Shàngqīng xiūxíng jīng jué 上清修行經訣
Formulary for Shàngqīng Practices
About the work
A twenty-nine-folio Táng Shàngqīng anthology of practical prescriptions — an authentic formulary in which each practice is preceded by a title with a gloss indicating the source chapter.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the first exercise — Jū sānhún fǎ 拘三魂法 (“Method for Binding the Three Souls”), with a source-gloss attributing it to the Shàngjīng língshū zǐwén 上經靈書紫文 — and carries no author preface.
Abstract
Dated to the Táng by Robinet (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 616, DZ 427). The work is an explicit source-catalogue: each practice bears its source attribution in a small-character note. With the exception of one passage (10b–11b) drawn from a Língbǎo scripture (DZ 352 Chìshū yùjué miàojīng 1.25b and 24a), every other text in the collection comes from Shàngqīng sources:
- DZ 1016 Zhēn’gào 真誥 (the first page — without attribution);
- DZ 639 Huángtiān shàngqīng jīnquè dìjūn língshū zǐwén shàngjīng;
- DZ 1313 Dòngzhēn gāoshàng yùdì dàdòng cíyī yùjiǎn wǔlǎo bǎojīng;
- DZ 1380 Shàngqīng tàishàng huángsù sìshísì fāng jīng;
- DZ 1315 Dòngzhēn shàngqīng qīngyào zǐshū jīngēn zhòngjīng;
- DZ 1314 Dòngzhēn tàishàng sùlíng dòngyuán dàyǒu miàojīng;
- DZ 1378 Shàngqīng jīnzhēn yùguāng bājǐng fēijīng;
- DZ 1379 Shàngqīng yùdì qīshèng xuánjī huítiān jiǔxiāo jīng.
The final paragraph (25b to the end) cites a Xiāomó jīng 消魔經 — a citation not found in any extant work of that title but paralleled in Yúnjí qīqiān 47.10b–11a.
The text is a valuable specimen of Táng Shàngqīng scholastic anthologising: a working practitioner’s reference-book grouping key exercises with precise source-attribution.
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, 1:616 (DZ 427).