Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo fúrì miàojīng 太上洞玄靈寶福日妙經
Marvelous Scripture on the Days of Blessing, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A short three-folio Táng devotional treatise for lay people on the observance of the fúrì 福日 (“days of blessing”) — the calendrical occasions on which a proper fast and recitation are particularly meritorious. Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn with DZ 356 (KR5b0040).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the exhortation to lay observance and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Lagerwey (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 580–581, DZ 355). The scripture invites lay persons to observe a fast on each of the fúrì enumerated in the text — for the full calendrical list of such days in Daoist practice see DZ 464 Zhāijiè lù 齋戒錄 passim. The mere recitation of the present text is declared sufficient to avert misfortune, and its copying and dissemination is itself meritorious: a characteristic Táng lay-oriented “scriptural merit” doctrine that parallels contemporary Buddhist dhāraṇī practice.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:580–581 (DZ 355).