Shàngqīng zhòngzhēn jiào jiè déxíng jīng 上清眾真教戒德行經
Scripture of the Highest-Clarity Multitude of Perfected on Precepts, Virtue and Practice
About the work
A short anthology in one juàn (DZ 458, fasc. 203, paired in the same fascicle as KR5b0143 Dòngxuán língbǎo Tiānzūn shuō shíjiè jīng) of teachings on precepts and the cultivation of virtue, attributed to a chorus of Shàngqīng 上清 zhēnrén: Fāngzhū qīngtóngjūn 方諸青童君, Xīchéng Wángjūn 西城王君, and Tàishàng 太上 himself. The format is a series of brief teachings, each prefaced with the Zhēnrén’s name, on themes such as: the suffering of pursuit of the Way vs. the suffering of secular life; the rare confluence of conditions making human birth and the encounter with the Way possible (the liùnán 六難); the brevity of life (“the human life-span is in the space of a breath”); and the seven guò 過 (excesses) that block progress.
Abstract
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 1: 248–249, entry by John Lagerwey) classify this work within the Shàngqīng-Lingbao paraenetic stratum, locating it among the Six Dynasties Shàngqīng precept anthologies roughly contemporary with the Zhēn’gào 真誥 (compiled by Táo Hóngjǐng 陶弘景, 499–500). The text shares vocabulary and figures (Fāngzhū Qīngtóng, Xīchéng Wángjūn) with the core Shàngqīng revelations of Yáng Xī 楊羲 (b. 330) and the brothers Xǔ. Several of its sayings appear verbatim in the Wúshàng bìyào 無上祕要 (c. 583), confirming the Six Dynasties terminus ante quem.
The work is structurally a yǔlù of revealed Shàngqīng aphorisms on lay religious life: it is among the early Daoist texts to articulate the difficulty of the human condition (liùnán) in a manner that closely echoes Buddhist exegesis. The fragmentary Sānyán wǔdú literature appears to draw on this work. The text is divided into upper and lower halves transmitted together (上下/同卷).
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 1: 248–249 (DZ 458, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme. 2 vols. Paris: Publications de l’EFEO, 1984.