Léitíng yùshū yòuzuì fǎchàn 雷霆玉樞宥罪法懺
Ritual Litany for the Forgiving of Sins from the Jade Pivot of Thunder
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist fǎchàn 法懺 of the Shénxiāo / Léifǎ tradition, nine folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0196 / CT 196 = TC 196), 洞真部 威儀類. Paired with [[KR5a0196|DZ 195 Jiǔtiān yìngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn yùshū bǎochàn]] in the same juǎn (“二懴同卷”).
About the work
A short tóuzuì fǎchàn 投罪法懴 (“ritual of casting-down-of-faults”) cognate to [[KR5a0016|DZ 16 Jiǔtiān yìngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn yùshū bǎojīng]]. The opening invocation summons the Gāoshàng Shénxiāo zhī tiān 高上神霄之天 and the Jiǔtiān yìngyuán zhī fǔ 九天應元之府, threading the ritual into the Thunder-rite cosmology. The Jiǔtiān yìngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn 九天應元雷聲普化天尊 — the principal Thunder-deity, here invoked as Lord of the Thirty-six Heavens — is the addressee of the central litany; the votary confesses the sins that obstruct the descent of his rain, his lightning, and his merciful awe. A hymn in seven-character verse on 4a–b carries an unusually popular flavour, suggesting the ritual was used in lay-supported community offerings as well as in priestly jiào 醮 services.
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), characterizes the work as “a Tóuzuì fǎchàn short ritual, cognate to [[KR5a0016|DZ 16 Jiǔtiān yìngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn yùshū bǎojīng]]. The Jiǔtiān yìngyuán léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn is invoked as the Lord of the Thirty-six Heavens. A hymn in seven-character verses on 4a–b has a distinctly popular flavor.” Like its companion DZ 195, the high rank accorded to the Pǔhuà tiānzūn marks the text as late, contemporary with the late-Sòng diffusion of the Yùshū jīng and the consolidation of the Thunder-rite tradition in the hands of Bó Yùchán 白玉蟾 (1194–1229) and his Yuán-period successors. The frontmatter brackets the work 1200–1400, the canonical span of the Thunder-rite bǎochàn / fǎchàn literature.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Leiting yushu youzui fachan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.6, 1093–1094. On the Thunder-rite tradition see Florian C. Reiter, Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007); on Bó Yùchán and the diffusion of the Yùshū jīng, Judith M. Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature (Berkeley 1987), 26–38, 173–179; Lowell Skar, “Administering Thunder,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 9 (1996–97): 159–202.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0197
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.6, 1093–1094.