Límíng ruìxiàng dēngyí 離明瑞象燈儀
Lamp Ritual for Auspicious Signs from the Lí (Southern) Trigram
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist dēngyí 燈儀, seven folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0210 / CT 210 = TC 209), 洞真部 威儀類, sharing a Dàozàng fascicle with [[KR5a0210|DZ 209 Zhèngyī wēnsī bìdú shéndēng yí]].
About the work
A seven-folio lamp-liturgy of “auspicious signs,” performed within an “Offering to pray for peace” (qí’ān jiào 祈安醮), aimed at protecting the region whose faithful have commissioned it from fires sent by the gods of the Palace of Southern Clarity as punishment for sin. The rite invokes six groups of fire-deities, all associated with the southern Lí 離 trigram: (i) Dàshèng sānqì huǒdé yínghuò zhífǎ zhēnjūn 大聖三炁火德熒惑執法真君, with Dāntiān Chìhuáng shàngdào zhēnjūn 丹天赤皇上道真君 and the Nángōng zhífǎ yánshòu sīlù jūn 南宫執法延夀司錄君; (ii) the fire-ancestor Suìrén 燧人, the fire-administrator Shāngqiū 商丘, and the fire-administrator Àbó 閼伯; (iii) the Great Fire spirit Xīmù 析木, Zhùróng 祝融, Yándì 炎帝, and the assistant Huílù 回祿; (iv) the twelve attendant immortals (left six, right six); (v) the Lord Mother of Fire inside the Lí Palace (Límíng gōng nèi zhǔ huǒ líng fēi 離明宫内主火靈妃), the Gold-Molten Fire-Bell Sòng General, and the Five-Direction Fire-Calamity Emissaries; (vi) the fire-mules, fire-horses, fire-bows, fire-arrows, and the Fire Bureau itself. The rite is anchored in a prose invocation that roots the observance in the cosmogonic Potter’s-Wheel, invokes the Seven Stations of the south, and begs for the sparing of the household’s residents from conflagration. [[KR5c1224|DZ 1224 Dàomén dìngzhì]] 6.5a mentions a Shǐhuǒ rǎngzāi jiào 禁火禳災醮 (“Offering to Conjure the Flames and Drive off Catastrophe”), suggesting the parent rite-class in which this liturgy sits.
Prefaces
No separate preface in the source; the opening invocation serves as the functional introduction. The text begins: “Respectfully hearing: the great Way is brilliant-brilliant, it does not speak, yet it responds well; the small heart is reverent, it prays, and is always heard. Your servants now reverently wield true incense and in pure sincerity send word upward…”
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:968 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī), identifies this as a lamp-rite of ruìfú 瑞符 (“auspicious signs”) within an “Offering to pray for peace,” aimed especially at protecting the faithful’s region from the fires sent by the gods of the Palace of Southern Clarity to punish sin — Lí 離 here referring to the trigram that governs the south and corresponds to fire. Six groups of gods, all associated with the south, are asked to forgive the sins of the faithful and grant their favors. [[KR5c1224|DZ 1224 Dàomén dìngzhì]] (6.5a) attests to the Shǐhuǒ rǎngzāi jiào of which this rite is plausibly a component. The frontmatter brackets composition broadly 1100–1400.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Liming ruixiang dengyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 968. On ritual protection against fire in Chinese religion see Rolf A. Stein, “Jardins en miniature d’Extrême-Orient: Le monde en petit,” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 42 (1942): 1–104.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0211
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 968.