Dōngyuè dàshēng bǎochàn 東嶽大生寶懺
Precious Confession-Liturgy of the Eastern Marchmount, the Great Begetter
About the work
Single-fascicle confession-liturgy addressed to the Dōngyuè dàdì 東嶽大帝 (the Great Emperor of the Eastern Marchmount, i.e. of Mount Tài), at this period understood as the Dàshēngrénshèng dì 大生仁聖帝 — the Tiānqí rénshèng dì 天齊仁聖帝 (Heaven-Equalling Benevolent-Sage Emperor) — the controlling deity of the Daoist underworld and of human lifespans. Numbered bèi 8 (被八) in the Dòngxuán sequence.
Abstract
The rite opens with the Jìngtiāndì zhòu 淨天地呪 (purification of heaven and earth) and the jìngtán (altar-purification), followed by an elaborate qǐbái 啓白 (preliminary declaration). The principal invocation lists, in remarkable detail, the entire pantheon of the Mount Tài cult: Dōngyuè Tàishān Qīngdì guǎngshēng dìjūn 東嶽泰山青帝廣生帝君; Dōngyuè tiānqí dàshēng rénshèng dì 東嶽天齊大生仁聖帝; Jiǔtiān sīmìng shàngqīng zhēnjūn 九天司命上卿真君 (the Heavenly Bureau of Destinies, Senior Daoist Perfected); the Shàngdiàn zhìshèng wēixióng bǐnglíng rénhuì wáng 上殿至聖威雄炳靈仁惠王 (the famous Bǐnglínggōng 炳靈公, son of the Eastern Marchmount); Dōngyuè shūmíng huánghòu 東嶽淑明皇后 (Empress of the Eastern Marchmount); Hùguó xīqí dàwáng 護國西齊大王 (the western auxiliary deity); the Péngxuán Kōngdòng dòngtiān xiānguān 蓬玄空洞洞天仙官 (immortal officers of the inner cavern-heavens); the Chángbáishān chǔfù xiānguān 長白山儲副仙官; the Liángfùshān chǔfù xiānguān 梁父山儲副仙官 (immortal officers of the Daoist subordinate-mountains within the Tàishān cult); the Shèngsì yòulíng hóu 聖嗣祐靈侯, Huìlíng hóu 惠靈侯, Jìngjiàn dàshī 靜鑑大師, etc.
The body of the work is the confession proper, addressed to the Dōng-yuè pantheon. The work is the principal Daoist liturgical vehicle of the highly elaborated Sòng-period Mount Tài cult — comparable in social-religious importance to the contemporary Buddhist Dì-zàng 地藏 (Kṣitigarbha) cult of the same period.
Per Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1029, John Lagerwey, DZ 541), the work is a Sòng composition, datable from the developed Bǐnglínggōng and Shūmíng huánghòu cult vocabulary it deploys.
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: 1029 (DZ 541, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Sawada Mizuho 澤田瑞穂. Jigoku-hen: Chūgoku no meikai-setsu 地獄変—中国の冥界説. Kyōto: Hōzōkan, 1968 — the standard study of the Mount Tài underworld.
- Chavannes, Édouard. Le T’ai chan: essai de monographie d’un culte chinois. Paris: Leroux, 1910 — the classical study of the Mount Tài cult.