太上飛步南斗太微玉經

Tàishàng fēibù nándǒu tàiwēi yùjīng 太上飛步南斗太微玉經

Jade Scripture of the Most High on the Flying-Pace through the Southern Dipper from the Tàiwēi

anonymous Táng-era Shàngqīng-derived ritual manual in one juàn of nine folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (DZ 638 / CT 638, 洞神部本文類); second of two scriptures bound together with KR5c0018 Tàishàng fēibù wǔxīng jīng under the rubric “Èr jīng tóng juàn shāng wǔ” 二經同卷傷五. Transmission is staged as a revelation by the Nánshàng tàixū zhēnwáng nányuè Chìjūn Sōngzǐ 南上太虛真王南嶽赤君松子 — i.e. Chìsōngzǐ 赤松子 styled as True Lord of the Great Void of the Southern Peak.

About the work

The text opens with a brief revelatory scene: Chìjūn Sōngzǐ, having mounted dragons and phoenixes from the Tàiwēi 太微 chamber, receives instruction from the Tiānshàngqīng dānhuá zǐlíng zhēnnǚ 天上清丹華紫靈真女 in “the Way of the High Highest Perfected of the赤君 — the flying Dipper, the cinnabar heaven, and the foot-pacing of the Southern Asterism” (飛斗丹天足躡南辰太微玉經). It then teaches the staged practice of pacing the six stars of the Southern Dipper (Nándǒu 南斗): the adept must first know the true names of the six stars (花闊廉持竟井), bind on the talisman of each star’s true form (the six 一星符 … 六星符 reproduced as boxed glyphs), then “tread the stars’ hún, then their pò, then mount the stars themselves” (履其魂次躡其魄然後登星), going round the asterism three times and six over five years to become a Shàngqīng zhēn 真, nine years for the six perfected to manifest, fifteen years to “weave the cinnabar net by hand, sit as master of the myriad numina, and ride the six flying dragons up to Yùqīng 玉清.” The middle of the text gives the practice in detail: a fú of vermillion ink on green silk worn at the heart, then the names of the five hún-stars (玦珍珀琳瑛) and the seven pò-stars (釗鏤鑑鏗鏐鎬鋪) with their respective stride-routines, mantras, and visualizations of attendant zhēnren and yùnǚ in red and yellow garments. The body of the manual gives, star by star, the secret name (mìhuì 祕諱), epithet, hand-mudrā, breath count, visualization (each of the six lords appearing as an infant in coloured silks within a stellar palace), and recited chant for each of the six Southern-Dipper stars: 寶光玉玄上真道君, 丹精玄明寶室上真道君, 靈瑶寶曜赤天上真道君, 景明碧虛真王天德上真道君, 極真太玄寶仙玉皇太上上真道君, and 紫宸絳房玄玄大帝玉真上德道君. The text closes with the transmission pledges (méng: 金珠六枚, 絳紋六十尺) and the warning that “those who treat it lightly cannot become immortals — the Three Officers will examine their souls.”

Prefaces

No preface. The opening revelatory frame functions in lieu of a preface.

Abstract

Hans-Hermann Schmidt’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:626–627, DZ 638) places the work in the Táng (618–907) and treats it as closely related to, and probably a sequel of, KR5c0018 Tàishàng fēibù wǔxīng jīng (DZ 637): “Transmitted by Chìsōngzǐ the True Lord of the Great Void (Tàixū zhēnjūn 太虛真君), the present text is related to 637 Tàishàng fēibù wǔxīng jīng, to which it may be a sequel. The text explains that the adept needs to know the true names (zhēnmíng) of the six stars, and to carry the fú representing their real form (zhēnxíng 真形) on his or her body (or to ingest them) in order to pace the corresponding hún and pò stars and, finally, the constellation itself. After several years of practice, the adept becomes a zhēnrén of the Shàngqīng Heaven, and finally he or she ascends to the Yùqīng 玉清 Heaven (1b–2a). Consequently, the text provides the fú that protect the adept during his or her ascent to the stars, followed by instructions for pacing the five hún and seven pò stars and, finally, the six stars of the Nándǒu. For this practice, drawings of the stars connected by lines are prepared and laid out on the ground. Then the adept paces these stars while visualizing the divinities and reciting invocations.” Frontmatter notBefore/notAfter accordingly bracket the Táng. The catalog meta lists no author, consistent with the work’s pseudo-revelatory character (transmission ascribed to Chìsōngzǐ). The text is part of the broader Táng-period redactional reorganization of Shàngqīng bùgāng 步罡 (asterism-pacing) lore, here focused on the Southern Dipper as the celestial seat that “governs life” (主生) — a role traditionally counterposed to the Northern Dipper’s governance of death.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:626–627 (DZ 638, Hans-Hermann Schmidt).
• Andersen, Poul. “The Practice of Bugang.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 5 (1989–1990): 15–53 — on Daoist asterism-pacing rites, including the Southern-Dipper sequence.
• Robinet, Isabelle. La révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1984 — on the Shàngqīng background.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0019
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:626–627 — DZ 638 entry (H.-H. Schmidt).