Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo tiānzūn shuō yǎngcán yíngzhǒng jīng 太上洞玄靈寶天尊說養蠶營種經
Scripture on Silkworm Cultivation and Management of Sowing, Spoken by the Most High Heavenly Worthy of the Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A nine-folio late-Táng / Sòng ritual scripture directed specifically to the sericultural economy — the cultivation of silkworms and the care of silkworm eggs. Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn with DZ 357, DZ 358, and DZ 359 (KR5b0041, KR5b0042, KR5b0043).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Tiānzūn and Lǎojūn seated in counsel and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Lagerwey (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 3: 986–987, DZ 360) treats the text as a specimen of the practical-agricultural strand of late-medieval Daoist scripture. The Língbǎo tiānzūn 靈寶天尊 begins by explaining to Tàishàng lǎojūn 太上老君 the importance of silkworm cultivation in the lives of the people and the proper care of silkworm eggs. Lǎojūn confirms that sericulture goes back to the saints of antiquity (shènggǔ 聖古) and that people need only worship before the statues of the Tiānzūn in order to secure a good harvest of worms. But because the people are sinful, some loss and punishment is inevitable. Every year in spring they should burn incense, set out silkworm eggs in the four directions and in the centre of the fields, and invoke the gods who protect silkworms; they should further prepare an offering to the gods in a Daoist sacred area (dàochǎng 道場) and invite a Daoist priest to recite the present scripture.
The Tiānzūn then utters a “formula for commanding demons” (chì guǐ zhòu 勅鬼咒) and directs that the priest is to pronounce this demon-quelling formula over the silkworms in the fields, together with a further formula for their multiplication. As soon as the priest enters the household, the demons will flee. The remainder of the text explains the nature of ritual efficacy and the system of retribution, and menaces the demons with death should they disobey.
The scripture offers an unusual window onto the embedding of Daoist liturgy in the village agricultural cycle, and on the way in which scripture-recitation was understood to produce concrete economic benefits — a mode of practice central to the religious life of Sòng rural China.
Translations and research
- Kuhn, Dieter. Die Song-Dynastie (960 bis 1279): Eine neue Gesellschaft im Spiegel ihrer Kultur. Weinheim: Acta Humaniora, 1987 — background on Sòng sericulture.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 3:986–987 (DZ 360).