Shàngqīng dānyuán yùzhēn dìhuáng fēixiān shàngjīng 上清丹元玉真帝皇飛仙上經
Superior Scripture of the Flying Immortals of the Precious-Truth Cinnabar-Origin Sovereigns, of the Upper Clarity
About the work
A five-folio Shàngqīng-tradition meditation manual on the absorption of stellar effluvia. Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn (èr jīng tóng juàn 二經同卷) with DZ 405 (KR5b0089).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source proper; the text closes with a postface declaring that it was revealed by Lord Wáng, Superintendent of the Zhēnrén (Xīchéng zǒngzhēn Wángjūn 西城總真王君), who transmitted it both to Lord Máo 茅 and to a Lord Cài 蔡, zhēnrén of Wénshuǐ 汶水 (a river in Shāndōng). The same saint is also mentioned in DZ 994 Shàngqīng tàiyuán shénlóng qióngtái chéngjīng shàngxuán yùzhāng 上清太元神龍瓊臺成經上玄玉章.
Abstract
Schipper (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 1098, DZ 404) places the text in the broader Shàngqīng tradition without firm attachment to any of its known sub-canons. The exercises — for the absorption of stellar effluvia — are from the Shàngqīng tradition but are not linked explicitly to any of its canons; they depend structurally on the body-pantheon conventions of the original Shàngqīng revelation but re-articulate them in compact, recitation-driven formulae aimed at “flying ascent” (fēixiān 飛仙).
Translations and research
- Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme. 2 vols. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1984.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1098 (DZ 404).