Reference work
The Anti-Messianism of the Taiping Jing
Jens Østergård Petersen
Petersen calls the outlook of one Taiping jing stratum “anti-messianic millenialism.” His opening argument concerns TPJ-A, the Heavenly Teacher’s answers to six Perfected Ones. Footnote 1 defines that stratum by excluding TPJ-B, TPJ-C and suspected interpolations. In pages 2–8, disasters arise from inherited human guilt rather than automatically from conjunctions of cosmic cycles. The Teacher uses farming and stored grain to distinguish environmental occasions from human responsibility. Petersen also explains that the collapse of humanity threatens Heaven and Earth, while noting an awkward exception for individual immortality alongside the dominant collective remedy. He treats collation of existing scriptures as a remedy for inherited guilt, without requiring a new savior. These are Petersen’s interpretations and translations of the received text, not newly issued prophecies.
Bibliography entry · Source text is available through the cited link below.
Edition and location
Hosted 41-page SCEAR3 PDF; Puett cites Studies in Central and East Asian Religions 3 (1990), 1–41, whereas Hendrischke cites Journal of the Seminar for Buddhist Studies 3 (1990), 1–36. Bibliographic discrepancy unresolved; one work counted.
Printed pp. 1–8, including textual-layer definition footnote 1