Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo shíhào gōngdé yīnyuán miàojīng 太上洞玄靈寶十號功德因緣妙經
Marvelous Scripture of the Karmic Retribution for the Merit of the Ten Epithets, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A Táng-period one-juàn scripture in which the Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君, enthroned on a Lion-Throne of the Seven Treasures in the 棄賢世界 Qìxián shìjiè (“World of the Abandoning of the Worthies”), expounds to the zhēnrén Pǔjì 普濟 the meritorious power of reciting the Ten Epithets (shíhào 十號) of the Original Master (běnshī 本師), the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊, before his statue.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The scripture opens directly with the revelation scene at the Seven-Treasure Lion-Throne and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Lagerwey (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 536, DZ 337). The Ten Epithets — esoteric phrases of the Great Brahma language (dàfàn yǐnyǔ 大梵隱語) translated into human speech by Tiānzhēn huángrén 天真皇人 and others (4a; cf. DZ 97 Tàishàng língbǎo zhūtiān nèiyīn zìrán yùzì 1.1a) — collectively articulate the capacity of the Original Master to save all beings, “because he is the Supreme Dào upon which the ten thousand practices depend” (4a). A parallel set, the Shíhào of the Heavenly Worthy in the Lóngjiǎo jīng 龍蹻經, is cited by Lǐ Shàowēi 李少微 in DZ 87 Yuánshǐ wúliàng dùrén shàngpǐn miàojīng sìzhù 2.28b.
Pages 2b and 8a specify the rite of recitation before the statue of the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn — a major early witness to statue-centred Daoist devotion. The ninth epithet — “Master of the Immortals and Perfected” (Xiānzhēn zhī shī 仙真之師) — is said to contain all the others, and its exegesis (5a–8a) is the longest and most original portion of the text: here is found what is probably the earliest Daoist definition of the Twelve Sections (shí’èr shǐbù 十二始部) of the books of the Three Caverns. The “Venerable Scriptures in Thirty-Six Sections” (Sānshíliù zūnjīng 三十六尊經) are here theorised as the textual expression of the three bodies of the master, systematically mapped onto the Buddhist trikāya:
- Body of the Law (xūwú fǎshēn 虛無法身) = dharmakāya
- Body of Retribution (zìrán bàoshēn 自然報身) = saṃbhogakāya
- Body of Transformation (yuánshǐ huàshēn 元始化身) = nirmāṇakāya
This triple-body scheme, imported from the Mahāyāna, becomes foundational for Táng Daoist scholastic theology.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:536 (DZ 337).