Scripture of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen)三皇经（三皇文）

Also known as

Sanhuang neiwen (Inner Text of the Three Sovereigns), Dongshen Sanhuang jing (Dongshen Scripture of the Three Sovereigns), Scripture of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang Wen)

Author / transmission

Bo He, Bao Jing

Period

Late Han to Jin · Tradition holds that Bo He obtained it from a rock wall on Mount Xicheng, that Bao Jing received it on Mount Song, and that it was transmitted to Ge Hong; it was already circulating by the Eastern Jin, and Lu Xiujing of the Southern Dynasties established it as the basis of the "Dongshen Section." In the twentieth year of Zhenguan of the Tang (646) it was banned and burned because its content touched on prophetic charts, and today only compiled fragments and derivative scriptures survive.

Canon division

Dongshen Section

Collected in

The original is lost; the Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongshen Section, preserves derivative texts such as the Scripture of the Eight Emperors' Original Transformations of Dongshen, the Wondrous Essence Scripture of the Eight Emperors of Dongshen, and the Most High Rites of the Three Sovereigns of Dongshen

Category

Early Daoist Scriptures

Fascicles

Originally three scrolls (the Text of the Heavenly Sovereign, the Text of the Earthly Sovereign, and the Text of the Human Sovereign), later expanded to fourteen scrolls

Synopsis

The Scripture of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) is the foundational scripture of the Dongshen (Cavern of Spirit) Section among the Daoist "Three Caverns," standing as one leg of a tripod alongside Shangqing (Dongzhen) and Lingbao (Dongxuan). According to the "Xialan" chapter of Ge Hong's Baopuzi, the work consists of three chapters of talismanic writs — the Writ of the Celestial Sovereign, the Writ of the Terrestrial Sovereign, and the Writ of the Human Sovereign — obtained by Bo He on Mount Xicheng and received by Bao Jing on Mount Song; it could summon the spirits of Heaven and the deities of Earth, command the hundred ghosts, and ward off evil to protect the body, and was said to be "among the most weighty of Daoist texts." When Lu Xiujing of the Liu Song organized the scriptures of the Three Caverns, he established the Scripture of the Three Sovereigns as the foremost text of the Dongshen Section; it was later expanded to fourteen chapters by Tao Hongjing and others, forming a transmission known as the "Retreat of the Three Sovereigns," characterized by the summoning and command of ghosts and spirits. During the Zhenguan era of the Tang, someone associated the "Scripture of the Three Sovereigns" with prophetic charts in a plot of rebellion, and Emperor Taizong issued an edict ordering it burned and banned, to be replaced by the Daodejing, whereupon the original text was lost. In the present-day Daoist Canon, works such as the Scripture of the Eight Emperors' Original Transformations of Dongshen, the Wondrous Essence Scripture of the Eight Emperors, and the Rites of the Three Sovereigns, along with quotations in the Supreme Secret Essentials, preserve some of its talismanic diagrams and ritual methods. The survival and loss of the Scripture of the Three Sovereigns is an important thread in the history of Daoist scriptural teaching, marking the shifting status of the Dongshen Section.

Key Ideas

• The talismanic writs of the Three Sovereigns summon and command ghosts and spirits
• The foundational text of the Dongshen Section
• Early Daoist methods centered on talismanic diagrams
• The early Tang prohibition and burning, and the replacement of the Dongshen Section's content

Structure

Originally divided into three chapters — the Writ of the Celestial Sovereign, the Writ of the Terrestrial Sovereign, and the Writ of the Human Sovereign — with the methods of the Eight Emperors appended; the content of the later fourteen-chapter edition is unknown.

Editions

• Derivative scriptures in the Dongshen Section of the Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era
• Quotations in the Supreme Secret Essentials

Translations

• Studied and annotated in translation by Dominic Steavu, The Writ of the Three Sovereigns (2019)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Sanhuang wen
• CTEXT search

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