Gāoshàng Yùhuáng běnxíng jí jīng suǐ 高上玉皇本行集經髓
The Marrow [Essential Extract] of the Sūtra of the Original Conduct of the Most-High Jade Emperor abridged by 儼法師 (造)
About the work
A single-juan Daoist canonical extract, anomalously preserved in the Buddhist canonical line via the Fángshān shíjīng 房山石經 (Stone-Sūtras of Mount Fángshān, Beijing) collection at F29 no. 1098. The work is an abridgment (suǐ 髓 = “marrow”, essence-extract) of the major Daoist canonical text the Gāoshàng Yùhuáng běnxíng jí jīng 高上玉皇本行集經 — the principal Daoist canonical text of the Jade Emperor (Yùhuáng) cult that became central to Sòng-and-after Daoist devotional practice. The byline attributes the abridgment to a Yǎn fǎshī 儼法師 (Master Yǎn) — most likely a Daoist abridger taking a Buddhist-style monastic title. The Buddhist canonical preservation of this Daoist abridgment is anomalous — paralleling the canonical preservation of KR6s0074 Lǎozǐ huàhú jīng.
Prefaces
The text opens with the Kāijīng xuányùn zhòu 開經玄蘊呪 (“Sūtra-Opening Dark-Treasury Spell”):
Great is the Primal-Beginning, immeasurable in saving people; expounding the pure teaching, ascending and leading the heavenly true. The dark seat expounds the Dharma in stillness without sound. The Jade Emperor releases light, joyful celebration hard to speak — this is the mind-transmission, also called the heavenly root, the Great Round-Complete spell. The jade-stanzas, cave-text, gathered into a written book, set forth and disseminated to the divine truths. Your servant now, facing east, recites — wishing with heaven equal, the alive and the dead alike to verify the fruit, eternally crossing the love-river ford.
Then the body of the text begins with the Tàishàng dòngxuán língbǎo gāoshàng yùhuáng běnxíng jí jīng 太上洞玄靈寶高上玉皇本行集經 abridgment proper:
The Way-words: Of old, the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn 元始天尊 (Heavenly Honored One of Primal Beginning) was in the Qīngwēi tiān 清微天 (Pure-Subtle Heaven), in the Yùjīng 玉京…
Abstract
Authorship and date: the abridgment is attributed to Yǎn fǎshī 儼法師, otherwise unidentified. The original Gāoshàng Yùhuáng běnxíng jí jīng is a Sòng-period Daoist canonical text — the Jade Emperor cult rose to canonical prominence in the Northern Sòng under imperial sponsorship (particularly during the Sòng Zhēnzōng 真宗 reign, when the yùhuáng was officially incorporated into the imperial cosmological framework). The abridgment is plausibly a SòngYuánMíng work; notBefore = 1000, notAfter = 1500. Catalog dynasty 明 (here following the conventional treatment of Daoist-canonical works in the Buddhist canon as YuánMíng materials).
The work is one of the principal pre-modern witnesses to the Buddhist-canonical preservation of Daoist canonical texts — paralleling KR6s0074 Lǎozǐ huàhú jīng in this anomaly. The substantive Daoist content treats the cosmogonic-mythological narrative of the Jade Emperor’s original conduct (běnxíng), the establishment of the Yùjīng (Jade Capital) heavenly hierarchy, and the Yuánshǐ tiānzūn’s revelation of the Daoist teaching.
The Fángshān shíjīng preservation is itself significant: the Fángshān stone-sūtras project (begun in the Suí dynasty, continued through the Liáo, Jīn, Yuán, and Míng) is the principal pre-modern Chinese effort to preserve the Buddhist canon in inscribed-stone form for eternal preservation against fire and political destruction. The inclusion of Daoist-canonical extracts within this Buddhist-canonical preservation project reflects the pre-modern Chinese canonical-comprehensive approach to religious texts.
Translations and research
- Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Robert F. Campany, and modern Daoist-studies scholars on the Jade Emperor cult.
- Lì Sì-lóng 李四龍, scholarship on the Fáng-shān stone-sūtra project.
- Christine Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face (Hawai’i, 2008) — context for Buddhist-Daoist canonical syncretism.
Other points of interest
The Daoist-canonical preservation in the Buddhist Fángshān stone-sūtra collection is one of the principal pieces of evidence for the late-medieval Chinese non-polemical canonical syncretism that contrasted with the earlier Buddhist-Daoist polemical tradition (cf. KR6s0074 for the polemical-canonical artifact, and KR6s0075 for late-Míng Buddhist-Daoist commentarial syncretism).
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for 儼法師)
- CBETA: F029n1098
- Source-text: Gāoshàng Yùhuáng běnxíng jí jīng (Sòng-period Daoist canonical text on the Jade Emperor)
- Companion Daoist-canonical work in the Buddhist canon: KR6s0074 Lǎozǐ huàhú jīng, KR6s0077 Wúshàng Yùhuáng xīnyìn jīng
- Preservation context: Fángshān shíjīng stone-sutra project