老子像名經

Lǎozǐ xiàngmíng jīng 老子像名經

Scripture of the Symbols and Names [of the Heavenly Worthies, Revealed] by Lǎozǐ

Anonymous Táng-dynasty Daoist penitential litany (chànhuǐ 懺悔) in ten juàn (juan 6, 7, 8 lost in transmission), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng (DZ 661 / CT 661, 洞神部本文類). The scripture is framed as a revelation by Gāoshàng Lǎozǐ 高上老子 (the Supreme Lord Lǎozǐ), who, accompanied by shí fāng zhēnrén 十方真人 (Perfected Ones of the Ten Directions) and innumerable hosts of spirits, surveys the six paths of rebirth (including ten compass-distributed hells — eastern wind-thunder hell, southern brazier-charcoal hell, western golden-mace hell, northern cold-ice hell, north-eastern cauldron-water hell, south-eastern bronze-pillar hell, south-western flaying hell, north-western fire-chariot hell, upper fire-pit hell, and lower filth hell) and, moved by compassion, expounds the names of one thousand one hundred and sixty tiānzūn 天尊 (Heavenly Worthies) whose recitation extinguishes sin and generates merit.

About the work

The extant juàn (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10) contain the litanies of seven of the ten directions — dōng 東 (east), nán 南 (south), xī 西 (west), běi 北 (north), dōngběi 東北 (north-east), shàng 上 (zenith), and xià 下 (nadir); the missing juàn 6, 7, 8 evidently contained the dōngnán 東南 (south-east), xīnán 西南 (south-west), and xīběi 西北 (north-west) litanies, matching the ten-direction schema set out in the opening revelation. Each juàn gives the Heavenly Worthy names of a single direction, with a short Lǎozǐ-narrated introductory framing and a concluding exhortation. Each zhìxīn xìnlǐ 至心信禮 (“I take refuge in sincerity and faith”) opens an obeisance, followed by the theonym: e.g. Dōngfāng pǔcí hùguó tiānzūn 東方普慈護國天尊 (Heavenly Worthy of the East, of Universal Compassion and State-Protection), Dàrěn wúài tiānzūn 大忍無礙天尊 (Heavenly Worthy of Great Forbearance and Unobstructed Passage), Dōnghuá shàngxiàng tiānzūn 東華上相天尊 (Heavenly Worthy of the East-Flowering Supreme Minister), and so forth.

Each juàn’s litany contains roughly 120 Heavenly Worthy names (the opening announcement speaks of a total of 1,160 names — shí fāng tiānzūn yìng huà líng xiàng yī qiān yī bǎi liù shí míng hào 十方天尊應化靈像一千一百六十名號 — 1,160 Heavenly Worthies of the ten directions’ responsive-transformational numinous images). These Heavenly Worthies represent Daoist adaptations of the Buddhist-inspired pantheon of shí fāng fó 十方佛 (Buddhas of the Ten Directions), who are venerated in the corresponding Buddhist directional-litany tradition.

The litanies embed a complete spatial and metaphysical ontology. The adept’s movement through the ten directions of the cosmic mandala, punctuated by 1,160 distinct salutations, constitutes both a recitation-practice and a cosmographic meditation. The texts make explicit that the litanies are to be used for:

• miè zuì shēng fú 滅罪生福 (extinguishing sin and generating merit);
• averting punishment in the ten compass-organised hells;
• procuring favourable rebirth;
• averting calamities (war, epidemic) besetting state or individual;
• forming the core of chànhuǐ 懺悔 rituals in the temple.

Practical instruction in juàn 10 specifies that the Heavenly Worthies are to be represented as figures or paintings on scrolls (xiàng 像 — hence the scripture’s title), venerated in temples, and that the litanies are to be used in conjunction with dēng zhī fǎ 燈之法 (lamp-rituals). Following the lamp-liturgies, zhāi 齋 purifications and sāndòng dàchéng jīng 三洞大乘經 (Three-Caverns Mahāyāna-scripture) preaching-sessions bring the liturgical cycle to completion (10.8b–9a).

Prefaces

No preface. The scripture opens directly with the revelatory tableau (ěr shí Gāoshàng Lǎozǐ yǔ shí fāng zhēnrén … 爾時高上老子與十方真人…) — a classical sutra-opening formula transparently modelled on the Buddhist ěrshí / “at that time” (ekaṃ samayam) opening.

Abstract

Florian C. Reiter’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, 1:568–69, DZ 661) classifies the text in section 2.A.6 “Penance” (chànhuǐ) litanies and dates it to the Táng (618–907). He reads:

“This text contains litanies for recitation as an act of repentance and in order to achieve absolution (chànhuǐ). These litanies are said to be revealed by Lǎozǐ for the salvation of humanity. On this work, see Ōfuchi Ninji, Tonkō Dōkyō: Mokurokuhen, 316–21. The names of the tiānzūn are arranged according to the cosmic directions east, south, west, north, northeast, zenith and nadir, and this arrangement also designates the contents of the extant chapters of the work. For each direction there are short introductory and concluding statements attributed to Lǎozǐ. Taoists and lay people alike can recite these litanies of repentance to avoid punishment in the hells or calamities of other kinds. The text also speaks about the positive effects on one’s future rebirth and the remission of guilt obtained by reciting these litanies. Practical instructions state that the deities, some of which are described, should be represented by figures or paintings on scrolls and venerated in temples. Such devotional practices also bear good results when the country is threatened by war or other crises. The litanies were to be used in prayer in connection with lamp liturgies (dēng zhī fǎ 燈之法). Following these liturgies, celebrations of purification and preaching sessions displaying the scriptures of the Great Vehicle of the Three Caverns could be performed.”

The terminus post quem is the Táng inception (618 CE) and the terminus ante quem the Táng collapse (907 CE); the text is explicitly a Táng-era composition, as confirmed by Ōfuchi Ninji’s study of the Dūnhuáng witnesses (see the Tōnkō Dōkyō: Mokurokuhen references). The catalog meta supplies the dynasty-marker 唐 without a narrower date, and the frontmatter accordingly uses 618–907 with dynasty “唐”.

Dūnhuáng witnesses — The scripture has been identified in Dūnhuáng manuscript fragments, which is indispensable for securing its Táng-dynasty provenance. Ōfuchi’s Tonkō Dōkyō: Mokurokuhen (Tōkyō, 1978) 316–21 is the principal catalogue of these fragments; the transmitted Daozang text is to be read against them.

The work is anonymous, attributed to Lǎozǐ in the standard revelational mode of Táng Daoist scripture.

The work’s significance for the history of Táng Daoism lies in its wholesale assimilation of the Mahāyāna chànhuǐ genre into the Daoist cultic frame. The ten-direction distribution of Heavenly Worthies is a direct Daoist calque of the Buddhist shí fāng fó 十方佛 (Ten-Directional Buddhas) of the Mahāyāna litany tradition, and the hell-topography of 10 direction-distributed hells — east (wind-thunder), south (brazier-charcoal), west (golden-mace), north (cold-ice), north-east (cauldron-water), south-east (bronze-pillar), south-west (flaying), north-west (fire-chariot), zenith (fire-pit), nadir (filth) — is an inflection of the Buddhist nāraka taxonomy as it had entered Chinese religious imagination by the high Táng. The explicit licence for lay-Daoist use (dàoshì sùrén jiē kě 道士俗人皆可 — “both Daoists and laypeople may recite”) positions the litany as a devotional instrument bridging the clerical and lay domains in much the manner of Táng Buddhist Pure-Land recitation practice.

The lacuna of juan 6, 7, 8 — for the three intermediate compass-quadrants — is an unfortunate transmissional gap. The extant 7 juàn give the seven directions listed above; the three lost juàn would have completed the 10-direction programme. The 1,160 Heavenly Worthy name-total is too high to be accounted for purely by the 7 extant directions (each giving c. 120 names); approximately 350 names are lost with juàn 6–8.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:568–69 (DZ 661, F. C. Reiter). Primary reference.
• Ōfuchi Ninji 大淵忍爾. Tonkō Dōkyō: Mokurokuhen 敦煌道經: 目録篇. Tōkyō: Fukutake Shoten, 1978, 316–21. The principal catalogue of Dūnhuáng witnesses.
• Reiter, Florian C. Grundelemente und Tendenzen des religiösen Taoismus: das Spannungsverhältnis von Integration und Individualität in seiner Geschichte zur Chin-, Yüan- und frühen Ming-Zeit. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1988. For the Táng-Sòng Daoist litany tradition.
• Yamada Toshiaki 山田利明. Rikuchō dōkyō girei no kenkyū 六朝道教儀礼の研究. Tōkyō: Tōhō Shoten, 1999. For the Six-Dynasties-to-Táng ritual apparatus.
• Kohn, Livia, ed. Daoism Handbook. Leiden: Brill, 2000. For the Táng-era Daoist liturgical reconfiguration.
• Bokenkamp, Stephen R. “Sackcloth and Ashes: Self and Family in the Tutanzhai.” In Scripture, Schools, and Forms of Practice in Daoism: A Berlin Symposium, edited by Poul Andersen and Florian C. Reiter. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005, 33–48. On the Daoist chànhuǐ tradition.

Other points of interest

The scripture’s 1,160-Heavenly-Worthy rosary is of significant interest for the historical theonymy of medieval Daoism. Each name embeds a specific attribute of the deity — e.g. Dōnghuá shàngxiàng tiānzūn 東華上相天尊 points to the Dōnghuá 東華 polarity (the eastern mytho-topographical locus of immortal Dōnghuá Dìjūn 東華帝君); Yuánlíng yǐnyào tiānzūn 元靈隱耀天尊 fuses yuán 元 (primordial), líng 靈 (numinous), yǐn 隱 (hidden), and yào 耀 (radiance) in a compact epithet. The aggregation of 1,160 such composed theonyms functions as a lexicon of Daoist soteriological attributes, systematically distributed across the cosmic mandala.

The scripture’s iconographic imperative — the Heavenly Worthies are to be represented as xiàng 像 (images) painted on scrolls and venerated in temples (Reiter: “The deities, some of which are described, should be represented by figures or paintings on scrolls”) — is important evidence for the history of Daoist iconography in the Táng, and specifically for the institutional supply of Daoist devotional imagery in the public temple context. The scripture’s title, indeed, programmatically registers this iconographic grounding: xiàng míng 像名 is the joined formula “image-and-name” — the Heavenly Worthies exist in their painted xiàng quite as much as in their recited míng.

The scripture’s integration with lamp-liturgy (dēng zhī fǎ 燈之法) is worth noting. The Daoist dēng yí 燈儀 (lamp-ritual) tradition is a rich and long-lived liturgical form extending from the Six Dynasties through the Míng; the present scripture’s designation as one of the penitential litanies to be recited in connection with the lamp rituals places it within this wider liturgical matrix.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0042
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), 1:568–69 — DZ 661 entry (F. C. Reiter).
• Wikipedia: Tianzun — the Daoist Heavenly Worthy.