Tàishàng jiùkǔ tiānzūn shuō xiāoqiān mièzuì jīng 太上救苦天尊說消愆滅罪經
Scripture Spoken by the Heavenly Worthy Who Saves from Distress on Dispelling Offences and Eliminating Sins
About the work
A three-folio Daoist mortuary scripture, closely allied with the Fēngdū 酆都 / shíwáng 十王 funerary tradition. Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn (sān jīng tóng juàn 三經同卷) with DZ 379 and DZ 380 (KR5b0063, KR5b0064).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Tiānzūn’s sermon to the assembled hell-hierarchy and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated by Lagerwey (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 3: 990, DZ 378) to the Southern Sòng by virtue of its close relationship to the mature shíwáng 十王 ten-kings hell-tradition. The Jiùkǔ tiānzūn offers his explanation to an assembly of celestial dragons, Kings of Hells, and Directors of Destiny summoned to hear his sermon. The sequence of rituals he recommends, and the names given the kings of the ten hells, are essentially identical to those in DZ 215 Dìfǔ shíwáng bádù yí 地府十王拔度儀.
Once these rituals have been completed, the Tiānzūn orders that the accumulated merit be assessed and that all “solitary souls” be released from hell. The scribes of the twenty-four hells of Fēngdū direct these souls to the Smelting Pool (liànchí 鍊池), which they enter carrying “a powerful fú 符 of the cinnabar world for transforming the body.” Their passage through the pool enables them “to return to the banks of the Dào.” The fú is probably related to the Dānyáng jú 丹陽局 seal that first appears in the Southern Sòng (cf. DZ 548 Tàijí jìliàn nèifǎ 太極祭鍊內法).
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 3:990 (DZ 378).