辯偽錄 1.15

1.15

The fifth transformation says: Heaven and Earth are the greatest of physical forms. The Most High Lord Lao is the ancestor of Chaos and the father and mother of Heaven and Earth; therefore he was able to distribute the clear and turbid and open up Heaven and Earth. He mobilized the three breaths of Mystery (xuan), Origin (yuan), and Beginning (shi) to accomplish this. Above in Heaven are the Three Clarities and Three Realms: the Beginning breath became the Realm of Jade Clarity; the Origin breath became the Realm of Upper Clarity; and the Mystery breath became the Realm of Supreme Clarity. Furthermore, from the breaths of the Three Clarities each produced three breaths, combining into nine breaths to form nine heavens: the first is Yudan Heaven; the second is Shangchan Shou Wuliangshou Heaven; the third is Fanlan Xuyan Heaven; the fourth is Jiran Doushu Heaven; the fifth is Boluonimi Bujiaole Heaven; the sixth is Dongxuan Huayingsheng Heaven; the seventh is Linghua Fanfu Heaven; the eighth is Gaoxu Qingming Heaven; the ninth is Wuxiang Wu'ai Heaven. These nine heavens each produced three breaths, each breath forming one heaven, making twenty-seven heavens; together with these nine heavens, they make thirty-six heavens. Thus the three realms and the four classes of people, culminating above in the Three Clarities, constitute this number. The first six heavens below constitute the Desire Realm: 1. Taihuang Heaven, 2. Taiming Heaven, 3. Qingming Heaven, 4. Xuantai Heaven, 5. Yuanming Heaven, 6. Qiyao Heaven. The next eighteen heavens constitute the Form Realm: 1. Xuwu Heaven, 2. Taiji Heaven, 3. Chiming Heaven, 4. Gonghua Heaven, 5. Yaoming Heaven, 6. Huangjia Heaven, 7. Lingming Heaven, 8. Duanjing Heaven, 9. Yuanming Heaven, 10. Jiyao Heaven, 11. Yuanzai Heaven, 12. Tai'an Heaven, 13. Jifeng Heaven, 14. Shihuang Heaven, 15. Taihuang Heaven, 16. Wusi Heaven, 17. Ruanle Heaven, 18. Tanshi Heaven. The next four heavens constitute the Formless Realm: 1. Xiaoqing Heaven, 2. Yuantong Heaven, 3. Miaocheng Heaven, 4. Jinshang Heaven. These twenty-eight heavens are named the Three Realms. Above these are four more heavens, named the Seed-People Heavens: 1. Changrong Heaven, 2. Yulong Heaven, 3. Fandu Heaven, 4. Jiayi Heaven. These four heavens transcend the Three Realms. It also says: The upper three heavens are the Three Clarities Realms: the first is called Taichi Heaven, the second is called Yuyu Heaven, and the third is called Qingwei Heaven. The highest is called Daluo Heaven, which encompasses all the heavens and is supremely high with nothing above it. The Jade Capital of the Mysterious Metropolis sits enthroned upon it, and is where the Three Venerables dwell. Furthermore, the Taixiao yinshu says: The Great Daoist Lord governs within the Jade Capital in the fifty-fifth layer of the limitless Daluo Heaven, attended by golden youths and jade maidens upon a dark platform of seven treasures, with a golden couch and jade stool, dwelling outside the thirty-two heavens and the three realms.