Tàishàng língbǎo yùguì míngzhēn zhāi chànfāng yí 太上靈寶玉匱明真齋懺方儀
Liturgy of Confession-by-Direction in the Great-High Língbǎo Jade-Casket Luminous-Perfected Fast
by 杜光庭 (修)
About the work
Companion piece to the larger Dàzhāi chànfāng yí KR5b0223 (DZ 520) — both share a single fascicle under the rubric 二儀同卷化三 (“two liturgies in one fascicle, Huà 3”) — and predecessor to the Yángōng yí KR5b0224 (DZ 521, Huà 4). All three are explicitly attributed to Dù Guāngtíng 杜光庭 (the source rubric reads 廣成先生杜光庭修). The trio constitutes Dù’s redaction of the Língbǎo Yùguì míngzhēn 玉匱明真 fast — a Sòng-era liturgical descendant of the Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo yùguì míngzhēn dàzhāi yánjiè wēiyí jīng (in the Sāndòng zhūjīng tradition).
Abstract
The work is a dūchàn 都懴 — a comprehensive directional confession-rite. The celebrant and the assembled congregation declare formal zhīxīn guīmìng 至心歸命 to the Shífāng wújí Tàishàng língbǎo tiānzūn 十方無極太上靈寳天尊 (the Língbǎo tiānzūn of the ten directions) and to the Shíjí tiānjūn 十極天君, soliciting chànxiè 懴謝 (confession-thanksgiving) from each of the ten salvific powers. The schema is the standard Daoist appropriation of the Mahāyāna fāngchàn 方懺 (directional confession), here directed to the Daoist rather than the Buddhist pantheon. Per Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1083, John Lagerwey, DZ 519), the work is the shorter of Dù’s two paired chànfāng liturgies and is intended for the everyday performance of confession within the Yùguì míngzhēn programme.
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: 1083 (DZ 519, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Verellen, Franciscus. Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale. Paris: Collège de France, IHEC, 1989.