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. 

大聖末劫經 GREAT SAGE END KALPA SUTRA

 大聖末劫經

GREAT SAGE END KALPA SUTRA 

From https://archive.org/details/dsmjj_images/page/n5/mode/2up 

It might strike the reader as surprising to see the 'laughing buddha' depicted on such a serious scripture, but this is actually the traditional chinese depiction of Maiterya. 

This text is one of a series of rather curious 'folk' scriptures. it will hopefully be first of a series of such scriptures that I intend to translate and will post on this blog. All these sutras have a common theme: A series of disasters will soon come to strike humanity; the wicked will perish, and the good survive. If the readers would repent in time and cultivate morality/distrubute the scripture, then they would be saved. 

The earliest such scripture is the Scripture of the Five Lords 五公經 which I have previously featured here https://edwardwhite123.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-sutra-of-five-lords.html

(I presently possess an English translation of the sutra, but the Chinese text from which I take it is so jumbled that the translation barely makes sense. When I get a better copy of the sutra I will revise the translation and publish it). However the Scripture of the Five Lords is not alone: The Great Sage End Kalpa sutra is another such example. 

Before I go further I should speak of the religious affiliation of the text. The boundaries between buddhism and Daoism have always been blurred in China- especially at a popular level, and this scripture is no exception. We have Maiterya, the future Buddha, as well as Guanyin having a dialogue with the Jade emperor.

 However, as much as this work works in a buddhist/daoist cosmology, it is far from the mainstream chinese buddhist [or indeed, daoist] scripture- not least because there have been numerous rebellions of people who proclaimed themselves as Maitreya. if I recall correctly I did not acquire this text from a Buddhist temple, but rather from a 'tract table' in a Daoist temple, where people place holy books for free distribution. (Chinese Daoists are really more polytheists: they have a more relaxed attitude to these things) 

It is also worth noting how the sutra came to earth- via the well-established method of fuji, or planchette writing -- the sutra's colophon states precisely when and where the  the sutra was revealed. Furthermore, the book from which the sutra is extracted has a whole plethora of messages from the god at the back, likewise revealed through FuJi. The fact that this text was revealed by planchette writing may also show why it is so disjointed: it goes backwards and forwards, often repeating itself. 

I have doubts about some translations, and there may be errors. If my readers can spot such errors or have any other suggestions, I would be glad to hear of them. 

文昌帝君陰騭文 -- . Wenchang's Treatise on Secret Merit : Three translations

In this post I will post three translations of a fairly well-known chinese morality book, called:

文昌帝君陰騭文

Eichel: Treatise of the Secret Law by the Lord and God of Composition 

Carus/ The Tract of the Quiet Way 

Chung / Lord Superior Wen Chang's Tract On The First Step Towards Non Abidance

E.W. Wenchang's Treatise on Secret Merits 

It is much of the nature of the The Sage Therach Guan's true Scripture to Awaken the world. that I featured earlier in this blog: a revelation from an important God, encouraging people to do good, and abstain from evil.  In this case, the God that delivered this text is Wenchang, the God of literature. The text was fairly popular in the 19thc,  with even illustrated versions existing, and is still occasionally printed today. Three English translations exist, but alas, all three of them are flawed one way or another. For that reason, more than any text, it is necessary to set them side-by-side.