Digest of Essential Rites, Regulations and Precepts要修科仪戒律钞

Also known as

Digest of Rites and Precepts

Author / transmission

Zhu Faman

Period

Tang · Written by Zhu Faman (d. 720), composed roughly in the early Kaiyuan era.

Canon division

Dongxuan Section, Precepts (Jielü) category

Collected in

Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongxuan Section, Jielü Category

Category

Encyclopedic Compendia (Leishu)

Fascicles

16 juan

Synopsis

The Digest of Essential Rites, Regulations and Precepts is a Daoist compendium of ritual regulations and precepts compiled by Zhu Faman, a Daoist priest of Yuqing Temple in the Tang dynasty, in sixteen chapters. The work excerpts pre-Tang scriptural texts by category, covering the transmission of scriptures and precepts, the dignified observances of Daoist priests, ritual vestments, retreat and fasting, burning incense, reciting scriptures, paying court and worship, ritual altars, Daoist temples, the relation of master and disciple, life and death, funerary rites, and the retribution of sin and merit; each category first quotes the scriptural text and then adds an annotation, drawing on a great number of now-lost scriptures of regulations and precepts such as the Regulations of Great Perfection, the Statutes of the Mysterious Metropolis, the Regulations of a Thousand Perfected, the Scripture of Original Form, and the Instructions of the Natural Scripture of Dongxuan Zhenyi. Its character is close to that of the Supreme Secret Essentials but specialized in the institutions of ritual regulation and precepts; it is an important compendium for studying the norms, ranks, retreat-and-offering procedures, and precept articles of the Daoist order in the Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang, and together with the Regulations for the Practice of Daoism in Accordance with the Scriptures of the Three Caverns constitutes one of the two major documents of Tang-dynasty Daoist institutions.

Key Ideas

• A categorized digest of ritual regulations and precepts
• Preserves lost fragments of the Regulations of Great Perfection, the Statutes of the Mysterious Metropolis, and others
• Norms for Daoist priests' dignified observance, ritual vestments, retreat and fasting, and funerary rites
• A source for the history of Tang-dynasty Daoist institutions

Structure

Sixteen chapters, arranged by category according to topics of ritual regulation and precepts.

Editions

• Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era edition
• Zhonghua Daozang, vol. 42

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Zhu Faman
• CTEXT search

Related scriptures

Related figures