Shàngqīng běijí tiānxīn zhèngfǎ 上清北極天心正法
Shàngqīng Orthodox Method of the Northern-Pole Heavenly Mind
About the work
A single-juǎn Southern-Sòng recension of the Tiānxīn zhèngfǎ tradition, focused specifically on the Běijí 北極 (Northern Pole) variant. Where KR5b0271 (DZ 566) gives the seven-juǎn anthology assembled by 鄧有功 at the end of the Northern Sòng, the present work transmits the streamlined Southern-Sòng method of Běijí qūxié 北極驅邪 (“Northern-Pole expulsion of evil”).
Abstract
The opening section reads: “Fú tiānxīn fǎ zhě, zì Tàishàng jiàng Hèmíngshān rì shòu Tiānshī, zhǐ dōngběijí zhī shū, pìchì xiémó, jiùmín shì wù…” 夫天心法者，自太上降鶴鳴山日授天師，指東北極之書，辟斥邪魔，救民是務 (“The Tiānxīn Method — from the day on which the Most-High descended to Mount Hèmíng and bestowed it on the Celestial Master, pointing to the books of the Eastern and Northern Poles — its business is to repel the evil demons and to rescue the people…”). The text traces the tradition back through the early-Sòng transmission, attributing the bare-bones canonical core (three talismans — Tiāngāng dàshèng fú 天罡大聖符, Hēishā fú 黑煞符, Sānguāng fú 三光符) to the Xūjìng xiānshēng 虛靜先生 (i.e. the Heavenly Master Zhāng Jìxiān 張繼先, 1092–1126); the two principal seals — the Běijí qūxié yuàn yìn and the Dūtiān dàfǎzhǔ yìn — are placed in the same lineage.
The remainder of the juǎn provides the fǎguān rùhuànjiā cúnbiàn fǎ 法官入患家存變法 (technique for the priest’s visualisation upon entering a patient’s house): he treads the Dīnggāng 丁罡 nine paces, visualises himself as the Yuánshǐ wáng 元始王, summons the nine phoenixes of the South to spew true fire and to incinerate the patient’s house to ashes, raises a震風 (Thunder-wind) to sweep the ashes clean, and the house is transformed into a jewel-palace of golden flowers, the inhabitants into celestial xiān 仙. The juǎn continues with the parallel procedures for entering an afflicted person’s body, for summoning the Sānguāng generals, and so on.
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 1099, John Lagerwey) treat the work as a Southern-Sòng Tiānxīn manual, closely descended from the late Northern-Sòng tradition represented by KR5b0271; the explicit attribution of the three-talisman canon to Xūjìng xiānshēng points to the Southern-Sòng Heavenly-Master court at Mt. Lónghǔ.
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: 1099 (DZ 567, John Lagerwey).
- Davis, Edward L. Society and the Supernatural in Song China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001.