Jiǔtiān yìngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn yùshū bǎochàn 九天應元雷聲普化天尊玉樞寶懺
Precious Litany of the Jade Pivot of the Heavenly Worthy of the Sound of Thunder, Universally Transforming, Original Numen of the Nine Heavens
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist bǎochàn 寶懺 of the Shénxiāo / Léifǎ tradition, eleven folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0195 / CT 195 = TC 195), 洞真部 威儀類. The first of two short ritual texts copied together in the Canon under the heading “二懴同卷” (“two litanies in one juǎn”), the second being [[KR5a0197|DZ 196 Léitíng yùshū yòuzuì fǎchàn]].
About the work
A short ritual cognate to [[KR5a0016|DZ 16 Jiǔtiān yìngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn yùshū bǎojīng]] — the “Scripture of the Jade Pivot” (Yùshū jīng 玉樞經) — devoted to the SòngYuán Thunder-rite cult of the Pǔhuà tiānzūn 普化天尊 (“Heavenly Worthy of Universal Transformation”), the Daoist counterpart to the Buddhist Samantabhadra and the principal patron deity of the Shénxiāo 神霄 and Léifǎ 雷法 traditions. Unlike the full litany style of long lists of tiānzūn names, the work is structured as a lǐwén 禮文 (homage-text), with the officiant presenting himself by office and rank, then bowing to the Three Pure Ones, the Ten Perfected of Highest Tenuity, the Eight Sovereigns of the High Shénxiāo, and the Pǔhuà tiānzūn at the head of the Nine Heavens’ Assembly-Hall (九天應元府卿師使相). On 8a–9b a list of the Shénxiāo pantheon is given, including the Nine Astral Sovereigns (jiǔchén 九宸).
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1093–1094 (§3.B.6, The Shenxiao Fa and Related Thunder Rites), describes the work as a litany cognate to the principal scripture of the léifǎ (Thunder-rite) tradition: the Pǔhuà tiānzūn — the “Daoist Samantabhadra” — is invoked as the supreme deity of Thunder. The work follows the form of a homage (lǐwén 禮文) rather than a long list of tiānzūn names; pages 8a–9b list the Shénxiāo pantheon, including the jiǔchén 九宸 nine astral sovereigns. The high rank in the celestial hierarchy accorded to the Léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn marks the text as comparatively late: the deity emerges in its developed form only with the diffusion of the Yùshū jīng in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries (cf. Schipper’s note ad DZ 16 and the discussions of Lǐ Zhìcháng 李志常 and Bó Yùchán 白玉蟾 (1194–1229), the latter usually credited with the cult’s diffusion). The frontmatter brackets the work 1200–1400 to accommodate composition any time within the late-Sòng-to-Yuán period of the Thunder-rite literature.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Jiutian yingyuan leisheng puhua tianzun yushu baochan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.6, 1093–1094. On the Yùshū jīng and the Pǔhuà tiānzūn cult: Judith M. Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature, Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley: IEAS, 1987), 26–38; Florian C. Reiter, Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007); Lowell Skar, “Administering Thunder: A Thirteenth-Century Memorial Deliberating the Thunder Rites,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 9 (1996–97): 159–202.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0196
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.6, 1093–1094.