Tàishàng shuō shílián shēngshén jiùhù jīng 太上說十鍊生神救護經
Scripture on the Ten Sublimations, the Birth of the Spirits, and Salvation and Protection, Preached by the Most High
anonymous Southern-Sòng popular short scripture in one juàn of two folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (DZ 636 / CT 636, 洞神部本文類); seventh and final in the bundle “Qī jīng tóng juàn shāng sì” 七經同卷傷四.
About the work
The scripture is framed as Tàishàng Lǎojūn’s exhortation to the recitation of the names of the ten Jiùkǔ tiānzūn 救苦天尊 (“Heavenly Worthies Who Save from Distress”) of the ten directions: Cíbēi 慈悲 (East), Hàoshēng 好生 (South), Píngděng 平等 (West), Dàcí 大慈 (North), Pǔjì 普濟 (Northeast), Wúliàng 無量 (Southeast), Děngguān 等觀 (Southwest), Huìhuà 惠化 (Northwest), Biàncí 徧慈 (Upper), and Guǎngdù 廣度 (Lower). Recitation is said to redeem suffering souls (gū hún zhì pò 孤魂滯魄) and to spare the living from calamity, prolonging life and ensuring the peace of body and mind. The text closes with a brief inventory of sins — the three karmic acts, the six sense-organs, killing, stealing, lust, greed, anger, envy, delusion, false speech, ornate speech, slander, flattery, oath-breaking, rebellion against heaven, inversion of earth, unfilial, unrighteous, unkind, crooked — “the roots of sin without measure” — all of which are said to be dissolved by recitation.
Prefaces
No preface.
Abstract
John Lagerwey’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 2:1159, DZ 636, under 3.B.3 Língbǎo) dates the scripture as follows: “The use of the term liàn 錬 (sublimation) in the title and the reference to DZ 318 Dòngxuán Língbǎo zìrán jiǔtiān shēngshén zhāng jīng 洞玄靈寶自然九天生神章經, one of the basic texts of sublimation rites from the Southern Song (1127–1279) on, suggest that this brief scripture is an adaptation of these rites meant for popular use.” The scripture exhorts “concentrated and sustained recitation” of the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn in the ten directions, a practice whose early attestation is the postface of DZ 374 Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo jiùkǔ miào jīng 太上洞玄靈寶救苦妙經 dated 1124 — another point supporting a Southern-Sòng date. Frontmatter notBefore/notAfter 1127/1279.
The scripture’s fusion of the Lǎojūn-revelational frame with the Jiùkǔ tiānzūn ten-directional litany is characteristic of the Southern-Sòng Língbǎo soul-salvation liturgy as practised in the refining-rites (liàndù 鍊度) complex: the adept’s own body is progressively sublimated through ten refinings and the ten Heavenly Worthies of the ten directions deliver both the adept’s own person and the suffering souls of the dead from the bondage of karma.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1159 (DZ 636, John Lagerwey).
- Lagerwey, John. “Daoist Ritual from the Second through the Sixth Centuries.” In Patricia Ebrey and Peter Gregory eds., Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
- Boltz, Judith M. A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1987 — on the Southern-Sòng liàndù tradition.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0017
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 2:1159 — DZ 636 entry (J. Lagerwey).