Jīnlù yánshòu shèjiào yí 金籙延壽設醮儀

Longevity-Extending Offering-Rite of the Golden-Register Fast

About the work

A one-fascicle shèjiào yí 設醮儀 (set-up of the offering rite) appended in the Míng Zhèngtǒng dàozàng to the close of the Dù Guāngtíng Jīnlù longevity sequence (KR5b0178KR5b0181). The catalog entry labels it Míng; following Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 996–997, John Lagerwey), it is a Sòng-to-Míng adaptation that recasts the Táng-Wǔdài qíshòu Jīnlù in the standardised Sòng-Yuán jiào 醮 format, in which the final imperial offering is dedicated to longevity (yánshòu 延壽).

Abstract

The text opens with the wǔxīng 五星 (Five Planets) opening verse — Wǔxīng lièzhào huànmíng wǔfāng 五星列照煥明五方 — which became the standard exorcistic-protective hymn for late-medieval and early-modern jiào offerings (see also KR5b0192 j. 1). The enumeration of the celestial recipients includes by name many late additions characteristic of post-Sòng pantheons (Shénxiāo Yùqīng chángshēng dàdì 神霄玉清長生大帝, Mǎ–Zhào–Guān–Wēn sì dàyuánshuài 馬趙關温四大元帥, the four marshals of the Shénxiāo 神霄 tradition), confirming the Sòng / Míng dating proposed by Lagerwey.

The catalog meta assigns the work to 明 without naming an author; in fact the redactional history follows the same anonymous, accretional pattern as several other Jīnlù expansions in DZ 494–498 (cf. KR5b0183KR5b0192). The composition window is conservatively bracketed by the Yuán-Míng transition (c. 1300) and the Zhèngtǒng compilation of the Daozang (1444).

Translations and research

Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome

  • Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 2: 996–997 (DZ 494, entry by John Lagerwey).
  • Lagerwey, John. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: Macmillan, 1987.