Dòngxuán língbǎo zìrán zhāiyí 洞玄靈寶自然齋儀
Liturgy of the Spontaneous Língbǎo Fast
About the work
Companion to KR5b0225 within the 二儀同卷化五 fascicle. The zìrán zhāi 自然齋 (“spontaneous fast”) is the foundational rite of the Língbǎo zìrán tradition — performed without the elaborate preparatory frameworks of the later Jīnlù and Huánglù programmes, on the principle that the fast should mirror the spontaneity (zìrán) of the Dào.
Abstract
The opening sequence is exceptionally compact, characteristic of the earliest Língbǎo zhāi model: lǐshī cúnniàn rúfǎ 禮師存念如法 (reverence the master and visualise according to rule), twenty-four strokes of the fǎgǔ, fālú (firing of the censer). The principal liturgical action is a single, comprehensive qǐngchēng fǎwèi directed to “this place’s tǔdì lǐyù zhēnguān zhèngshén” (此間土地里域眞官正神), with the celebrant declaring the intent of the fast and the named beneficiary’s petition. The cosmic dedication asks for the “shífāng zhèngzhēn shēngqì” 十方正眞生氣 (the life-pneuma of the ten directions’ upright Perfected) to descend into the celebrants’ bodies and to transmit the petition upward to the Sānqīng. The work is the most lapidary of the Sòng-period Língbǎo zhāi and was likely used as the simple-form opening rite for the lower-grade zhāi observances.
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: 569–570 (DZ 523, entry by John Lagerwey).