Dòngxuán língbǎo sānshī jì 洞玄靈寶三師記
Record of the Three Masters, of the Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure attributed to 劉處靜
(The catalog meta follows Schipper-Verellen in the traditional attribution to Liú Chǔjìng 劉處靜 (hào Guǎngchéng xiānshēng 廣成先生). Verellen’s study of Dù Guāngtíng (1989, 18) argues that the traditional attribution is in fact incorrect — Liú Chǔjìng died in 873 and cannot be the author of a preface dated 920 — and that the hào Guǎngchéng xiānshēng here may point to Dù Guāngtíng himself, though Dù’s authorship is also problematic. Preserved as “Liú Chǔjìng” per the catalog and source rubric.)
About the work
A nine-folio late-Táng / early-Wǔdài Daoist liturgical text on the “Three Masters” (sānshī 三師) who figure in every Daoist ordination — the Master of Initiation (dùshī 度師, the adept’s own teacher), the Master of the Register (jíshī 籍師, the teacher’s teacher), and the Master of the Scriptures (jīngshī 經師, the latter’s teacher). Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn with DZ 445 (KR5b0129).
Prefaces
The preface is dated gēngchén 庚辰 — i.e. 920. The author signs himself “Guǎngchéng xiānshēng Liú Chǔjìng 廣成先生劉處靜.” At 8b the author describes himself as “disciple of Master Guǎngchéng,” an epithet under which only Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭 is elsewhere known (cf. DZ 296 Lìshì zhēnxiān tǐdào tōngjiàn 40.11a–13a). But the chronology does not fit: the historical Liú Chǔjìng 劉處靜 died in 873 (DZ 602 Xiāndū zhì 1.14b — where the cyclical date xīnyǒu 辛酉 does not quite match Xiántōng 14) and was, in any case, the co-disciple rather than the disciple of Yīng Yíjié 應夷節 (the “initiating master” of the present text), being co-disciples under Féng Wéiliáng 馮惟良 (4b–5a). The attribution is therefore disputed.
Abstract
Dated to the preface’s gēngchén 920 by Cedzich (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 418–419, DZ 444). Whatever the exact authorial situation, the work functions as a record of the lineage of the Three Masters in a specific Táng / early-Wǔdài transmission. The genealogy ascends from Féng Wéiliáng’s master Tián Xūyìng 田虛應, who ended his career on Tiāntái shān after a long residence on Héng shān; the work combines narrative biography with liturgical-theological framing of the Three Masters tradition.
The text is a valuable source for the late-Táng Daoist ordination lineage, particularly for the ShàngqīngLíngbǎo merged liturgy centred on Tiāntái.
Translations and research
- Verellen, Franciscus. Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale. Paris: Collège de France, 1989, 18 (on the authorship problem).
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:418–419 (DZ 444).