Dòngxuán língbǎo dānshuǐ fēishù yùndù xiǎojié miàojīng 洞玄靈寶丹水飛術運度小劫妙經
Marvelous Scripture on the Flying Technique of the Cinnabar-Water, Revolving Measures, and Small Kalpa, of the Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A one-juàn scripture of the later Língbǎo corpus, framed as a discourse of the Tàishàng dàdào jūn 太上大道君 rehearsing sayings of the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 on the cosmic cycles and on the techniques — scriptural, ritual, and alchemical — by which the adept may escape the imminent small-kalpa (xiǎojié 小劫) fire-catastrophe.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly into doctrinal dialogue and carries no preface, postface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Classed by Ōfuchi (On Ku Ling-pao Ching, 41, 55) among the titles listed as “not yet revealed” in the Língbǎo jīng shūmù 靈寶經書目 / Língbǎo jīngmù 靈寶經目 but surviving in the Canon, the scripture is conventionally dated to the sixth century (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 248–249). It is known in its abbreviated form as the Xiǎojié jīng 小劫經 in the Sāndòng zhūnáng 三洞珠囊 and similar reference compilations.
Its contents are loosely organised, touching on several distinct themes: ritual vestments (jīnjù 巾具, 5b–6b); the celestial transmission of scriptures (including a thirty-nine-chapter Dàdòng zhēnjīng 大洞真經, 14b–15b); and, most substantively, techniques for surviving the imminent fire-catastrophe of the small kalpa by studying the scriptures of the Three Caverns (sāndòng 三洞) and practising the Língbǎo Retreat (Língbǎo zhāi 靈寶齋). Different regimens are prescribed for adepts remaining in the world and for those who have withdrawn to the mountains; the latter are further enjoined to absorb qì, swallow elixir, venerate the deities of the Pole Star (Běijí 北極), and wear nine talismans at the belt (3a–5b). The instructions for making the elixir are revealed by a Shàngqīng deity, the Lady Wáng of Zǐwēi 紫微王夫人.
Translations and research
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. “On Ku Ling-pao Ching.” Acta Asiatica 27 (1974): 33–56, at 41, 55 (on the scripture’s position in the Língbǎo jīngmù list).
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:248–249 (DZ 320).