Tàishàng shuō Xīdǒu jìmíng hùshēn miào jīng 太上說西斗記名護身妙經
Wonderful Scripture on the Western Dipper, Register of Names and Guardian of the Person, Preached by the Most High
anonymous Southern-Sòng revealed scripture in one juàn of four folios, third of the four directional-Dipper sequels to KR5c0003 / DZ 622, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (DZ 626 / CT 626, 洞神部本文類).
About the work
The scripture is framed as a fourth revelation by Lǎojūn to Zhāng Dàolíng: having preached the Eastern Dipper of long life on the seventh day of the first month of Yǒngshòu 2 (156 CE), Lǎojūn descends again at Chéngdū on the fifteenth of the same month, at midnight, a numinous radiance illuminating several thousand lǐ and a White-Jade Tower appearing in the void. Seated at a low table within the tower, Lǎojūn preaches to Zhāng Dàolíng the “Scripture of the Western Dipper, the Great Accountant Lord” (Xīdǒu dàjì Dìjūn jīng 西斗大計帝君經). The Western Dipper’s four Perfected Lords (Xīdǒu sì zhēnjūn 西斗四眞君) — Báibiāo zhēnjūn 白標眞君, Gāoyuán zhēnjūn 髙元眞君, Diǎnhuáng líng zhēnjūn 典皇靈眞君, and Jiāng jù wēi zhēnjūn 將巨威眞君 — are the bureaucracy that keeps the register of human merit and demerit: “whoever has good, his name is recorded; whoever has evil, his name is registered.” The recitation prescription is to face west, knock the teeth four times, silently visualise and pray to the Great Sage Emperor of the Western Dipper twenty-one times, then recite the scripture on one’s natal day or on the seventh, ninth, or fifteenth of the month; to erect an altar seven chǐ high, seven cùn deep, nine chǐ broad, and to raise upon it a seven-chǐ silk banner inscribed with the name of the Western Dipper Emperor.
Prefaces
No independent preface; shares the cycle-preface given in KR5c0005. The internal-narrative opening frame serves as its pseudo-preface, dating the revelation to the fifteenth of the first month of Yǒngshòu 2 (156 CE) — a year later than the Northern-Dipper revelation of Yǒngshòu 1 (155 CE).
Abstract
Southern Sòng, per Schipper’s group entry in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:983–984, DZ 624–627). The scripture is distinctive within the cycle for its forensic-register theology: the Western Dipper (which has no astronomical referent) is cast as the “Great Accountant” (dàjì 大計) who audits the moral-merit ledgers of humanity, complementing the Eastern Dipper’s life-giving function (KR5c0006) and the Northern Dipper’s death-striking-and-life-writing function (KR5c0003). The four cardinal-Dipper scriptures together thus articulate a four-bureau celestial administration of karma: North removes death and enrols life; South extends longevity; East protects life; West registers names.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:983–984 (group entry for DZ 624–627).
- Little, Stephen. Taoism and the Arts of China. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2000, 246–247.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0007
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:983–984.