Wúshàng xuányuán sāntiān yùtáng dàfǎ 無上玄元三天玉堂大法
Great Method of the Jade Hall of the Three Heavens, of the Supreme Mysterious Origin
by 路時中 (Lù Shízhōng, zì Dāngkě 當可, fl. 1111–1158) et al. — the founding manual of the Yùtáng dàfǎ 玉堂大法 school, copied in its present recension in 1158, thirty juǎn, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0220 / CT 220 = TC 220), 洞真部 威儀類.
About the work
A thirty-juǎn compilation of the ritual handbooks of the Yùtáng dàfǎ 玉堂大法 (“Great Method of the Jade Hall”) tradition founded by 路時中. As the text explains, the Yùtáng 玉堂 is formed out of the qì of Mount Yùjīng 玉京 and houses the Jiǔlǎo 九老, the Nine Ancients (1.2b). The main body falls into three blocks corresponding to the school’s three degrees of initiation: the “Unsurpassed Doctrine in Twenty-Four Sections” (wúshàng zōngzhǐ èrshísì pǐn 無上宗旨二十四品, j. 1–23), corresponding to the highest degree (cf. 2.6a, 26.1b–2a, 28.7a–b); the funeral liturgy of the Língbǎo dàfǎ 靈寶大法 type (j. 14–18); and the “Seven Sections for the Initial Degree” (chūjiē qīpǐn 初階七品, j. 26–28). The work contains 路時中’s own colophon at 1.7a–8a, and a second colophon at the end of j. 28 narrating the school’s revelations of 1107–1158. The Yùtáng dàfǎ is defined here as the nèibì 內祕 (inner secret) of the Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ 天心正法 (26.1a) and as the essential method of Zhāng Dàolíng — “the fundamental oath between Xuányuán (Tàishàng lǎojūn) and the Sagely Master” (1.7b). Its three foundational fú — the Sānguāng zǔfú 三光祖符, the Hēishā fú 黑煞符, and the Tiāngāng fú 天罡符 — are the same three fú that anchor the Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ (cf. [[KR5c1227|DZ 1227 Tàishàng zhùguó jiùmín zǒngzhēn bìyào]] 2.10a–17a; [[KR5c0566|DZ 566 Shàngqīng tiānxīn zhèngfǎ]] 3.1a–9a).
Prefaces
路時中’s colophon (1.7a–8a) recounts how, in 1120, he had a nightly vision of Zhào Shēng 趙昇 (a disciple of Zhāng Dàolíng), who descended into his room and revealed to him a bìshū 祕書 (secret writing) buried at Mount Máo 茅山. Later, while serving as assistant prefect (tóngshǒu 通守 — Lù’s title is in fact unattested in the official Sòng nomenclature) at Jīnlíng 金陵, 路時中 visited the mountain and dug up the scroll. He arranged the text in twenty-four sections; in 1126, while at Pílíng 毗陵 (Jiāngsū), he transmitted it to the world. The second colophon (28.7b–8a) explains that the discursive géyán 格言 (“model sayings”) interspersed between the ritual formulas — usually beginning shī yuē 師曰 — were revealed one by one in the first half of 1107 by the Dàjiàozhǔ tiānjūn 大教主天君 (Master of the Great Teaching), in a baby’s voice audible only to 路時中 and his disciple Zhái Rǔwén 翟汝文 (1076–1141), both of whom noted them down. After this initial revelation, and up to 1119, the actual ritual formulas were transmitted through jiàngbǐ 降筆 (spirit-writing); the totality was finally copied in 1158, the date of the present recension.
Abstract
Poul Andersen, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1070–1074 (§3.B.5, Tiānxīn Zhèngfǎ and Related Rites), establishes that the work is at once the founding manual of the Yùtáng dàfǎ and the key witness for its self-understanding as the inner-meditative core of the Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ. Zhái Rǔwén (zì Gōngxùn 公巽, 1076–1141) — co-recipient of the 1107 revelations — was a noted scholar-official, calligrapher, and painter (cf. Sòngshǐ 372.11543–45 and the epitaph in his Zhōnghuì jí 忠惠集). He compiled a Méngzhēn yùjiàn 盟真玉鑑 in ten juǎn and a Jīnggōng pǔjì yí 景宮普濟儀 in three juǎn for the Míngyáng zhāi 明陽齋, both ritual compendia in a style comparable to the present work. Jīn Yǔnzhōng 金允中 in [[KR5c1223|DZ 1223 Shàngqīng língbǎo dàfǎ]] 41.17a–b describes the present text as a revised version, edited by 路時中 in the early Shàoxīng period (1131–1162), of the earlier compilation by Yuán Miàozōng 元妙宗 — i.e., [[KR5c1227|DZ 1227 Tàishàng zhùguó jiùmín zǒngzhēn bìyào]] (dated 1116). The school’s exposition of progressive initiation (2.6a, 26.1b–2a) requires the novice to first receive a ten-juǎn Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ and practice it for three years before ascending to the initial degree of the Yùtáng dàfǎ; only the běntán 本壇 edition of Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ is permitted (26.1b). The funeral rites of j. 14–18, by contrast, are Língbǎo dàfǎ in form: [[KR5c0466|DZ 466 Língbǎo lǐngjiào jìdù jīnshū]] 260.1a reports that 路時中 transmitted the Língbǎo dàfǎ in Jiànkāng 建康 during the Zhènghé period (1111–1117). Frontmatter dates 1107–1158 to bracket the revelation-and-redaction period.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Poul Andersen, “Wushang xuanyuan santian yutang dafa,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.5, 1070–1074. See further Poul Andersen, “The Tianxin Zhengfa Movement,” Asia Major 3rd ser. 13.1 (2000): 121–144; Judith M. Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature (Berkeley 1987), 33–38; Edward L. Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001), esp. ch. 1–2.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0221
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.5, 1070–1074.