Jīnquè dìjūn sānyuán zhēnyī jīng 金闕帝君三元真一經
Scripture of the True One of the Three Principles of the Imperial Lord of the Golden Portal
anonymous
About the work
A short Shàngqīng 上清 scripture in one juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0253 / CT 253 = TC 252), 洞真部 方法類. The work expounds the shǒu sānyī 守三一 (“Holding the Three Ones”) meditation, a meditative practice in which the adept fixes his attention on the three deities — shàng yī 上一, zhōng yī 中一, xià yī 下一 — that inhabit the three Cinnabar Fields (sān dāntián 三丹田) of the body: the upper field at the Nínáwán 泥丸 between the eyebrows, the middle at the Jiànggōng 絳宮 in the heart, the lower at the Huángtíng 黄庭 three inches below the navel. Each deity is described in detail, with its hidden name and zì (the Upper One: Xuán níng tiān 玄凝天, zì Sān yuán xiān 三元先, named Tàiyī dìjūn 太一帝君; the Middle One: Shén yùn zhū 神運珠, zì Zǐ nán dān 子南丹, named Dānhuáng 丹皇; the Lower One: Shǐ míng jīng 始明精, zì Yuán yáng chāng 元陽昌, named Huángtíng yuán wáng 黄庭元王) and accompanied by a qīng 卿 attendant. The text gives detailed instructions for visualising the descent of the Běidǒu 北斗 stars at the seasonal turns (立春, 立夏, 立秋, 立冬), the absorption of the deities through the mouth into their respective Cinnabar Fields, and a closing incantation. The scripture is presented as the first of three texts containing the sānyī method: the Sānyuán zhēnyī itself, the Dàdòng zhēnjīng 大洞真經, and the Dàyǒu miàojīng 大有妙經, transmitted by Juānzǐ 㳙子 to Dōnghǎi qīngtóng jūn 東海青童君.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with its title-line “the Jīnquè dìjūn sānyuán zhēnyī jīng — taught by Juānzǐ to the Lord of the Eastern Sea Green Lad.”
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:596 (§2.B.8, Dòngzhēn Division), notes that the present text is identical to the section at [[KR5a1314|DZ 1314 Dòngzhēn tàishàng sūlíng dòngyuán dàyǒu miàojīng]] 27a–38b. It already existed in Táng times as a separate scripture, since Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 (YJQQ) 50.10b–18b reproduces it almost in full, with minor variants, under the title Jīnquè dìjūn sānyuán zhēnyī jīng jué 金闕帝君三元真一經訣. The “Three Ones” practice it describes is fundamental to the original Shàngqīng revelation (364–370 CE) of Yáng Xī 楊羲, but the present recension — as a self-standing scripture excerpted from the Sūlíng jīng — most plausibly dates to the Suí–Táng period when independent circulation of Shàngqīng excerpts became established (cf. Andersen 1980). The frontmatter brackets composition 600–750, the period of Táng Shàngqīng anthologisation. The scripture played a foundational role in the Daoist meditation literature on the three Cinnabar Fields and the inner gods, and was repeatedly cited in encyclopedias and ritual manuals through the Sòng.
Translations and research
Poul Andersen, The Method of Holding the Three Ones: A Taoist Manual of Meditation of the Fourth Century A.D. (London: Curzon Press, 1980) — full translation and study of a parallel shǒu sānyī manual closely related to the present text. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Jinjue dijun sanyuan zhenyi jing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §2.B.8, 596. On the Shàngqīng sānyī tradition: Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1984); Robinet, Méditation taoïste (Paris: Dervy 1979).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0254
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §2.B.8, 596.