Page 589 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

548 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

There are also, for example, five precepts grouped together that concern
behavior with women. The Precepts of the Middle Prime are more stringent
than those of the Lower Prime stressing purification and putting others before
oneself. They explicitly encourage adherents to be more tolerant, more endur-
ing of pain, less concerned about clothing and food, ete., than others are able
to be. They shift from being generally prohibitive to mostly exhortatory. The
precepts of the Higher Prime are exclusively exhortatory, being expressed in
the form "Students of the Oao, you ought to think on ... " and demand even
more from the adept. They encourage deep compassion, an eremitic lifestyle
and particular religious practices but can also, at this level, expect to attain the
powers associated with transcendence of the normal human condition: eating
celestial food, travel in celestial realms, consorting with deities.
The third set, known by the shortened name Sanyuan pin, is also quoted
in the Wushang biyao (Lagerwey I98Ib, 143-44) but was included as one of the
original Lingbao corpus as catalogued by *Lu Xiujing (see table 16) so must
come from the fifth century, at latest. It expresses its prohibitions in the form
of transgressions, addressing the first twenty-seven to "students of the Upper
Oao," and the remainder to "students of the Oao and followers from among
the people." As would be indicated by this division, the first twenty-seven
concern respecting teachers, the proper circumstances for the transmission
of texts, the necessity of observing the rituals, and so forth. The rest are of
a more general nature such as those seen in the Hundred and Eighty Precepts
and the first section of the Dajie wen. The text claims to divide the precepts
into three groups of sixty, although the first group only has forty-seven. Each
group of sixty is overseen by a range of named celestial officials of various of-
fices within the departments of Heaven, Earth and Water-the "three primes"
(*sanyuan) of the title (see *sanguan).
The stability of the precepts can be gauged by noting the great similarity
between the Dajie wen and a set in use during the nineteenth century collected
by Heinrich Hackmann (1931).

Benjamin PENNY
ID Bokenkamp 1997, 48-S8; Eskildsen 1998, ro6-I2; Hackmann I93I;Jan Yiin-
hua 1986; Kohn I99sa, 188-90, 201, and 209; Kohn 2004a; Kusuyama Haruki
1992, 64-II3; Lagerwey 198rb, 143-49; Penny I996a; Ren Jiyu r990, 288-339;
Schipper 2001
* jinji; Chuzhen jielu; Fengdao kejie; Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie; Laojun yinsong
jiejing; Siji mingke jing; Xiang' er jie; Xuandu lUwen; Zhengyi fawen jing; Zhengyi weiyi
jing; ETHICS AND MORALS; MONASTIC CODE; ORDINATION AND PRIESTHOOD