Tàishàng shuō Zhōngdǒu dàkuí zhǎngsuàn fúmó shénzhòu jīng 太上說中斗大魁掌筭伏魔神咒經
Scripture of the Divine Incantation of the Central Dipper, the Great Chief, Who Grasps the Life-Span-Counts and Subdues Demons, Preached by the Most High
anonymous Sòng apotropaic-incantation scripture (shénzhòu jīng 神呪經) in one juàn of two folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (DZ 628 / CT 628, 洞神部本文類). Despite its title, the scripture never mentions the Central Dipper.
About the work
A single continuous apotropaic incantation, framed as Lǎojūn’s direct speech without narrative prologue, articulating the protective power of Daoist recitation: “one hundred recitations and the soul (hún and pò) is at peace; one thousand recitations and the dragon-spirits guard the body; ten thousand recitations and evil-goblins are destroyed; all desires are fulfilled, all deeds accomplished; evil ghosts are subjugated, demon-spirits bound; he who sees me dies, he who hears me is startled, he who slights me is destroyed, he who reveres me lives.” The incantation is to be recited silently, without voice, in peril — in open country, in war, amidst calamity, in siege, among tigers, wolves, snakes, or goblins — whereupon divine armies are summoned: one hundred thousand Celestial Masters who extend life, one hundred thousand Perfected who register life, one hundred thousand Golden Lads who preserve the hún, one hundred thousand Jade Maidens who guard the body, one hundred thousand Heavenly Generals who consume ghosts, one hundred thousand Strong Men who swallow goblins, one hundred thousand Generals who behead demons, one hundred thousand Vajra-ones who bind evil, one hundred thousand Dragon Kings of great wrath, Duke Thunder drawing lightning, the Five Emperors and Five Sacred Peaks summoning the Six Jiǎ and Six Dīng ghost-officers. The closing command is “swift as by the Most High Mystic-Capital Statutes” (jí jí rú Tàishàng Xuándū lǜlìng 急急如太上玄都律令).
Prefaces
No preface. The entire text is a single incantation-frame.
Abstract
Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:984–985, DZ 628), describes this scripture as “a short apotropaic text to be recited by individuals, and that has the function of a spell — a kind of exorcistic imitation of DZ 620 [the Qīngjìng jīng, KR5c0001] — that never mentions the Central Dipper and appears to have no link with the Dipper cult, in spite of the title.” The attribution to the Zhōngdǒu in the title is accordingly a secondary bibliographical alignment with the four directional-Dipper scriptures (KR5c0005–KR5c0008), made by a later editor to group all five Dipper-themed jīng together at the head of the 洞神部本文類 subcategory. The body of the text lacks the Zhèngyī revelational frame of KR5c0005–KR5c0008 and instead reproduces the general Sòng shénzhòu 神咒 genre. Frontmatter notBefore/notAfter are set broadly to the Sòng (960–1279); a tighter bracket is not defensible.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:984–985 (DZ 628, Kristofer Schipper).
Other points of interest
Schipper’s observation that this scripture is an “exorcistic imitation” of the Qīngjìng jīng is confirmed by the rhythmic and formal parallel between the two texts: both deploy short incantatory lines that deliberately recall the Dàodé jīng’s meter; both culminate in a jí jí rú lǜlìng 急急如律令 closing formula; both eschew concrete cult-apparatus in favour of pure recitative force. The difference is one of register: the Qīngjìng jīng interiorises the apotropaic through meditative emptiness; the present scripture externalises it through the summoning of heavenly armies.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0009
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:984–985 — DZ 628 entry.