Tàijí zhēnrén shuō èrshí sì mén jiè jīng 太極真人說二十四門戒經
Scripture of the Twenty-Four Precepts Spoken by the Perfected of the Supreme Pole
a Táng-period Língbǎo precept-scripture pairing twenty-four precepts with twenty-four hells
About the work
An eight-folio Língbǎo precept-scripture, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0183 / CT 183 = TC 183), 洞真部 戒律類. The text opens by enumerating the calendrical days on which the precepts are to be recited — the shí zhízhāi rì 十直齋日 (ten direct fasting days, on the 1st, 8th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 28th, 29th, and 30th of each month, with the 27th substituting for the 30th in short months); the bā jié zhāi rì 八節齋日 (eight-pivot fasts at the eight solar terms); the sān yuán zhāi rì 三元齋日 (three Origin-fasts on 1/15, 7/15, 10/15); the sì shǐ zhāi rì 四始齋日 (four Beginning-fasts on the 1st of the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th months); and the sān huì zhāi rì 三會齋日 (three Assembly-fasts on the 7th of the 1st and 7th months and the 5th of the 10th). On these days fellow-Daoists are to gather, in oratory or temple, for collective recitation. The body of the work then expounds twenty-four precepts, each precept paired with the specific hell in which the offence is punished: kettle-cauldron, knife-mountain, brazier-charcoal, plough-tongue, mortar-pounding, snake-eating-the-heart, molten-bronze-poured-on-mouth, and so forth. A rhymed gāthā in praise of the precepts closes the text.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly: “At that time Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 — born before Heaven and Earth, breathing forth pneuma to the ten directions, fulfilling the ten thousand images, lord of men and devas, sovereign over rivers and peaks — by his action the sun, moon, and stars made their orbits, and the four seasons received their patterns. He is the ladder-bridge of those who pursue the Way; the ferry-channel for [crossing] life-and-death…”
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:545–546 (§2.B.7 Língbǎo), identifies the work as a Táng-period precept-scripture. The text begins by enumerating the periodic fasting days during which the precepts are to be recited — by a group in the oratory (jìngshì 靜室) or by a master of the rite (2a–b). Offences against the twenty-four interdictions are punished in twenty-four hells named after the tortures awaiting the sinner there (3a–6b). The recitation is recommended for the salvation of the deceased during the seven-times-seven-day mourning period, for pregnant women, and in life-threatening situations (7b). A rhymed gāthā in praise of the precepts concludes the text. The work is mentioned as Zhēnrén èrshí sì jiè jīng 真人二十四戒經, together with the corresponding hells, in [[KR5b0260|DZ 1221 Shàngqīng língbǎo dàfǎ]] 34.11b–12b (= [[KR5b0298|DZ 547 Língbǎo yùjiàn]] 31.27a–b), 42.1a, and 58.13b — citations connected with the setting up of the forty-nine huìyào 慧曜 lamps for the souls of the deceased in Sòng-period Língbǎo liturgy. The frontmatter follows TC’s Táng dating.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Taiji zhenren shuo ershisi men jie jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 545–546. On Táng Daoist hell-typologies see Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007); Christine Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008), esp. ch. 2 on parallel torture-typologies.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0184
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 545–546.