Língbǎo jìngmíng yuàn jiàoshī Zhōu Zhēngōng qǐqǐng huàyī 靈寶淨明院教師周真公起請畫一
Itemised Petitions of Master Zhōu of the Língbǎo Jìng-míng Cloister by 周方文 (撰)
About the work
A single-juǎn catechetical compilation in which the Jìngmíng 淨明 teaching-master 周方文 (Zhōu zhēngōng 周真公) presents the “single-stroke” (huàyī 畫一, i.e. itemised) doctrinal qǐqǐng 起請 (queries-and-petitions) addressed by him to his six zhēnshī 真師 (perfected masters), together with their answers. The work is a key witness to the late-Sòng to Yuán Jìngmíng doctrinal milieu of the Xīshān 西山 lineage based at Nánchāng 南昌.
Abstract
The text opens with the formula “Fāngzhàng shànghé liùwèi zhēnshī jìshòu yǐ jìngmíng zhēnjīng, jīng yǒu àoyì, hé kòuwèn xuánwēi…” 方丈上荷六位真師既授以淨明真經，經有奧義，合叩問玄微 (“Our Abbot, having been favoured by the six perfected masters with the Jìngmíng zhēnjīng, finds that the scripture has profound meanings, which it is fitting to enquire after in its mystical fineness”). It then proceeds through some dozens of itemised queries: e.g. jīng yún xiūwúdào zhě kě yīng yuánshù cānshì Yùchén 經云修吾道者可膺員數參侍玉晨 — “the scripture says, ‘one who cultivates my Way may receive his quota and attend upon the Jade Dawn’…”; the masters’ responses fix the practical conditions on the figurative readings of the parent scripture.
The catechetical structure is rare in the Daoist canon — closer to the Confucian yǔlù 語錄 (recorded conversations) genre than to a liturgical manual — and is a major source for understanding the late-Sòng to Yuán reception of the Jìngmíng tradition’s central scripture (the Huángsù shū 黄素書, here as KR5b0259 / DZ 555). Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1093–1094, John Lagerwey) note that the huàyī genre — items petitioning the throne — is here transposed into the master-disciple framework.
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: 1093–1094 (DZ 554, John Lagerwey).
- Akizuki, Kan’ei. Chūgoku kinsei dōkyō no keisei: Jōmyō-dō no kisoteki kenkyū. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1978.