Dòngxuán língbǎo hétú yǎngxiè sānshíliù tǔhuáng zhāiyí 洞玄靈寶河圖仰謝三十六土皇齋儀
Liturgy of the Dòngxuán Língbǎo Yellow-River-Chart Fast for Looking-Up-and-Thanking the Thirty-Six Earth-Emperors
About the work
Companion to KR5b0218 (DZ 515): where that work addresses the sānshíliù tiān (thirty-six heavens), the present four-fascicle work addresses the sānshíliù tǔhuáng 三十六土皇 (thirty-six earth-emperors), the chthonic deities presiding over the thirty-six layers of the underworld in Daoist Língbǎo cosmography. The catalog assigns the work to 唐後期 (late Táng); Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 1: 556) date it to the same broad pre-Sòng period as DZ 515.
Abstract
The structure parallels that of DZ 515. Each of juǎn 1–4 covers nine of the thirty-six earth-emperors, advancing through the layers in a fixed sequence: Sèrùndì dìyī tǔhuángjūn 色潤地第一土皇君, then dìèr, etc. The opening rite faces east and proceeds clockwise, with the celebrant prostrating, knocking the head, and pinching incense for each layer in turn. The principal dedication, articulated in the first rubric of juǎn 1, is the imperial mandate (dāngjīn huángdì 當今皇帝); the rite’s overt purpose is to thank the earth-deities for sustaining the imperial dispensation and to deflect drought, flood, and disease.
Per Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 1: 555–556, John Lagerwey, DZ 516), this work is a Táng-period elaboration of the older Língbǎo tǔhuáng worship, with characteristic late-Táng formulary; the received recension is preserved through the Míng Zhèngtǒng dàozàng.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 1: 555–556 (DZ 516, entry by John Lagerwey).