Hóng’ēn Língjì zhēnjūn zìrán xíngdào yí 洪恩靈濟真君自然行道儀
The Spontaneous Practice-of-the-Way Liturgy of the Vast-Beneficence Numinously-Salvific Perfected Lords
About the work
A single-juàn liturgical text of the early-Míng cult of the Hóng’ēn Língjì zhēnjūn 洪恩靈濟真君 — the deified brothers Xú Zhīzhèng 徐知證 (the elder, Jiāngwáng 江王) and Xú Zhī’è 徐知諤 (the younger, Ráowáng 饒王), Five Dynasties Wú / NánTáng generals later transformed into Daoist zhēnjūn. The text gives the standard daily xíngdào 行道 procedure for ritual practice at the shrines of the Two Lords: the fǎshì rúshì 法事如式 (procedural rubric), the lǐshī cúnniàn 禮師存念 (reverence to the master and meditative visualization), the opening jīnzhēn 金真 lǜxiá 緑霞 hymn, the twenty-four-fold drumming (míng fǎgǔ èrshísì tōng 鳴法鼓二十四通), and the invocation of the Five-Luminary Old Lord (Tàishàng xuányuán wǔlíng Lǎojūn 太上玄元五靈老君).
Abstract
This is the first text in the canonical Yǒnglè-era ritual cycle of nine works (KR5b0152 through KR5b0160) compiled in the early 15th century at the Língjìgōng 靈濟宮 in Nánjīng. The cult was elevated to imperial status after the Yǒnglè emperor 永樂帝 was cured of a serious illness by what he experienced as the spiritual intervention of the Two Lords, c. 1417; the imperial Língjìgōng inscription (preserved in KR5b0160) is dated 永樂十五年五月初一日 (1 May 1417), supplying the terminus post quem for the cycle. The full liturgical apparatus was completed by the closing years of Yǒnglè (d. 1424) and printed for distribution to provincial Língjì shrines.
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1220–1221, entry by Vincent Goossaert) describe the cycle as the principal liturgical monument of an imperially patronised localized cult, and one of the few large-scale Míng-era state-cult ritual systems preserved in the Dàozàng. The zìrán xíngdào yí is the foundational daily-cycle text, providing the basic framework into which the more specialised offerings of KR5b0153–KR5b0159 insert themselves.
The cult’s historical core: Xú Zhīzhèng and Xú Zhī’è were the second and third sons of Xú Wēn 徐溫 (862–927), the powerful Wú minister, and elder brothers of Xú Zhīgào 徐知誥 (Lǐ Biàn 李昪, founding emperor of Nán Táng); they served as generals under Wú and Nán Táng, were enfeoffed as Jiāngwáng and Ráowáng, and were posthumously deified by the Mǐn 閩 populace at Áofēng 鼇峯 in Min for their humane conduct during the 940s campaign into Fujian. The shrine cult grew through the SòngYuán. The Yǒnglè emperor’s c. 1417 illness brought the cult into imperial prominence.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 2: 1220–1221 (DZ 468, entry by Vincent Goossaert).
- Berling, Judith A. “Channels of Connection in Sung Religion: The Case of Pai Yü-ch’an.” In Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China, eds. Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory, 307–333. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
- Goossaert, Vincent. “Heavenly Master and Lingji Shrines in Late Imperial China.” Forthcoming.