Scripture Spoken by Lord Lao on Requiting the Profound Kindness of Parents太上老君说报父母恩重经

Also known as

Scripture on Requiting the Profound Kindness of Parents

Author / transmission

author unknown (attributed to the Supreme Venerable Sovereign)

Period

Tang–Song · Author unknown; composed around the late Tang to the Song (a Daoist scripture of the same title is already found among the Dunhuang manuscripts); one juan. It is a Daoist classic of filial piety modelled on the Buddhist Scripture on the Profound Kindness of Parents.

Canon division

Dongxuan Section, Benwen Category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongxuan: Original Texts

Category

Morality Books (Shanshu)

Fascicles

One Fascicle (Juan)

Synopsis

The Scripture Spoken by Lord Lao on Requiting the Profound Kindness of Parents proclaims, in the name of the Supreme Venerable Sovereign, the kindness of parents in bearing and rearing their children: the pain of ten months in the womb, the labour of three years of nursing, moving the child to the dry place and taking the wet oneself, swallowing the bitter and giving out the sweet. It holds that even were children to cut their flesh and pierce their skin for blood and support their parents all their lives they could not requite one ten-thousandth of it, and so it urges people to fulfil filial duty while their parents live and, after their death, to hold retreats and offerings for them, recite scriptures and cultivate merit to deliver their souls. The scripture is plainly modelled on the Buddhist Scripture on the Profound Kindness of Parents (of which many Dunhuang manuscripts survive), and is a typical instance of the mutual absorption of Buddhism and Daoism around the Tang–Song transition; but its means of deliverance are purely Daoist — holding the Yellow Register Retreat, submitting petitions, reciting scriptures, making images and giving alms. Filial piety had been drawn into the core of Daoist doctrine ever since the Six Dynasties Filial Way tradition (the cult of Xu Xun; the Southern Song Jingming Daoism inherited this and advocated "taking loyalty and filial piety as the root"), and this scripture, together with the Taishang zhenyi bao fumu enzhong jing (Scripture of the Most High Perfect Unity on Requiting the Profound Kindness of Parents) and the Classic of Filial Piety of Lord Wenchang, makes up the corpus of Daoist filial-piety literature. It is an important text for understanding how Daoism answered Confucian ethics and won popular believers, and it is often chanted in retreat and offering rites for the deliverance of the dead.

Key Ideas

• A detailed account of the ten kindnesses of parents in rearing their children
• Equal weight given to filial duty in life and deliverance after death
• Modelled on the Buddhist Scripture on the Profound Kindness of Parents but Daoicized
• Filial piety drawn into the core of Daoist doctrine
• A scripture commonly chanted in rites for the deliverance of the dead

Structure

One juan, in the form of a sermon by Lord Lao, alternating prose and verse.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Dunhuang manuscripts (a related Daoist scripture of the same title)
• Zhonghua Daozang edition

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT search
• Wikipedia: Scripture on the Profound Kindness of Parents

Related scriptures

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