Tàishàng shí’èr shàngpǐn fēitiān fǎlún quànjiè miàojīng 太上十二上品飛天法輪勸戒妙經
Marvellous Scripture of the Twelve Superior-Grade Admonitory Precepts of the Wheel of Law of the Flying Heavens
a Táng-period Língbǎo precept-scripture against the twelve great evils, transmitted by Tàijí zhēnrén 太極真人 to Zuǒxiānwēng 左仙翁
About the work
A ten-folio Língbǎo precept-scripture, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0182 / CT 182 = TC 182), 洞真部 戒律類, where it is bound together with [[KR5a0184|DZ 183 Tàijí zhēnrén shuō èrshí sì mén jiè jīng]] in a “two-scriptures-one-juan” (二經同卷) colophon. The text is spoken by the Tàijí zhēnrén 太極真人 (Xú Láilè 徐來勒) and Zuǒ xiānwēng 左仙翁 (Gě Xuán 葛玄), and presents twelve precepts against the twelve great evils — killing, theft, fornication, slander of the Three Treasures, harsh and divisive speech, jealousy, avarice, anger, stupidity-and-deceit, disloyalty, unfilial conduct, and drunkenness-with-meat-eating — each precept followed by a numbered list of present-life and post-mortem consequences. The recitation of the precepts brings the Qī zhǒng fú 七種福 (Seven kinds of fortune): increase of life-span, growth of intelligence, ennoblement, wealth, beauty, recovery from illness, and freedom from disturbance.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly: “My native master Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊, at that time was in the Great-Lá covering-heaven, in the all-jewels palace, in the natural-perfumed realm, on the Way-and-Virtue lotus-platform, not abandoning the heart of cause-and-effect, vowing to deliver-and-give-up to the living…”
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:545 (§2.B.7 Língbǎo), identifies the work as a Táng-period Língbǎo scripture spoken by Tàijí zhēnrén and Zuǒxiānwēng. Recitation of the precepts is said to abolish the twelve sins of murder, theft, heterodoxy, calumny, lies, jealousy, cupidity, wrath, stupidity, infidelity, lack of filial piety, and drunkenness; the rules against these sins are explicitly correlated to the Jiǔzhēn miàojiè 九真妙戒 of [[KR5a0182|DZ 181 Tàishàng jiǔzhēn miàojiè jīnlù dùmìng bázuì miàojīng]]. Despite its title, the scripture appears to bear no relation to the actual Wheel-of-Law Scripture (Fǎlún jīng 法輪經; cf. [[KR5b0419|DZ 346 Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo zhēnyī quànjiè fǎlún miàojīng]], [[KR5b0421|DZ 348 Tàishàng xuányī zhēnrén shuō quànjiè fǎlún miàojīng]], [[KR5b0129|DZ 445 Dòngxuán língbǎo sānshī mínghuì xíngzhuàng jūguān fāngsuǒ wén]], and [[KR5b0420|DZ 347 Tàishàng xuányī zhēnrén shuō miàotōng zhuǎnshén rùdìng jīng]]). The text contains two non-rhyming gāthā (jì 偈) and explicitly distinguishes between Daoists who have “left the family” (chūjiā 出家) and those who remain “within the family” (zàijiā 在家) — the former a marker of formal monasticism, the latter of lay vows — which together place the work plausibly in the Táng period, when the lay/monastic distinction had become a routine canonical heading. The frontmatter follows TC’s Táng dating.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Taishang shi’er shangpin feitian falun quanjie miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 545. On Táng-period Daoist precept-literature see Maeda Shigeki 前田繁樹, “Tōdai dōkyō no kairitsu” 唐代道教の戒律, in Dōkyō to shūkyō bunka 道教と宗教文化 (Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppansha, 1987); Florian C. Reiter, The Aspirations and Standards of Taoist Priests in the Early T’ang Period (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0183
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 545.