Huánglù jiǔyáng fànqì dēngyí 黃籙九陽梵炁燈儀
Yellow Register Lamp Ritual for the Brahman Energies of the Nine Yáng
Anonymous Sòng–Yuán Daoist dēngyí 燈儀, eleven folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0211 / CT 211 = TC 210), 洞真部 威儀類, in the same Dàozàng fascicle as [[KR5a0213|DZ 212 Huánglù jiǔzhī dēngyí]].
About the work
An eleven-folio Huánglù 黃籙 (Yellow Register) lamp-liturgy for the “Brahman Energies of the Nine Yáng” (Jiǔyáng fànqì 九陽梵氣), understood here as the qì of the Nine Heavens, which illuminate the underworld and enable the souls of the deceased to ascend. The rite invokes a suite of presiding deities — Tàiyǐ jiùkǔ tiānzūn 太乙救苦天尊, the Jiǔtiān shēngshén shàngdì 九天生神上帝, the Jiǔyáng fànqì tiānjūn 九陽梵炁天君, the jiǔzhōu shèlìng 九州社令 territorial deities, and the full complement of underworld officials of the Nine Depths (Jiǔyōu dìyù 九幽地獄) — then, at each of the nine cardinal stations, summons the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 of that direction, lights a lamp, and chants the corresponding hymn drawn from [[KR5a0318|DZ 318 Dòngxuán língbǎo zìrán jiǔtiān shēngshén zhāngjīng]].
Prefaces
No separate preface in the source; the opening invocation serves as the introduction. The text opens: “Burning incense in offering to Tàiyǐ jiùkǔ tiānzūn; the Jiǔtiān shēngshén shàngdì; the Jiǔyáng fànqì tiānjūn; the lords of the nine province-soils; all the underworld officials and administrators of the Nine Depths; and the entire holy assembly. Reverently: the primordial origin is the source, where the three qì are stored in the Great Beginning; the numinous light contains its radiance, and spreads the nine lights through the roof of the sky. The great mass once divided, the Primordial Beginning unfolded the chart; divine substance beneficently illumined the qì that divides the netted realms, and grace flowed down to the earth. The fǎ arose to deliver men…”
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:968–969 (§3.B.1, Zhèngyī), glosses the “Nine Yáng Brahman Energies” as the qì of the Nine Heavens, held to light the underworld and enable the ascent of the souls of the dead. The liturgical skeleton consists of directional invocations to the Jiǔkǔ tiānzūn with lamp-lightings, each followed by the appropriate hymn drawn from DZ 318. The frontmatter brackets composition broadly 1100–1300, within the normal Sòng-era Huánglù ritual cycle.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Huanglu jiuyang fanqi dengyi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 968–969. On the Huánglù mortuary-ritual complex see Matsumoto Kōichi 松本浩一, “Sōdai no Kōroku sai” 宋代の黄籙齋, Shūkyō shigaku ronshū (1978), 179–207; Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body (Berkeley 1993).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0212
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.1, 968–969.