Wǔxiǎn língguān dàdì dēngyí 五顯靈觀大帝燈儀
Lamp Ritual for the Five Manifestations, Great Emperors of Divine Contemplation
Anonymous early-Ming Daoist dēngyí 燈儀 (“lamp ritual”) for the Wǔxiǎn 五顯 cult, five folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0206 / CT 206 = TC 205), 洞真部 威儀類.
About the work
A five-folio lamp-liturgy for the five Dūyuánshuài 都元帥 (“Grand Marshals”) of the Wǔxiǎn 五顯 pantheon — in descending order (i) Dōutiān wēiměng dà yuánshuài xiǎncōng zhāoyìng fúrén guǎngjì wáng 都天威猛大元帥顯聦昭應孚仁廣濟王; (ii) Hèngtiān dōubù dà yuánshuài xiǎnmíng zhāoliè fúyì guǎngyòu wáng 横天都部大元帥顯明昭烈孚義廣佑王; (iii) Tōngtiān jīnmù dà yuánshuài xiǎnzhèng zhāoshùn fúzhì guǎnghuì wáng 通天金目大元帥顯正昭順孚智廣惠王; (iv) Fēitiān fēnghuǒ dà yuánshuài xiǎnzhí zhāoyòu fúxìn guǎngzé wáng 飛天風火大元帥顯直昭佑孚信廣澤王; (v) Dāntiān jiàngmó dà yuánshuài xiǎndé zhāolì fúài guǎngchéng wáng 丹天降魔大元帥顯德昭利孚愛廣成王 — with their auxiliary officers (Zhù Língshǐ xiànggōng 助靈史相公, Zhùshùn Biàn xiànggōng 助順卞相公, Yìyìng Zhōu jiāngjūn 翊應周將軍, the Two Wángniàn Regents 王念二總管, Lìnggū sìchéng 令狐寺丞, Shànqìng tóngzǐ 善慶童子, the local Tǔdì 土地 and duty-scribe gōngcáo 功曹). The rite opens with a summons-and-offering invocation, then addresses each of the Five Marshals in turn with prose fúyǐ 伏以, a formal pledge of refuge (zhìxīn guīmìng 志心歸命), and a four-line praise-quatrain.
Prefaces
Opening invocation: “Burning incense in offering to: the Dōutiānwēiměng Grand Marshal…, to the Hèngtiāndōubù Grand Marshal…, to the Tōngtiānjīnmù Grand Marshal…, to the Fēitiānfēnghuǒ Grand Marshal…, to the Dāntiānjiàngmó Grand Marshal…, and to their assistants Zhù Língshǐ xiànggōng, Zhùshùn Biàn xiànggōng, Yìyìng Zhōu jiāngjūn, the Two Wáng Regents, Lìnggū sìchéng, Shànqìng tóngzǐ, the Local Earth-Officials, the Duty-Day Gōngcáo, and the attendants of the inner palace, holy consorts, and numinous-response Law-Division — all together offering up true incense. Reverently: wisdom constitutes sagehood, and they constantly show their traces among men; rectitude constitutes numen, and their names are repeatedly made known throughout the ages. They have opened the divine halls of the Five Communications and resolved the dark passage of the Six Shades; among heaven, earth, wind, fire, and water they move unhindered; the sages of kindness, justice, wisdom, faith, and love extend their grace in all directions. We long for the bright signs of their radiance and extend this lamp-rite in fervent sincerity; let the glowing light rest on us and light our every movement and stillness. Reverently I, so-and-so, though unworthily placed among men, follow the regulated teaching and dare not forget reverence for what I have received; I have chosen an auspicious moment and reverently arrayed the pure offering. I pray that the silver lamps burn bright before our gates, that the precious wicks, fragrant and rising, make household and kin forever at peace.”
Abstract
Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:966–967 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī), identifies the five invoked deities as originating in the southern Chinese cult of the Wǔtōng 五通, a class of one-legged nature-demons. After an officially recognized “cleaning up” of the Wǔtōng cult images at a Wùyuán 婺源 (Jiāngxī) sanctuary in 1109, and the state’s general denunciation of the Wǔtōng as illicit in 1111, the cult of the local five deities at Wùyuán expanded through branch-temples and, after their names were officially changed in 1174, came to be called Wǔxiǎn (“Five Manifestations”). Under the early Ming they were elevated to national rank: Míng Tàizǔ ordered state offerings at an official temple completed in 1389 near Nánjīng (cf. Xīyīn jí 5.302–322). Daoists had opposed both the original Wǔtōng worship and the sanctioned Wǔxiǎn cult well into the thirteenth century (cf. [[KR5a0780|DZ 780 Dìqí shàngjiāng Wēn tàibǎo zhuàn]] 1b–2b); full integration into the Daoist pantheon is the result of the fusion with Marshal Mǎ 馬元帥 (cf. [[KR5a1192|DZ 1192 Dàhuì jìngcí miàolè tiānzūn shuō fúdé wǔshèng jīng]]). Given the early-Ming imperial elevation, the adoption of the rite into the standardized lamp-ritual series probably falls in the early Ming rather than earlier. The frontmatter brackets composition accordingly, 1368–1500.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “Wuxian lingguan dadi dengyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 966–967. On the Wǔtōng/Wǔxiǎn cult: Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, “The Cult of the Wu-t’ung / Wu-hsien in History and Fiction: The Religious Roots of the Journey to the South,” in Philip Clart and Paul R. Katz eds., Religion and Chinese Society (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2004), 2:111–174; Richard von Glahn, The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 180–220.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0207
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 966–967.