Língbǎo yùjiàn 靈寶玉鑑
Jade Mirror of the Língbǎo
About the work
A forty-three-fascicle compendium of Língbǎo liturgical methods, structured by mén 門 (gates) and zīcì 資次 (orderly stages). The work stands among the largest Daoist liturgical encyclopedias of the Southern-Sòng to Yuán period and is the principal SòngYuán technical manual for the conduct of the major Língbǎo fasts — comparable in scope, but more “technical” in character, than KR5b0211 (Jiǎng Shūyú’s Wúshàng huánglù dàzhāi lìchéng yí). The detailed table of contents is preserved as a separate work, KR5b0249 (DZ 546). The source rubric of juǎn 1 reads 靈寳玉鑑卷之一頼二 (“LB Yùjiàn, juǎn 1, Lài 2”), with the Lài numbering corresponding to the work’s position immediately after the Mùlù (which is numbered Dùn 1 / 頓一).
Abstract
The opening juǎn lays out the Dàofǎ shìyí mén 道法釋疑門 (gate of resolving doubts in the Daoist method). The first sub-section, Língbǎo zhāifǎ shìyí 靈寳齋法釋疑, presents the doctrine of the Sìyì 四譯 (Four Translations): the four canonical “translations” (yì 譯) by which the Língbǎo scripture descended into the world. (1) The first translation: “The Língbǎo classics-and-methods, from the moment the Yùchén dàojūn 玉宸道君 obtained the shǔzhū 黍珠 and was bestowed the Chìshū yùzì bāwēi lóngwén 赤書玉字八威龍文 from the upper heavens — [these texts] were treasured above and not transmitted to the lower world.” (2) The second translation: “The Dàojūn narrated their miraculous powers and transformations, set them at the head of the scriptures, and earnestly impressed upon students that they should hold faithfully and practise with their full strength — these became attached to the back of the scriptures.” (3) The third translation: “The Dàojūn composed the Língshū zhōngpiān 靈書中篇 and the Tiānzhēn huángrén 天眞皇人 wrote it down in former times as the orthodox sound — this is the third translation.” (4) The fourth translation … (continues in the source).
The remaining forty-two juǎn expound each of the topics enumerated in the mùlù: from the altar-construction, banner-and-canopy specification, talisman scripts, cúnshén visualisations, zhàojiàng general-summoning, shénhǔ spirit-tiger pursuit, liàndù refining-and-deliverance of souls, day-by-day audience programme, through the closing xièēn jiào and fàngshēng rites. Each section is treated as a technical-doctrinal exposition rather than as a step-by-step liturgical script.
Per Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 3: 1097–1099, John Lagerwey, DZ 547), the work is a Southern-Sòng to Yuán composition with strong connections to the Língbǎo dàfǎ tradition of the SòngYuán imperial-state programme; the work was carried over into the Míng Zhèngtǒng dàozàng (1444) and is one of the principal sources for the late-Sòng / Yuán technical operation of the Daoist fast.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 3: 1097–1099 (DZ 547, entry by John Lagerwey).
- Boltz, Judith M. A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1987 — registers the Língbǎo yùjiàn as a major Sòng-Yuán compendium.
- Andersen, Poul. The Paradise of the Mind: Visualization and Daoist Practice. London: Routledge, forthcoming — discussion of the cún-shén protocols of the Sòng-Yuán Língbǎo tradition, drawing on DZ 547.
Other points of interest
The opening doctrine of the Sìyì (Four Translations) is one of the most systematic Daoist accounts of the Língbǎo canon’s mythical-textual history and provides the late-Sòng’s most explicit answer to the question “how did the Língbǎo scriptures come into the world?” — answering: in four distinct “translations” by the Yùchén dàojūn, ranging from the original celestial revelation through the descent of the Tiānzhēn huángrén and the production of the canonical written text.