Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo mièdù wǔliàn shēngshī miàojīng 太上洞玄靈寶滅度五鍊生尸妙經
Marvelous Scripture on Nirvāṇa through the Fivefold Refinement of Living Beings and Corpses, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A nineteen-folio early-Língbǎo mortuary-burial scripture centred on the Five True Writs (zhēnwén 真文) inscribed on stones and buried at the edges and centre of a tomb, to ensure the repose, purification, and salvation of the dead. Position number 17 of the canonical Língbǎo corpus list.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Tiānzūn’s revelation scene at the Chánglè shè 長樂舍 incense-grove garden and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated by Schipper (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 231, DZ 369) to the Six Dynasties, more specifically to the original Gě Cháofǔ Língbǎo revelation-stratum of ca. 397–430. The text contains the revelation of the sacred writs that secure the peace and deliverance of the dead; these writs, reproduced in the present text in celestial script (zhēnwén 真文), correspond to the “esoteric sounds of the heavens” (zhūtiān nèiyīn 諸天內音; cf. DZ 97 Tàishàng língbǎo zhūtiān nèiyīn zìrán yùzì 太上靈寶諸天內音自然玉字). The writs are to be copied on five stones and buried at the four cardinal points and the centre of the tomb. Each writ is accompanied by a talismanic order (fúmìng 符命) in the name of the Law of Nǚqīng, Méngzhēn jiǔtiān Nǚqīng wén 盟真九天女青文 — the ancient Pact-with-the-Perfected code.
The received text appears to be incomplete. Two Dūnhuáng manuscripts — Pelliot 2865 and Stein 298 — contain an appendix (missing here) with a yellow memorial (huángzhāng 黃章) to be presented at the time of the burial of the inscribed stones, together with a series of miracle-tales demonstrating the efficacy of the rite (see also DZ 1292 Huáng zèng zhāngfǎ 黃繒章法).
The scripture is a core document of early medieval Daoist burial practice. Its ritual survived into the Táng: Dù Guāngtíng describes the practice in connection with requiem services (qiānshén yí 遷神儀) in DZ 507 Tàishàng huánglù zhāiyí 太上黃籙齋儀 57.1b, citing the liturgist Zhāng Wànfú 張萬福.
Translations and research
- Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. Tonkō dōkyō: Mokurokuhen 敦煌道經：目錄編 — for Pelliot 2865 and Stein 298.
- Seidel, Anna. “Traces of Han Religion in Funeral Texts Found in Tombs.” In Dōkyō to shūkyō bunka 道教と宗教文化, edited by Akizuki Kan’ei 秋月觀暎, 21–57. Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1987.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:231 (DZ 369).