Shàngqīng pèi fúwén huángquàn jué 上清佩符文黃卷訣
Instructions Concerning the Yellow-Register Talismans of the Upper Clarity
About the work
A seven-folio Táng-era anthology of Shàngqīng protective talismans under the “yellow register” (huángquàn 黃卷) category. Fifth and last of the Pèi fúwén series (DZ 412–416 = KR5b0096–KR5b0100), transmitted together in a composite juàn.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the sub-title Shàngyuán jiǎntiān dàlù wén 上元檢天大籙文 and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Schipper (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 614–615, group entry for DZ 412–416). See KR5b0096 for the full anthology context. The colour yellow is associated in the Five-Agents scheme with the Centre and Earth; the corresponding Shàngqīng talisman-symbolism is presented here in the form of extracts from the “Upper-Primordial tablet” corpus (Shàngyuán jiǎntiān dàlù 上元檢天大籙). The text opens with an instruction that the talisman be written in green ink on a nine-chǐ-wide piece of yellow silk and worn on the body after a visit to the Peak of one’s natal destiny (běnmìng zhī yuè 本命之嶽) for a jiào 醮 offering; subsequent instructions describe the procedures if the Way has not descended to the practitioner within nine years.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:614–615 (DZ 412–416).