Dòngxuán língbǎo zìrán jiǔtiān shēngshén zhāngjīng 洞玄靈寶自然九天生神章經
Scripture of the Stanzas of the Life-Spirits of the Nine Heavens, from the Spontaneous Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
One of the foundational scriptures of the early Língbǎo 靈寶 corpus, transmitted under the dòngxuán 洞玄 classification. In a single juàn it combines a cosmogony of the Three Treasures (天寶 / 靈寶 / 神寶), a nidāna-style narrative of the revelation of nine protective stanzas by the Primordial Heavenly Worthy Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 to save the “Seed People” at the imminent eschaton, and the nine stanzas themselves together with hymns by the Tàijí zhēnrén 太極真人. Three later commentaries survive in the canon (DZ 396, 397, 398).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The scripture is anonymous and carries no author preface, postface, or transmission colophon; the opening line announces only the category-title 《三寳大有金書》 (“Golden Writing from the Dàyǒu [Palace] of the Three Treasures”), after which the text proceeds directly into the cosmogonic exposition of the three divinities Tiānbǎo, Língbǎo, and Shénbǎo.
Abstract
The Jiǔtiān shēngshén zhāngjīng is traditionally numbered among the original Língbǎo revelations compiled by Gě Cháofǔ 葛巢甫 of the Gě family of Jùróng 句容 in the Jìn — i.e., within the very late fourth and earliest fifth century, conventionally dated ca. 397–402 and associated with the corpus then transmitted by Lù Xiūjìng 陸修靜 (406–477) in his Língbǎo jīngmù 靈寶經目 of 437 (Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures; Ōfuchi Ninji, Shoki no dōkyō). The received text falls into three parts: (i) a cosmogony (1a–4b) narrating how the Three Treasures Tiānbǎo 天寶, Língbǎo 靈寶, and Shénbǎo 神寶 — the three primordial qì presiding in succession over the Lónghàn 龍漢, Chìmíng 赤明, and Shànghuáng 上皇 eras and identified with the Three Caverns (sāndòng 三洞) and the Three Pure Ones (sānqīng 三清) — generated Heaven, Earth, and the myriad kinds, with the development of the human foetus in nine months as its microcosmic parallel and with the Intendant of the Nine Heavens (Jiǔtiān sīmǎ 九天司馬) chanting the stanzas at every birth; (ii) a revelation scene (5a–8a) in which the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn discloses the nine stanzas to the assembled perfected in order to save the Seed People (zhǒngmín 種民) at the approaching sexagesimal jiǎshēn 甲申 apocalypse; and (iii) the nine stanzas themselves (8a–15a), one per Heaven, followed by two hymns by the Tàijí zhēnrén. A short Sòng-period miracle tale is appended. Schipper observes that the Nine Treasure Stanzas (8a–9b) appear to be a slightly later interpolation (Taoist Canon 1: 221), and that an earlier state of the scripture is preserved in Yúnjí qīqiān 雲笈七籤 16 and, in partial form, as Língbǎo zìrán jiǔtiān shēngshén sānbǎo dàyǒu jīnshū 靈寶自然九天生神三寶大有金書 (DZ 165).
The work was exceptionally productive in later tradition: the Shàngqīng tradition quoted it (e.g. DZ 141); it sits at position 5 of the standard Línbǎo list; and a substantial commentarial industry grew up around it in the Táng–Sòng (DZ 396 by Chéng Xuánying 成玄英? — debated; DZ 397; DZ 398, a Yuán commentary by Zhāng Yǔchū 張宇初 that preserves a more restricted sense of the title Sānbǎo dàyǒu jīnshū as designating only the hymns’ genesis-narrative).
Translations and research
- Gauchet, L. “Un livre taoïque, le Shengshen jing.” T’oung Pao (cited in Schipper & Verellen).
- Kobayashi Masayoshi 小林正美. “Kyūten shōshin shōkyō no keisei to Sandō setsu 《九天生神章經》の形成と三洞說.” In Rikuchō dōkyōshi kenkyū 六朝道教史研究. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1990.
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. “On Ku Ling-pao Ching.” Acta Asiatica 27 (1974): 33–56, esp. p. 47.
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. Shoki no dōkyō 初期の道教. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1991.
- Bokenkamp, Stephen R. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Background on the early Língbǎo corpus.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:221 (DZ 318) and 1:229 (DZ 165).
Other points of interest
The scripture’s cosmogonic triad of Tiānbǎo – Língbǎo – Shénbǎo is the locus classicus for the equivalence sāndòng = sānqīng (Three Caverns = Three Pure Ones) which becomes axiomatic for medieval Daoist doctrine; Kobayashi (1990) argues it is here that the mature Sāndòng theory is first textualised.