Dòngzhēn tàiwēi huángshū jiǔtiān bālù zhēnwén 洞真太微黃書九天八籙真文
True Writs of the Eight Registers of the Nine Heavens, from the Yellow Book of the Tàiwēi Heaven, Dòngzhēn Canon
anonymous, attributed transmission to Dài Mèng 戴孟
About the work
A short Shàngqīng 上清 talismanic scripture in one juan (8 folios), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0257 / CT 257 = TC 256), 洞真部 方法類. The text is the surviving fragment of the eighth juan of the original Tàiwēi huángshū 太微黃書 (“Yellow Book of the Tàiwēi Heaven”), an eight-juan work of which a separate fragment forms [[KR5a0081|DZ 81 Dòngzhēn tàiwēi huángshū tiāndì jūn shíjīng jīnyáng sùjīng]] (corresponding to juan 7 of the original). According to a self-list at 2a–b, the eight juan of the original were titled: (1) Tàiwēi bāyuán sìmén gāoshàng jīng, (2) Tàiwēi jiǔlíng zhōnghuá zǐsù jīng, (3) Tàiwēi yùxū bǎozhāng jīng, (4) Tàiwēi yùshì bǎoyún zhōngyào, (5) Tàiwēi sānqì jiǔbiàn shuǐhuǒ mǔ, (6) Tàiwēi zhōngshén wǔdào bùkōng fēixíng, (7) Tàiwēi shíjǐng jīnyáng sùjīng (= DZ 81), (8) Tàiwēi jiǔtiān bālù zhēnwén jiāodài wén (= the present DZ 257). The first four are now lost; juan 5–7 are stated to have been transmitted only to the Perfected. The opening section, Xuándū jiāodài jué 玄都交帶訣 (“Formula of the Mysterious Capital’s Crossed-Belts”), prescribes the rite of transmission: the text was kept in Wěiyǔ 委羽 by the Three August Ones (sānhuáng 三皇), an additional copy stored on Mount Guī 龜 by the Tàiwēi tiāndì 太微天帝, and later passed by the Xíchéng wángjūn 西城王君 from the Queen Mother of Mount Guī. The rite of transmission requires a fee of five ounces of gold and one set of ceremonial robes. The remainder of the text consists of the True Writs themselves — four large pages of talismanic graphs in the original (now blank in our edition because of the typographical conventions of the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng) — followed by a 200-character incantation to be inscribed on green silk in cinnabar-yellow lettering, worn at the waist (Tàishàng huángzhōng lǐqì jiǔwēi xuánchéng…). The text closes with hagiographic notices of those who held the writs (the Yellow Emperor, Hè Yǔ 賀瑀, Dù Yóu 杜郵, Fèi Cí 費慈, Xú Guāng 徐光) and a final transmission via Xǔ Yuǎnyóu 許遠遊 to his disciple Sīxuán Dàoxiáng 思玄道翔.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the title-line and the Xuándū jiāodài jué.
Abstract
Isabelle Robinet, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:192 (§1.B.2, Shàngqīng), notes that the Tàiwēi huángshū was originally the work of Dài Mèng 戴孟, said to have lived during the reign of Hàn Wǔdì 漢武帝 (r. 140–87 BCE; Dòngxiān zhuàn 洞仙傳 in YJQQ 110.13a–b). [[KR5c1016|DZ 1016 Zhēn’gào 真誥]] 14.6a–b states that Dài Mèng was still alive at the time of Jìn Chéngdì (r. 325–342). Although the work was apparently revised and incorporated among the Shàngqīng scriptures, it is certain to have existed prior to Yáng Xī 楊羲 (330–ca. 386). It was also adopted, at least partially, as an element of the Shàngqīng liturgy (see [[KR5a1293|DZ 1293 Shàngqīng tàiwēi dìjūn jiédài zhēnwén fǎ]], a ritual by Lù Xiūjìng 陸修靜; cf. also [[KR5a1125|DZ 1125 Dòngxuán língbǎo sāndòng fèngdào kējiè yíngshǐ]] 5.2b). The frontmatter brackets composition 350–580 — i.e., from the late Eastern Jìn (when the original eight-juan work was already in circulation among the Shàngqīng adepts) through the Six Dynasties (when the present excerpt was extracted and transmitted as a self-standing scripture). The fragment consists of an introduction (1a–2b), talismanic characters (3a–6a), and the spell to be copied on green silk and worn at the waist (7a–8a).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Isabelle Robinet, “Dongzhen taiwei huangshu jiutian balu zhenwen,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 192. Foundational study: Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme (Paris: EFEO, 1984), 2 vols. On the Tàiwēi huángshū and Shàngqīng-Língbǎo register tradition: Lothar Ledderose, “Some Taoist Elements in the Calligraphy of the Six Dynasties,” T’oung Pao 70 (1984): 246–278.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0258
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §1.B.2, 192.