Zhū shī zhēngào 諸師真誥
Invocations of Masters and Zhēnrén
Anonymous late-Yuán / early-Míng liturgical anthology, in one juan, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0309 / CT 309 = TC 309), 洞真部 讚頌類.
About the work
A one-juan anonymous collection of forty-one gào 誥 (“Laudatory Invocations”) and bǎohào 寶號 (“Precious Titles”) of the major gods, patriarchs, and matriarchs of the Daoist pantheon, for liturgical recitation. The Precious Titles are arranged in a loose hierarchical order, beginning with the Three Pure Ones (Sānqīng 三清: Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊, Língbǎo tiānzūn 靈寶天尊, Dàodé tiānzūn 道德天尊), then the Yùhuáng 玉皇 (Míluó hào 弭羅號 at 2a), the Tiānhuáng 天皇 (the Gōuchén 句陳 star), and the Běijí 北極 (Zǐwēi 紫微). There follow the patron saint Zǐtóng dìjūn 梓潼帝君 (10b) and the patriarchs of the Quánzhēn 全真 order (12a and 13a), the Qīngwēi 清微 school (13a), the Southern School (Nánzōng 南宗, 14a), the various Thunder-Magic (Léifǎ 雷法) schools, and others. The arrangement reflects the comprehensive late-imperial liturgical synthesis in which patriarchs of all the major SòngYuán schools — Lónghǔ 龍虎 Zhèngyī 正一, Quánzhēn 全真, Qīngwēi, Línglíng 林靈 / Shénxiāo 神霄, the Southern nèidān lineage of Zhāng Bóduān 張伯端 — are venerated together within a single recitation cycle.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the first invocation: “[Title:] Designation of the Yuánshǐ Highest Honoured One. With sincere mind I take refuge and submit in homage. Above the Three Realms, the fànqì 梵氣 spreads boundless; the unsurpassed Heaven within Heaven; Yùluó xiāotái 鬱羅蕭臺, Yùshān shàngjīng 玉山上京; the dim and dim Golden Watch-tower, the dense and dense pure-flowing void; the Mystery’s Origin, the One Qì of primal Chaos before all; the Pearl within the Pearl, mystery again of mystery, opening forth the Three Lights of Light, transforming and producing the heavens — innumerable hundred-myriad heavens — the unending hosts of the zhēn 真; turning round the Dǒu 斗, traversing the Jī 箕, sweeping through the Five Constants — vast and vast, the great Norm; the Ancestral Pivot of Ten Thousand Ways. The Great Net Pure Source, the Empty-Self-So Most-True Marvellous Way: Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊.”
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1218 (§3.C.1, Hymnody and Gāogōng 高功), describes the Zhū shī zhēngào as a comprehensive ritual hymnal of the late-imperial Daoist liturgy, gathering forty-one bǎohào of the major deities, patriarchs, and matriarchs. The arrangement — Three Pure Ones, Yùhuáng, the cosmic Bēijí and Tiānhuáng, then Zǐtóng dìjūn 梓潼帝君, and the patriarchs of the Quánzhēn, Qīngwēi, Nánzōng, and Thunder-Magic schools — reflects a synthetic ritual culture in which all major SòngYuán Daoist movements have already been brought under one comprehensive umbrella. The catalog meta dates the work to the Míng. The frontmatter brackets composition broadly to the late Yuán / early Míng (1279–1450); the inclusion of Quánzhēn patriarchs already in their canonical order, and the mention of the Qīngwēi and Southern schools, place the compilation at the earliest in the post-Quánzhēn-canonisation Yuán. The complete absence of any author or compiler signature, and the strictly liturgical character of the contents, make a closer date impossible to establish.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Zhushi zhen’gao,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.C.1, 1218. On the Daoist ritual bǎohào genre and the gāo-gōng role: Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body (Berkeley 1993); John Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York 1987); on Zǐ-tóng dìjūn 梓潼帝君 (Wénchāng): Terry F. Kleeman, A God’s Own Tale: The Book of Transformations of Wénchāng (Albany 1994).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0321
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.C.1, 1218.