Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngjīng dàfǎ 靈寶無量度人上經大法
The Great Rites of the Book of Universal Salvation
Anonymous Southern-Sòng Daoist liturgical compendium, seventy-two juǎn preceded by an unnumbered preface-juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0219 / CT 219 = TC 219), 洞真部 威儀類. The work is dated ca. 1200 and stands as the central liturgical synthesis of the Língbǎo dàfǎ 靈寶大法 movement of the late twelfth century.
About the work
The Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngjīng dàfǎ is a complete priestly manual built around the Wúliàng dùrén jīng 無量度人經 ([[KR5a0001|DZ 1 Língbǎo wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng]]), the central scripture of the Língbǎo canon. The Língbǎo dàfǎ is here described as the “way for saving souls from hell” (53.1a), and the very heart of the Great Method consists of incantations, fú 符, and techniques (36.1a), the most important of which derive from an esoteric reading of the Dùrén jīng: in juǎn 5–7 the scripture is divided into four-character phrases that are then re-formed into fú capable of healing illness and protecting the bearer in all circumstances. Seventy-two juǎn compass the whole Daoist priestly career: the cosmic foundations of the method (j. 1–2); apprenticeship in writing and using the school’s fú (j. 4–21); absorbing the essences of the primeval powers and sending petitions to Heaven (22–25); reception of the Method directly from the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn (j. 26); ritual confession (j. 27); the ranks of the immortals and the secret names of the Thirty-two Heavens (j. 28); the structure of Heaven (j. 29); rites for the living — averting calamities, controlling demons, saving lives, praying for sons, rain, sunshine, and the jiǔlíng zhāngbiǎo 九靈章表 (j. 30–45); and finally the Huánglù dàzhāi 黃籙大齋 (j. 46–71), with a concluding section on the transmission of the Method and the master’s seals of authority (j. 72).
Prefaces
The preface, attributed to the Tiānzhēn huángrén 天真皇人, asserts the standard Língbǎo “Theory of the Five Translations” (wǔyì 五譯): the Tiānzhēn huángrén transcribes the giant primordial jade-graphs of which the Dùrén jīng was originally composed into characters of human size and gives them their “correct sound” (2.1b; cf. [[KR5a0098|DZ 97 Tàishàng língbǎo zhūtiān nèiyīn zìrán yùzì]] 3.1b–2a). It then narrates the Yellow Emperor’s reception of the basic Língbǎo fú from the Tiānzhēn huángrén (2.1b, 72.8b; cf. [[KR5a0389|DZ 388 Tàishàng língbǎo wǔfú xù]] 3.17a–23b). The work’s commentaries are variously attributed to “the Huángrén” (64.1a, 65.32a, 69.26a), to “the master” (53.1a, 63.1a, 65.7b), and most often to the Xuánshī 玄師 (“the Master in the Beyond”), once identified with the Xuánzhōng dàfǎshī Jīnglǎo tiānzūn 玄中大法師景老天尊 (72.8b–9a) but also clearly designated as “my master” in compiler-marginalia of the form jīn àn shī zhī 今按師之 (“now, following the master’s instructions…”, 55.13a–b; cf. 43.2b, 8a, 55.1b, 63.2a). The implication is that the manual is the work of a disciple — perhaps a disciple of Níng Quánzhēn 寧全真 (1101–1181).
Abstract
John Lagerwey, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1029–1033 (§3.B.3, Língbǎo), dates the Dùrén dàfǎ ca. 1200 on internal grounds: it contrasts the Língbǎo method for writing two important fú with the method of Liú Chóngjǐng 劉崇景 (1134–1206), the master of Jiāng Shūyú 蔣叔輿 (1162–1223); Jiāng appears to cite the present work; and juǎn 64 contains a ritual attributed to “Master Tián” 田真人, in all probability Tián Jūshí 田居實 (b. 1074), Jiāng’s fǎ-master. The work is closely linked to but older than [[KR5c1221|DZ 1221 Shàngqīng língbǎo dàfǎ]], the manual “transmitted by Níng Quánzhēn and compiled by Wáng Qǐzhēn 王契真”; many passages attributed in the present text to the Xuánshī recur in Wáng’s manual. Both works belong to the Tiāntái 天台 tradition of the Great Method and subscribe to the Theory of the Five Translations. The compiler synthesizes a vast range of earlier material — Língbǎo (DZ 1, DZ 22, DZ 97, DZ 352), Shàngqīng (DZ 6, DZ 33, DZ 639, DZ 1016), the Wǔyuè zhēnxíng 五嶽真形 corpus (DZ 1281), the Jǐngmíng 淨明 and Tóngchū 童初 traditions (45.4a, 71.10b), and elements clearly drawn from the Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ 天心正法 (which goes unmentioned but whose techniques of bùgāng 步罡, qǔqì 取氣, chuīqì biànshēn 吹氣變身, and juémù 撅目 are pervasive). Frontmatter dates 1180–1220 to bracket the broader composition window.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: John Lagerwey, “Lingbao wuliang duren shangjing dafa,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 1028–1033. Further: Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987); Judith M. Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature, Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley 1987), 27–37; Asano Haruji 浅野春二, “Tendai zan no Reihō dafa” 天台山の靈寶大法, in Dōkyō to shūkyō bunka 道教と宗教文化 (Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1987); on the Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ background, Poul Andersen, “The Tianxin Zhengfa Movement,” in Asia Major 3rd ser. 13.1 (2000): 121–144.
Other points of interest
The compiler explicitly polemicizes against the rival Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ method on doctrinal grounds while silently absorbing many of its techniques — a textbook example of the “synthesis-by-erasure” characteristic of Southern-Sòng Língbǎo compilation. The colophon lists earlier sources at 33.5b and 71.8b, including [[KR5a0216|DZ 215 Dìfǔ shíwáng bádù yí]], showing that the Wúliàng dùrén dàfǎ has the Shíwáng bádù yí directly in view as a ritual building-block of the Huánglù dàzhāi.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0220
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 1028–1033.