Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo zhēnyī quànjiè fǎlún miàojīng 太上洞玄靈寶真一勸誡法輪妙經
Marvelous Scripture of the Wheel of the Law in Exhortation and Prohibition, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
An early Língbǎo scripture, the opening fragment of what was originally a single three-juàn work devoted to karma and retribution, the Fǎlún zuìfú jīng 法輪罪福經 (“Scripture of the Wheel of the Law [Expounding] Sins and Blessings”) listed in the Língbǎo jīng shūmù 靈寶經書目. Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn together with DZ 347 and DZ 348 (KR5b0031 and KR5b0032 here; the now-separated fourth fragment is DZ 455, Sāntú wǔkǔ quànjiè jīng).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the revelation scene at Tiāntái shān and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Six Dynasties — specifically within the late-4th- to early-5th-century original Língbǎo stratum — by Schipper (Taoist Canon 1: 227–228, DZ 346). The four fragments (DZ 346, 347, 348, 455) belonged originally to a single three-juàn work. DZ 347, 348, and 455 survive as a unitary text in the Dūnhuáng manuscripts Stein 1605 and Stein 1906 (Ōfuchi, “On Ku Ling-pao Ching,” 50); the beginning of the complete work, missing in those manuscripts, corresponds to the present DZ 346.
The present fragment narrates the revelation of the Fǎlún jīng to Tàijí zuǒ xiāngōng 太極左仙公 (Gě Xuán 葛玄) while he is practicing the Dào on Mount Tiāntái. Three zhēnrén of the Most High Mysterious One (Tàishàng xuányī zhēnrén 太上玄一真人) — his divine masters of transmission (dùshī 度師) — visit him; the Tàijí zhēnrén Xǔ Láilè 許來勒 stands as his guarantor (bǎo 保). Each of the three zhēnrén reveals one part of the practice of the Fǎlún; these three parts form the three successor scriptures. The whole corresponds to number 14 of the canonical Língbǎo corpus list.
Translations and research
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. “On Ku Ling-pao Ching.” Acta Asiatica 27 (1974): 33–56, at 50.
- Zürcher, Erik. “Buddhist Influence on Early Taoism.” T’oung Pao 66 (1980): 84–147.
- 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, 1:227–228 (DZ 346).