Zhōng jí jiè 中極戒
Middle-Pole Precepts
base scripture: anonymous, Táng or earlier (cf. DZ 1364 Tài shàng dòng xuán líng bǎo zhì huì guān shēn dà jiè jīng); transmission attributed to Yuánshǐ tiānwáng → Tàishàng gāoshèng dàojūn
The middle-tier precept-statute of the Lóngmén three-altar ordination system: the canonical Three-Hundred Precepts of Zhì huì guān shēn 智慧觀身 (“Wisdom and Body-Observation”) — the most stringent precept-set in the Daoist tradition, addressing every aspect of monastic conduct. The text begins at sheet 62a (continuous foliation with KR5i0098 Chū zhēn jiè lǜ) and presents the precepts as the speech of the Tàiwēi tiāndì (Grand-Subtle Heavenly Emperor) on receiving them from the Tàishàng gāoshèng dàojūn in turn from the Yuánshǐ tiānwáng — the standard high-Daoist transmission-pedigree. The 300 precepts cover the standard Buddhist upāsaka-derived items (no killing, no eating meat-and-blood, no alcohol, no five-pungent vegetables, no false speech, no theft, no sexual misconduct) plus distinctively Daoist items.
Prefaces
The text opens with the transmission-frame: “The Wisdom-Observing-the-Body Great Precepts — flowing-light scattered-and-generous-irradiating the Tàixū; over three thousand-some kalpas the text first emerged. It was the Yuánshǐ tiānwáng who transmitted it to the Tàishàng gāoshèng dàojūn; thereupon they together ascended to the Cavern-Real’s hall, expounded and chanted it, to transmit to the Tàiwēi tiāndì and the Tàijí gāoxiān tiānwáng — mouth-to-mouth transmitted, not committed to writing. The Tàiwēi tiāndì on receiving the precepts gāthā’d: ‘Wisdom rises from the original-no, brightly-brightly transcending the Ten Quarters; the structure-of-emptiness, the high-mystery sky; all heavens raise its flowing-fragrance…”
Abstract
The canonical 300-precept text of late-imperial Daoist monastic ordination, used as the second-tier of the Lóngmén three-altar system. The base scripture has Táng or pre-Táng origin (the related Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng witnesses include DZ 1364, with parallel material in adjacent precept-scriptures). Wáng Chángyuè in his 1656 reform formally adopted the 300-precept text as the second-tier of the Lóngmén ordination, between the chū zhēn shí jiè and the tiān xiān dà jiè. The DZJY recension is part of the Wáng Cháng-yuè-derived Lóngmén precept corpus.
For the Daoist precept tradition see Schipper-Verellen The Taoist Canon II on the precept corpus.
Translations and research
- Schipper-Verellen, The Taoist Canon II, on DZ 1364 Zhì huì guān shēn dà jiè jīng and adjacent precept scriptures.
- For the late-imperial Lóng-mén ordination tradition see Esposito, Facets of Qing Daoism (2014).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5i0099
- Transmission: 元始天王 → 太上道君 (託名).