Dadong Zhenjing: Core Scripture of Shangqing Daoism

The full title of this text is The Supreme Purity Great Cavern Scripture in Thirty-Nine Chapters, an important early classic of the Shangqing (Supreme Purity) School of Taoism.

According to legend, in the third year of the Xingning era of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (365 CE), immortal beings such as Lady Wei of Nanyue descended to the mortal world and transmitted the Great Cavern Scripture and other Shangqing scriptures to the Taoist priest Yang Xi.

Since then, the Shangqing School has always regarded this scripture as its foundational classic, ranking it first among all Shangqing scriptures.

According to the record in Catalogue of the Supreme Purity Great Cavern Scripture, the original version of this scripture was in one volume. However, many different transmitted versions emerged after the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589 CE). The version preserved in the Daozang (Taoist Canon) today consists of six volumes and is included in the "Original Texts" category of the Dongzhen (True Grotto) Section.

Research shows that this Daozang version should be the transmitted text from the Shangqing Ancestral Altar of Maoshan during the Song Dynasty. At the beginning of the text, there is a preface written by Zhu Ziying, the 23rd patriarch of the Shangqing School. Each volume is annotated with "Collated by Jiang Zongying, the 38th patriarch of the Shangqing School." At the end of the compilation, two postscripts are appended: one written by Cheng Gongrui in the Renyin year of the Xianchun era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1272 CE, note: the original text incorrectly states 1072 CE, which should be corrected to 1272 CE according to historical chronology) and another by Zhang Yuchu, the 43rd Heavenly Master of the early Ming Dynasty. The main text is divided into six volumes.

Volume 1, titled Jade Essentials for Reciting the Scripture, outlines the key methods and essentials for practicing the teachings of the Great Cavern Scripture. It includes content such as the "Method of Contemplating Spirits," "Diagrams of Spirit Concentration," "Method of Reciting the Scripture," incantations, and ritual protocols, with an appendix titled The Jade Purity Hidden Text on Subduing Demons with the Divine Wisdom of the Great Cavern.

Volumes 2 to 6 sequentially contain the 39 chapters of the scripture. Each chapter includes a scripture passage (in five-character rhymed verse), along with the "Method of Contemplating Spirits," "Diagrams of Spirit Concentration," incantations, and prayers. At the end, an appendix titled The Secret Essentials of Merging the Imperial Unity with Circling Vital Breath is added.

The Taoist practices expounded in the entire text primarily focus on reciting the chapters, chanting incantations, and concentrating on contemplating divine beings. It is claimed that the verses of the "Thirty-Nine Chapters" were all spoken by the 39 imperial divine lords of the heavenly realms, and they implicitly contain the names and titles of the hundreds of spirits residing within the human body. Practitioners who recite the chapters and contemplate the spirits in accordance with the methods can summon the "true vital breath" of the heavenly emperors to descend, permeate their entire body, stabilize the spirit, consolidate essence, merge with the various spirits within the body, thereby achieving eternal life and ascending to the Shangqing (Supreme Purity) Heavenly Realm.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Taoist priests of the Shangqing School in all subsequent dynasties attached great importance to the practices recorded in this scripture.

Tao Hongjing of the Liang Dynasty stated in his Zhengao (Authentic Instructions): "Reciting the Great Cavern Scripture ten thousand times will lead one to immortality—it is the supreme scripture of Taoist immortality." Large excerpts from this scripture are also quoted in major Tang and Song Taoist texts such as Wushang Miyao (The Supreme Secret Essentials), Sandong Zhunang (The Pearl Satchel of the Three Grottoes), and Yunji Qiqian (Seven Lots of the Cloud Satchel), though the wording in these texts differs somewhat from that in the Daozang version.