Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo zhuǎnshén dùmìng jīng 太上洞玄靈寶轉神度命經
Scripture on the Translation of the Spirit and Deliverance of Life, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A Táng one-juàn mortuary scripture. The Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君 instructs the 南極度命真人 Nánjí dùmìng zhēnrén — “Perfected of the Southern Pole who Delivers Life” — on the rites that must be performed for a person approaching death and through the forty-nine-day period following decease.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly into the Tàishàng dàojūn’s instructions and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Lagerwey (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 537–538, DZ 340). The scripture’s substantive content is a prescriptive liturgy. When the dying person’s breath of life is still present, a Daoist master (道士) must be invited to recite the repentance-formula on the patient’s behalf, to transmit the precepts, and to receive the patient’s wealth, clothing, utensils, and livestock for meritorious distribution — the proceeds to fund the making of religious images, the copying of scriptures, the sponsorship of dàoshì in their mountain hermitages, the feeding of the poor and the sick, rituals of zhāi 齋 and of incense-burning, scripture-recitation, flower-scattering, lamp-lighting, the releasing of living creatures (fàngshēng 放生), the ransoming of life (shúmìng 贖命), the founding of observatories, the ordination of new Daoists, amnesty for prisoners, and the manumission of slaves. Upon receiving the precepts, the dying person’s shén 神 will “be translated into the Mystery” (zhuǎnshén rùmiào 轉神入妙), and rebirth in the Land of Purity and Peace (Qīngjìng ān’ān guó 清淨安安國) is assured.
The central rite proper is then a confession (chànhuǐ 懺悔) addressed seriatim to each of the Ten Jiǔkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 of the directions. The scripture closes with instructions for the Daoist officiant’s action in the hundred days after death — continued recitations, the burning of incense to the left of the coffin’s funeral path and again at the graveside, so that the earth-god may receive the soul kindly.
The text is one of the principal Táng sources for the zhuǎnshén 轉神 (“translation of the spirit”) rite-complex that remains central to the contemporary Daoist mortuary repertoire.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:537–538 (DZ 340).