Tàishàng xuánsī mièzuì zǐfǔ xiāozāi fǎchàn 太上玄司滅罪紫府消災法懺
Liturgical Confession of the Great-High Mysterious Bureau for the Extinction of Faults and the Purple Palace for the Dispelling of Calamities
About the work
A single-fascicle composite confession-liturgy directed to the Xuánsī 玄司 (Mysterious Bureau) and the Zǐfǔ 紫府 (Purple Palace) — twin celestial bureaus charged respectively with the extinction of faults (mièzuì 滅罪) and the dispelling of calamities (xiāozāi 消災). The work is numbered bèi 4 (被四) in the Dòngxuán sequence, following the Sānguān chàn triad.
Abstract
The opening Fǎshì rúyí qǐshèng 法事如儀啓聖 (“Ritual matters according to standard form; opening invocation of the Sages”) introduces the principal invocation: the Sānqīng shàngshèng 三清上聖, the Shíjí gāozhēn 十極髙真, the Jiǔtiān yìngyuán Léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn 九天應元雷聲普化天尊 (the Universally-Transforming Heavenly Worthy of the Thunderclap Resounding in the Nine Heavens — the principal Sòng-period léifǎ deity), the Tàiyáng dìjūn 太陽帝君 (the Lord of the Sun) and Tàiyīn huángjūn 太隂皇君 (the Empress of the Moon), the Wǔfāng wǔdé xīngjūn 五方五德星君 (Five-Direction Five-Virtue Star-Lords), the Sìqì sìyào xīngjūn 四炁四曜星君, the Nándǒu liùsī 南斗六司, the Běidǒu jiǔhuáng 北斗九皇, the Sāntái Huágài 三台華蓋, the Èrshíbā xiù 二十八宿, etc. The breadth and pattern of the invocation — and the central place given to the Léishēng pǔhuà tiānzūn — point to a SòngYuán composition, post-dating the rise of the Shénxiāo / léifǎ tradition under Huīzōng.
The body of the work is the confession proper, alternating petitions to the Xuánsī (for the extinction of named faults) and to the Zǐfǔ (for the dispelling of named calamities — drought, flood, plague, fire, banditry). Per Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1025, John Lagerwey, DZ 536), the work is a late composition transmitted 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. 2: 1025 (DZ 536, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Reiter, Florian C. Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007 — for the léi-fǎ tradition.