Page 66 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I

who were predestined to immortality, and whose names were inscribed in
the celestial registers. Receiving a text was thus an assurance of one's quali-
fication for immortality. Legitimate possessors of a scripture gained with it
divine protection of jade boys and jade women (*yunu) who watched over the
book and its holder. The possession of a text also implied duties: adepts paid
homage to it and practiced the methods that it contained. On the other hand,
improperly obtaining a text amounted to "stealing a treasure from Heaven"
and nullified its power.
The sacred text resolved the issue of the relation between innate predestina-
tion (adepts must have their name inscribed in the heavens in order to obtain
immortality) and practice, and also between what later was called subitaneous
(dun ~tf) and gradual (jian iifJi) awakening. Moreover, in the Shangqing school
the sacred text played the same role the master had in earlier Taoist traditions.
The real guide was now the scripture, and its increased importance marked
the evolution of Taoism from an oral to a written tradition. Even the "oral
instructions" (koujue r r iiR:), originally given only in speech, often were writ-
ten down in later times. In this context, the master became no more that a
guarantor of the legitimacy of the transmission. He did not officiate, and the
methods did not bear his name as they had in ancient times. He served as a
link in the chain that, through the scriptures, connected a lineage of human
beings to Heaven.

Isabelle ROBINET
m Bokenkamp 1997,188-94; Campany 1993, 21-25; Kamitsuka Yoshiko 1999,
361-414; Kohn 1993b, 35-43; Lagerwey 1981b, 104-35; Robinet 1984, I: 107-23;
Robinetl993: 19-28; Seidel 1989-90, 250-54

* SCRIPTURE AND EXEGESIS; TRANSMISSION

Scripture and exegesis

"Scripture" is a Western term usually applied to the Bible as revered by the
Jews and by Christians (Smith W C. 1993, x), and must be applied to traditions
like Taoism with caution. Laurence Thompson (1985, 204) has argued that the
term scripture, when defined as text with religious authority that is "subject
to exegesis but not criticism," applies to many but not all texts in the Taoist
Canon. Since the Daode jing, the exegetical enterprise has been an important
feature of Taoism, as commentaries and revision of a continuously expanding
core of scripture has been one of the central means by which subtraditions
invented and renewed themselves.