Tàishàng Yùqīng xièzuì dēngzhēn bǎochàn 太上玉清謝罪登真寶懺
Precious Litany of the Most High Yùqīng Heaven for Confessing Faults and Ascending to Perfection
Anonymous Táng–Sòng Daoist bǎochàn 寶懺 (“precious litany”) of repentance, six folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0190 / CT 190 = TC 190-1), 洞真部 威儀類.
About the work
A short ritual of confession addressed to the saints of the Yùqīng 玉清 (“Jade Purity”) heaven, the first of three companion litanies — the others being [[KR5a0192|DZ 191 Tàishàng Shàngqīng rǎngzāi yánshòu bǎochàn]] and [[KR5a0193|DZ 192 Tàishàng Tàiqīng bázuì shēngtiān bǎochàn]] — that together cover the Three Pure Ones (sānqīng 三清). The work is structured in two halves: an introductory address by Tàishàng 太上 outlines why repentance is indispensable for clearing previous kalpa karma, and what follows is a litany of guīmìng xìnlǐ 歸命信禮 (“with refuge and faith I bow”) invocations of forty-some Heavenly Worthies (tiānzūn 天尊) and Perfected (zhēnrén 真人), each invoked in turn to receive incense, lights, and the votary’s confession. The second half of the text catalogues the karmic consequences of the shí bùshàn 十不善 (ten evil deeds — killing, theft, sexual misconduct, false speech, ornate speech, double-tongue, harsh speech, greed, hatred, ignorance) with their corresponding hells, animal rebirths, and human afflictions, framed as a Buddhist-style karman-tribunal grafted onto a Daoist scripture.
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
Florian C. Reiter, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:573 (§2.B.7, Lingbao), treats the work jointly with DZ 191 and DZ 192: “The above three titles form one work. There is no indication as to the date of the text. This type of scripture seems to have emerged during the Tang period.” The litany is divided into two parts. The opening remarks explain that without repentance, one’s name cannot be inscribed on the Golden Registers of the Jade Hall (jīngé yùtíng 金格玉庭); recitation saves the souls of the ancestors and secures good luck for descendants. Recitations are made before an image of Lǎozǐ. Each section is introduced by a short paragraph depicting the transgressions to be repented and the corresponding litany of names. The list of sins includes the veneration of heretical cults (yínsì xiéshén 淫祀邪神). The second part describes the ten classes of crimes, their consequences for the after-life (punishments in the hells, the conditions of rebirth — into the form of “sparrows, doves, pigs, and dogs,” “two-headed snakes or earthworms,” “scorpions and serpents,” and so on), and the litany of Heavenly Worthies appropriate to each. The frontmatter brackets the work to the Táng–Sòng range characteristic of this litany-genre, since no internal evidence permits a tighter date.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Florian C. Reiter, “Taishang yuqing xiezui dengzhen baochan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 573. On the bǎochàn genre and Daoist confession liturgy: Maruyama Hiroshi 丸山宏, Dōkyō girei monjo no rekishiteki kenkyū 道教儀礼文書の歴史的研究 (Tōkyō: Kyūko, 2004); Kristofer Schipper and Wang Hsiu-huei, “Progressive and Regressive Time Cycles in Taoist Ritual,” in Time, Science, and Society in China and the West (Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press, 1986), 185–205.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0191
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 573.