Dàdòng jīnhuá yùjīng 大洞金華玉經
Jade Scripture of the Golden Flower of the Great Cavern
anonymous
About the work
A short Shàngqīng 上清 scripture in one juan (12 folios), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0254 / CT 254 = TC 253), 洞真部 方法類. The title — Jade Scripture of the Golden Flower — refers to the Golden Flower (Jīnhuá 金華), one of the divine dwellings (gōng 宮) within the Nínáwán 泥丸 (the topmost of the nine palaces of the brain). The text is an illustrated collection of Shàngqīng practices centred on the formula of the Dàdòng zhēnjīng 大洞真經. Its first part (1a–6b) is composed of passages drawn from [[KR5a1313|DZ 1313 Dòngzhēn gāoshàng yùdì dàdòng cíyī yùjiǎn wǔlǎo bǎojīng]]: prescriptions for the rite of jiāodài 交帶 (“crossing-belts”) transmission, with strict requirements of a hundred-day fast for the master and a graduated retreat for the disciple; the shí’èr yuàn 十二願 (“Twelve Vows”) of the Imperial Lord; and the bā jiān 八間 (“Eight Intervals”) of the Mysterious Mother, Dark Mother Xuánmǔ 玄母, with translations of the zhāng 章 and zhòu 咒. The remainder (7a–10a) illustrates, with the help of nine pictures, the Huífēng dà hùnhé Dìyī 迴風大混合帝一 method (“Whirling-Wind Greater Combination of the Imperial One”), corresponding to [[KR5c0006|DZ 6 Shàngqīng dàdòng zhēnjīng]] 6.10a–17b. A description of the Dìyī 帝一 (the One Emperor) follows (10b–11a), and the scripture concludes with thirteen illustrations of the meditation on the Cíxióng zhēnyī 雌雄真一 (“Male-Female True One”; 11a–12a), in which the adept visualises a male divine infant of “four fēn 分 long” emerging from the union of the breath he exhales with a returning purple cloud — the deity Dàdòng dìyī zūnjūn 大洞帝一尊君, hidden name Fùníng zài 父寜在, zì Hémǔjīng 合母精.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with its title-line and proceeds to the rules of transmission.
Abstract
Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:188–189 (§1.B.2, Shàngqīng), identifies the work as an illustrated collection of Shàngqīng texts centred on the formula of the Dàdòng zhēnjīng, named after a divine dwelling in the brain. The first part (1a–6b) contains various passages from [[KR5a1313|DZ 1313 Wǔlǎo bǎojīng]]; the remainder (7a–10a) illustrates the Huáifēng 迴風 method, partially matching [[KR5c0006|DZ 6 Shàngqīng dàdòng zhēnjīng]] 6.10a–17b. The text closes with thirteen illustrations of the Cíxióng zhēnyī meditation. Like other texts in the Lǎngān huádān group (DZ 255, DZ 179, DZ 442), the present scripture is a Six Dynasties Shàngqīng text descending from the original revelation to Yáng Xī 楊羲 (364–370). The frontmatter brackets composition broadly within the Six Dynasties (400–580). One passage of the present text is quoted at [[KR5a1405|DZ 1405 Chángshēng tāichú jīnzhāng]] 10b–11b (TC notice citing Robinet).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Dadong jinhua yujing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 188–189. Standard study of the Shàngqīng dàdòng corpus: Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1984), 2 vols. On Shàngqīng meditation iconography in the Dàozàng: Stephen Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0255
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 188–189.