Tàishàng língbǎo jìngmíng fǎ xù 太上靈寶淨明法序
Preface to the Most-High Língbǎo Jìng-míng Method
About the work
A short single-juǎn preface to the Jìngmíng 淨明 (Pure-Brilliance) Method, bundled in the Daozang together with the closely related KR5b0264 (Tàishàng língbǎo jìngmíng fǎyìn shì) under the single shelfmark DZ 559. In the Kanripo segmentation, the two pieces have been split into separate identifiers, although the Daoist canon files them as a single unit.
Abstract
The opening reads: “Jìngmíng fǎ zhě, nǎi shàngqīng xuándū yùjīng zhī yǐnshū…” 淨明法者，乃上清玄都玉京之隱書 (“The Jìngmíng Method is the hidden book of the Shàngqīng Xuándū Yùjīng heaven”). The preface narrates the cosmogonic origin of the Jìngmíng tradition: long ago the Tàiyáng zhēnjūn xiàodào míngwáng 太陽真君孝道明王 (Sun-Palace Perfected Lord, Bright-King of the Way of Filial Piety) won supreme realisation through his manifest filiality; the Shàngqīng High Emperor then descended to the Fúsāng dòngshén tāng 扶桑洞神堂 (Hall of the Cavern-Spirit at the Fúsāng Tree) and revealed the Method, designating the Bright-King a Língbǎo dàzhēnrén 靈寶大真人. The Yùqīng court then commissioned him to descend to the world for the rescue of suffering beings; he made his vow to dwell at the Eastern Pole as the Língbǎo jiùkǔ tiānzūn 靈寶救苦天尊 (Língbǎo Heavenly Worthy who Rescues from Suffering); this happened on the 15th of the eighth month of Chìmíng 1st year.
The text then explains the name Jìngmíng: “the Pure shall have no shadow uncast by its lamp, the Brilliant shall have no speck of dust on its mirror — wise and simple alike shall look up to it as their gate of release”. Method-practice rests on the dual foundation of xiàotì 孝悌 (filial-fraternal ethics) as norm and xiūliàn 修錬 (inner cultivation) as technique. The preface closes by alluding to the receiver of the Method (Xǔ Sūn, 許遜) and his teacher Chénmǔ 諶姆, after which “this book” was transmitted.
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1095, John Lagerwey) note that the preface and the Yìnshì together (DZ 559) constitute the doctrinal-cum-bureaucratic statement of the Jìngmíng tradition’s authority chain.
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: 1095 (DZ 559, John Lagerwey).
- Akizuki, Kan’ei. Chūgoku kinsei dōkyō no keisei: Jōmyō-dō no kisoteki kenkyū. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1978.