Tàishàng shēngxuán xiāozāi hùmìng miàojīng sòng 太上昇玄消災護命妙經頌
Hymns on the Marvellous Scripture of the Most-High’s Elevation to Mystery, Protecting Life and Averting Disaster
by 張白 (頌, fl. 10th cent. 後半)
About the work
A one-juan rhymed commentary on the Táng-period [[KR5a0019|Tàishàng shēngxuán xiāozāi hùmìng miàojīng 太上昇玄消災護命妙經]] (DZ 19, the parent scripture), by the Five-Dynasties / early-Sòng Daoist Zhāng Bó 張白, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0312 / CT 312 = TC 312), 洞真部 讚頌類. The frontmatter of the Daozàng edition assigns authorship to “Zhēnyī xiānshēng Sīmǎ Zǐwēi of the Táng” 唐貞一先生司馬子微 — i.e., Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn 司馬承禎 (647–735) — but, as TC has shown, this is an erroneous attribution, the actual author being Zhāng Bó (see Abstract below). The commentary supplies, after each phrase of the parent scripture, a short rhymed exposition of its meaning, oriented to the doctrine of self-protection from disaster through the recitation of the scripture and the inner cultivation of pure spiritual nature.
Prefaces
Editorial preface attributed in the source to Zhēnyī xiānshēng (Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn) — actually by Zhāng Bó — opens: “The Heavenly Honoured One manifests his vision into the Three Realms, with mercy for the Four Births, opening the gate of the manifold marvels and saving them from limitless suffering. Therefore he transmits the xuánjiào 玄教 mystery-teaching in writing, sounding the marvellous music in clear declamation, that those who are not yet opened may hear and those who have not yet awakened may awaken. This scripture is the work of Tàishàng Yuányuán Lǎojūn 太上玄元老君: its purport is the very foundation of marvellous nature, the source of all dharmas. Though its words are short, its principle is in fact deep and profound — a single hair swallows the waves of the four seas, a giant millet grain holds in its bosom the limitless multitude. Spirit-light cannot fathom it; intellect and knowledge are difficult to apprehend it. It is not to be sought by sound nor seen by colour; far away, with no outside; near, with no kin; pursue and you do not see what is before; await and you do not catch what comes after. Above the unsurpassed, it cannot be ascended by ladder; mystery-of-mysteries, it cannot be heard…”
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1040 (§3.B.3, Língbǎo Liturgy) and 1:317 (§2.A.1), establishes the commentary’s actual authorship. The Daozàng edition indicates “Zhēnyī xiānshēng Sīmǎ Zǐwēi of the Táng” as the author, identifying that figure with Sīmǎ Chéngzhēn 司馬承禎 (647–735). The attribution is an error. According to the biography of Zhāng Bó in [[KR5a0298|Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn 歷世真仙體道通鑑]] 47.15a, Zhāng wrote a rhymed commentary on the work in question; that biography quotes the first and last lines of his commentary, showing clearly that it corresponded to the present text. The confusion with Sīmǎ probably arose because Sīmǎ was associated in the Daozàng tradition with the parent scripture itself.
The frontmatter therefore brackets composition to the second half of the tenth century — the fl. 10th cent. 後半 period given in the catalog meta for Zhāng Bó. The work is structured with the parent scripture’s text accompanied phrase-by-phrase with seven-character rhymed sòng 頌 commentary; the format is closely parallel to that of the [[KR5a0323|Huángdì yīnfú jīng sòng 黃帝陰符經頌 (DZ 311)]] by Yuányáng zǐ 元陽子, suggesting that both commentaries belong to a shared late-Táng / Five-Dynasties tradition of versified scripture-exegesis on short Tang scriptures.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Hans-Hermann Schmidt, “Taishang shengxuan xiaozai huming miaojing song,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 1040. On the parent scripture, see Schmidt’s entry on DZ 19 in TC 1:316–317. On the broader genre of sòng commentary on Daoist scriptures: Stephen R. Bokenkamp, “The Daoist Liturgical Tradition,” in Livia Kohn ed., Daoism Handbook (Leiden 2000).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0324
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.3, 1040.