Huánglù shíniàn yí 黃籙十念儀
Liturgy of the Ten Mindful Recollections of the Yellow-Register Fast
About the work
Item 2 (場二) of the six-part Huánglù mortuary series (DZ 509–514). The opening rubric 二儀同卷場二 (“two liturgies in one fascicle, Chǎng 2”) indicates that the fascicle in fact contains both this work and the immediately following Huánglù wǔlǎo dàowáng yí KR5b0214. In the standard Dàozàng the two are catalogued separately (DZ 510, DZ 511) but they share a single physical fascicle.
Abstract
The shí-niàn 十念 (“ten mindful recollections”) are a Daoist appropriation of the Buddhist daśa-anusmṛti / niàn-fó schema, transposed into the Daoist devotional register: ten successive verbal-mental recollections directed to the Sān-bǎo 三寳, the major salvific deities (Yù-huáng 玉皇, the Tài-yī jiù-kǔ tiān-zūn, the Dōng-jí qīng-xuán shàng-dì, etc.), and the lineage of Daoist masters. Each niàn is performed with hands joined and a formal verbal xuān-gào 宣告 to the deceased (“吿亡靈第一歸依”). The text is the official Daoist zhāi-rite counterpart to the Buddhist death-bed niàn-fó observances popular in the Sòng-Yuán period.
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: 1011 (DZ 510, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Lagerwey, John. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: Macmillan, 1987 — discusses the absorption of Buddhist niàn-fó into Daoist mortuary practice.