Shàngqīng dàdòng jiǔgōng cháoxiū mìjué shàngdào 上清大洞九宮朝修祕訣上道
Shàngqīng Great-Cavern Secret Formulae for Court-Audience and Cultivation of the Nine Palaces, the Higher Way edited by 周德大 (兩峯)
About the work
A short single-juǎn Shàngqīng manual on the jiǔgōng 九宮 — the nine “palaces” of the head — through which the adept is enjoined to conduct his daily inner cháo 朝 (court-audience) and xiū 修 (self-cultivation). The work is signed “Liǎngfēng Zhōu Dédà sìchuán” 兩峯周德大嗣傳 (transmitted by Zhōu Dédà of the Two Peaks).
Abstract
The work distinguishes the cíyī 雌一 (“Female One”) four palaces from the xióngyī 雄一 (“Male One”) five palaces — totalling nine. The cíyī four palaces are located, by successive cùn depths into the head from the eyebrow-point: the Yùdì gōng 玉帝宫 (Palace of the Jade Emperor), where the Yùqīng shénmǔ 玉清神母 dwells; the Tiāntíng gōng 天庭宫 (Heavenly Court Palace), where the Shàngqīng zhēnnǚ 上清真女 dwells; the Jízhēn gōng 極真宫 (Palace of the Utmost Perfected), where the Tàiwēi dìjūn 太微帝君 dwells; the Tàihuáng gōng 太皇宫 (Palace of the Grand August), where the Tàihuáng jūnhòu 太皇君后 dwells. The xióngyī five palaces, similarly enumerated by depth, are: Míngtáng gōng 明堂宫 (Hall-of-Brightness Palace) with the Chángshēng dàdì 長生大帝 (Great Emperor of Long Life); Dòngfáng gōng 洞房宫 (Cavern-Chamber Palace) with the Zhōngyāng huánglǎo jūn 中央黄老君; Dāntián gōng 丹田宫 (Cinnabar-Field Palace) with the Yuánshǐ shàngdì 元始上帝; Liúzhū gōng 流珠宫 (Flowing-Pearl Palace) with the Tàishàng dàojūn 太上道君; etc.
The text is a compact crystallisation of the classical Shàngqīng inner-anatomy of the head, recodified in the SòngYuán inner-alchemical idiom. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 3: 1185, John Lagerwey) place the work in the late Southern-Sòng to early-Yuán Shàngqīng milieu, possibly in the Mt. Máoshān lineage.
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. 3: 1185 (DZ 569, John Lagerwey).
- Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity. Translated by Julian Pas and Norman Girardot. Albany: SUNY Press, 1993 — for the classical Shàngqīng jiǔ-gōng doctrine presupposed by this manual.