Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo zhìhuì běnyuàn dàjiè shàngpǐn jīng 太上洞玄靈寶智慧本願大戒上品經
Upper-Grade Scripture on the Great Precepts and Original Vows of Wisdom, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
An eighteen-folio scripture of the original Língbǎo corpus, traditionally the fifth-century “new scriptures” revealed to Gě Xuán 葛玄 (164–244) and enshrined in the Gě-family transmission through his grand-nephew Gě Cháofǔ 葛巢甫. The opening frames its revelation as a colloquy between the “Immortal Duke” Gě Xuán (Xiāngōng 仙公) and the Tàijí fǎshī Xǔ Láilè 太極法師許來勒 at Tiāntái shān 天台山.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Tàijí xiāngōng’s question to the Tàijí fǎshī and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
One of the original Língbǎo scriptures, dated to the fifth century — i.e. within or very close to the Gě Cháofǔ revelation stratum (Schmidt in Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 239, DZ 344). In the Língbǎo jīngmù the work is listed as Tàishàng xiāomó bǎoshēn ānzhì zhìhuì běnyuàn dàjiè shàngpǐn 太上消魔保身安志智慧本願大戒上品, and in Wúshàng bìyào 無上祕要 citations it appears under the shorter aliases [Dòngxuán] xiāomó jīng 消魔經, Dòngxuán ānzhì jīng 安志經, and Dòngxuán dìngzhì jīng 定志經. Three Dūnhuáng fragments (Pelliot 2468, Stein 6394, Pelliot 2400; reproduced and catalogued by Ōfuchi, Tonkō dōkyō: Mokurokuhen, 61–66; Zurokuhen, 77–85) survive.
The scriptural substance is a doctrinal discourse of Xǔ Láilè to Gě Xuán on karma (yèbào 業報) and retribution — blessings and misfortune are determined by one’s good and evil deeds, so that right action and “original vows” (běnyuàn 本願) are indispensable to salvation. To this end the scripture prescribes:
- fifty-nine “vows” (願) to be pronounced on various occasions for the salvation of all beings (4a–7a);
- a regimen of the Ten Good Deeds (shí shàn quànjiè 十善勸誡, 9b–10b);
- an exposition of the Ten Sufferings (shí huàn 十患, 15a–b);
- and accessory meditations, rules, and hymns.
The closing paragraph narrates Gě Xuán entrusting his disciple Zhèng Sīyuǎn 鄭思遠 (i.e. Zhèng Yǐn 鄭隱, Gě Hóng’s teacher) with the transmission of the scriptures in accordance with the rules laid down. The present text corresponds to number 24 of the canonical Língbǎo corpus list.
Translations and research
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. Tonkō dōkyō: Mokurokuhen 敦煌道經：目錄編, 61–66.
- Ōfuchi Ninji. Tonkō dōkyō: Zurokuhen 敦煌道經：圖錄編, 77–85.
- Bokenkamp, Stephen R. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:239 (DZ 344), with the dependent DZ 187 Tàiqīng wǔshíbā yuánwén 太清五十八願文.
Other points of interest
The cognate DZ 187 Tàiqīng wǔshíbā yuánwén is demonstrably an abridgement of the present text: it draws in toto from folios 4a–15a of the Běnyuàn dàjiè shàngpǐn jīng, erroneously arriving at “fifty-eight” vows by conflating or omitting one of the fifty-nine of the source.