Jīnlù zhāi qǐtán yí 金籙齋啟壇儀
Altar-Opening Liturgy for the Golden-Register Fast compiled by 杜光庭
About the work
The first of fifteen extant Jīnlù 金籙 liturgical texts compiled by Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭 (850–933) and preserved together in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (KR5b0167–KR5b0181, DZ 483–497, fasc. 233–235). The Jīnlù 金籙 (Golden Register) zhāi is the highest grade of Daoist zhāi fast — performed by or on behalf of the emperor for the protection of the state, the rectification of cosmic disturbance, and the suppression of calamity. The qǐtán yí 啟壇儀 (“altar-opening liturgy”) is the preparatory consecration of the Jīnlù altar before the multi-day rite begins.
Prefaces
The opening xùshì 序事 (1a–2a) by Dù Guāngtíng frames the entire Jīnlù cycle. “Tàishàng has the Sānyuán jiǎnwén, broadly upholding the saving compassion that grants benefit to the hidden and the visible, that all the living and the dead may receive grace. The Shàngyuán Jīnlù is for the imperial lord, to settle the gods of soil and grain, to protect the living. It dispels heavenly calamities above, averts earthly disasters below, governs the cycles of jié, calms the mountains and streams, suppresses spirits and demons, and clears away evil.” Dù lists the cosmic-and-political disturbances that warrant the Jīnlù rite — planetary aberration, eclipse, earthquake, drought, plague, locust infestation, war, fire — and asserts that performance “must be sincere and earnest, full unstinting purity, with effort that can move and connect [to the gods].”
The text then sets out in full the altar regulations: dimensions (the outer altar 4.5 zhàng wide × 2 chǐ high; the middle altar 3.3 zhàng × 2 chǐ; the inner altar 2.4 zhàng × 2 chǐ; total altar height 6 chǐ “in accordance with the number of Kūn”); the placement of the zhuàn 纂 banner-shafts (38 long + 30 short = 68 in three altars); the orientation of the twelve principal gates by stem-and-branch (hài = Heaven Gate with black writing on blue placard; sì = Earth Door with red writing on yellow placard; etc.); the colours of writing-and-placard for each gate; the bāguà trigram-direction placards on the outer altar; and the precise measures of paint, vermilion, cinnabar, lampblack, lacquer, brushes, mats, and altar furniture required to assemble the apparatus.
Abstract
This is one of the foundational documents of late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Daoist liturgical practice — a precise, almost engineering specification of the high-state Jīnlù altar. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 994–996, entry by John Lagerwey) treat the entire Dù Guāngtíng Jīnlù corpus (KR5b0167–KR5b0181) as the most important single source for the high Tang state-Daoism liturgy, both for what it preserves of late-Tang court ritual and as the foundation of all subsequent SòngYuán Jīnlù practice.
Dating: composed in Chéngdū 成都 in the late Táng or early Former Shǔ (between c. 901 and Dù’s death in 933), during Dù’s tenure as ritual officiant first at the court of Xīzōng 僖宗 (in exile in Chéngdū after 880) and then at the courts of Wáng Jiàn 王建 and Wáng Yǎn 王衍 of the Former Shǔ. The internal references to Sānyuán jiǎnwén 三元簡文 and Língbǎo dàshèng 靈寶大乘 vocabulary, together with Dù’s authorial colophon 廣成先生杜光庭集 (“collected by Master Guǎngchéng, Dù Guāngtíng”), date the composition to the late phase of Dù’s career when he held the Guǎngchéng title (granted 923).
The qǐtán sequence proceeds through: xùshì (preamble); jīnlùtán configuration; placement and colours of the twelve gates and trigram-altars; manufacture of zhuàn banners; required materials and quantities; arrangement of seating and altar furniture; placement of zhūzǐ 朱字 five-direction zhēnwén 真文 talismans on blue paper; and finally the qǐtán invocation proper. The text is thus a complete manualium for the establishment of an imperial Jīnlù altar.
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: 994–996 (DZ 483, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Verellen, Franciscus. Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale. Paris: Collège de France, Mémoires de l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises 30, 1989. — the foundational monograph on Dù Guāngtíng.
- Lagerwey, John. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
- Cahill, Suzanne E. “Taoism at the Sung Court: The Heavenly Texts Affair of 1008.” Bulletin of Sung-Yüan Studies 16 (1980): 23–44.
Other points of interest
The detailed altar-engineering specifications of this work make it one of the most precious sources for the material culture of Tang-era Daoism: the dimensions and materials of the altar, the colours and texts of placards, the precise arrangement of banners, mats, and incense are nowhere else so concretely documented for the late Tang court.