Tàishàng Shàngqīng rǎngzāi yánshòu bǎochàn 太上上清禳災延壽寶懺
Precious Litany of the Most High Shàngqīng Heaven for Averting Misfortune and Prolonging Life
Anonymous Táng–Sòng Daoist bǎochàn 寶懺, six folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0191 / CT 191 = TC 190-2), 洞真部 威儀類.
About the work
The middle of three paired litanies covering the Three Pure Ones (sānqīng 三清), addressed to the saints of the Shàngqīng 上清 (“Highest Purity”) heaven, accompanying [[KR5a0191|DZ 190 Tàishàng Yùqīng xièzuì dēngzhēn bǎochàn]] and [[KR5a0193|DZ 192 Tàishàng Tàiqīng bázuì shēngtiān bǎochàn]]. The text opens with a short address by Tàishàng 太上 to qīngxìn nánzǐ 清信男子 and qīngxìn nǚrén 清信女人 — pure-faith laymen and laywomen — afflicted by yearly disasters or monthly hardships, lingering disease, encounters with the legal authorities, slander, defamation, or unsuccessful undertakings. On the days of the personal běnmìng 本命 (zodiacal-fate-day), jiǎzǐ 甲子, gēngshēn 庚申, the Three Principles (sānyuán 三元), the eight nodes (bājié 八節), and other appointed days, they are to set up offerings before images of the Three Pure Ones and recite this litany. A long sequence of guīmìng xìnlǐ invocations follows. The second half of the work addresses specific groups — officials who have strayed from rectitude, physicians and soothsayers who deceive, merchants who cheat their customers — for each of whom the litany is offered as a corrective.
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
Florian C. Reiter, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:573 (§2.B.7, Lingbao), notes that DZ 190, 191, and 192 form a set: “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 191 Rǎngzāi yánshòu bǎochàn is divided into two parts. Its short introductory remarks recommend the recitation of this scripture to those who wished to enlist divine help to overcome illness and distress or other difficulties, including those caused by slander; on the returns of one’s běnmìng rì 本命日 of birth one should sacrifice in front of images of the Three Pure Ones and recite the text. This sacrifice could be performed by a Taoist priest rather than a lay person. The second part addresses specific occupational groups — officials who go astray from the right principles, physicians and soothsayers who take advantage of others, merchants who deceive their customers — and in each case, the most effective religious means of salvation are the litanies presented in this text. The text closes with a final yī xīn chànhuǐ 一心懴悔 wholehearted-confession formula and the prayer for “the household at peace, the nine ancestors raised up.” The frontmatter brackets the work to the Táng–Sòng range, since no internal evidence permits a tighter date.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Florian C. Reiter, “Taishang shangqing rangzai yanshou baochan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 573. On the bǎochàn and xièzuì repentance genre see also Lothar Ledderose, Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art (Princeton 2000); Maruyama Hiroshi, Dōkyō girei monjo no rekishiteki kenkyū (Tōkyō 2004).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0192
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.7, 573.