Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo wǔyuè zhēnfú 太上洞玄靈寶五嶽真符
True Talismans of the Five Peaks, of the Most High Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure
(The catalog reads 五嶽真符; the source title as given in the organ header reads 五嶽神符, whence the Taoist Canon form. Both are in circulation; the distinction is light — zhēnfú 真符 and shénfú 神符 are essentially equivalent in this context.)
About the work
A fifteen-folio Táng collection of Daoist talismans — not only those corresponding to the deities of the Five Peaks (wǔyuè 五嶽) and their zhēnrén (1a–7b), but also those of the White Tiger (bóhǔ fú 白虎符, 8a–b), the Five Stabilisers (wǔzhèn fú 五鎮符, 8b–11b), the Great Peace (tàipíng fú 太平符, 11b–12b), the Powerful Virtue (wēidé jū 威德居, 12b–14b), and the Five Generals (wǔ jiāngjūn 五將軍, 14b–15b).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The received text opens directly with the talismanic diagrams and associated formulae, and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Lagerwey (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 515–517, DZ 390). For the closing talisman (Five Generals) the text supplies a legendary line of transmission, from Fàn Lǐ 范蠡, statesman of Yuè, to Empress Lǚ 呂 (Gāohòu 高后), consort of Liú Bāng 劉邦 (247–195 BCE).
The running commentary that accompanies the Five-Peaks talismans repeatedly cites a work Shénxiān tú 神仙圖 (“Images of the Divine Immortals”). This same work is cited by DZ 1407 Dòngxuán língbǎo èrshísì shēng tújīng 洞玄靈寶二十四生圖經 as the source of the twenty-four sets of talismans it contains, and a variant recension of that revealed Língbǎo scripture — the Dòngxuán língbǎo sānbù èrshísì shēng tú (in Yúnjí qīqiān 80) — simply attributes them to Shénxiān tú. Bokenkamp (“Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures,” 458–460) has shown that both this and other sets of talismans derive originally from works kept in Gě Hóng’s library.
The present text is therefore plausibly a Língbǎo adaptation of an ancient pre-Língbǎo compilation from that same source. It retains several archaic ritual elements: the talismans are used for the protection of the realm and the palace, and they are cult-objects requiring sacrifices (jì 祭 or jiào 醮, 8a, 15a), especially animal sacrifices. For the wǔzhèn rite, the sacrifice of a water buffalo, a sheep, and a pig (sānshēng wù 三牲物) is specified (9a); the cult of tàipíng requires horns of water buffalo and sheep and 120 pounds of pork as a substitute sānshēng. For the protection of the palace, the text prescribes the making of five statues of wax mixed with sulfur, each fourteen inches high, to be placed in vessels hung from the great-hall beams (7b).
Translations and research
- Bokenkamp, Stephen R. “Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures.” In Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, vol. 2, 434–486, esp. 458–460. Brussels: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1983.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:515–517 (DZ 390).