太上老君說益筭神符妙經

Tài shàng Lǎo jūn shuō yì suàn shén fú miào jīng 太上老君說益筭神符妙經

Wonderful Scripture of the Divine Talismans for Increasing the Life Span, Spoken by the Most High Lord Lǎo

Anonymous (Táng-period revealed scripture, probably 8th–9th century)

A short (six-folio, one juàn) Táng-period Daoist talisman scripture of the longevity / life-span-increase genre (yì suàn 益筭 = yì suàn 益算, “increase the life-quota”), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 672 / CT 672 (Dòngshén bù, Shénfú lèi 洞神部神符類). The scripture is framed as a direct revelation by Tài shàng Lǎojūn 太上老君 to Zhāng Dàolíng 張道陵 — here addressed as Tiān shī Zhēnrén 天師真人 — with his disciples Zhào Shēng 趙昇 and Wáng Cháng 王長 in attendance at Chì shí chéng 赤石城 in the Shǔ 蜀 region (Sìchuān), on the fifteenth day of the first month of a shàng yuán jiǎ zǐ 上元甲子 cycle.

About the work

The text is a ritual-talismanic scripture of the mature Táng, formally related to — but distinct from — DZ 650 Tài shàng Lǎojūn shuō cháng shēng yì suàn miào jīng 太上老君說長生益算妙經 (early Táng). The two share the theme of longevity through talismanic power, the revelation-framework of Tài shàng Lǎojūn addressing the Tiān shī, and a portion of their talismanic iconography; but DZ 672 is more structurally coherent, contains fewer repetitive expansions, and is focussed specifically on the stellar divinities of the Northern Dipper (Běi dǒu 北斗) and the Three Terraces (sān tái 三台).

The scripture opens with Lǎojūn and the Tiān shī travelling together to the land of Chán lí 禪黎國 in the emerald-sky realm (bì luò jiè 碧落界), where they observe the suffering of sentient beings afflicted by accidents, illness, premature death. The Tiān shī petitions Lǎojūn for a teaching that will spare these beings, and Lǎojūn responds with a five-couplet gāthā (jì 偈) diagnosing the four causes of suffering — unbelief in the Way in a past life, failure to practise in previous incarnations, the attachment of the embodied self, and the entanglements of worldly life — and prescribing the remedy: pure fasting (qīng zhāi 清齋), chanting (zhuǎn jīng 轉經), and the wearing of the yì suàn shén fú 益算神符.

Lǎojūn then dispatches the Six Jiǎ Generals (liù jiǎ jiāng jūn 六甲將軍), each commanding 120 officers, to augment the life-quota of the believer in six distinct categories:

• Jiǎ zǐ 甲子 General Wáng Wénqīng 王文卿 — to add 12,000 suàn to the body and remove the Hundred Illnesses.
• Jiǎ xū 甲戌 General Zhǎn Zǐjiāng 展子江 — to fix the heart-quota (心筭) and remove mó huò 魔惑 (demonic delusions).
• Jiǎ shēn 甲申 General Hù Wéncháng 扈文長 — to add to the salary-quota (祿筭) and remove xū hào 虛耗 (fruitless-depletion demons).
• Jiǎ wǔ 甲午 General Wèi Shàngqīng 衞上卿 — to add to the blessing-quota (福筭) and remove héng hài 橫害 (violent calamities).
• Jiǎ chén 甲辰 General Mèng Fēiqīng 孟非卿 — to protect the wealth-quota (財筭) and prevent loss.
• Jiǎ yín 甲寅 General Míng Wénzhāng 明文章 — to extend the life-quota (壽筭) and prevent premature death.

The scripture then presents the ten talismans that are the core of the revelation: one for each of the seven stars of the Běi dǒu (under their canonical individual names) plus two for the attendant zuǒ fǔ 左輔 and yòu bì 右弼 stars, plus three for the sān tái 三台 — here presented as a single combined talisman:

1. Tān láng 貪狼 xīng jūn — repels evil qì (祛惡氣).
2. Jù mén 巨門 xīng jūn — repels fú shī 伏屍 (corpse-demons).
3. Lù cún 祿存 xīng jūn — repels the Hundred Demons (百鬼).
4. Wén qū 文曲 xīng jūn — repels evil dreams (惡夢).
5. Lián zhēn 廉貞 xīng jūn — repels quarrels and slander (口舌).
6. Wǔ qū 武曲 xīng jūn — repels official trouble and litigation (官事).
7. Pò jūn 破軍 xīng jūn — repels xū hào 虛耗.
8. Zuǒ fǔ 左輔 xīng jūn — master of human life-quota (主人命筭).
9. Yòu bì 右弼 xīng jūn — master of human body-form (主人身形).
10. Sān tái 三台 xīng jūn — jointly add to salary and longevity, repelling calamity.

The scripture concludes with the Tiān shī’s closing gāthā in praise of the talismans, and with the formal presentation of the scripture to disciples Zhào Shēng and Wáng Cháng — the traditional twin disciples of Zhāng Dàolíng — who receive and transmit the text.

Prefaces

No separate preface. The text opens directly with the revelation narrative (Ěr shí Tài shàng Lǎojūn yǔ Tiān shī Zhēnrén jù yóu Chán lí guó tǔ bì luò jiè zhōng… 爾時，太上老君與天師真人俱遊禪黎國土碧落界中…).

Abstract

Hans-Hermann Schmidt’s notice in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004, vol. 2, DZ 672) provides the definitive modern framing. Schmidt places the scripture in the category of Táng-period yì suàn 益算 longevity talisman scriptures, alongside and closely related to DZ 650 Tài shàng Lǎojūn shuō cháng shēng yì suàn miào jīng. He notes that the structural coherence and reduced repetition of DZ 672 — compared with DZ 650’s more embellished text — may indicate the present text is slightly earlier in the sequence of composition. The seven Dipper-star talismans of DZ 672 are paralleled in DZ 755 Běi dǒu qī yuán jīn xuán yù zhāng 北斗七元金玄玉章 3a–4b, confirming the tight integration of this scripture with the Táng-period Běi dǒu cult.

The scripture’s historical horizon is the Táng Daoist ritual-administrative cosmos — the Six Jiǎ generals, the seven Big-Dipper stars with their tān láng–pò jūn canonical names, the celestial quota-increase mechanism — all of which are mature Táng developments. DZ 650 has indirect seventh-century evidence through its Buddhist adaptation Qī qiān fó shén fú jīng 七千佛神符經 (listed in the 695 apocrypha catalogue Dà Zhōu kān dìng zhòng jīng mù lù 大周刊定眾經目錄 15.474a–c). DZ 672 lacks such an early witness and is therefore conservatively dated mid-to-late Táng (c. 700–900); Schmidt’s analysis of its relative coherence vis-à-vis DZ 650 would suggest an earlier floruit, but this is not definitive.

Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 700–900 (mature–late Táng) as a conservative composition window. Dynasty 唐. The catalog’s “dynasty: 唐” is preserved.

The Big-Dipper talismans are not identified in the text with specific natal-year constellation correlations (as they are in the Běi dǒu běn mìng yán shòu jīng 北斗本命延壽經, DZ 622) but rather with general protective functions — making DZ 672 a simpler and earlier (or more popular) presentation of the Dòu talismanic cult than the more technical DZ 622 cognate.

The name Chán lí guó 禪黎國 in the opening frame — an otherworldly country in the bì luò jiè emerald-sky realm — is reminiscent of the Buddhist-influenced Daoist scripture geography of the mid-Táng, and suggests the author’s familiarity with the Buddhist cosmic-geography of this period.

Translations and research

• Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, DZ 672 entry (H.-H. Schmidt). Primary reference.
• Akizuki Kan’ei 秋月観暎. “Dōkyō to bukkyō no fubo enchō kyō” 道教と仏教の父母恩重経. On the adjacent cognate DZ 662 and the wider Táng Daoist-Buddhist textual-transmission relationships.
• Mollier, Christine. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. For the Táng-era Buddhist/Daoist talisman-scripture cross-pollination, including the parallel Qī qiān fó shén fú jīng tradition.
• Kohn, Livia, ed. Daoism Handbook. Leiden: Brill, 2000. For Táng Daoism generally.
• Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. For the Běi dǒu cult.

Other points of interest

The scripture’s Big Dipper talisman protocol places it within the important Táng-period Běi dǒu 北斗 cult which had its focal points in the Běi dǒu běn mìng yán shòu jīng 北斗本命延壽經 (DZ 622, Táng) and in the closely related family of Qī yuán 七元 talismanic scriptures. The innovation of DZ 672 lies in its organisation of the Seven Stars under their individual canonical names (Tān láng, Jù mén, etc.) — a naming system that would become standard in later Daoist stellar practice — and in its assignment of each star to a specific daily-life affliction.

The six jiǎ generals (六甲將軍) with their individually named commanders (Wáng Wénqīng, Zhǎn Zǐjiāng, Hù Wéncháng, Wèi Shàngqīng, Mèng Fēiqīng, Míng Wénzhāng) are a distinctive feature; these named generals appear in several Táng and Sòng talismanic scriptures and exorcistic rituals, and their organisation here — each with 120 subordinate officers, for a total of 720 celestial administrators — is one of the earliest fully elaborated instances.

The formal reference to Zhāng Dàolíng’s two principal disciples Zhào Shēng 趙昇 and Wáng Cháng 王長 is the canonical one — these two are the named disciples to whom Zhāng Dàolíng transmitted the zhèng yī 正一 teaching before ascending as an immortal, per the Hàn tiānshī shì jiā 漢天師世家 and related Tiānshī-genealogy sources.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0053
• Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), DZ 672 entry (H.-H. Schmidt).
• ctext.org: 太上老君說益算神符妙經