Língbǎo jìngmíng xīnxiū jiǔlǎo shényìn fúmó mìfǎ 靈寶淨明新修九老神印伏魔祕法
Newly Revised Secret Method of the Nine Ancients’ Divine Seals for Subduing Demons, of the Língbǎo Jìng-míng by 何守證 (撰, 1131)
About the work
A single-juǎn liturgical-administrative manual on the Jiǔlǎo shényìn 九老神印 (Divine Seals of the Nine Ancients) for the subjugation of demons, freshly redacted (xīnxiū 新修) at the Yìzhēn tán 翼真壇 (Wing-the-Perfected Altar) of the Yùlóng wànshòu gōng 玉隆萬壽宫 in Jiāngxī. The preface, dated Shàoxīng xīnhài 紹興辛亥 重陽日 = autumn of 1131, is signed by 何守證 as Yìzhēntán fù yǎnjiào shī 翼真壇副演教師.
Abstract
The preface narrates the textual history: the Sāndòng zhēnjīng 三洞真經 catalogue includes the Shàngqīng fúmó yìnzhāng 上清伏魔印章 shòu liànxíngshén mìfǎ — a Jiǔlǎo dìjūn 九老帝君 (Imperial Lord of the Nine Ancients) revelation, originally received by Xǔ Sūn (許遜) from his teacher Chénmǔ 諶姆. The transmitted text had however suffered “many corruptions through the long course of transmission, by which proof could no longer be obtained” (lì duō miùwù wú yǐ qǔzhèng 例多謬誤無以取證). At the zuòè year of the Sòng revival (the chronology is implied as the early Shàoxīng decade), the Liùzhēn descended at Yúzhōu 渝州 and gave forth the Língbǎo jìngmíng mìfǎ, commissioning the Dòngshén xiānqīng 洞神仙卿 as instructor; two years later, the Gāomíng dàshǐ descended at Yóuwéi gùdì 遊帷故地 in Jiāngxī (i.e. Yùlóng wànshòu gōng) and inaugurated the Yìzhēn tán. Hé Shǒuzhèng, then a Jiǔlǎo disciple of three years’ standing, was commissioned to bring the corrupted seal-texts to the Perfected Master for correction; the Master expounded the Qìjìng 氣鏡 and Shényìn 神印 chapters and emended the seals, talismans, incantations and procedural rules; the resulting recension is the present Xīnxiū edition.
The work is one of the most concretely dated Jìngmíng manuals (1131) and a key witness to the early Southern-Sòng reception of the tradition at its principal Jiāngxī cult-site. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1096–1097, John Lagerwey) treat it as the executive fúmó counterpart to the more cosmological Wàndào yùzhāng mìjué KR5b0265.
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: 1096–1097 (DZ 562, John Lagerwey).
- Akizuki, Kan’ei. Chūgoku kinsei dōkyō no keisei: Jōmyō-dō no kisoteki kenkyū. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1978.
Other points of interest
The 1131 date is a rare fixed anchor in the Jìngmíng canon, anchoring the post-revival redaction at Yùlóng wànshòu gōng. The preface’s allusion to “Lóngshā yǐhé wǔlíng zhī nèi yīngdìxiān zhě bābǎi rén ér shī chū yú Yùzhāng 龍沙巳合五陵之內應地仙者八百人而師出於豫章” — invoking the famous prophecy of the Lóngshā (Dragon-Sand) eight hundred Earth-Immortals destined to issue from Yùzhāng (Nánchāng) — situates the Yìzhēn tán as the millennial-fulfilment of the Jìngmíng lineage’s apocalyptic destiny.