Língbǎo tiānzūn shuō Hóng’ēn língjì zhēnjūn miàojīng 靈寶天尊說洪恩靈濟真君妙經
Marvelous Scripture of the Perfected Lords of Vast Grace and Numinous Succour, Spoken by the Heavenly Worthy of the Numinous Treasure by 朱棣 (序)
About the work
A short one-juàn Daoist revealed scripture promoting the cult of the twin 洪恩靈濟真君 Hóng’ēn língjì zhēnjūn — the deified brothers Xú Zhīzhèng 徐知證 and Xú Zhī’è 徐知諤, fourth and fifth sons of the Wú-dynasty statesman Xú Wēn 徐溫 (862–927), worshipped from the Sòng onward at the Língjì gōng 靈濟宮 at Áofēng 鰲峰 near Fúzhōu. The scripture is prefaced by the Yǒnglè emperor Zhū Dì 朱棣 (序) and was placed first in the 洞玄部本文類 section of the 1445 Zhèngtǒng dàozàng 正統道藏 — a position of unusual prominence reflecting the imperial patronage the cult enjoyed in the early Míng.
Prefaces
Imperially composed preface to the Marvelous Scripture of the Perfected Lords of Vast Grace and Numinous Succour, Spoken by the Heavenly Worthy of the Numinous Treasure.
We [the emperor] consider that the Way as a teaching unfolds the mysteries of primordial vastness and empty mystery, fully comprising the marvels of ultimate spontaneity: dim and dark, murky and silent, looked for it cannot be seen, listened for it cannot be heard. Above it secretly assists the imperial measure; below it brings benefit and deliverance to the myriad kinds. The greatness of its merit cannot be put in words.
There are those who bear the titles Perfected Lord of Vast Grace — Manifested Numen, Spreading Succour, Subtle and Penetrating, Empty and Marvelously Responsive, Compassionate and Kind, Protector of the Realm and Shelterer of the People, Great Immortal Illumining the Way and Attaining Virtue of the Nine-Heavens Golden Portal — the Prince of Jiāng, and Perfected Lord of Vast Grace — Displaying Numen, Extensively Delivering, Lofty and Clear, Broadly Quiescent, Empty-deep Marvelously Responsive, Benevolent and Kind, Aiding the Realm and Protecting the People, Superior Immortal Proclaiming Transformation and Upholding the Teaching of the Nine-Heavens Jade Portal — the Prince of Ráo.
Gathering numen and drawing on the rarest excellence, heaven-endowed as heroes among men, magnanimous and kind, benevolent to the people and loving of things, as ministers loyal, as sons filial, honouring and trusting the Three Treasures, single-mindedly practising the good, diligent and undivided — when their merit was accomplished and their conduct perfected, they were thereupon enfeoffed by Heaven, graciously granted titles, and enrolled in the ranks of the immortals. They aid and illumine the workings of transformation, go forth from the obscure into the manifest, ward off calamities and avert disasters, drive out baleful influences and summon auspicious signs, dispense protection to the lower earth, and bring benefit to the multitude of living beings.
Of late they have made their numinous grace plain, escorting and protecting Our person, upholding and sheltering Us until We achieved peace and security. Having thereupon shown Us talismans and medicines, they spread these abroad through the whole realm, intending to let the people be rid of sickness and disease and to raise up their children and grandchildren. Their great virtue and deep favour are equal to Heaven and Earth. We are moved by the deities’ grace and never forget it morning or night. In the leisure of the myriad affairs We thereupon read the Marvelous Scripture of the Perfected Lords of Vast Grace and Numinous Succour, Spoken by the Heavenly Worthy of the Numinous Treasure. Its manifestations of the subtle and the mysteriously profound, its divine transformations beyond measure, its expedient benefits and salvific reach across the aeons — truly it is a sun and moon that light up the obscure, a boat and a raft that ferry one across the sea.
We have therefore had it cut in blocks to spread it widely in transmission, in recompense for the deities’ blessings. If gentlemen of good faith and goodwill can but wash away and repent their transgressions, honour and trust the Three Treasures, exhaust their loyalty and filial piety, practice humanity and righteousness, set forth their great vows, and receive, uphold and recite [this scripture], then their persons and households will be auspicious, their fates and fortunes will be prosperous, their children and grandchildren will have secret support, calamities will be dispelled and hardships surmounted, blessings increased and lifespan prolonged — extending even to their nine generations of ancestors, all to be elevated and borne up. But should any slander and make light of it, insult and disregard the Three Treasures, be disloyal and unfilial, inhumane and unjust, unable to revere and trust, to uphold and maintain — then their persons will fall into evil karma, their gates and doorways will decay, their children and grandchildren will weaken, their lifespan will be shortened and cut off, and calamity will reach their nine generations of ancestors, who will sink into obscurity. An examination of the past provides ample clear proof.
Alas — fortune and misfortune, good and evil, are all made by the mind. Doing good brings blessings; doing evil meets with disaster. This is the principle of spontaneity itself. Therefore it is said: “A family that accumulates goodness will certainly have surplus joy; a family that accumulates not-goodness will certainly have surplus calamity.” And again: “The Highest Thearch is not constant: on those who do good He sends down a hundred auspicious things; on those who do not good He sends down a hundred disasters.” This being so, those who look upon it, how can they not know wherein to exert themselves? How can they not know wherein to exert themselves?
Yǒnglè 18, first month, first day [= 14 February 1420].
Abstract
The scripture itself is a short revelation-dialogue: the Língbǎo tiānzūn 靈寶天尊, enthroned in the Five-Brilliance Palace of the Dàluó heaven and attended by the stellar hosts and the Great Spirits of the Five Dippers, is petitioned by the two envoys Dūshuǐ 都水 who describe the sufferings of sentient beings at the end of an aeon; the Heavenly Worthy responds by ordering them to descend and teach, and the two emissaries are identified as the Xú brothers, who preach the four cardinal virtues of loyalty, filial piety, humanity, and righteousness as the means of deliverance. The text closes with a hymn (偈) and a colophon invoking the emperor’s patent titles for the two Perfected Lords.
The work is a product of the cult centred on the Língjì gōng at Áofēng in northern Fújiàn, where Xú Zhīzhèng and Xú Zhī’è had been venerated since the late Táng / Wǔdài — the two brothers having settled in Fújiàn during the collapse of their father’s Wú house (their adoptive half-brother Lǐ Biàn 李昪 / Xú Zhīgāo 徐知誥 became the first emperor of the Southern Táng), and having been granted the titles Jiāng wáng 江王 and Ráo wáng 饒王 under that dynasty (Schipper and Verellen, Taoist Canon, 1210). The cult was heavily literate, producing a large body of spirit-written material (the Xuxiān hànzǎo 續仙翰藻 and Xuxiān zhēnlù 續仙真錄, DZ 1468 / 1470), and received extraordinary Míng imperial patronage: the Yǒnglè emperor granted the two saints the canonical titles rehearsed in the present scripture in 1417 (cf. Xuxiān zhēnlù 1.5b), and three years later prefaced and had printed the present text. Schipper (TC 2: 1210) observes that the book’s placement as the opening scripture of the 洞玄本文 section in the 1445 Zhèngtǒng dàozàng likely reflects this imperial sponsorship; a fuller story of the scripture’s heavenly revelation is told in Xuxiān zhēnlù 1.12a, and the scripture itself is reproduced there at 1.34a–38a.
The composition window is therefore tight: the canonical twenty-odd-character titles used in the text presuppose the 1417 enfeoffment, and the colophonal date of the Yǒnglè preface marks the latest possible point for the received form — hence notBefore 1417, notAfter 1420.
Translations and research
- Zhōu Shàoliáng 周紹良, “Míng nèifǔ kānběn 明內府刊本” (cited in Schipper and Verellen, Taoist Canon, 1210).
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1210, entry on DZ 317 (and surrounding §3.B.12 on the Hóng’ēn língjì zhēnjūn cult, 2:1209–1215).