Shàng qīng jīn què dì jūn wǔ dǒu sān yī tú jué 上清金闕帝君五斗三一圖訣
Shàng qīng Diagrams and Instructions on the Five Dippers and Three Ones of the Golden Portal Imperial Lord
Anonymous (Six Dynasties 六朝 period)
An early Shàng qīng 上清 revelatory text of the sān yī 三一 (“Three Ones”) meditation tradition — a major stream of early medieval Daoist meditation practice. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng as DZ 765 / CT 765 (Dòngshén bù, Líng tú lèi 洞神部靈圖類).
About the work
Tradition
The scripture belongs to the mature Shàng qīng 上清 revelation tradition (376–370 CE onwards, via Yáng Xī 楊羲’s revelations) and specifically to the sān yī 三一 (“Three Ones”) meditation cycle — one of the central meditation practices of Shàng qīng Daoism, involving visualisation of three unified spirit-figures within the body corresponding to the three primary levels of interior cosmology.
Contents
The text provides diagrams (tú 圖) and instructions (jué 訣) on:
- The Golden Portal Imperial Lord (Jīn què dì jūn 金闕帝君) — a Shàng qīng supreme deity.
- The Five Dippers (wǔ dǒu 五斗) — the Daoist five cosmic-direction Dipper asterisms (north, south, east, west, centre).
- The Three Ones (sān yī 三一) — the three unified spirits of the inner body.
Dating
Anonymous Six Dynasties composition — consistent with the mature Shàng qīng scriptural corpus. Dynasty: 六朝. Frontmatter gives 300–500 as a conservative window.
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 765 entry.
- Andersen, Poul. The Method of Holding the Three Ones: A Taoist Manual of Meditation of the Fourth Century A.D. London: Curzon, 1980. The standard English study of the sān yī tradition.
- Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity. Albany: SUNY Press, 1993.