Shàngqīng jīnguì yùjìng xiūzhēn zhǐxuán miàojīng 上清金匱玉鏡修真指玄妙經
Marvelous Scripture of the Jade Mirror in the Golden Casket, Pointing to the Mystery of the Practice of Perfection, of the Upper Clarity
About the work
A seventeen-folio Táng summary-manual (yàoyán 要言) of Daoist self-cultivation, revealed by the Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君 in the Shàngqīng yùxū Purple-Empyrean Grove for the benefit of lay people, here denominated “People of Pure Faith” (qīngxìn zhī liú 清信之流, 1a). The title-term jīnguì yùjìng 金匱玉鏡 (“jade mirror in a golden casket”) does not appear in the body of the text; as Lagerwey suggests (Taoist Canon 2: 580), it probably characterises the scripture itself — a mirror that enables one to “see clearly,” enclosed in a golden casket for protection — with jīnguì further connected to the “mighty stanzas of the golden casket” (jīnguì dàzhāng 金匱大章, 16b).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the revelation-assembly scene and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Lagerwey (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 580, DZ 353). The Táng dating is secured by the title Shèngzǔ 聖祖 (“Holy Ancestor”) applied to Lord Lǎo (6a, 11a) — an imperial Táng title for Lǎozǐ as ancestor of the Lǐ-family Táng house — and by the use of the term qīngxìn nánnǚ 清信男女 (“Men and Women of Pure Faith”) for the lay audience, characteristic of Táng Daoism. The text is demonstrably later than DZ 371 Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo sāntú wǔkǔ bádù shēngsǐ miàojīng, which it quotes: folios 4b–5a and 10a–b correspond to DZ 371 6a–b and 7a–b respectively.
The scripture proceeds as follows. After the Lord of the Dào briefly catalogues the spirits of the body, the “Dào explains” (dào yán 道言) the importance of nourishing the heart (2a) and the qì (3a). The adept must also perform many charitable works and, crucially, save his ancestors before he can “unite with the Dào” by means of interior alchemy (4a–5a). Explicitly framed as a shorter route for those “ordinary people” who lack the time for regular cultivation, the summary is followed by a ritual to be performed for one’s deceased parents: a statuette representing the deceased is placed next to the images of the Three Pure Ones, having first been stamped with the Seal of the Nine Zhēnrén (probably linked to the Nine Prescriptions of DZ 181 Tàishàng jiǔzhēn miàojiè jīnlù dùmìng bázuì miàojīng 太上九真妙戒金籙度命拔罪妙經), and three times per day for three to nine days (5a) a confession of sins is made. As an alternative, one may invoke the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 three thousand times, pausing every hundred invocations to bow to the Three Pure Ones and to other appropriate deities whose fú 符 are provided in the text.
The scripture is a valuable witness to the Táng popularisation of Daoist cultivation for lay audiences and to the integration of nascent inner-alchemical (nèidān 內丹) vocabulary with the established mortuary ritual repertoire of the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn cult.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:580 (DZ 353).