Qīngxuán jiùkǔ bǎochàn 青玄救苦寶懺
Precious Confession of the Mysterious-Pure Salvation from Suffering
About the work
First of a pair (二懴同卷被七) sharing the same fascicle with KR5b0243, the Cízūn shēngdù bǎochàn. Both are confession-liturgies addressed to the Dōngjí qīngxuán shàngdì 東極青玄上帝 (Mysterious-Pure Supreme Emperor of the Eastern Pole), the Daoist deity of the eastern paradise to which the saved dead ascend.
Abstract
The text begins with the standard preparatory acts: qǐ-jìng zàn 起敬讃 (hymn of arousing reverence), the sān-guī-yī 三皈依 (three takings of refuge — adapted from the Buddhist triśaraṇa), the fū-zuò zàn 敷坐讃 (seating hymn). The principal celebrant then “reverentially burns incense and respectfully announces” (恭謹焚香䖍誠奏啓) the rite to: the Zhì-zhēn wú-shàng dào-bǎo 至真無上道寳 (the Tàishàng sān-zūn 太上三尊), the Zhì-zhēn wú-shàng jīng-bǎo 至真無上經寳 (the sānshíliù bù zūn-jīng 三十六部尊經 — the thirty-six divisions of revered scripture), the Zhì-zhēn wú-shàng shī-bǎo 至真無上師寳 (the Xuán-zhōng dà-fǎ-shī 玄中大法師 and the Huáng-… hierarchy of master-deities). The triple invocation by the Dào-Jīng-Shī sān-bǎo 道經師三寳 schema indicates a fully matured Sòng-Yuán liturgical idiom.
The body of the work is the confession proper, addressed to the Qīngxuán shàngdì and the Tàiyī jiùkǔ tiānzūn, seeking the salvation of the deceased.
Per Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1026, John Lagerwey, DZ 539), the work is a standard SòngYuán jiùkǔ confession-liturgy 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. 2: 1026 (DZ 539, entry by John Lagerwey).