Qingjing Jing


The Qingjing Jing is an anonymous Tang dynasty Taoist classic that combines philosophical themes from the Tao Te Ching with the logical presentation of Buddhist texts and a literary form reminiscent of the Heart Sutra. It instructs students of the Tao to practice the elimination of desire in order to cultivate spiritual purity and stillness.

Title

The Qingjing jing title combines qing "pure; clean; clear; fresh; cool; distinct; clarified; quiet; peaceful", jing "still; motionless; static; silent; quiet; peaceful; calm; tranquil", and jing " warp; scripture; canon; classic".
The first Chinese character qing 淸 has the "water" radical 氵 and a qing 青 "green" phonetic element. The second character jing 靜 has the "green" radical 青 and a zheng 爭 "struggle" phonetic, and was anciently a variant Chinese character for jing "clean; pure; complete; only", which has the "water" radical and this zheng phonetic. Qingjing could interchangeably be written 清靜 or 清淨, for instance, the Daoist concept qingjing wuwei 清靜無為 or 清凈無為 "quiet and non-action; discard all desires and worries from one's mind". Chinese Buddhism used qingjing 清淨 to translate Sanskrit parishuddhi or Pali vishuddhi "complete purification; free from defilement". Kunio Miura explains:
In Standard Chinese usage, qingjing 清靜 means "quiet; tranquil; serene " and qingjing 清淨 means "tranquil; clean and pure; purified of defiling illusion, not bothered by material concerns".
English translations of the Qingjing jing title include:
  • "Classic of Purity",
  • "Scripture of Purity and Tranquility", tr.
  • "Scripture on Clarity and Tranquility", tr.
  • "Scripture on Clarity and Stillness", tr.
  • "Scripture of Purity and Stillness", tr.
  • "Scripture of Clarity and Quiescence", tr.

    Overview and origin

The Qingjing Jing is a short, mostly-versified text comprising some 390 Chinese characters in 90 verses. It is widely read, has numerous commentaries, and is one of the most important texts in the Taoist religion.
Two passages of the Qingjing Jing are attributed to Laozi, with the honorific "Lord Lao". This has led many traditional sources to attribute authorship of the entire text to Laozi, so the text exists under a variety of honorific titles that link it to him. Scholars believe the received text dates from around the middle Tang dynasty.
The oldest extant commentary is by Du Guangting, a prolific editor of Daoist texts during the late Tang and Five Dynasties period. Du says prior to being written down by Ge Xuan, the Qingjing Jing was orally transmitted for generations, supposedly going back to the mythical Queen [Mother of the West].

Versions and commentaries

The Daozang "Taoist Canon" includes eight Qingjing jing editions with variant titles. The basic text is the Qingjing miaojing or Taishang Laojun shuo chang qingjing miaojing. Commentaries include those entitled Qingjing jingzhu and Qingjing jing songzhu.
A slightly longer version of approximately 600 characters is the Qingjing xinjing or Taishang Laojun qingjing xinjing.
During the Song dynasty, the Qingjing Jing became popular within the Southern Lineage "Complete Perfection" or Quanzhen School and was interpreted in context with neidan Chinese internal alchemy. For instance, the seventh Quanzhen master Sun Bu'er 孙不二 took Qingjing sanren 清靜散人 "Vagabond of Clarity and Quiescence" as her sobriquet and established the Qingjing Sect. Modern Quanzhen Taoists consider the Qingjing jing a central scripture and regularly chant it in songjing. Kohn explains:

Contents

Although brief, the Qingjing Jing is philosophically complex. It synthesizes Taoist and Buddhist theories of psychology, cosmology, ontology, and teleology.
The Qingjing Jing is described by Komjathy:
These Taoist keywords are guan "scrutiny; careful observation; insight meditation; contemplation", qing "clarity; purity; cleanliness", and jing "stillness; quiet; calm; tranquility". The Tao Te Ching is the locus classicus for qingjing: "Bustling about vanquishes cold, Standing still vanquishes heat. Pure and still, one can put things right everywhere under heaven."
Kohn summarizes the Qingjing jing:

Translations

The Qingjing jing has been translated into English by,, and. translated the Shuijingzi commentary.
The following versions of the opening section illustrate the translational range: