Tàishàng Lǎojūn shuō bǔxiè bāyáng jīng 太上老君說補謝八陽經
Scripture on the Eight Yáng and the Making of Amends, Preached by the Most High Lord Lǎo
anonymous Táng short post-construction-amends scripture in one juàn of two folios, sibling to KR5c0015 / DZ 634 and likely its later and more elaborated recension, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (DZ 635 / CT 635, 洞神部本文類); sixth in the bundle “Qī jīng tóng juàn shāng sì” 七經同卷傷四.
About the work
Structurally parallel to KR5c0015 but functionally distinct: whereas DZ 634 prescribes recitation during construction for pacification, the present DZ 635 prescribes recitation after completion for amends (bǔxiè 補謝) — the retrospective appeasement of the earth-spirits whose repose has been disturbed. The enumeration of offended deities (the Day-Wandering and Month-Killer Generals, Grand Year-Duke, Wandering and Subdued Dragons, sky-sha, earth-sha, year-sha, month-sha, day-sha, hour-sha, great-sha, small-sha, calamity-sha, kalpa-sha, Six Jiǎ and Six Shén, twelve heavenly and twelve earthly time-spirits, Yellow-Banner and Leopard-Tail, official-tally and sickness-tally, death-tally, silkworm-officers, grand-loss and small-loss, five-earth, eight-trigram door-deities, natal-year and natal-star officers, and the 1200 injunction-spirits) is more extensive than that of DZ 634 — a sign, Schmidt observes, that DZ 635 is a more fully developed ritual inventory and therefore later.
Prefaces
No preface.
Abstract
Hans-Hermann Schmidt’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:563–564, DZ 635) observes that the present scripture “largely corresponds to 634 Tàishàng Lǎojūn shuō ānzhái bāyáng jīng” (= KR5c0015) and “could be a later version of the latter, since the list of divinities is more extensive here.” Frontmatter notBefore/notAfter 618/907 (Táng, following Schmidt’s group-dating). Schmidt further notes that the scripture is “clearly related to the ānzhái zhāi 安宅齋 described in DZ 466 Língbǎo lǐngjiào jǐdù jīnshū 靈寶領教濟度金書 (especially 198.1b–2b and 320.17b–19a),” that is, to the Língbǎo house-pacification retreat liturgy formalised by the Southern-Sòng liturgist Níng Quánzhēn 甯全真 (1101–1181) and his successors.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:563–564 (DZ 635, Hans-Hermann Schmidt).
Other points of interest
The doubling of “during” and “after” house-construction scriptures (DZ 634 and DZ 635) is one of the clearest instances in the Dàozàng of a scripture-pair designed for insertion at two sequential moments in a complete liturgical programme — here the full ānzhái zhāi ritual cycle — rather than as philosophically or cosmologically distinct texts. The pair also documents the Táng-era assimilation of a Buddhist apocryphon (the Tiāndì bāyáng shénzhòu jīng, T. 2897) into the Daoist household-ritual repertoire.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0016
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:563–564 — DZ 635 entry (H.-H. Schmidt).