Scripture of Precepts Chanted by Lord Lao老君音诵诫经

Also known as

Scripture of Chanted Precepts, Yunzhong yinsong xinke zhi jie (New Chanted Code of Precepts Amid the Clouds) (fragmentary)

Author / transmission

Kou Qianzhi

Period

Northern Wei · Kou Qianzhi (365–448) claimed that in 415, the second year of the Shenrui era, the Most High Lord Lao descended to Mount Song and transmitted the twenty-scroll Yunzhong Yinsong Xinke zhi Jie; the one scroll surviving today is a fragment of that work.

Canon division

Precepts category of the Dongshen (Cavern of Spirit) Section

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongshen Section, Precepts and Rules category

Category

Precepts and Rules

Fascicles

1 scroll (originally 20 scrolls)

Synopsis

The Scripture of Precepts Chanted by Lord Lao preserves a surviving portion of the Yunzhong Yinsong Xinke zhi Jie (New Chanted Regulations and Precepts from within the Clouds), the programmatic document of Kou Qianzhi's reform of the Way of the Celestial Masters in the Northern Wei. Speaking in the voice of the Most High Lord Lao, the scripture bitterly denounces the 'false methods of the three Zhangs' (the levies of rice and money, the technique of the merging of male and female qi, and the hereditary succession of libationers), demanding that 'ritual propriety come first, supplemented by the ingestion of pneumas and internal cultivation.' It lays down the ceremonies by which Daoist officials and libationers were to receive registers, transmit the teaching, submit petitions, keep retreats, hold communal feasts, recite scriptures, and heal the sick, abolishing the old rice-levy system and sexual practices of the Way of the Celestial Masters, and stressing loyalty, filial piety, reverence, and trustworthiness together with obedience to state law. This scripture marks the formation of the Northern Celestial Masters and is the first systematically documented reform of a Daoist religious community in Daoist history; its title 'chanted' refers to the new liturgical practice of intoning the precepts to music, which had great influence on later Daoist ritual music and the rectification of precepts. Because its content touches on the pro-Daoist politics of Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, it is also an important historical source for the study of the relationship between Daoism and the state.

Key Ideas

• Rectifying Daoism and abolishing the 'false methods of the three Zhangs'
• Placing ritual propriety first, opposing the rice levy and the merging of qi
• New regulations for libationers receiving registers, submitting petitions, and keeping retreat duty
• Loyalty, filial piety, reverence, trustworthiness, and obedience to state law
• The formation of the Northern Celestial Masters

Structure

One scroll, interweaving precepts with ritual procedures.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Zhonghua Daozang, vol. 8

Translations

• Discussed in Richard Mather, 'K'ou Ch'ien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy at the Northern Wei Court' (1979)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Kou Qianzhi
• CTEXT search

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