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.
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.
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.
