Shàngqīng shíyī dàyào dēngyí 上清十一大曜燈儀
Lamp Ritual of the Eleven Great Luminaries of Highest Purity
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist dēngyí 燈儀, eight folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0198 / CT 198 = TC 198), 洞真部 威儀類. The first of four lamp-rituals copied together (under the heading “四燈儀同卷為二”) with [[KR5a0200|DZ 199 Nándǒu yánshòu dēngyí]], [[KR5a0201|DZ 200 Běidǒu qīyuán xīng dēngyí]], and [[KR5a0202|DZ 201 Běidǒu běnmìng yánshòu dēngyí]].
About the work
A short astral lamp-ritual addressed to the eleven dàyào 大曜 — the Sun, the Moon, the Five Planets, and the Four Phantom Stars (sì yǔ 四餘 — Lúohú 羅㬋, Jìdū 計都, Yuèbó 月孛, and Zǐqì 紫炁) of medieval Sino-Indian astrology — performed by a Zhèngyī 正一 priest in the context of a Pure Offering (qīnggòng 清供 / qīngjiào 清醮) to avert the disasters linked to these eleven heavenly bodies. The main body of the text reproduces the same eleven hymns found in [[KR5a0044|DZ 43 Yuánshǐ tiānzūn shuō shíyī yào dà xiāozāi shénzhòu jīng]], with each yào invoked in turn at its own lamp.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The opening rubric “臣聞永惟木德咸仰歲星…” (“Reverently I have heard: those who eternally cherish the virtue of Wood all look up to the Year-Star…”) functions as an qǐbái 啓白 invocation, not as a colophon-style preface, and is taken as part of the litany proper.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:964 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī, “Lamp Rituals”), describes the work as a Pure Offering performed by a Zhèngyī priest to “avert catastrophes linked to the eleven greater heavenly bodies.” A jiào dedicated to these eleven bodies is mentioned in [[KR5a1224|DZ 1224 Dàomén dìngzhì]] 8.10a. The eleven hymns are the same as those of [[KR5a0044|DZ 43 Yuánshǐ tiānzūn shuō shíyī yào dà xiāozāi shénzhòu jīng]]. The eleven-luminary cult, of late-Tang Sino-Indian astrological origin, becomes prominent in Sòng Daoist ritual; the present text — sharing the standardised liturgical formulae of the editorial group DZ 197–214 — was reworked into the present form sometime in the Sòng or Yuán. The frontmatter brackets the work 1100–1400 in line with the genre and the editorial group.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Shangqing shiyi dayao dengyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 964. On the eleven luminaries and their place in Daoist ritual see Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1977); Christopher Cullen, “Astrology in Han China,” in Lloyd & Sivin, The Way and the Word (New Haven 2002); Liu Yongming 劉永明, “Sòng-Yuán Dàojiào shíyī yào yánjiū” 宋元道教十一曜研究, Zōngjiào yánjiū 宗教研究 (2010).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0199
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 964.