xíngzhuàng jūguān fāngsuǒ wén]] and [[KR5b1046|DZ 788 Sāndòng fǎfú kējiè wén]] also originally belonged within the configuration of the Sāndòng zhòngjiè wén. Among the preserved sections are the Sānguī jiè (Triple Refuge) and the thirty-six paragraphs on disciples’ conduct toward masters; almost all of the latter are also found in [[KR5b0241|DZ 463 Yàoxiū kēyí jièlǜ chāo 要修科儀戒律鈔]] 3.3a–7a, which quotes a more extensive series from a lǜ 律 penal code (possibly the Xuándū lǜ 玄都律, DZ 188 in fragmentary form below). The order in juan 2 may be corrupt: the rules for “obstructing the Six Passions” (bìsè liùqíng jiè 閉塞六情戒), corresponding to the “first alliance with the Língbǎo canon” (Língbǎo chūméng 靈寶初盟), precede the various series of prescriptions related to the Dòngshén scriptures — of which two series, the so-called “eight failings” (bābài 八敗) and the “thirteen prohibitions” (shísān jìn 十三禁), presumably derive from [[KR5a0768|DZ 640 Dòngshén bādì miàojīng jīng 洞神八帝妙精經]] 1b–2a and 13a–b. The frontmatter brackets composition between ca. 700 (Zhāng’s earliest dated work) and 720 (the later edge of his attested activity).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “Sandong zhongjie wen,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.2, 469–470. On Zhāng Wànfú as an early-Táng codifier of Daoist ordination see Charles D. Benn, The Cavern-Mystery Transmission: A Taoist Ordination Rite of A.D. 711 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1991); Florian C. Reiter, The Aspirations and Standards of Taoist Priests in the Early T’ang Period (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0179
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.2, 469–470.