Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern (Dadong zhenjing)上清大洞真经
- Also known as
- Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern in Thirty-nine Chapters, Shangqing Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern in Thirty-nine Chapters, Jade Scripture of the Great Cavern
- Author / transmission
- Author unknown (revealed through Shangqing transmission)
- Period
- Eastern Jin · The foremost of the Shangqing scriptures received by Yang Xi during the Xingning era of the Eastern Jin (363–365); the present text is the collated edition by Jiang Zongying, a Maoshan patriarch of the Southern Song.
- Canon division
- Dongzhen Section, Original Texts (Benwen) category
- Collected in
- Zhengtong Daozang, Dongzhen Section, Original Texts Category
- Category
- Early Daoist Scriptures
- Fascicles
- Six scrolls, thirty-nine chapters
Synopsis
The Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern of Highest Clarity (Shangqing dadong zhenjing) is the foremost scripture of the Shangqing corpus; its "thirty-nine chapters" correspond to the thirty-nine celestial emperors, and it was honored by the Maoshan Lineage as the highest scripture, giving rise to the name "Dadong" ("Great Cavern") for the "Dongzhen" (Cavern of Perfection) category. The text centers on visualization: the reciter visualizes the thirty-nine emperor-lords and the various spirits within the body descending one by one and merging in whirling breath, so that through "the way of whirling breath merging with the Sovereign of the One," the body's spirits and the celestial gods become unified, and it is held that reciting the text ten thousand times allows one to ascend to Heaven in broad daylight. Each chapter contains a visualization diagram, incantations, and verses, in a tightly structured form. This scripture is repeatedly cited in the Zhengao and the Dengzhen Yinjue; Tao Hongjing called "the thirty-nine chapters of the Dadong Zhenjing the foremost of the Dao." The present Daozang text was collated by Jiang Zongying, a Maoshan patriarch of the Southern Song; there are also derivative texts such as the Dadong Yujing and the Wenchang Dadong Xianjing, the latter combined with the cult of Wenchang and widely transmitted in the southwest. This scripture represents the Shangqing School's shift, in the Wei–Jin period, toward inward visualization as a mode of cultivation in place of external alchemy and ingestion.
Key Ideas
- Thirty-nine chapters corresponding to the thirty-nine emperor-lords
- Visualizing the body's spirits merging with the celestial gods
- Reciting the scripture ten thousand times to ascend to Heaven
- The ways of the Sovereign One, the Female One, and the Male One
- Central status within the Shangqing scriptural corpus
Structure
Six scrolls in thirty-nine chapters, each containing a visualization method, incantation formulas, and scriptural text.
Editions
- Zhengtong Daozang edition (Jiang Zongying's collated text)
- Dadong Yujing
- Yuqing Wuji Zongzhen Wenchang Dadong Xianjing (a derivative text)
Commentaries
- Wei Qi, Commentary on the Yuqing Wuji Zongzhen Wenchang Dadong Xianjing
Translations
- French study and partial translation by Isabelle Robinet (La révélation du Shangqing, 1984)
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao), Concealed Instructions for Ascending to Perfection, Scripture of the Yellow Court: Inner Effulgences, Shangqing Scriptural CorpusRelated figures
Yang Xi, Wei Huacun, Tao Hongjing- Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l'histoire du taoïsme, 1984
- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
- Chen Guofu, Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon