Dòngxuán língbǎo zhōngqìng wēiyí jīng 洞玄靈寶鐘磬威儀經
Scripture of the Liturgical Standards for Bells and Chime-Stones in the Dòngxuán Língbǎo
About the work
Third member of the 三經同卷被一 fascicle (cf. KR5b0232, KR5b0233). The text is a Tang-era ritual treatise on the use of bells (zhōng 鐘) and stone-chimes (qìng 磬) within the Daoist liturgical setting; the catalog assigns it to 唐.
Abstract
The work is framed as a revelation given by the Tàishàng 太上 to Zhìdé zhēnrén 智德真人 and his five hundred Perfected disciples, who together approach the master and request instruction on the standards (wēiyí) for gathering the assembly. The Tàishàng explains that the assembly has two species: the shèngzhòng 聖衆 (sage-assembly) and the fánzhòng 凡衆 (common-assembly); both are summoned by the sound of the bell.
A cosmological etiology follows: Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊, in the sèjiè 色界 (form-realm) heavens, used to expound the Dharma; when the assembly arrived in irregular order, he emitted ten rays of light from between his eyebrows that illumined the cosmos. To “demonstrate his great divine power” he performed the zhēnyī miàodào 眞一妙道, combining the wǔhé 五和 (five harmonies) into countless precious bells, each placed at a directional position. The bells emitted līngyīn 靈音 (numinous sound) over heaven and earth, “ringing like līnláng 琳琅” and resonating night and day with the twelve chén of the day’s cycle. All living beings who heard the sound were transformed.
The body of the text then sets out the regulations for the use of bells and chimes at the various phases of the Daoist liturgical day: morning, noon, evening, vigil; opening, dedicating, closing; assembling, dismissing. Per Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 1: 482–483, John Lagerwey, DZ 531), the work draws on Buddhist parallels (the bǎozhōng 寳鐘 cosmology echoes Buddhist sutras on the fánzhōng 梵鐘) but transposes them into a thoroughly Daoist register.
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: 482–483 (DZ 531, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Lagerwey, John. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: Macmillan, 1987 — for the role of bells and percussion in modern Daoist ritual descended from this stratum.