Hóng’ēn Língjì zhēnjūn qīzhèng xīngdēng yí 洪恩靈濟真君七政星燈儀
The Seven-Regulator Star-Lamp Liturgy of the Vast-Beneficence Numinously-Salvific Perfected Lords
About the work
The eighth of the nine-text Yǒnglè-era liturgical cycle of the Hóng’ēn Língjì zhēnjūn cult (KR5b0152–KR5b0160). The qīzhèng xīngdēng 七政星燈 (“Seven-Regulator Star-Lamps”) is a specialised astral-petition liturgy: the lamps of the Sun, Moon, and Five Planets (qīzhèng = the seven primary heavenly bodies) are lit in succession, and the fǎshī invokes each in turn through the mediation of the Two Lords. The text opens with the standard jífú invocation and the long titulature of the Two Lords (now expanded after the 1417 imperial enfeoffment: Jiǔtiān jīnquè míngdào dádé dàxiān xiǎnlíng pǔjì Qīngwēi dòngxuán chōngxū miàogǎn cíhuì hùguó bìmín Hóngēn zhēnjūn and Jiǔtiān yùquè xuānhuà fújiào shàngxiān zhāolíng bójì Gāomíng hóngjìng chōngzhàn miàoyìng rénhuì fǔguó yòumín Hóngēn zhēnjūn).
Abstract
The qīzhèng xīngdēng genre is one of the oldest in the Daoist liturgical repertory, traceable to the Běidǒu jīng and the Six Dynasties xīngdēng practices, but the present text recasts the form around the cult of the Two Lords. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1220–1221, entry by Vincent Goossaert) note that the work invokes the Lónghàn opening cosmogony and the Àojí 鼇極 (the cosmic pivot at Mount Áo, with explicit pun on Áofēng 鼇峯 = the original Mǐn shrine site), aligning the cult with the highest stratum of Daoist cosmology.
The catalog meta gives the date as 1397, but this is inconsistent with the full imperial titulature here (which presupposes the 1417 enfeoffment recorded in KR5b0160). The date should be revised to 1417–1424, contemporaneous with the rest of the cycle; the figure 1397 appears to be a terminus a quo derived from earlier (pre-imperial) cult-shrine documents, but the redaction here is Yǒnglè-era.
The rite is performed for protection from astral calamity, for the restoration of health, and for the cure of dysfunction; in the Língjì context it is also offered for the longevity and well-being of the imperial family.
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 475, entry by Vincent Goossaert).
- Mollier, Christine. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. — for the cross-traditional history of the qī-zhèng astral cult.
- Hou, Ching-lang 侯錦郎. “The Chinese Belief in Baleful Stars.” In Facets of Taoism, ed. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, 193–228. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.