Zhòngxiān zànsòng língzhāng 眾仙讚頌靈章
Numinous Stanzas of Eulogies and Praises by the Various Immortals
About the work
An anonymous single-juǎn Daozang hymn-anthology gathering eulogies (zàn 讚), praise-songs (sòng 頌), and didactic verses (cí 辭) attributed to a heterogeneous cast of Daoist immortals and Perfected, ordered roughly in three sections. The work is preserved in the Dòngxuán bù — zànsòng lèi 洞玄部讚頌類 subdivision and is one of the principal Daozang witnesses to the verse-traditions of the Shàngqīng revelation cycle and to the Qīnghuá / Tàiyǐ jiùkǔ tiānzūn 太一救苦天尊 (Heavenly Worthy who Rescues from Suffering) salvation hymnody.
Abstract
The anthology opens with the Qīnghuá jiùkǔ zàn 青華救苦讃 (“Eulogy of the Green-Splendour Suffering-Salvation [Heavenly Worthy]”), structured as three diurnal hymns (Zǎozhāo 早朝 / “Morning”; Wǔzhāo 午朝 / “Noon”; Wǎnzhāo 晚朝 / “Evening”) suitable for the three-shifts daily liturgy of the Tàiyǐ jiùkǔ cult. The opening morning hymn reads: “Tiānzūn fā yuàn dà bēi xīn, jiù kǔ fāngfāng huà shàn yīn; wǔyuè sìsī jiē bǐngmìng, Fēngdū běifǔ jìn tíngxíng” 天尊發願大悲心，救苦方方化善因；五嶽四司皆禀命，酆都北府盡停刑 (“The Heavenly Worthy issues his vow with the heart of great compassion; rescuing suffering everywhere he transforms it into causes of good; the spirits of the Five Marchmounts and the Four Bureaus all receive his command; in the Northern Office of Fēngdū all punishments cease”). The hymn’s vocabulary (Tiānzūn 天尊, Sìsī 四司, Fēngdū běifǔ 酆都北府), and its structural triplet of dawn / noon / dusk offerings, place it firmly in the Tang-developed Tàiyǐ jiùkǔ tiānzūn cult.
The middle section transmits hymns drawn from the Zhēngào 真誥 revelations of 364–370 (preserved by Táo Hóngjǐng):
- Tàizhēn fūrén zèng Mǎ Míngshēng cí 太真夫人贈馬明生辭 (“Words of the Lady of Great-Perfection presented to Mǎ Míngshēng”), with the celebrated lines “Xī shēng Kūnlínggōng, gòng jiǎng tiānnián yán” 昔生崑陵宫，共講天年延 (“In a former life I dwelt in the Kūnlíng Palace; together we expounded the prolongation of celestial years”). Mǎ Míngshēng is the third-century alchemist transcendent of the Shénxiānzhuàn.
- Yúnlín yòuyīng fūrén shòu Yáng zhēnrén Xǔ zhǎngshǐ cí 雲林右英夫人授楊真人許長史辭 (“Words of Lady Yúnlín Right-Resplendent transmitted to Perfected Yáng [Xī] and Lieutenant Xǔ [Mì]”), with the famous opening “Jià hū áo bāxū, huí yàn Dōnghuá fáng” 駕欻遨八虚，迴宴東華房 (“Suddenly mounting up to roam the eight voids, I return to feast in the Eastern-Flowery Chamber”). These are the central liturgical poems of the Zhēngào corpus, exchanged between the female Perfected and the human medium Yáng Xī in the Shàngqīng revelations.
The final section comprises further mixed verses — exchanges between immortals at the celestial banqueting halls, ascent songs at the Xuánzhēnquē 玄真闕, and meditative landscape pieces.
The combination of Língbǎo-style jiùkǔ tiānzūn hymnody at the head with Shàngqīng Zhēngào verses in the middle suggests a Tang compilation drawing on both traditions for liturgical use at a court or major-shrine zhāijiào altar. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 632, Yamada Toshiaki) treat the work as a Tang anthology, with the Qīnghuá jiùkǔ zàn possibly added later (early Sòng) and the Zhēngào selections directly excerpted from the Liáng-period recension.
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: 632 (DZ 613, Yamada Toshiaki).
- Mugitani Kunio 麥谷邦夫 and Yoshikawa Tadao 吉川忠夫, eds. Shinkō kenkyū 真誥研究. Kyoto: Kyōto-daigaku jinbun-kagaku kenkyūjo, 2000 — for the Shàng-qīng Zhēn-gào selections.
- Schafer, Edward H. Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few Daozang anthologies that juxtaposes Língbǎo-style universal-salvation hymnody (the Tàiyǐ jiùkǔ tiānzūn cycle) with Shàngqīng-style esoteric-individual hymnody (the Zhēngào female-Perfected exchanges) in a single volume, making it a useful index to the integration of these two traditions in Tang ritual practice.