Lǚ dì shèng jì jì yào 呂帝聖蹟紀要
Essential Records of the Imperial Lord Lǚ’s Sacred Traces
compiled by 柳守元 (Liǔ Shǒuyuán); a hagiographical compendium of Lǚzǔ’s manifestations
A three-juàn anthology of shèng jì (sacred-trace) anecdotes attributed to Lǚ Dòngbīn — i.e., a collection of instances of his appearance, intervention, healing, and revelation in the world after his ascension. The compendium follows the standard hagiographical pattern of the yīngshàng (response-traces) genre and is comparable in scope to the parallel Wénchāng huà shū 文昌化書 (cf. Kleeman, A God’s Own Tale) as a comprehensive cult-deity hagiography. Liǔ Shǒuyuán’s title-poem indicates that the compendium is selected — 數十則之遺聞舊事 (“a few dozen items of inherited stories and old affairs”) — rather than exhaustive.
Prefaces
Title-poem (Liǔ Shǒu-yuán). “The Wú-jí bǎo chàn says: ‘In the Three Realms, his flying-traces extinguish; in the Ten Quarters, his saving-of-suffering follows the sound.’ Knowing words! Knowing words! — Our Imperial Master’s universal-deliverance of the world is on a par with Avalokiteśvara’s vow-ocean, ever hidden-and-manifest with no fixed quarter. He pervades all places, then every place is a sacred-trace; he goes through all times, then every time is a sacred-trace. — How could record exhaust him? But un-attested is un-believed; so it is not amiss to take the manifested-trace and one-by-one definitely point — let knowing-and-foolish, worthy-and-unworthy alike know thoroughly that Fú-yòu shàng-dì is still in the human realm. Then those who admire the good will have a heart of ascending-and-taking-refuge; the wicked will quail at the radiant-attestation of gǎn-yìng. — Even with a few dozen items of inherited stories, recording their essentials, though it cannot show the whole body of our Imperial Master, it suffices to manifest the wondrous-operation of his compassionate-heart. Later viewers, each from your own seeing-and-hearing, attest-and-verify it, that you may know the one driving the boat on the great-sea, responding to the ten quarters is truly the great-favour-master of the Three Realms. — Hóng-jiào dì-zǐ Liǔ Shǒu-yuán xūn-mù tí cí.”
Abstract
The hagiographical anthology of the Lǚzǔ quán shū compendium, complementary to the biographical Lǚ zǔ běn zhuàn at KR5i0045 (which gives the canonical biography of Lǚzǔ before his ascension; this work gives the post-ascension manifestations). Compiled by Liǔ Shǒuyuán within the same DZJY-source milieu, c. 1700–1750.
The genre’s parent is the Yún jí qī qiān 113A Lǚ Dòngbīn zhuàn and the supplementary Yīng yàn jì; the anthology extends this material with mid-Qīng additions from the planchette tradition and from local-temple cult records.
Translations and research
- For the Lǚ-zǔ hagiographical tradition see Mori Yuria’s surveys; Yang & Yang, Eight Immortals; Katz, Images of the Immortal.
- No critical edition or full translation of the Shèng jì jì yào located.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0055
- Editor: 柳守元.