Shàngqīng tiānbǎo zhāi chūyè yí 上清天寶齋初夜儀
Ritual of the First Night of the Retreat of the Heavenly Treasure of Supreme Purity
Anonymous Yuán-era Daoist zhāi 齋 ritual, ten folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0216 / CT 216 = TC 216), 洞真部 威儀類.
About the work
This is the manual for the night-vigil that opens a Tiānbǎo zhāi 天寶齋 (“Retreat of the Heavenly Treasure”), a Shàngqīng-tradition fast performable only for adepts who have received the Shàngqīng bìfǎ 上清畢法 — the highest degree of Shàngqīng ordination, linked to the scriptures of the Dòngzhēn 洞真 / Shàngqīng 上清 division. The text opens with the regulations for the zhènxìn 鎮信 (“pledge tokens”) to be deposited by the patron of the rite, scaled to social rank: an emperor offers five gold dragons of five liǎng each, five jade discs three cùn square, and forty pieces of dyed silk in the five directional colours; a gōnghóu 公侯 nobleman offers gold dragons of one liǎng and five pieces of silk; a commoner offers only modest lengths of plain silk; while a true mountain ascetic, the Dark-Lad Lord (Qīngtóng jūn 青童君) is quoted as saying, may dispense with all of this — only incense, lamps, and inner sincerity are required. After the prescriptions for the lamps (the thirty-two stations of the sānshí’èr tiān dēng 三十二天燈, the twenty-eight lodges, the five planets, the natal star, and the year-stars of the patron), the manual lays out the ritual sequence: the qǐzhāi 啓齋 audience before the Xuánshī 玄師, the calling-the-Way (chàng dào 唱道), the invitation of the three Masters, the ascent of the altar through the Heaven-Gate, the drumming of the fǎgǔ 法鼓, the fālú 發爐 incense-burner opening, the recitation of the names of the Sàng Tiānzūn, the reading of the patron’s qīngcí 青詞, the rite of the Ten Directions, and finally the chanting of the Yuánshǐ sāntiān 元始三天 hymns of the Qīngwēi tiān 清微天, Yǔyú tiān 禹餘天, and Dàchì tiān 大赤天.
Prefaces
No separate preface in the source; the work opens with the prefatory regulations for the rite. The text begins: “Shàngqīng tiānbǎo zhāi: this is the essential decision of the student of the Way who seeks transcendence. Only one who has been transmitted the Final Method of Shàngqīng (Shàngqīng bìfǎ) may perform this rite; one who has received [only] the Middle Method may not perform the Tiānbǎo zhāi. First, pray for blessings on behalf of the Sage-Sovereign of the realm; next, on behalf of the ancestral spirits, requesting their grace; cleansing the lingering blemishes of past lives, repenting and atoning for new transgressions. When the practice is complete and Way-and-Virtue are visible and full, naturally one becomes an immortal and ascends in broad daylight.”
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:625 (§2.B.8.c.2, Liturgy), notes that the Tiānbǎo zhāi is a Heavenly-Treasure Retreat because of the relation between the lord of the Heavenly Treasure and the Dàdòng 大洞 in [[KR5a0319|DZ 318 Dòngxuán língbǎo zìrán jiǔtiān shēngshén zhāng jīng]] 1a; the present manual covers the night before the three audiences (3b, 9a) of such a fast. The hymn in three stanzas at 7a–8b is in fact a modern addition to the same DZ 318. Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾 (“On Ku Ling Pao Ching,” 47) dates the text after the Yuán; the frontmatter brackets composition 1279–1400 accordingly. The Tiānbǎo zhāi is also referenced in [[KR5a0224|DZ 223 Qīngwēi yuánjiàng dàfǎ]] (with the Qīngwēi school assimilating it to the léifǎ 雷法 thunder-method); see Lagerwey, “Qingwei yuanjiang dafa,” Taoist Canon 2:1102.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Shangqing tianbao zhai chuye yi,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.8.c.2, 624–625; cf. Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾, “On Ku Ling Pao Ching,” Acta Asiatica 27 (1974): 33–56.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0217
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.B.8.c.2, 624–625.