Taoist Resources

Taoist Resources

Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan. 1993)

pp. 47-70 Livia Kohn: "Taoist Scriptures as Mirrored in the Xiaodao Lun".

p. 50 the 4 kalpa-s

*ord.#*	*kalpa*	*events*	*the Heavenly Venerable*
1^st	"Dragon Country"	people were pure, free from evil, simple, sinless	helped them to live according to Law
2^nd	"Red Radiance"	trace of impurity, evil & retribution began	established colonies of beings above
3^rd	"Opening Sovereign"	knotted cords for reckoning; lifespans of 36,000 years	supported the age
4^th	"Highest Sovereign"	strife & jealousy, hatred & war	handed down praecepts & rules

p. 54, fn. 15 treasure-lords of caverns

*The Lord of __ Treasure*	*is the __*	*of __ Cavern*	*of __*
Heavenly	head prime	Great	great primordiality & jade mystery
Numinous	beginnning prime	Mystery	great simplicity & chaos perfected
Spirit	wondrous energy	Spirit	shining numen & great emptiness

pp. 55, fn. 15 caverns of sovereigns

*in the heaven of __ Clarity*	*is the __ Cavern:*	*the energy of this cavern is the __ Sovereign:*	pp. 54-55 this sovereign praesideth over __
Jade	Great	Heavenly	energy
Highest	Mystery	Earth	spirit
(Supreme Ultimate)	Spirit	Human	all life

scriptures in heavens

p. 55	*according to the Chapter of Quaestions Asked by the Perfected of South Culmen,*	the Lin-bao scriptures, "in thirty-six scrolls, is stored in a jade chamber on Mystery Terrace on the Mountain of Jade Capital. The huge characters of this true script fill the entire chamber."
p. 56	*according to the Wondrous Scripture on the Salvation of Life,*	"the sacred scripture of the Three Caverns, and the perfected script and jade characters issue from Primordial Beginning and ... are stored on the Mystery Terrace on the Mountain of Jade Capital in the Heaven of Grand Network."

p. 55 later, writing was created, "patterned on birds' tracks", by Can-jie (who was minister, according to the Huai-nan-zi, of Fu Xi; or, fn. 19, according to the S^uo-wen Jie-zi, of Huan Di)

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Vol. 5, No. 1 (Aug. 1994)

pp. 1-24 Poul Andersen: "Talking to the Gods: Visionary Divination in Early Taoism (The Sanhuang Tradition)"

p. 4 incantation, on the jia-day (1^st of 10-day cycle)

220 times introduce talismanic water into

7 openings, viz. eyen, ears, nostrils, mouth

reciting incantation 49 times.

p. 4 spirits in shape of clothed women, for whom face cardinal direction

*spirit woman wearing __ (color) clothing*	*one is to face the __ (trigram)*	*viz. __ (direction)*
red	li	south
white	dui	west

"know about auspicious and inauspicious dates. ... know the names (of strangers?) beforehand."

p. 12 true form of Lao-jun

*his __*	*is __*
height	9 feet
color of skin	yellow
shape of mouth	beak
length of eyebrows	5 inches
length of ears	7 inches
on his forehead	3 vertical furrows
cushion	divine tortoise

*to his __*	*are __*
left	12 green dragons
right	26 white tigers
front	24 red birds
rear	72 pairs of tortoises & snakes

p. 13 deities summoned through the Inner Writ of the Three Sovereigns, according to Ge Hon (Bao-pu Zi 19:333-5)

*name*	*meaning*
Tian-s^en Si-min	Caelestial God Director-of-Destinies
Tai-sui	Great Year
Ri-you	Daily Traveller

p. 15 the 4 directors of the various aspects of fate

*name*	*meaning*
Si-min	Director-of-Destinies
Si-lu	Director-of-Registers
Si-yin	Director-of-the-Underworld
Si-wei	Director-of-Dangers

p. 23 divine spouse for human

p. 23, fn. 75 if he be lacking in a wife to practice with, "the male practitioner ... will be accorded a Green-Waisted Jade Woman ... by heaven."

{The Muslim promise of a h.uriyya (divine wife) is not usually contigent on a man's lacking a mortal one.}

p. 23 "methods of the red realm of the Yellow Book"

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Vol. 6, No. 2 (Aug. 1996)

pp. 17-29 Barbara Hendrischke & Benjamin Penny (transl. & comm.): "The 180 Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao".

prohibition on eating mutton

p. 27: Praecept 177

"to eat ..., follow the ruling phase." [phase = season]

p. 27, fn. 13

according to the Li-ji (14:1355, 1361, 1363) "sheep meat was to be eaten in spring"

p. 27: Praecept 174

"If food smells of mutton, do not eat it."

{instead of mutton, horse-meat may have been eaten, as in the C^>in calendar (PCh&M, p. 58)}

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pp. 30sq. Kamitsuka Yoshiko (transl. by Amy Lynn Miller & Thomas H. Peterson): "The Concept of Mara and the Idea of Expelling Demons".

p. 40 S^en-c^ou C^in 1:4

"90 kinds of illnesses ... Among these are killer kuei with red heads whose king is

10,000 yards (chang ...) long and who leads

3,600,000,000 killer kuei. Each of the kuei holds a red club ..."

p. 40 S^en-c^ou C^in 1:4

*The __ (color) pneuma*	*effect*
azure	"kills people."
red	"causes people to swell."
yellow	"causes diarrhea."
white	"causes sunstroke."
black	"causes lawsuits."

pp. 40-41 S^en-c^ou C^in 6:5

"In the year chia-wu, there are red-wall kuei

80 chang in length.

4,900,000,000 form one group. They transform into great fish that are

seven chang two ch'ih ... three tsun ... in length. They also transform into a

million flying birds ... spreading pneumas of death ..."

{cf. the 49 Agni-s, or else the 49 Marut-s?}

p. 41 S^en-c^ou C^in 7:2

"In the year jen-wu, there are already

36 kinds of great kuei. The kuei are called are called 'black headed' ... as well as 'red-canopied three' ... and a-chu:. Each of them leads

39,000 people, carrying knives of killer demons with white clubs. The knives are seven ch'ih in length. ... Spreading

120 kinds of illnesses, they kill evil people. There are

60 kinds of evil pneumas ..."

{hence, the "black-head" priests?}

p. 45, fn. 11 C^en-kao 15:1-2

"Mount Lo-feng is located in the northern kuei section of earth. The mountain is

2,600 li tall and 30,000 li in circumference. Below the mountain there are cavern heavens with a circumference of 15,000 li inside the mountain. ... On the mountain there are

six palaces, and inside the caverns there are six more. All are

1,000 li in circumference."

{is this the original of Mt. Meru, located in Ila-vr.ta to the north, and said in the Abhi-dharma to contain caverns as abodes of classes of divine beings?}

p. 45 according to Yen Tun's commentary on the Tu-jen C^in, this is the abode of the "Great Thearch Lord of the North"

p. 46 Yen-LO is king of LO-fen -- but this name Yen-Lo is [later] changed to Yen-Mo (whereof Mo is a Chinese deformation of Mara)

{if Mo < Mara, is Lo < LARA? -- if so, cf. the state LARA in Venezuela, and LARistan in Iran}

p. 47 Tu-jen C^in 2:38-41

the Heavenly Worthy of the Primal Beginning "via talismans ... In the cold ponds of the northern metropolis, [he] protects in groups the formed hun souls. ... they [i.e., the hun souls] are protected and cross over in the Southern Palace ... The dead hun souls undergo refinement and become people who are transformed into transcendents. [Their] living bodies undergo ... a crossing over"

{"cross over" might imply a river, apparently in the Southern Palace's grounds. "refinement" might imply smelting to remove slag: "become people" would then mean metallic beings, viz. "golden youths" etc.}

p. 47 "Here the Heavenly Worthy of the Primal Beginning ... says that somber (yu ...) hun souls in the bureau of darkness can end up being made to leave the bureau of Enduring Night" {"Enduring Night" is also a S^into expression}

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Vol. 7, No. 1 (April 1997)

pp. 23-42 Xiu Liu: "In Search of Immortality".

p. 28 the 2 kinds of qi ("vital energy")

*qi of the __ Tian ("Heaven")*	*is also known as __ qi*
Xian ("Anterior")	yuan ("primordial / original")
Hou ("Posterior")	jin ("semenal")

p. 29 in A Collection of Transmissions by Masters Z^on-li to Lu:-Yan = 15^th chapter of the Xiu Z^en S^i S^u

"moving qi along the microcosmic channels is conceived of as"	he c^e "a river craft ... sailing"
"the body is imagined as	*a yin* body of water"**
yan qi "is visualized as	a river craft"

to arrive as Huan Tin the "Yellow Courtyard"

{yin would signify "dark", so cf. the movement of Gilgames^'s boat over dark waters}

similes in inner alchemy

*p. 32, fn. __*	*simile*	*literal meaning*	*significance*
21	c^i lon	scarlet dragon
22	lian	curtain	eye[-lid]
23	gan lu	luscious dew
24	Qu	(river Z^e)	menstrual flow

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pp. 43-60 Harold D. Roth: "The Yellow Emperor's Guru".

pp. 45-49 Huan Di, according to the C^uan Tzu

p.	*ch. #*	*chapter name*	*account*
45	11	"To Praeserve & Circumscribe"	interviews, atop Vacant Merged Mountain, with the sage Kuan C^>en-tzu ("Broadly Complete Master", p. 44)
48	24	"Ghostless Hsu:"	boy T>ien-S^ih ("Heavenly Master") tending horses on Mt. Shady
	22	"Knowledge Wandereth North"	*H.D. quoting, to "Knowledge", from Lao Tzu* chapters 56, 18, & 48**
	14	"Circuits of Heaven"	musical performance "Pond of Totality"

p. 49 Kuan C^>en-tzu = (acc. to Dokyo jiten 147) Jun C^>en

Kuan C^>en-tzu = (acc. to Dokyo jiten 147) Jun C^>en

Jun C^>en (acc. to the "Ten Quaestions", from Ma-wan-dui) taught breath-control, and was (acc. to the Huai-nan-tzu) inventor of calendrics.

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PCh&M = HOLOS REIHE LINGUISTIK, Band 1. Holos Verlag, Bonn, 1990. Gordon Whittaker: Calendar and Script in Protohistorical China and Meso-america.