Sima Chengzhen’s Odes to the Transcendent Scripture 太上升玄消灾护命妙经颂

Written by Sima Chengzhen, patriarch of the Shangqing Sect in the Tang Dynasty.

Consisting of one volume, it is included in the Zansong (Eulogies and Odes) category of The Dongzhen Section in The Daozang.

There is a preface written by the author at the beginning of the volume, praising the profound and abstruse philosophy of The Scripture of Ascending to Mystery and Protecting Life, and composing several five-character odes to elaborate the implications of the scripture.

Since the original scripture already adopted the Mahayana Madhyamaka theories to expound the doctrines of being and non-being, form and emptiness, Sima Chengzhen’s odes went a step further, interpreting the scripture with the mind-nature theories of the Buddhist Tiantai Sect. He stated that in this scripture, the Supreme One directly pointed out the true nature of the mind-source for all sentient beings, and this true nature inherently exists within oneself, requiring no external pursuit. If one does not cling to being or non-being, simultaneously transcends emptiness and form, keeps the six sense faculties pure, and ensures that one’s nature is not contaminated by external things, then "one shall forget the physical form and return to the state of indistinctness, where even gods and ghosts cannot spy." From this work, it can be seen that the Chongxuan (Double Mystery) philosophy of Taoism in the Sui and Tang dynasties absorbed Buddhist theories in an increasingly in-depth way.