Xǔ Zhēnjūn shòu liànxíngshén Shàngqīng bìdào fǎyào jiéwén 許真君受鍊形神上清畢道法要節文
Excerpted Essentials of the Shàngqīng “Complete-the-Way” Method, Received by Lord Xǔ the Perfected for the Refining of Form and Spirit
About the work
A single-juǎn extract of fǎyào 法要 (essentials of the Method) covering the liànxíngshén 鍊形神 (refining form-and-spirit) protocols received by the Daoist patriarch Xǔ Sūn (許遜 = Xǔzhēnjūn 許真君), the Jiāngxī figure who is the patron saint of the Jìngmíng 淨明 tradition. The text is the second of the cluster DZ 549–DZ 553 of Jìngmíng / Tiānshūyuàn manuals; the manual itself notes that this juǎn is one of four kindred pieces bound together under a single shelfmark (sì piān tóng juǎn 四篇同卷).
Abstract
The frontmatter, after a four-text table of contents (Xǔzhēnjūn shòuliànxíngshén + Tiānshūyuàn dūsī xūzhī lìng + Tiānshūyuàn dūsī xūzhī gé + Língbǎo jìngmíng Tiānshū dūsī fǎyuàn xūzhī fǎwén), opens with the words “Tàishàng yuē…” 太上曰 (“Tàishàng said: ‘The fundamental chapters of the Língbǎo huíhái qǐsǐ — returning the bones and raising the dead, healing illness, subduing demons, gagging poisons, and felling the wicked — all have great commanders and a fire-flinging divinity in constant attendance…’”). The text proceeds chapter-by-chapter through the inner-cultivation correlates of these capacities: the yǎngshén liànxíng hùhún guīyī zhāng 養神鍊形護魂歸一章 (nurturing spirit, refining form, guarding the soul, returning to the One), the héhé zìrán tiáoshén zhāng (harmonising-and-uniting, of the naturally-tuned spirit), the qìhé yuánlíng shénchùshēng zhāng, and so on. Each chapter pairs a short Tàishàng aphorism with a technical visualisation rooted in the Shàngqīng anatomy (níwán 泥丸 = upper dāntián, jiànggōng 絳宮 = central dāntián, etc.).
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1091, John Lagerwey) place this manual in the same Southern-Sòng to Yuán Jìngmíng milieu as DZ 549 (KR5b0253); the text is anonymous, although the framework attaches the authority of the lineage to Xǔ Sūn as the receiver of the Method. The manual is one of the most explicit Jìngmíng witnesses to the integration of Shàngqīng inner-alchemical lore with the late-imperial liàndù 鍊度 mortuary practice.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Vol. 2: 1091 (DZ 550, John Lagerwey).
- Akizuki, Kan’ei. Chūgoku kinsei dōkyō no keisei: Jōmyō-dō no kisoteki kenkyū. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1978.