Běidǒu qīyuán xīng dēngyí 北斗七元星燈儀
Lamp Ritual for the Stars of the Seven Principles of the Northern Dipper
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist dēngyí 燈儀, seven folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0200 / CT 200 = TC 200), 洞真部 威儀類.
About the work
A lamp-ritual addressed to the seven stars of the Northern Dipper (Běidǒu 北斗) under their hypostatized title of qīyuán 七元 (“Seven Principles”) — Tāntáng 貪狼, Jùmén 巨門, Lùcún 祿存, Wénqū 文曲, Liánzhēn 廉貞, Wǔqū 武曲, and Pòjūn 破軍 — paired in the same juǎn with [[KR5a0200|DZ 199 Nándǒu yánshòu dēngyí]] (Southern Dipper, longevity) and [[KR5a0202|DZ 201 Běidǒu běnmìng yánshòu dēngyí]] (Northern Dipper, individual destiny). The structure follows the editor’s standard model for the DZ 197–214 group: an opening invocation, the lighting of seven lamps with seven prose-and-verse stanzas, and a series of fúyuàn 伏願 wishes. The wishes addressed to the seven stars cover the forgiveness of sins, success for officials and merchants, conjugal harmony, and happy descendants — a broader social agenda than the more strictly votive Nándǒu and běnmìng rituals.
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:965 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī, “Lamp Rituals”), summarizes: “The wishes expressed in this ritual addressed to the seven stars of the Northern Dipper ask for the forgiveness of sins, success for mandarins and merchants, conjugal harmony, and happy descendants. [[KR5a1224|DZ 1224 Dàomén dìngzhì]] mentions (6.3a) an Offering addressed ‘exclusively to the Seven Principles’ of the Northern Dipper. The name of this ritual recalls the title of [[KR5a0622|DZ 622 Tàishàng xuánlíng běidǒu běnmìng yánshēng zhēnjīng]], but the prayers given in DZ 1224 8.17b–21a are those of [[KR5a0733|DZ 733 Běidǒu qīyuán jīnxuán yùzhāng]], not those of the present text.” Like DZ 199, the work is exceptional within the editorial group of DZ 197–214 in not requiring the recitation of a sacred text at the end of the rite. The frontmatter brackets the work 1100–1400, the canonical SòngYuán span of the dēngyí corpus.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Beidou qiyuan xing dengyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 965. On the Northern Dipper cult and Daoist astral ritual: Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley 1977); Charles D. Benn, The Cavern-Mystery Transmission: A Taoist Ordination Rite of A.D. 711 (Honolulu: U. of Hawai’i Press, 1991); Mark Csikszentmihalyi, “Han Cosmology and Mantic Practices,” in Lagerwey & Kalinowski, Early Chinese Religion (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 1:53–74.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0201
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 965.