Page 757 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LU SHIZHONG

Lu Shizhong

£1. II20-30; zi: Dangke 'MilT; hao: Lu zhenguan ~~'§
(Perfected Official Lu)

Lu Shizhong was the founder of the Yutang dafa ::f.1it:*: i! (Great Rites of
the Jade Hall) tradition, which is represented in the Daozang notably by the
Wushang xuanyuan santian Yutang dafa Mit £:51: = J(k Y *-lt (Great Rites
of the Jade Hall of the Three Heavens, of the Supreme Mysterious Origin;
CT 220) in thirty juan, and by the Wushang santian Yutang zhengzong gaoben
neijing yushu ~ 1: ~-:: -)( ± ¥.lE * ~ # pg 1{ ±. (The Precious Text of Flying
High in the Inner Landscape, of the Correct Tradition of the Jade Hall of the
Supreme Three Heavens; CT 221) in two juan. The episodes in his adult life,
recounted with dates in Hong Mai's ~ ~ (II23-1202) Yijian zhi ~ ~;0 (Heard
and Written by Yijian), all take place in the period II25-30 (Zhonghua shuju
ed., Yizhi 6-4-232, 7.1.237-39, Bingzhi 5.5-403-04). He is shown to have been active
in widely separated areas of China (from Xuzhou 1~ j+1 in the north to Jinling
~ ~ in the south) and to have been called upon by members of the official
class to perform large ceremonies on their behalf.
In a colophon in the Santian Yutang dafa (CT 220, 1.7a-Sa) Lu relates that
in the year II20 he had a vision one night of Zhao Sheng !EN n (a disciple of
*Zhang Oaoling), who descended into his room and told him about the "secret
writing" (bishu +l'~) he had left behind, buried in the ground at Mount Mao
(*Maoshan,Jiangsu). When later Lu served as Assistant Prefect (tongshou ;@~)
in Jinling (it should be noted that in fact this title was not, at least officially, in
use during the Song dynasty), he visited the mountain and dug up the scroll.
He arranged the text in twenty-four sections (corresponding to j. 1-23 of the
Santian Yutang dafa) and in 1126, while staying in Piling lilt!: ~ (Jiangsu), trans-
mitted it to the world. Another colophon (26.lb), attached to a later part of
the text, states that the "model sayings" (geyan m 13, the discursive passages
interspersed between the ritual formulas and usually opening with the phrase
shiyue em El, "the master said") in this section were revealed consecutively
during the first half of the year II07, in the form of oral instructions from the
Celestial Lord, the Great Master of the Teaching (Oa jiaozhu tianjun )( ~
±*~). From that time until the year III9 the actual ritual formulas were
transmitted through "spirit writing" (jiangbi ~~.; see *fuji), and the full col-
lection was copied in II5S.