Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo jiùkǔ miàojīng 太上洞玄靈寶救苦妙經
Marvelous Scripture for Salvation from Distress, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
About the work
A four-folio liturgical scripture for the rite of salvation of the souls of the deceased, devoted to the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 (“Heavenly Worthy Who Saves All Souls in Hell from Distress”). Composed largely in five-character rhymed verse and currently recited in contemporary Daoist mortuary liturgy (cf. DZ 1220 Dàofǎ huìyuán 道法會元 207.1a; DZ 1221 Shàngqīng língbǎo dàfǎ 55.28a). A commentated recension survives as DZ 399 Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo tiānzūn shuō jiùkǔ miàojīng zhùjiě 太上洞玄靈寶天尊說救苦妙經註解. Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn (sān jīng tóng juàn 三經同卷) with DZ 375 and DZ 376 (KR5b0059, KR5b0060).
Prefaces
No authorial preface. The received edition carries a postface (hòuxù 後序) by Zhào Zǐqiū 趙子琴 dated 1124, recounting the transmission of the text from Officer Tián 田部冉 — a master of the Celestial-Pivot Rites (Tiānshū fǎ 天樞法) — to a Buddhist monk: the recitation of the scripture having been urged on the monk by his deceased mother during a mediumistic séance conducted by Tián, the latter transmitted the book to the monk and thereby enabled him to save his mother from hell.
Abstract
Dated to the Northern Sòng (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 3: 989–990, DZ 374), with a firm terminus ante quem of 1017 — the text is included among those printed at imperial behest in that year (cf. VDL 47, citing Sòng-era catalogues) — and a terminus ad quem of 1124 supplied by Zhào Zǐqiū’s postface. The scripture is a foundational document for the Sòng- and Yuán-period cult of the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn, who is invoked here as the universal saviour of souls suffering in the hells. Its use in contemporary mortuary liturgy (zhāo 朝 / jiào 醮) is continuous from the Sòng to the present.
Translations and research
- Lagerwey, John. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: Macmillan, 1987 — on the contemporary ritual use.
- Mollier, Christine. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008 — on the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn / Guānyīn parallel.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 3:989–990 (DZ 374).