Zhèngyī wēnsī bìdú shéndēng yí 正一瘟司辟毒神燈儀
Ritual of the Divine Lamps for Averting Disease, from the Zhèngyī Offices of Epidemics
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist dēngyí 燈儀, five folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0209 / CT 209 = TC 208), 洞真部 威儀類, sharing a Dàozàng fascicle with [[KR5a0211|DZ 210 Límíng ruìxiàng dēngyí]].
About the work
A five-folio lamp-liturgy framed within a Pure Offering to expel the emissaries who spread epidemics in each of the Five Directions. The text opens with a prose preamble setting the rite in cosmological order: “When the primordial chaos divided, the qì and the xíng were separated; Nǚwā broke the sea-turtle’s legs to prop up the pole, Yī Qí 伊祈 [the surname of Shennong] observed the heavens to give the calendar; the three powers made a threefold division and the five phases made a fivefold; from this the qì divided into seventy-two hòu 候, the year was fixed at three hundred and six xún, transformation ran its course, gods and spirits subtly moved the yīn and yáng, hot and cold revolved…” It continues: “The Great Way produces epidemics, but the people bring them on themselves. When the gods inspect misconduct, one has only one’s virtue to fall back on.” The “path of prayer” is then thrown open: all gods, Daoist or Buddhist, great warriors or ancient sages, painted or sculpted, grant protection to a region whose faithful have made offering. The body of the rite consists of directional invocations to the Wēnsī 瘟司 (Office of Epidemics) and its divine marshals, with lamp-lightings in the east, south, west, north, and centre, each followed by a pledge of refuge and a praise-quatrain.
Prefaces
No separate preface in the source; the opening prose preamble serves as the functional introduction.
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:968 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī), identifies the text as part of the Dàozàng lamp-ritual series (DZ 197–214), keyed here to the expulsion of epidemic demons; the ritual belongs to a Pure Offering performed for the faithful in order to banish the directional emissaries of disease. The frontmatter brackets composition broadly 1100–1400.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Zhengyi wensi bidu shendeng yi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 968. On Daoist epidemic-expulsion ritual see Paul R. Katz, Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshal Wen in Late Imperial Chekiang (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0210
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 968.