Scripture of the Wisdom Treasury of Ocean-Emptiness太上一乘海空智藏经
- Also known as
- Haikong Zhizang jing (Scripture of the Wisdom Treasury of Ocean-Emptiness), Haikong jing (Ocean-Emptiness Scripture)
- Author / transmission
- Li Xing and Fang Chang (according to older accounts)
- Period
- Tang · Composed roughly during the reigns of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian (late seventh century); older accounts attribute it to the Daoist priests Li Xing and Fang Chang, who modelled it on Buddhist sutras.
- Canon division
- Dongzhen Section, Original Texts (Benwen) category
- Collected in
- Zhengtong Daozang, Dongzhen Section, Scriptural Texts category
- Category
- Early Daoist Scriptures
- Fascicles
- 10 juan
Synopsis
The Haikong Zhizang jing (Scripture of the Wisdom Treasury of Ocean-Emptiness) is a Daoist doctrinal scripture composed by the Tang-dynasty Chongxuan school in imitation of Mahāyāna Buddhist sutras; terms such as 'One Vehicle,' 'ocean-emptiness' and 'wisdom treasury' are all borrowed from Buddhist usage. The text presents the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning expounding the teaching to the Perfected Haikong Zhizang and others, discussing dao-nature, the dharma-body, the True One, the One Vehicle, and the meaning of dependent origination and emptiness of nature; it holds that all beings possess dao-nature, and that practitioners should use the wisdom of 'ocean-emptiness' to break through attachment and awaken to the Twofold Mystery, while also expounding precepts and practice, merit, cosmic cycles (kalpas) and salvation. It extensively copies and rewrites Buddhist scriptures such as the Nirvana Sutra, the Lotus Sutra and the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, making it one of the most heavily 'Buddhicized' of Daoist scriptures, for which reason Buddhists denounced it as apocryphal; nonetheless it had a real influence on the construction of Tang Daoist philosophy, and is frequently cited in works such as the Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching and the Yiqie Daojing Yinyi (a comprehensive phonetic and semantic glossary to Daoist scriptures). Together with the Benji jing, it is a core text for studying how Sui–Tang Daoism absorbed Buddhist doctrinal learning.
Key Ideas
- Dao-nature and the dharma-body
- The One Vehicle and the wisdom of ocean-emptiness
- A Daoist expression of dependent origination and emptiness of nature
- Precepts, merit and salvation
Structure
Ten juan, divided into chapters, unfolding as a dialogue between the Celestial Worthy and the Perfected.
Editions
- Zhengtong Daozang edition
- Zhonghua Daozang, volume 5
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Scripture of the Original Bound (Benji jing), Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching- 卢国龙《中国重玄学》
- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
- 神塚淑子《六朝道教思想の研究》