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 (KR5b0178–KR5b0181). 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 TángWǔdài qíshòu Jīnlù in the standardised SòngYuán 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. KR5b0183–KR5b0192). The composition window is conservatively bracketed by the YuánMíng transition (c. 1300) and the Zhèngtǒng compilation of the Daozang (1444).
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: 996–997 (DZ 494, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Lagerwey, John. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: Macmillan, 1987.