Tàishàng fēixíng jiǔchén yùjīng 太上飛行九晨玉經
Jade Scripture on the Flight to the Nine Stars, of the Most High
About the work
A thirty-four-folio Six-Dynasties Shàngqīng scripture on flight to the Nine Stars — the seven stars of the Northern Dipper together with the two invisible stars Fǔ 輔 and Bì 弼 (also called the Kōngcháng 空常). The text bears the sub-title Jīnjiǎn nèiwén 金簡內文 (“Esoteric Scripture on Golden Tablets”).
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the Tàishàng dàojūn’s discourse to the Běijí zhēnrén and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the Six Dynasties by Robinet (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 166–167, DZ 428). The work is quoted in Wúshàng bìyào and Sāndòng zhūnáng under the title [Huíyuán jiǔdào] Fēixíng yùjīng 回元九道飛行玉經 (compare DZ 1331 Dòngzhēn tàishàng fēixíng yùjīng jiǔzhēn shēngxuán shàngjì). Fēixíng yùjīng is a canonical Shàngqīng title (cf. DZ 1016 Zhēn’gào 5.4b; DZ 442 Shàngqīng hòushèng dàojūn lièjì 2a).
The received text has two distinct parts:
- Part 1 (to 25b) — the actual Fēixíng yùjīng. It describes the Dipper-pacing (bùgāng 步綱) practice, which begins with a dance on the invisible stars surrounding the Dipper. These stars are identified as the hún 魂 and pò 魄 souls inhabited by female deities. A description of the Dipper stars and their presiding deities follows. The practice is linked to the Kōngcháng 空常 method (cf. DZ 875 Tàishàng lǎojūn dà cúnsī tú zhùjué and DZ 324 Shàngqīng wǔcháng biàntōng wànhuà yùmíng jīng = KR5b0008) and to the Lóngfēi chìsù 龍飛赤素 formula (see DZ 1326 Dòngzhēn shàngqīng lóngfēi jiǔdào chìsù yǐnjué).
- Part 2 (25b to end) — a shortened and slightly modified version of DZ 1316 Dòngzhēn shàngqīng tàiwēi dìjūn hù tiāngāng fēi dìjī jīnjiǎn yùzì shàngjīng 7b–18b. This section is never quoted by sixth- or seventh-century anthologies under the present title; the Jīnjiǎn nèiwén 金簡內文 sub-title (= Jīnjiǎn yùzì 金簡玉字) refers specifically to this part, which was grafted onto the original Fēixíng yùjīng at a much later date.
The complete text is quoted in Yúnjí qīqiān 20.
Translations and research
- Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme, 2 vols.
- Andersen, Poul. The Method of Holding the Three Ones: A Taoist Manual of Meditation of the Fourth Century A.D. London: Curzon, 1980.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:166–167 (DZ 428).