The Scripture on Great Peace by Hendrischke Barbara;

Author:Hendrischke, Barbara;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: University of California Press

Appendix

THE COMPOSITION OF THE TPJ

The transmitted text of the TPJ goes back to Upper Clarity adherents in the sixth century who, with imperial support, edited and published an old taiping scripture. Despite all we know about these editors, we do not know who the authors of the original material were. It is important to realize, however, that the TPJ was by no means the only “old” Daoist text to emerge in the sixth century. Although it was older than the rest, and it differed from virtually all the other texts in its style and message, we may assume that it was given treatment similar to that of other edited materials, which were indeed as old as their editors claimed and were left largely in their original shape.1 Tao Hongjing’s Declaration of the Perfected (Zhen’gao) consists to a large extent of carefully edited fourth-century material. Since earlier or parallel sources of taiping material are not available, it is hard to estimate the exact input of Upper Clarity editors. As far as we know, taiping material has been transmitted only in the TPJ. This makes it difficult to specify editorial methods. However, if we look at the way in which the Taiping jing chao (hereafter Chao) edits the old text, we can get an idea of what can be done. The Chao cuts out small talk, repetitions, tedious and clumsy passages, and inelegant or unclear expressions. The received text of the TPJ, or at least the Celestial Master dialogues, shows no traces of such editorial censorship. We must assume that its editors were more faithful to their material. It may be added that the stylistic peculiarity of layer A makes imitation rather difficult, as can be seen from one obvious and very poorly executed attempt to do so.2 All this allows us to assume that the sixth-century text was indeed edited rather than written. However, controversy remains over the extent to which the editors rearranged the material. Ōfuchi Ninji,3 for instance, has argued for a high level of correspondence between the old text and its reedited version, while Yoshioka Yoshitoyo4 has stressed the intensity of sixth-century editorial activity. He has proposed that the sixth-century text was derived from two sources. First, and providing the material for the Celestial Master dialogues of layer A, there was a Dongji zhi jing 洞極之經 in 144 juan, which he suggests went back to Zhang Daoling; second, and only as a supplement, there was the 170-juan TPJ, which he identified with Gan Ji’s Taiping qing ling shu. The main source for supposing there to have been two old taiping texts—that is, one in 170 and another in 144 juan—is the “Seven Divisions” section in Yunji qiqian, chapter 6. After quoting passages from the TPJ, the “Seven Divisions” says:

The number of chapters is perhaps not identical [in different editions?]. Nowadays an edition in ten divisions, jia, yi, etc., in 170 juan is in circulation. According to the Zhengyi jing a Taiping dongji zhi jing exists in 144 juan. Today this scripture is almost entirely lost.

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