Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo sùlíng zhēnfú 太上洞玄靈寶素靈真符
True Talismans of the White Numen, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure with preface by 杜光庭 (序); contents attributed variously to 陸修靜 and to 杜光庭
About the work
A three-juàn compilation of Daoist healing and exorcistic talismans centred on the Sùlíng 素靈 (“White Numen”) corpus. The texts of the three juàn are attributed in their chapter headings in different ways — juàn 1 to “Master Lù” (陸師), juàn 2 as “received by Master Lù,” juàn 3 as “received by Master Dù” (杜師). The work as a whole is framed by a preface by Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭 (850–933) composed after his 913 investiture.
Prefaces
Preface by Dù Guāngtíng (序). The Sùlíng talismans were bestowed by the Heavenly Worthy on the Heavenly-Master Zhāi [Fǎyán 法言], zì Qiányòu 乾祐, as a single scroll of vermilion writing during the Qiányuán era (758–760, likely a scribal error for Kāiyuán 開元, 713–741). Zhāi, while wandering south from Huánghè shān 黃鶴山 to the WūShān 巫山 gorges, was visited in a dream by a zhēnrén in white robe and flowery cap, and the next day, ascending the Tiānzūn Peak, received the one-scroll vermilion Sùlíng fú 素靈符. Used, they expel ailments, control demons, revive the dead, command the winds and the rain, and subjugate tigers and wolves. During the Tiānbǎo era (742–756) Zhāi was summoned to the inner palace to expound the Dào. After him, Duàn Chéngshì 段成式 (ca. 803–863) and a succession of court literati and local magnates in Jīng 荊 and Yǐng 郢 received the tradition. In the tiānfù bǐngyín year (906), Dù obtained the text at Píngdū shān 平都山 while searching for lost scriptures, and has now entered it into the Sāndòng zàng for the benefit of the like-minded. Signed “Guǎngchéng Dù Guāngtíng.”
Abstract
Verellen (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 732–734, DZ 389) establishes the dating and attribution. The preface’s chronology contains minor contradictions (Qiányuán 乾元 in place of the more plausible Kāiyuán 開元; Zhāi’s hagiography gives his birth-year as 714 implying he was forty-one in 755, dying in 836, cf. DZ 296 Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn 41.17a–20a), but the broad picture is coherent with Zhāi’s documented activity under Emperor Xuánzōng (r. 712–756). The talismans are said to have reached the capital during the Tiānbǎo era (742–756) and then flourished in both popular and official circles throughout the middle-Yangzi region of modern Húběi and eastern Sìchuān. Duàn Chéngshì is named among the adepts after the text reached Xiāndū shān 仙都山 at Fēngdū 酆都; Duàn’s father Duàn Wénchāng 段文昌 (773–835) had been a benefactor of the Xiāndū temple there (Xiū Xiāndū guàn jì 修仙都觀記, dated 833, in Wényuàn yīnghuá 822.3b–4b). It was in this temple that Dù Guāngtíng himself obtained the present text in 906.
The preface is signed Guǎngchéng 廣成 Dù Guāngtíng, using the religious title bestowed on him in 913 (Verellen, Du Guangting, 163–164), so the received preface must postdate that year. The work’s title is absent from the Dūnhuáng catalogue of Lù Xiūjìng’s Língbǎo canon — the Lù attribution within the text is therefore traditional rather than documentary — and a lacuna is indicated at the close of the received text. The body presents designs of the talismans, with commentaries and instructions for use (swallow, attach to part of the body, etc.), accompanying incantations, and summary formulae. The talismans serve as cures for various pains and diseases, for depression, and in exorcism; the preface also mentions reviving the dead, conjuring rain, and warding off wild animals, presumably pointing to a fuller lost version.
Translations and research
- Verellen, Franciscus. Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises, 1989, 163–164.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:732–734 (DZ 389).