Tàiqīng wǔshí bā yuàn wén 太清五十八願文
Text of the Fifty-Eight Vows from the Tàiqīng [Heaven]
a Six-Dynasties Língbǎo 靈寶 vow-text excerpted from the larger Zhìhuì běnyuán dàjiè 智慧本願大誡
About the work
A seven-folio Língbǎo 靈寶 vow-text, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0187 / CT 187 = TC 187), 洞真部 戒律類, where it is bound together with [[KR5a0187|DZ 186 Tàiwēi xiānjūn gōngguò gé]] in a “two-scriptures-one-juan” colophon. Despite its independent canonical placement, the work is not in fact an original composition: it is composed entirely of extracted passages from [[KR5b0418|DZ 344 Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo zhìhuì běnyuán dàjiè shàngpǐn jīng 太上洞玄靈寶智慧本願大誡上品經]] 4a–15a. The text presents fifty-eight short bodhisattva-style vows of the form “若見〇〇當願一切〇〇” — “When one sees X, one should vow that all-living-beings [should] Y”: when one sees a householder with wife and children, one should vow that all might leave the prison of attachment quickly; when one sees one drinking wine, one should vow that all might restrain themselves; when one sees a beautiful woman, that all might preserve their feelings and curb their lust; and so forth, through fifty-eight situational vows. The text closes with the shíshàn quàn 十善勸 (Ten-Good Encouragements) and a brief commentary on the vows by Tàijí zhēnrén 太極真人.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the first vow: “When one sees a householder with wife and children, one should vow that all-living-beings might leave the prison of attachment early, and harness their thoughts to the upholding of the precepts.”
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:238–239 (§1.B.3 Língbǎo), establishes the textual derivation: the work is “not an original work but completely composed of parts from [[KR5b0418|DZ 344 Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo zhìhuì běnyuán dàjiè shàngpǐn jīng]] 4a–15a.” It contains the fifty-eight vows and the shíshàn quàn (Ten-Good Encouragements). Whereas DZ 344 4a–7a actually lists a complete series of fifty-nine vows to be pronounced for the salvation of all in various situations, the present text incorrectly arrives at fifty-eight by fusing the first part of the thirty-fifth with the second part of the thirty-sixth vow — a textual lapse that survives in the canonical title-numerals. The present text and the preceding DZ 186 correspond to number 25 of the original Língbǎo corpus reconstruction (Ōfuchi). The frontmatter brackets composition to the Six Dynasties, in agreement with TC’s dating.
The vow-formula itself (“when one sees X, one should vow that all-living-beings…”) is a clear and direct adaptation of the Mahāyāna bodhicitta-vow tradition exemplified by the Avataṃsaka-sūtra’s Pure Conduct (淨行品) chapter — the Daoist parallel is studied in Stephen Bokenkamp’s work on Língbǎo’s karman-and-saṃsāra doctrine.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Taiqing wushiba yuan wen,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 238–239. On the parent text DZ 344 and the larger Língbǎo zhìhuì-běnyuán corpus: Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007); Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾, “On the Formation of the Lingbao Canon,” Acta Asiatica 27 (1974), 33–56. On Daoist–Buddhist vow-text parallels: Christine Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0188
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.3, 238–239.