Declarations of the Perfected Part Two: Instructions on Shaping Destiny

Author: 
Thomas E. Smith

Publisher: 

Three Pines Press

Publication date:
November 2020

Abstract:

Declarations of the Perfected is the first complete, annotated translation of Zhen’gao 真誥, Tao Hongjing’s (456-536) masterful compilation of the Shangqing or Higher Clarity revelations, setting the stage for the heyday of medieval Daoism. The present volume presents the Declarations’ second part (fasc. 5-8), which focuses on the various difficulties that Daoist practitioners are likely to encounter in a dangerous world, and how to overcome them. It begins with instructions of a more general nature, before moving on to problems faced specifically by Xu Mi 許謐 (303-376) and his family and fellow officials. This volume also sheds much light on the history of its time—the kinds of moral and philosophical issues that were being debated, as well political intrigues in the Eastern Jin court.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Translation
Preface by Tu Long
Fascicle Five

Fascicle Six
Fascicle Seven
Fascicle Eight
Past translations consulted 

The Writ of the Three Sovereigns: From Local Lore to Institutional Daoism

Author:

Dominic Steavu

Publication date:

October 2020

Publisher:

University of Hawaii Press

Abstract:

In 648 CE, Tang imperial authorities collected every copy of the Writ of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen 三皇文) from the four corners of the empire and burned them. The formidable talismans at its core were said not only to extend their owners’ lifespan and protect against misfortune, but also propel them to stratospheric heights of power, elevating them to the rank of high minister or even emperor. Only two or three centuries earlier, this controversial text was unknown in most of China with the exception of Jiangnan in the south, where it was regarded as essential local lore. In the span of a few generations, the Writ of the Three Sovereigns would become the cornerstone of one of the three basic corpora of the Daoist Canon, a pillar of Daoism—and a perceived threat to the state.

This study, the only book-length treatment of the Writ of the Three Sovereigns in any language, traces the text’s transition from local tradition to empire-wide institutional religion. The volume begins by painting the social and historical backdrop against which the scripture emerged in early fourth-century Jiangnan before turning to its textual history. It reflects on the work’s centerpiece artifacts, the potent talismans in celestial script, as well as other elements of its heritage, namely alchemical elixirs and “true form” diagrams. During the fifth and sixth centuries, with Daoism coalescing into a formal organized religion, the Writ of the Three Sovereigns took on a symbolic role as a liturgical token of initiation while retaining its straightforward language of sovereignty and strong political overtones, which eventually led to its prohibition. The writ endured, however, and later experienced a revival as its influence spread as far as Japan.

Despite its central role in the development of institutional Daoism, the Writ of the Three Sovereigns has remained an understudied topic in Chinese history. Its fragmentary textual record combined with the esoteric nature of its content have shrouded it in speculation. This volume provides a lucid reconstruction of the text’s hidden history and enigmatic practices while shedding light on its contributions to the religious landscape of medieval China.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

The Writ in early medieval southern China

The religious life of objects: the talismans of the Writ and their surviving fragments

Beyond talismans: alchemy, charts, and meditation in relation to the Writ

From local lore to universal Dao: the cavern of divinity and the early Daoist canon

The Writ and its corpus: the rise and fall of the cavern of divinity in institutional Daoism

Conclusion

Appendix 1: List of variant titles for the Writ of the three sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) in early medieval sources

Appendix 2: Synopsis of the principal Six dynasties sources containing fragments of the Writ of the three sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) and its oral instructions

Appendix 3: Comparative list of talismans from the "essential instructions from the western citadel on the great characters in celestial script of the Three sovereigns" (Xicheng yaojue sanhuang tianwen dazi) and the "essential functions of the Three sovereigns" (Sanhuang yaoyong pin)

Appendix 4: Comparative inventory of transmission gages associated with the Writ of the three sovereigns (Sanhuang wen)

A Fourth-Century Daoist Family: The Zhen’gao, or Declarations of the Perfected, Volume 1

Author:

Stephen R. Bokenkamp

Publisher:
University of California Press

Publication date:
December 2020

Abstract:
This volume is the first in a series of full-length English translations from one of the foremost classics in Daoist religious literature, the Zhen gao 真誥 or Declarations of the Perfected. The Declarations is a collection of poems, accounts of the dead, instructions, and meditation methods received by the Daoist Yang Xi (330–ca. 386 BCE) from celestial beings and shared by him with his patrons and students. These fragments of revealed material were collected and annotated by the eminent scholar and Daoist Tao Hongjing (456–536), allowing us access to these distant worlds and unfamiliar strategies of self-perfection. Bokenkamp's full translation highlights the literary nature of Daoist revelation and the place of the Declarations in the development of Chinese letters. It further details interactions with the Chinese throne and the aristocracy and demonstrates ways that Buddhist borrowings helped shape Daoism much earlier than has been assumed. This first volume also contains heretofore unrecognized reconfigurations of Buddhist myth and practice that Yang Xi introduced to his Daoist audience.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Contents and Background of the Work

Women and Goddesses

Mediumism in the Declarations

Buddhism in the Declarations

Prior Translations

1) Tao Hongjing's Postface (DZ 1016, Chapters 19–20) 

Translation: Introducing the Declarations of the Perfected

Translation: Account of the Perfected Scriptures from Beginning to End

Translation: Genealogy of the Perfected Forebears

2) The Poems of Elu¨hua

Translation: The Poems of Elu¨hua (DZ 1016, 1.1a–2a)

3) The Sons of Sima Yu 

Introduction

Translation: The Sons of Sima Yu

4) "Eight Pages of Lined Text"

a) Introduction to the "Eight Pages of Lined Text"

b) Introduction and Translation: Poems on Dependence and Independence

c) Introduction and Translation: Han Mingdi's Dream

d) Introduction and Translation of On Fangzhu 

e) Introduction and Translation of the Teachings and Admonitions of the Assembled Numinous Powers (= The Scripture in Forty-Two Sections)

f) Related Fragments

A Library of Clouds: The Scripture of the Immaculate Numen and the Rewriting of Daoist Texts

Authors:
J. E. E. Pettit & Chao-jan Chang 張超然

Publisher:
University of Hawaii Press

Publication date:
September 2020




Abstract:
From early times, Daoist writers claimed to receive scriptures via revelation from heavenly beings. In numerous cases, these writings were composed over the course of many nights and by different mediums. New revelations were often hastily appended, and the resulting unevenness gave rise to the impression that Daoist texts often appear slapdash and contain contradictions. A Library of Clouds focuses on the re-writing of Daoist scriptures in the Upper Clarity (Shangqing) lineage in fourth- and fifth-century China. Scholarship on Upper Clarity Daoism has been dominated by attempts to uncover “original” or “authentic” texts, which has resulted in the neglect of later scriptures―including the work fully translated and annotated here, the Scripture of the Immaculate Numen, one of the Three Wonders (sanqi) and among the most prized Daoist texts in medieval China. The scripture’s lack of a coherent structure and its different authorial voices have led many to see it not as a unified work but the creation of different editors who shaped and reshaped it over time.

A Library of Clouds constructs new ways of understanding the complex authorship of texts like the Scripture of the Immaculate Numen and their place in early medieval Daoism. It stresses their significance in understanding the ways in which manuscripts were written, received, and distributed in early medieval China. By situating the scripture within its immediate hagiographic and ritual contexts, it suggests that this kind of revelatory literature is best understood as a pastiche of ideas, a process of weaving together previously circulating notions and beliefs into a new scriptural fabric.

Table of Contents:

Part I. Translators’ Introduction

Background 

Chapter One Thirty-One Fascicles: Cataloguing Scriptures of the Heavens

Chapter Two Thrree Ones: A Stereoscopic View of a Daoist Hagiography

Chapter Three Five Stars: Remaking Daoist Ritual

Chapter Four Nine Palaces: Later Reconstructions of Upper Clarity

Chapter Five Three Hundred Fascicles: Rethinking the Authorship of Daoist Scriptures

Conclusion

Part II. Translation: The Most High Wondrous Scripture of the Immaculate Numen [Celestial Palace] and

Penetrating Mystery of the Great Existence [Heaven] (Taishang suling dongxuan dayou miaojing

太上素靈洞玄大有妙經, DZ 1314)

1 The Three Grottoes

2 The Nine Palaces

3 The Three Ones

4 Three [Palaces] and Nine [Openings] 

5 Illustrious Code of the Nine Perfected

六朝江南道教の研究: 陸修静の霊宝経観と古霊宝経

Author:
林 佳恵 (Hayashi Kae)

Publisher:
Waseda University Press

Publication date:
March 2019

Table of Contents:

序　論
　第1節　序言（先行研究史）　　
　第2節　問題の所在　　
　第3節　研究の方法　　

第1篇　敦煌本「霊宝経目録」における経典の分類
　第1章　陸修静による霊宝経典の分類
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節　敦煌本「霊宝経目録」の分類と「元始系」・「仙公系」の不一致 　　
　　第3節　陸修静の考える「元始旧経」　　
　　第4節　「元始旧経」と紫微宮秘蔵の経の関係 　　
　　第5節　紫微宮秘蔵の経の条件 　　
　　第6節　『太上洞玄靈寶眞文要解上巻』の分類　　
　　第7節　小　　結　　
　第2章　陸修静の霊宝経観と『太上洞玄靈寶天文五符經序』の分類
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節　陸修静が示す霊宝経の二つの系統 　　
　　第3節　「霊宝経目序」に見える陸修静の霊宝経観 　　
　　第4節　『太上洞玄靈寶天文五符經序』の分類 　　
　　第5節　陸修静の霊宝経分類における「太上」の位置付け　　
　　第6節　『太上太極太虚上眞人演太上靈寶威儀洞玄眞一自然經訣』の分類 　　
　　第7節　小　　結　　
　第3章　陸修静の霊宝経観と「舊目」の解釈
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節　陸修静の霊宝経典の分類結果と「舊目」の解釈　　
　　第3節　「篇目」の「未出」経典と「未出」の意味 　　
　　第4節　小　　結　　

第2篇　敦煌本「霊宝経目録」の分類カテゴリーの検証
　第4章　霊宝経における新旧の概念の形成
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節　霊宝経における陸修静の新旧の概念　　
　　第3節　敦煌本「霊宝経目録」著録経典中の「新経」の概念　　
　　第4節　敦煌本「霊宝経目録」著録経典中の「元始旧経」の概念　　
　　第5節　霊宝経典中の「舊」の語の意味　　
　　第6節　小　　結　　
　第5章　「十部妙經」と「元始旧経」
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節　「十部妙經」に言及する「元始旧経」中の経典 　　
　　第3節　「十部妙經」の設定　　
　　第4節　「十部妙經」と「十方」の観念　　
　　第5節　「十部妙經三十六巻」の検証　　
　　第6節　小　　結　　
　第6章 分類の為のカテゴリーとしての「元始旧経」と「仙公新経」
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節　「元始旧経」の検証　　
　　第3節 「仙公新経」の検証 　　
　　第4節 「仙公新経」と「元始旧経」で共通する戒 　　
　　第5節　小　　結　　

第3篇　陸修静の霊宝経観
　第7章　霊宝経と天師道
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節　霊宝経中の『道德五千文』への言及　　
　　第3節 「靈寶齋」と「三天齋」　　
　　第4節　霊宝経典中の天師張道陵　　
　　第5節 霊宝経典中の天師道の神々　　
　　第6節 「元始旧経」に見える「發爐」　　
　　第7節　小　　結　　
　第8章　陸修静の霊宝経観の形成
　　第1節　序　　言　　
　　第2節 「靈寶經目序」中の霊宝経観の形成にかかわる霊宝経典　　
　　第3節 「靈寶經目序」に見える陸修静独自の霊宝経観　　
　　第4節 『太上洞玄靈寶授度儀』の「師告丹水文」中の霊宝経に関する言及の考察　
　　第5節　陸修静の霊宝経観の継承　
　　第6節 小　　結　

The Cambridge History of China Volume 2: The Six Dynasties, 220–589

Editors:
Albert E. Dien & Keith N. Knapp

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Publication date:

2019

Abstract:

The Six Dynasties Period (220–589 CE) is one of the most complex in Chinese history. Written by leading scholars from across the globe, the essays in this volume cover nearly every aspect of the period, including politics, foreign relations, warfare, agriculture, gender, art, philosophy, material culture, local society, and music. While acknowledging the era's political chaos, these essays indicate that this was a transformative period when Chinese culture was significantly changed and enriched by foreign peoples and ideas. It was also a time when history and literature became recognized as independent subjects and religion was transformed by the domestication of Buddhism and the formation of organized Daoism. Many of the trends that shaped the rest of imperial China's history have their origins in this era, such as the commercial vibrancy of southern China, the separation of history and literature from classical studies, and the growing importance of women in politics and religion.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Part I. History:
1. Wei   Rafe de Crespigny
2. Wu   Rafe de Crespigny
3. Shu-Han   J. Michael Farmer
4. Western Jin   Damien Chaussende
5. Eastern Jin   Charles Holcombe
6. The Sixteen Kingdoms   Charles Holcombe
7. Cheng-Han State   Terry F. Kleeman
8. Northern Wei   Scott Pearce
9. Eastern Wei-Northern Qi   Albert E. Dien
10. Western Wei-Northern Zhou   Albert E. Dien
11. The Southern dynasties   Andrew Chittick

Part II. Society and Realia:
12. The art of war  David A. Graff
13. Foreign relations  Charles Holcombe
14. The Northern economy  Victor Cunrui Xiong
15. The Southern economy  Liu Shufen 劉淑芬
16. Agriculture  Francesca Bray
17. The history of Sogdians in China  Rong Xinjiang 榮新江
18. Northern material culture  Shing Müller
19. Southern material culture   Annette Kieser
20. Women, families, and gendered society  Jen-der Lee 李貞德
21. Local society Hou Xudong 侯旭東

Part III. Culture, Religion and Art:
22. Confucian learning and influence   Keith N. Knapp
23. Qingtan and Xuanxue   Y. K. Lo
24. Buddhism   John Kieschnick
25. Daoism   Stephen R. Bokenkamp
26. Popular religion   Robert Ford Campany
27. The world of prose literature   Antje Richter
28. The world of poetry   Cynthia Chennault
29. Art and visual culture   Wu Hung 巫鴻
30. Music   Bo Lawergren

道教経典の形成と仏教

Author:
神塚淑子 Kamitsuka, Yoshiko

Publication date:
2017

Publisher:
名古屋大学出版会 Nagoya Daigaku Shuppankai

Table of Contents:

序　章

第一篇　霊宝経の形成とその思想

第1章　霊宝経と初期江南仏教
　　　　　　 —— 因果応報思想を中心に

第2章　霊宝経における経典神聖化の論理
　　　　　　 —— 元始旧経の 「開劫度人」 説をめぐって

第3章　霊宝経に見える葛仙公
　　　　　　 —— 新経の成立をめぐって

第4章　六朝道教と 『荘子』
　　　　　　 —— 『真誥』・霊宝経・陸修静

第二篇　天尊像考

第1章　隋代の道教造像

第2章　天尊像・元始天尊像の成立と霊宝経

第3章　元始天尊をめぐる三教交渉

第三篇　道教経典と漢訳仏典

第1章　『海空智蔵経』 と 『涅槃経』
　　　　　　 —— 唐初道教経典の仏教受容

第2章　『海空智蔵経』 巻十 「普記品」 小考
　　　　　　 —— 道教経典と中国撰述仏典

第3章　仏典 『温室経』 と道典 『洗浴経』
　　　　　はじめに

第四篇 日本国内所蔵の道教関係敦煌写本

第1章　国立国会図書館所蔵の敦煌道経
　　　　　はじめに
　　　　　1　金録晨夜十方懺残巻　WB32-1 （3）
　　　　　2　道教叢書残巻　WB32-1 （30）

第2章　杏雨書屋所蔵の敦煌道経
　　　　　はじめに
　　　　　1　道教願文　杏雨書屋六七三R
　　　　　2　道経残簡　杏雨書屋六六六
　　　　　3　太玄真一本際経巻第七譬喩品　杏雨書屋六一六

第3章　京都国立博物館所蔵の敦煌道経
　　　　　　 —— 「太上洞玄霊宝妙経衆篇序章」 を中心に
　　　　　はじめに
　　　　　1　京都二五二 「太上業報因縁経巻第八」
　　　　　2　京都二五三 「太上洞玄霊宝妙経衆篇序章」
　　　　　3　道教史から見た 「太上洞玄霊宝妙経衆篇序章」

第五篇　唐代道教と上清派

第1章　則天武后期の道教

第2章　司馬承禎 『坐忘論』 について

  補　論　石刻坐忘論をめぐって

第3章　司馬承禎と天台山

終　章

Discourses of Purity in Transcultural Perspective (300–1600)

Editors: 
Matthias Bley , Nikolas Jaspert andStefan Köck

Publisher: 
Brill

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:
This volume comprises fifteen articles on the differing functions that purity, impurity, pollution and related categories could fulfil in Asian and European religions and societies of the 3rd to 17th century c.E. They focus processes of religious demarcation and transfer.

Table of Contents:
Preface
An Introduction to Discourses of Purity in Transcultural Perspective

Section 1 Material Purity

Chapter 1 Early Medieval Churches as Cultic Space between Material and Ethical Purity

Chapter 2 Some Brief Notes on Purity in Chinese Daoism

Chapter 3 An Almost Tangible Presence: Some Thoughts on Material Purity among Medieval European Jews

Section 2 Ethical and Moral Purity

Chapter 4 From 'Clean' to 'Pure' in Everyday Life in Late Imperial China: A Preliminary Enquiry

Chapter 5 Discourses on Purity in Western Christianity in the Early and High Middle Ages 

Section 3 Purity of Spirit and Thought

Chapter 6 Purity between Semantics and History: Notes on Daoist Soteriology and Interreligious Encounters in Early Medieval China

Chapter 7 Purity of Language: A Short-lived Concept in Medieval Hebrew Poetry

Section 4 Purity of Cult

Chapter 8 Domum immundam a perversis violata mundavit. Viking Defilement in Early Medieval Francia 

Chapter 9 Washing Away the Dirt of the World of Desire-On Origins and Developments of Notions of Ritual Purity in Japanese Mountain Religions 

Chapter 10 Patterns of Intensification of the Laws on Ritual Purity in Medieval Jewish Ashkenaz

Section 5 Concepts of Textual Purity

Chapter 11 Religious Texts and the Islamic Purity Regime

Section 6 Concepts of Genealogical Purity

Chapter 12 Sons of Damnation: Franciscans, Muslims, and Christian Purity

Chapter 13 Purifying the Pure: The Visuddhimagga, Forest-Dwellers and the Dynamics of Individual and Collective Prestige in Theravāda Buddhism

Chapter 14 Registers of Genealogical Purity in Classical Islam

[Dissertation] Waiting for Darkness: Judgment, Salvation, and Apocalyptic Eschatology in Medieval China

Author:
April D. Hughes

School:
Princeton University

Publication Year:
2014

Advisor:
Teiser, Stephen F.

Degree:
Ph.D.

Abstract:
This dissertation examines Chinese apocalypticism from the end of the third century to the middle of the eighth century. It centers on apocalyptic understandings of the future descent of two savior figures, the Buddha Maitreya and Prince Moonlight. Some scriptures predict that Maitreya will be the next Buddha in this world. Canonical scriptures place his arrival during an era of peace and prosperity, however, some non-canonical apocalyptic texts assert that his descent will occur during a time of chaos and destruction. In some texts, Prince Moonlight is depicted as an intermediary savior who comes prior to Maitreya's arrival, while other texts portray Prince Moonlight as a full-fledged apocalyptic savior whose arrival is associated with calamities.

This dissertation demonstrates that apocalyptic eschatology was central to medieval Chinese thought and was thus available for different social groups to appropriate for diverse and even contradictory purposes, such as to support political rebellion or to reinforce the dominance of the imperial state. This project examines a wide range of material including non-canonical apocalyptic scriptures, pre-modern Buddhist historiographical records, canonical prophecy scriptures, imperial historical records, and medieval mural paintings. Hence the project goes beyond prior studies by making use of canonical and non-canonical scriptures, together with visual evidence.

This study examines conceptions of kingship, salvation, ideal societies, cosmology and notions of time, as well as the relationship between religious and political perfection. Although this study focuses on ideas related to the end of the world that derive largely from Buddhist and to some extent Daoist traditions, this dissertation also raises questions regarding the study of apocalypticism that will be of interest to scholars of other Buddhist traditions as well as those focusing on utopian thought.

Daoism Excavated: Cosmos and Humanity in Early Manuscripts

Author: 
WANG Zhongjiang

Translator:
Livia Kohn

Publication Year:
2015

Publisher:
Three Pines Press

Abstract:
Daoism Excavated is a first detailed exploration of Daoist cosmology, philosophy, and political vision as found in recently unearthed bamboo slips and silk manuscripts. Presenting a detailed, and often carefully philological, examination of the Taiyi shengshui, Hengxian, Fanwu liuxing, and Huangdi sijing, as well as of various versions of the Laozi, the book provides new insights into ancient Daoist thought and its various schools and lineages. It focuses particularly on different visions of the creation and unfolding of the universe and on the application of these alternative cosmologies in political thought and practice. Revising and expanding our understanding of traditional Chinese thinking, the book makes an essential contribution to Chinese studies, philosophy, and religion.

Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction
Daoist Cosmology in the Light of Excavated Manuscripts 1
1. Hengxian 恆先: Stages of Cosmic Unfolding 30
2. Taiyi shengshui 太一生水: Textual Structure and Conceptual Layers 63
3. Fanwu liuxing 凡物流形: From Oneness to Multiplicity 84
4. Huangdi sijing 黃帝四經: Governing through Oneness 112
5. Laozi 老子: “Dao Models Itself” 130
6. Laozi: “A Great Vessel” 157
7. Han Laozi: Variants and New Readings 173
Laozi Chapters Cited 194
Bibliography 195
Index 207