Shàngqīng tàishàng bāsù zhēnjīng 上清太上八素真經
True Scripture of the Eight Purities, of the Most High Upper Clarity
About the work
A twenty-eight-folio Shàngqīng scripture on the eight female celestial deities called the Eight Purities (bāsù 八素). The received text is incomplete and appears originally to have formed part of DZ 1323 Dòngzhēn tàishàng bāsù zhēnjīng jūshì rìyuè huánghuā jué 洞真太上八素真經居室日月皇華訣.
Prefaces
The work opens with a brief transmission genealogy titled Tàishàng yǐnshū 太上隱書: the Bāsù zhēnjīng is the Way of the Xuánqīng Yùhuáng 玄清玉皇; it was first transmitted by the Shànghuáng tiāndì 上皇天帝 to the Tàiwēi tiāndì jūn 太微天帝君, the Sānyuán zǐjīng dàojūn 三元紫精道君, and the Zhēnyáng yuánlǎo jūn 真陽元老君; thence to the Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君, the Jīnquè hòushèng Lǐ jūn 金闕後聖李君, and so on.
Abstract
Dated to the Eastern Jìn by Robinet (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 142–143, DZ 426) within the original Shàngqīng revelation period. The stanzas titled Tāngē jiǔzhāng 湯歌九章 (cf. 13b), found in Wúshàng bìyào 20.4b–6b (partially corresponding to DZ 303 Zǐyáng zhēnrén nèizhuàn 17a–18a), once formed part of this work but are missing from the received text.
The present text divides into three parts. The first (4a–9b) presents a hierarchical list of Shàngqīng texts, indicating to which celestial eminences and heavens their practice gives access; this same list is found in Yúnjí qīqiān 6.6b–8a and in DZ 428 Tàishàng fēixíng jiǔchén yùjīng 2b–4a (KR5b0112). The work is a foundational document of the Shàngqīng tradition’s internal hierarchical self-understanding of its scriptural corpus.
Translations and research
- Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme. 2 vols. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1984.
- Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity. Albany: SUNY Press, 1993.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:142–143 (DZ 426).