Shàngqīng dòngzhēn jiěguò jué 上清洞真解過訣
Formula for the Absolution of Sins, of the Upper Clarity Cavern-Perfected
About the work
A twenty-eight-folio Táng Shàngqīng penitential compilation in four parts, drawing chiefly on Shàngqīng sources.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the first sub-title — Lord Péi’s (Qīnglíng zhēnrén Péijūn 清靈真人裴君) eight-seasonal-day confession — and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Robinet (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 615–616, DZ 423). The work divides into four parts:
- 1a–5b — a method of Lord Péi 裴, drawn from his biography (Yúnjí qīqiān 105.5a–6b and 12a–15a). The method consists in confessing faults to the Emperor of the North and invoking the gods of the Three Primordials on the days when these deities assemble to revise the life-registers — particularly the autumn equinox.
- 5b–7b — three methods of Xǔ Huì 許翽: one is a variant on the wǔ tōng 五通 method of DZ 426 Shàngqīng tàishàng bāsù zhēnjīng 20a–25a; one is linked to the Zhàolíng fūrén 昭靈夫人, one of the goddesses at the origin of the Yáng Xī revelations (its formulae likewise inspired by DZ 426 21b and 20a); the third corresponds to DZ 1377 Shàngqīng tàishàng jiǔzhēn zhōngjīng jiàngshēng shéndān jué 10a–b.
- 7a–9a — material largely matching DZ 1330 Dòngzhēn tàiyī dìjūn tàidān yǐnshū dòngzhēn xuánjīng 35b–37a (for 7a–8a), plus a fragment (8b–9a) from an otherwise-unknown Liú xiānshēng jì 劉先生記 (“Annals of Master Liú”).
- 9a–end — a description of the huíyuán 回元 method as originally given in DZ 1377 Shéndān jué 4b–10b.
The scripture is a major Táng Shàngqīng exegetical-penitential compilation, and one of the fullest Táng witnesses to the jiěguò 解過 (“loosening-of-faults”) ritual tradition later absorbed into the Sòng liàndù mortuary liturgy.
Translations and research
- Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme, 2 vols.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:615–616 (DZ 423).