Page 611 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

JINGMING DAO

J1/ffli :fL~;f$ EP1)CIM+.t'ii=. (Newly Revised Secret Rites of the Pure and Bright
[Way of] Lingbao for Suppressing Demons with the Divine Seal of the Nine
Ancient Lords; CT 562). Lecturer He identifies this manual as a pivotal Ling-
bao codification originally conveyed to Xu Xun by the legendary female adept
Chen Mu. Defects in the version given him, he explains, had accumulated over
the years as the text was handed down from one generation to the next. The
primary source of authority to which Lecturer He alludes are teachings on
zhongxiao lianshen ,i',~mt'~Jl! (loyalty, filiality, honesty, and prudence) revealed
in II29 under the rubric of Lingbao jingming bifa ~ 13: 7J F!f.I :fM 1* (Secret Rites
of the Pure and Bright [Way of] Lingbao). He also writes that two years later
Xu Xun himself abruptly appeared at the site of his shrine. This visitation
reportedly occurred one month prior to the date given the preface and led to
the construction of the Yizhen tan, where Lecturer He presumably received
his students.
He's preface is followed by instruction on cultivating an internal state of
]ingming replicating the radiance of the sun and moon. Essential to this con-
templative practice is a Fumo shenyin -f:X~;f$ EP (Divine Seal for Suppressing
Demons) and the microcosmic imagery of a jingming qijing ~ EA ~ ~ (Mirror
of the Pure and Bright Life-Force). The extent to which these teachings were
followed remains unknown. Nearly a century later,]in Yunzhong ~ it cP (fl.
1224-25) writes in the *Shangqing lingbao dafa (Great Rites of the Nurninous
Treasure of Highest Clarity; CT 1223, IO.13a-b) of a confusing array of texts on
]ingming fa inconsistent with the earlier Lingbao scriptural corpus venerating
Xu Xun. ]in's critical view no doubt evolved as diverse texts like the manual
edited by He Shouzheng began appearing in abundance following the collapse
of the Northern Song empire.
Teachings of Liu Yu and Huang Yuanji. The fullest record of ]ingming dao in
the Taoist Canon was produced by and for disciples, designated as dizi 5BT
or fazi 1* T . As the latter term denotes, instructions in the jingming zhongxiao
quanshu attest to an assimilation of Buddhist teachings. Their debt to the Ru
11lil scholastic legacy of Daoxue j]! JJ is even more pronounced. Liu Yu forth-
tightly states that the fundamentals of the Pure and Bright Way of Loyalty and
Filiality were familiar to but largely neglected by the Ru literati in his time. His
definition of ]ingming as nothing but zhengxin chengyi lE ie., ~ ~ (equanimity
and integrity) clearly harks back to the eight-step progression outlined in the
Daxue )( JJ (Great Learning; trans. Legge 1893, 357- 59). By equating loyalty
and filiality with fosteringgangchang f.lIMJ'm' ("guidelines and constancy"), more-
over, Liu also alludes to perhaps the best-known behavioral code ascribed to
Confucius, that is, the sangang wuchang -= f.lIMJlI.~. (three guidelines and five
constancies). Above all he counselled moderation in all things and compared
excessive adherence to gangchang with a boat listing in one direction, certain