Tàishàng xuányī zhēnrén shuō quànjiè fǎlún miàojīng 太上玄一真人說勸誡法輪妙經
Marvelous Scripture of the Wheel of the Law in Exhortation and Prohibition, Spoken by the Perfected of the Most High Mysterious One
About the work
The second part of the three-juàn Fǎlún jīng 法輪經 of the original Língbǎo corpus (continuing from DZ 346 = KR5b0030; see also DZ 347 = KR5b0031 and DZ 455). Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn with DZ 346 and DZ 347.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Dào’s revelation and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Six Dynasties — within the original late-4th- / early-5th-century Língbǎo stratum — by Schipper (Taoist Canon 1: 229–230, DZ 348). The Fǎlún (“Wheel of the Law,” a calque on the Buddhist dharmacakra) is here described as of marvelous efficacy: it enables all beings to leave the cycle of transmigration and enter “extinction-deliverance” (mièdù 滅度, nirvāṇa). Through ascetic endeavour the true hermits move the Void Sovereign Xūhuáng 虛皇, who, after innumerable kalpas, bestows the scripture upon them.
Humans of every station, priests or lay, can attain samādhi through this revelation. Lay persons may obtain “Deliverance-from-the-Corpse” (shījiě 尸解) through religious practice. All persons — priests or lay — who arouse “the mind of the Great Vehicle” (fā dàchéng zhī xīn 發大乘之心) can acquire merit and salvation by lighting oil lamps, abandoning their riches, making donations to the poor, and sacrificing part or the whole of their bodies (shěshēn 捨身, another clear Buddhist borrowing). The text closes with three rhymed gāthā (偈) and an epilogue. Together with DZ 346, 347, and 455 it corresponds to number 14 of the canonical Língbǎo corpus list.
Translations and research
- Zürcher, Erik. “Buddhist Influence on Early Taoism.” T’oung Pao 66 (1980): 84–147.
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. “On Ku Ling-pao Ching.” Acta Asiatica 27 (1974): 33–56.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:229–230 (DZ 348).