The wondrous Oracles of the the God of Travellers 水陸總管公靈籤

The wondrous Oracles of Shui Lu Tsung Kwan Kung.

水陸總管公靈籤

ShuiLu Zhongguan gong Lingqian

The Numinous Lots of the God of Water and Land 

 

I have taken this interesting text from Doolittle’s Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language. This is a translation by one C.F.R. Allen of a lot oracle through Jiaobei, taken from a Temple near Fuzhou. I have already translated a similar lot oracle—under the patronage of Gyuanyin on this blog, and for more about how the lot oracle works.

In brief, the querent throws a pair of “moon blocks” thrice, and notes the pattern in which they fall (both up, both down or one up and on down), and looks up at the relevant entry. There are 27 entries, plus one more for when the blocks stand up on end 側 thrice. They make 28, the number of Chinese xiu or constellations. Accordingly, each of the lots has the name of a xiu, but they are not in order: 1-14 are the odd-numbered xiu, whilst 15-28 are the even numbered ones (I suspect this is because Allen had a copy where the lots were arranged in two rows on a page, and Allen translated across the page rather than vertically: I have made a similar mistake too in the past!) 

The names of each of the 28 xiu are usually the first character of each poem; accordingly I have set them in bold. Sometimes the names are used semantically (eg lot 26 below, the Willow) whilst other poems use characters that are graphically similar to constellations (eg lot no. 2) However, one constellation 危 is missing (it should be lot no. 20). I am not sure why this is the case, or why its name has been substituted with 龍- dragon.

It is worth noting that In some modern Chinese almanacs, there is a lot oracle called 土地杯- The God of Earth’s Jiaobei. This oracle is very similar to the one translated below. However there is a key difference: Whilst all oracles in The Numinous Lots of the God of Water and Land are written as four lines of five-characters each, the lots in the The God of Earth’s Jiaobei are irregular: some are written as couplets; others are written in lines of three characters each. The Numinous Lots of the God of Water and Land may thus represent an earlier version of the The God of Earth’s Jiaobei. I hope to post a translation of the God of Earth’s Jiaobei on this blog soon. 

~ Notes on the text~ 

I have transcribed the text form this copy in Google books. https://books.google.com/books?id=KTsOAAAAIAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&pg=PA504#v=onepage&q&f=false  Some entries have comments by Allen, either explaining obscure terms or the import of the lot. I have added “Allen” to the end of each. I have added some comments of my own. These are prefaced by “ed” 

玉樞經髓 - The Marrow of the Scripture of the Jade Pivot, translated by James Legge

玉樞經髓 

The Marrow of the Scripture of the Jade Pivot, 

translated by James Legge in his The Texts of Taoism (1891) 

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In this post I will republish James Legge's translation of the 玉樞經髓 - The Marrow of the Scripture of the Jade Pivot, reuniting with its Chinese text. As its name implies, it is an extract of the玉樞經   Scripture of the Jade Pivot, a much longer daoist scripture. 

The scripture is extremely short. These pages (source 3 below) contain the whole scripture. 

In this respect it is not alone. There is the Gashing Yuhuang Benxing Jijing 高上玉皇本行集經 Scripture of the Lofty Deeds of the Jade Emperor, and the much shorter "Marrow of the Scripture of the Lofty Deeds of the Jade Emperor"高上玉皇本行集經髓

Legge quotes another author, Wylie, who stated that the scripture was regularly chanted by Daoist monks. This is true; a version of this Scripture is indeed found as part of the morning service in the 清微玄範道門功課 Qingwei Hongfan daomen Gongke. However, the Marrow found in this particular service differs from the version Legge was using. This and other textual differences are discussed below. It should also be noted the version of the morning service currently chanted by Quanzhen Daoists does not include this scripture. 

The Scripture in the Qingwei Hongfan daomen Gongke. (source 4 below) 

Whilst Legge's translation was done in 1891, The translation of the full Scripture of the Jade Pivot had to wait over a century. A certain "Daoist Liu" recently published it as Treasured Scripture of the Jade Pivot, and it is available on Amazon, a large (almost A4 sized) but thin booklet. To my knowledge, despite its prominence in contemporary daoist practise, the Scripture of the Jade Pivot lacks academic discussion or indeed, a scholarly translation. 

To my knowledge, here is one other translation of the Marrow of the Scripture of the Jade Pivot.  It is by Stuart Olson, in his bilingual Taoist chanting & recitation: At-home cultivator's practice guide. He calls it 天尊玉樞寶經; The Heavenly Worthy's Jade Pivot Treasure Scripture . The Chinese text which Olson uses is slightly different from the two chinese texts mentioned below, and the one used by Legge: It has a short preface describing the retinue of gods when the scripture was first preached. 

Sources and Texts consulted 

I have taken Legge's translation from here: 

(1) https://sacred-texts.com/tao/sbe40/sbe4021.htm

You can access a copy on google books here 

(1a) https://books.google.com/books?id=h2dRAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&pg=PA265#v=onepage&q&f=false

I have taken the chinese original from here:  

(2) https://gd4166.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/玉樞經髓/

A woodblock edition (origin unknown) of the Chinese text is available here: 

(3) https://taolibrary.com/category/category107/c1070144.htm

The Morning service in the Qingwei Hongfan daomen Gongke 清微玄範道門功課 may be found here. The scripture starts at page 7 of this file. 

(4) http://www.ctcwri.idv.tw/CTCW-DZJY/CTDZJY26/NewDZJY26/DZJY2601002.pdf ;  

The text in the Qingwei Hongfan daomen Gongke differs from sources (2) and (3) in two ways. Firstly, a slight change of phrase in the early part of the scripture, and secondly, has a short appendix. This appendix is not translated by Legge, and is not included in Olson's translation either.

 I have chosen not to translate the appendix for now (not least because of missing characters and difficulties of punctuation), but this is a summary of its contents: The Heavenly Worthy commands the various generals of the Thunder Division to search and destroy all evil spirits, hetrodox sorcerers and their spells. The Heavenly Worthy then adds that this scripture penetrates through heaven and earth, and reciting this scripture soothes spirits and delivers ancestors.

Finally, If any of my readers spot errors either in the transcription or the translation, or have further insights and comments may they inform me of them; I would be most glad.