Tàishàng língbǎo jìngmíng fēixiān dùrén jīngfǎ 太上靈寶淨明飛仙度人經法
Most-High Língbǎo Jìng-míng Method-Scripture for the Flying-Immortal Deliverance of Humans
About the work
A five-juǎn liturgical-doctrinal compendium giving the Jìngmíng 淨明 tradition’s distinctive variant of the most influential of all Daoist scriptures, the Língbǎo dùrén jīng 靈寶度人經. The work re-narrates and re-operationalises the Dùrén jīng through the lens of the Jìngmíng tradition’s flying-immortal soteriology.
Abstract
The work opens with a detailed mùlù 目錄 (table of contents) covering five juǎn:
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Juǎn 1 — Xùwēi 叙微 (introductory discourse), followed by chapter-headings on Qǐyùn 啓運, Zhēnyìng 真應, Shíshén 識神, Zhāoyìng 昭應, Dòngjiè 洞界, Hùshēn 護身, Chuánshòu 傳受, Shuōjiè kēmù 説戒科目, Zhípǐn 職品, Cúnsī 存思 — covering the foundational rites of taking up the Method, registering one’s identity, summoning the divine officers, defending the body, transmitting the rites, articulating the ten precepts, conferring offices, and the daily meditation.
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Juǎn 2 — Xùjīng 叙經 (discourse on the Scripture), with chapters on Kāihuà 開化, Huàshēng 化生, Jiànlì 建立, Dùshì 度世, Bǎoshēng 保生.
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Juǎn 3-5 — further chapters on the application of the Method to specific operations.
The compositional method is consistent: each chapter pairs a doctrinal aphorism drawn from the Dùrén jīng with a practical operating procedure (xíngchí 行持), with the supplementary zhòu 呪 (incantation), fú 符 (talisman) and cúnsī 存思 (visualisation) prescribed for that operation. The Method as a whole is presented as the jìngmíng operationalisation of the Dùrén scripture’s promise of “fēixiān dùrén 飛仙度人” — that is, the flying-immortal ferrying of all sentient beings out of suffering.
The text has the companion commentarial work KR5b0269 (Fēixiān dùrén jīngfǎ shìlì), attributed to Xǔ Sūn (許遜) as Xǔ Jīngyáng 許旌陽, which provides chapter-by-chapter exegesis. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1097, John Lagerwey) place both texts in the late Southern-Sòng to Yuán Jìngmíng milieu.
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: 1097 (DZ 563, John Lagerwey).
- Akizuki, Kan’ei. Chūgoku kinsei dōkyō no keisei: Jōmyō-dō no kisoteki kenkyū. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1978.
- Bokenkamp, Stephen R. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997 — for the parent Dù-rén jīng tradition presupposed by this Jìng-míng variant.