Yùlù shēngshén zīdù zhuǎnjīng yí 玉籙生神資度轉經儀
Scripture-Recitation Liturgy of the Jade-Register Birth-of-the-Gods Salvific-Aid Fast
About the work
The zhuǎnjīng yí 轉經儀 (“scripture-recitation liturgy”) of the Yùlù zīdù cycle, labelled in the source 玉籙生神資度轉經儀率三 (“Lǜ 3”). The added shēngshén 生神 (“birth-of-the-gods”) in the title points to the recitation-text used here: not the Dùrén jīng (as in the parallel Jīnlù recitation cycles KR5b0189–KR5b0191) but the Dòngxuán Língbǎo zìrán jiǔtiān shēngshén zhāng jīng 洞玄靈寶自然九天生神章經 (KR5c0017), the central Daoist scripture for the cosmic regeneration of body and soul.
Abstract
The recitation of the Shēngshén jīng is the soteriological pivot of the Yùlù: the nine cosmogonic chapters (one for each of the jiǔtiān 九天, the Nine Heavens) describe the formation of the world out of the primordial qì and provide the symbolic instrument by which the deceased soul, also formed of jiǔtiān originary breaths, can be regenerated and led upward. The rite proceeds through nine huí 迴 of recitation, one per chapter (cf. f. 16b: 玉章已周九過). The dedication directs the cumulative merit of the nine-fold recitation toward the deliverance of the zīdù’s named deceased and the universal “lonely-wandering souls.”
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1003–1004, John Lagerwey) emphasise that this is the most distinctively Yùlù of the entire cycle, since the Shēngshén jīng — rather than the universally salvific Dùrén jīng — is the scripture specifically attuned to the work of zīdù for the dead.
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: 1003–1004 (DZ 503, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Andersen, Poul. “Concepts of Meaning in Chinese Ritual.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 12 (2001): 155–183 — on the Shēng-shén jīng recitation tradition.