Xuándì dēngyí 玄帝燈儀
Lamp Ritual for the Dark Emperor (Emperor of the North)
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist dēngyí 燈儀, five folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0203 / CT 203 = TC 203), 洞真部 威儀類.
About the work
A short lamp-ritual addressed to the Dark Emperor (Xuándì 玄帝) — Xuántiān shàngdì 玄天上帝, the Daoist sovereign of the north and patron of exorcism, identified iconographically with the Zhēnwǔ 真武 (“True Warrior”) martial god. In the present text he carries the honorific title Língyìng yòushèng zhēnjūn 靈應佑聖真君, conferred on the deity by Sòng Huīzōng in 1108. The rite is to be inserted into a Pure Offering (qīnggòng 清供) in the deity’s honour, with five lamps lit and three votive intentions formulated: first, the forgiveness of the votary’s own sins and his eternal life; second, the same grace for the deceased of the family; third, the good fortune of all members, living and dead, of the household.
Prefaces
No preface in the source.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:965–966 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī, “Lamp Rituals”), explains: “The Pure Offering into which this lamp ritual is to be inserted is in honor of Xuántiān shàngdì 玄天上帝. The title given to him in the text, Língyìng yòushèng zhēnjūn 靈應佑聖真君, was first accorded this god in 1108. The first of the wishes expressed in the present ritual asks for the forgiveness of the sins of ‘so-and-so’ and for eternal life; the second wish asks the same thing for all the deceased of the family; and the third wish requests happiness for all members, living and dead, of the family. [[KR5a1224|DZ 1224 Dàomén dìngzhì]] mentions (6.4b) a Běijí Zhēnwǔ jiào 北極真武醮.” The 1108 terminus post quem of the title fixes the work’s first composition window after Huīzōng’s reign; the text’s affiliation with the editorial group DZ 197–214 (sharing its zhìxīn guīmìng and fúyuàn formulae and concluding with sacred-text recitation) puts the received recension within the same Sòng–Yuán range. The frontmatter accordingly brackets notBefore 1108 (the imperial title) and notAfter 1400 (the conventional end of the editorial group).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Xuandi dengyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 965–966. On the Xuántiān shàngdì / Zhēnwǔ cult: Pierre-Henry de Bruyn, Le Wudang Shan (Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2010); Wilt L. Idema, The Sage and the Saint: Studies on Religion and Society in Honor of Glen Dudbridge (Sankt Augustin: Steyler, 2007); Vincent Goossaert and David A. Palmer, The Religious Question in Modern China (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2011), 39–43.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0204
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 965–966.