Tàishàng dòngyuān shénzhòu jīng 太上洞淵神咒經
Scripture of the Divine Incantations of the Abyssal Caverns, of the Most High with preface by 杜光庭 (序)
About the work
The principal apocalyptic scripture of medieval China. A twenty-juàn compilation in its received form, combining an original late-Eastern-Jìn ten-juàn nucleus produced by a fervent Jiāngnán sectarian movement at the turn of the fifth century with eight later Táng juàn and two further early juàn, all re-edited and prefaced by Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭 (850–933) in the first decades of the tenth century. The term shénzhòu 神咒 (“divine incantations”) signals the work’s oral character; its internal self-titling shifts from Wúliàng jīng 無量經, to Shàngqīng zhōngxuán miàojīng 上清中玄妙經, to Shénzhòu jīng 神咒經, to Sānmèi jīng 三昧經, to Dà qū jīng 大驅經, reflecting the work’s composite origins.
Prefaces
The received edition opens with a lengthy preface composed by Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭 (序), here titled Táng yǐnjià chuánzhēn tiānshī 唐引駕傳真天師 together with his complete roll of honours. The preface narrates the revelation of the scripture to the Daoist master Wáng Zuǎn 王纂 at Jīntán Mǎjī shān 金壇馬跡山 in Jìnnán at the end of the Western Jìn: in a time of epidemic and famine, Wáng had through accumulated hidden merit (yīngōng 陰功) been protecting his neighbours; after three nights of prayer with flying-tablet petitions, the Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君 descended with a heavenly retinue, praised Wáng’s compassion, explained that pestilence and premature death were the work of the “old qì of the Six Heavens” (六天故氣), revealed that the Shénzhòu had been previously entrusted to the zhēnrén Táng Píng 唐平 in Dùyáng gōng 杜陽宮, and now committed it to Wáng together with the “Decisive Formulary of the Three-and-Five Great Retreat” (三五大齋之訣) for the salvation of the age. The preface closes with Dù’s own vows and the statement that he has commissioned the present block-printed edition for wider circulation.
The attribution to Wáng Zuǎn is legendary and cannot be accepted for purposes of dating the scripture itself; it may nevertheless preserve a genuine memory of the master-lineage of the Shénzhòu jīng, whose institutional existence as an ordained order of Shénzhòu priests (神咒師, or dòngyuān shénzhòu dàshèng sānmèi fǎshī 洞淵神咒大乘三昧法師) is attested by the early Táng (cf. DZ 1125 Dòngxuán língbǎo sāndòng fèngdào kējiè yíngshǐ 5.3b and DZ 445 Dòngxuán língbǎo sānshī mínghuì xíngzhuàng jūguān fāngsuǒ wén 3a). The note preceding Dù’s preface includes the title chuánzhēn tiānshī 傳真天師, bestowed on him by Wáng Yǎn 王衍 (r. 918–926), second ruler of the Former Shǔ 前蜀, at a ceremony of reciprocal investiture in 923 (see Verellen, Du Guangting, 178), giving a firm terminus post quem for the preface of 923.
Abstract
Strickmann, Mollier, and others (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 269–273, DZ 335) identify the Shénzhòu jīng as the principal witness to early-fifth-century Daoist apocalypticism. The oldest recoverable versions are the Dūnhuáng manuscripts (Pelliot 3233, 2444 and others, reconstructed by Ōfuchi, Tonkō dōkyō: Zurokuhen, 519–563), emanating from a ten-juàn text; Pelliot 3233 (juàn 1) and Pelliot 2444 (juàn 7) carry colophons dated 664 recording that the copy was commissioned by Emperor Gāozōng 高宗 in the metropolitan Língyǐn guàn 靈隱觀 for his son the crown prince Lǐ Hóng 李弘 — whose name itself was that of the Daoist messiah. The ten-juàn form is still cited at the beginning of the Táng (DZ 1125 4.6b), and persists through the Dūnhuáng copies of the seventh and eighth centuries and Dù Guāngtíng’s own Dàojiào língyànjì 12.9b–10a (= YJQQ 119.7a–7b). Historical references in the first ten juàn — especially allusions to Liú Yù 劉裕 (363–422), founder of the LiúSòng dynasty (1.3a, 9b), and the distinctively southern term suǒlǔ 索虜 for northern barbarians (2.8a) — fix the original nucleus at the beginning of the fifth century.
Dù Guāngtíng’s early tenth-century recension adds eight new Táng juàn plus two further early juàn (19 and 20), the latter apparently contemporary with the original nucleus. The resulting twenty-juàn work is a composite: prophylactic text, liturgical manual, pantheon-compendium, demonological repertory, transmission-contract, and passport for salvation. Its fundamental charge, however, is apocalyptic: the present age is the corrupt mòshì 末世 on the brink of the collapse of the Six Heavens; the “old qì” of the fallen Six Heavens, allied with the ghosts of defeated armies, will send out plagues and calamities until the year rénchén 壬辰 (or similar cyclical markers), when the messianic Lǐ Hóng 李弘 will appear, the righteous zhǒngmín 種民 (“seed people”) will survive to repopulate the world, and the rule of the perfect sovereign will be established. Recitation of the scripture, adherence to the ten precepts, and the performance of its associated Retreats (sānmèi 三昧 / dàqū 大驅 齋) are the conditions for inclusion among the saved.
The Shénzhòu jīng was the scriptural focus of an active order of Shénzhòu shī 神咒師 from the late Southern Dynasties through at least the end of the Táng; Dù Guāngtíng received from this order both the ten-juàn nucleus and the associated penitential and rain-making rituals that he integrated into his expanded edition (some of which circulate separately in the Dàozàng, e.g. DZ 525, 526). The text thus occupies a pivotal place in the history of medieval Daoist messianism and in the institutional history of the Táng–Wǔdài Daoist priesthood.
Translations and research
- Mollier, Christine. Une apocalypse taoïste du Ve siècle: Le Livre des incantations divines des grottes abyssales. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises, 1990. The standard monograph with partial translation.
- Strickmann, Michel. “The Consecration Sūtra: A Buddhist Book of Spells.” In Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr., 75–118. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1990 — for the cross-cultural comparison with the Buddhist Guàndǐng jīng.
- Verellen, Franciscus. Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale. Paris: Collège de France, 1989, esp. 178 on the 923 investiture.
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. Tonkō dōkyō: Zurokuhen 敦煌道經：圖錄編. Tokyo: Fukutake shoten, 1979, 519–563 — reconstruction of the Dūnhuáng ten-juàn recension.
- Seidel, Anna. “The Image of the Perfect Ruler in Early Taoist Messianism.” History of Religions 9 (1969–1970): 216–247.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:269–273 (DZ 335).
Other points of interest
The Shénzhòu jīng is the locus classicus for the Daoist messianic figure of Lǐ Hóng 李弘 and for the doctrine of the zhǒngmín 種民, the “seed people” — the morally qualified remnant who will survive the coming apocalypse. The 664 Dūnhuáng copies made for the crown prince Lǐ Hóng, son of the future empress Wǔ Zétiān, remain one of the most striking episodes in the political deployment of Daoist messianic onomastics in early Táng court politics.