Tàishàng língbǎo hóngfú mièzuì xiàngmíng jīng 太上靈寶洪福滅罪像名經
Scripture of the Metaphoric Names for Increasing Good Fortune and Eliminating Guilt, of the Most High Numinous Treasure
About the work
A forty-folio Daoist scripture on the soteriological power of ritual recitation of divine “metaphoric names” (xiàngmíng 像名). Framed by an elaborate narrative of the prince Hǎikōng 海空 of the kingdom of Ānrěn 安忍國 who abandons the throne to enter religious life, attains transformation into a zhēnrén on the Mount of the Man-Bird (Rénniǎo shān 人鳥山), returns to rule, performs the Grand Offering of the Median Primordial, and is received into Heaven by Yuánshǐ tiānzūn.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the prince Hǎikōng narrative and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Schipper (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 735–737, DZ 377). The narrative frame: Seeing that his son Hǎikōng — heir to the throne of the kingdom of Ānrěn — is determined to become a monk, the king summons the zhēnrén Wúbǐ 無比 (“Peerless”), who transmits to Hǎikōng the Língbǎo zhēnwén 靈寶真文 and the Sānyuán pǐnjiè 三元品戒 “in accordance with the ritual code.” Hǎikōng sets off to study on the Rénniǎo shān, and after twelve years of fasting the Five Old Imperial Lords transform him into a zhēnrén by transmitting him a book. Returning to the throne, Hǎikōng distributes “a mountain of food” on the day of the Median Primordial; the incense mounts to the Nine Heavens and the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn, seeing that Hǎikōng is ready for “transformation-deliverance” (huàdù 化度), dispatches a celestial cortège to bring him to Heaven.
At the celestial assembly, a zhēnrén of Immortal Powers (仙力真人), seeing that the people of “the world below” are all entangled with the Three Officials on account of their sinfulness, asks what they are to do. The body of the scripture is Yuánshǐ tiānzūn’s response: a triple sequence of homage to the Three Treasures, each followed by a confession of sins and an expression of wishes. The homages take the form of recitation of xiàngmíng (“metaphoric names” or iconographic titles) — in the first sequence, for example, homage is paid to 120 Tiānzūn, to “the venerable scripture in twelve sections,” and to twenty-two Daoists of legend (Wèi Bóyáng 魏伯陽, Lǐ Bābǎi 李八百, etc.). Recitation of these names procures “immense good fortune and the elimination of guilt.”
The scripture is a major document of Táng scripture-as-merit devotional practice and, through its Rénniǎo shān episode, of the Rénniǎo sacred-mountain 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, 2:735–737 (DZ 377).