Dòngxuán língbǎo sānshī mínghuì xíngzhuàng jūguān fāngsuǒ wén 洞玄靈寶三師名諱形狀居觀方所文
Documents Concerning the Proper Names, Appearance, Temples, and Places of Residence of the Three Masters, of the Cavern-Mystery Numinous Treasure compiled by 張萬福 (編)
About the work
A five-folio Táng liturgical document compiled by the great imperial-Daoist liturgist Zhāng Wànfú 張萬福 (fl. ca. 713) of the Tàiqīng guàn 太清觀 in Cháng’ān. Transmitted in the Dàozàng in a composite juàn with DZ 444 (KR5b0128).
Prefaces
The text opens with the author’s name — “Sāndòng dìzǐ jīng Tàiqīng guàn dàoshì Zhāng Wànfú biān lù 三洞弟子京太清觀道士張萬福編錄” — and his own introductory statement on the doctrinal importance of the sānshī visualisation.
Abstract
Dated to Zhāng Wànfú’s floruit at the Tàiqīng guàn in Cháng’ān around 713 by Schipper (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 2: 460–461, DZ 445). Zhāng, himself the great liturgist for the imperial Tàiqīng guàn, reminds the reader that prior to every religious service the officiant must meditate on his Three Masters (cún sānshī 存三師): 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). This meditation is an act of homage (lǐshī 禮師) in which the masters’ age, rank, and place of residence (jūguān fāngsuǒ 居觀方所) should be recalled, and their physical appearance (xíngzhuàng 形狀) mentally evoked. These particulars are transmitted to the disciple at the moment of ordination into each of the ranks of the Daoist liturgical organisation — from the Zhèngyī 正一 rank up to the Dòngzhēn 洞真 rank.
The text is one of the single most informative Táng documents on the Daoist ordination hierarchy of the Kāiyuán period, and a foundational witness to the codification of the Three-Masters cult at the heart of Táng imperial Daoism.
Translations and research
- Benn, Charles D. The Cavern-Mystery Transmission: A Taoist Ordination Rite of A.D. 711. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1991 — on Zhāng Wànfú and the Táng ordination system.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:460–461 (DZ 445).