《太上老君说城隍感应消灾集福妙经》

The Perfected Person of Vast Beneficence (Guanghui Zhenren) respectfully bows and knocks his head before the Venerable City God (Chenghuang): Your majesty is awe-inspiring and illustrious as you stand guard over Heaven and Earth. You protect the state and secure the realm, send down sweet rain, and come to the aid of the people. You command your troops and officers to patrol the world, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked, impartial as the sun and moon. Upholding uprightness and loyalty, you decide life and death, punish the evil and bestow blessings on the good, and display your divine authority.

With a devout heart I revere you, praying that calamities be dispelled, that households be at peace and the realm clear and tranquil. Now, as this true scripture (Jing) is recited, may your gracious light descend upon all.

At that time, the Most High Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun), the Celestial Worthy of the Dao (the Way) and De (Virtue/Power) (Daode Tianzun), was in the Palace of the Seven Treasures within the Daluo Heaven (the highest heaven in Daoism). He summoned the celestial gods of every quarter, the spirits of Earth, the deities of the sun, moon, and stars, and the officials of the Three Realms, and broadly expounded the supreme and unsurpassed Great Dao of the Mysterious Origin. Rare flowers shone in brilliant bloom, and fragrances filled the air. Then a Perfected Person named Guanghui, holding his audience tablet, knelt long in reverence and addressed the Celestial Worthy: “I see that all living beings in the world are enduring every kind of affliction. I earnestly beg the Celestial Worthy, in compassionate mercy, to pardon and save them.”

The Celestial Worthy, resting his hand upon the table, said: “These beings have committed all manner of evil karma and have sunk into the sea of suffering. They are greedy and unrestrained, acting willfully as they please; they are unfilial and disloyal, neither humane nor righteous. They do not revere the Three Treasures (the Dao, the Jing, and the masters), nor do they honor the gods and spirits. In trade they measure out with a small peck and weigh in with a heavy scale, and they waste grain. They resent Heaven and Earth and hate wind and rain; they slander the orthodox Dao and wound others with their words; they engage in illicit lust, adultery, and theft, and they kill living beings. Thus they incur guilt and, for a long time, lose the chance to be born as human beings.”

The Perfected Person Guanghui again addressed the Celestial Worthy: “The beings of the world suffer such calamities. By what means can they obtain salvation?”

The Celestial Worthy (Tianzun) said: “Excellent, excellent! The people of the lower world are all reported and memorialized by the City God (Chenghuang), the deity who governs a locality and inspects good and evil, and human allotments of fate are thereby fixed without the slightest error. If there are people in the world who believe and revere with sincere devotion, whether men or women, and who recite this Jing (scripture/classic) again and again, from thirty or fifty times all the way to hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of times, they can eliminate karmic offenses and enjoy peace.”

Lord Lao (Laojun) said: “The City God is the gathering of the essential vitality of heaven and earth and the concentration of the spiritual beauty of mountains and rivers. He is majestic and illustrious, highly accomplished in the methods of the Dao (the Way); he forms no factions and shows no partiality, and he is impartial, loyal, firm, and unyielding. Whatever is sought of him receives a response, as closely as a shadow follows the form. On behalf of Heaven he governs the myriad beings, cuts away evil and baleful calamity, protects the state and its territory, establishes merit for the altars of soil and grain—that is, the state—widely bestows sweet rain, and universally saves the people. He commands the divine officers of the eighteen bureaus and directs a million divine generals. By accumulating merit and good deeds he comes to occupy the honored rank of City God, to administer the affairs of all under heaven, and to overawe every quarter with his might.”

When the Perfected Person (Zhenren) heard this, he knocked his head to the ground and paid homage.

The City God deities and their subordinate officials are as follows: the Awesome Numen, Metropolitan City God of All Under Heaven; the City Gods of the thirteen provincial administrations of the realm; the City Gods of every prefecture, subprefecture, and county under heaven; the holy host of case-officers of the eighteen bureaus along the two side corridors; the judge in charge of the registers of life and death for all people under heaven; the judge in charge of longevity and the registers of allotted lifespan; the judge in charge of illness and epidemic disease; the judge in charge of blessings, emolument, and the prolongation of life; the judge in charge of the birth of descendants; the judge in charge of the immediate manifestation of retribution for good and evil; the judge in charge of the registers of scripture recitation and the cultivation of merit; the judge in charge of the registers of ritual fasting and abstinence and of the taking of life; the judge in charge of detention, investigation, and adjudication; the judge in charge of reviewing petitions; the judge in charge of wind, rain, and the affairs of the Dragon Kings; and the judge in charge of pursuit and summons, arrest, and escort.

In the original text, the passage beginning “This deity is the stored Jing (essence) of heaven and earth…” appears once after “The Celestial Worthy said” and once after “Lord Lao said”; the later occurrence continues into praise of the City God’s virtuous conduct. The list also contains repetitions and fragmentary wording such as “in charge of reading the scripture and cultivating,” and the foregoing has been arranged, according to context, into what can be made out.

The judges in charge of the name registers of the four classes of beings—those born from the womb, from eggs, from moisture, and by transformation—the judges in charge of the name registers of evil ghosts and lonely souls, the judges in charge of retribution for good and evil, the judges in charge of the wangliang and hungry ghosts who have passed through millions of kalpas, the judges in charge of the mountains, forests, and regions, and the judges in charge of the clerks of the six bureaus; and also the great guardian deities clad in golden armor on the left and the right, the divine martial generals thronging in attendance before and behind, the golden lads holding banners and the jade maidens scattering flowers, together with all the divine troops and subordinate officials under the command of the City God.

At this time the City God took pity on the many sufferings that beings in the world encounter. Some meet with the disasters of certain years and the misfortunes of certain months, their destinies hard-pressed and obstructed. Some are caught in predicaments as inescapable as heaven’s net and earth’s snare, or are left as widowers, widows, orphans, and the childless. Some suffer plague, sores and swellings, scabies and skin disease, lawsuits and disputes, quarrels and wrangling, or the lack of descendants. Others meet the dangers of armed conflict, flood and fire, thieves and bandits, and childbirth, together with every other kind of calamity. If anyone recites this scripture (Jing), I will at once dispatch the emissaries of pestilence and the holy hosts who gather pestilence, strike out the entries in the registers of sin, and forever eliminate the roots of evil.

The Perfected (one who has attained the Dao, the Way) further addressed the Celestial Worthy, saying: If in the world there are good men and good women who widely practice good deeds without seeking any return, find ways to help others, give of their wealth to relieve those in urgent need, honor the elderly and pity the poor, revere the Three Treasures (the Dao, the scriptures, and the teachers), filially support their parents, remain loyal to their sovereign, cherish clothing and food, live in harmony with their six kinds of kin, do nothing improper, observe the fast, and cultivate the Dao, then their good deeds will be entered in the registers of goodness and upon the Cinnabar Terrace, their blessings and lifespan will be increased, their families will flourish, and their descendants will continue without end.

The Heavenly Worthy said: The Venerable City God (the deity who oversees the walls of a city and the affairs of its locality) is majestic in authority and weighty in power, and manifests vast divine efficacy. When people pray for rain, sweet rain moistens what has withered and brings the crops to ripeness; when they pray for clear weather, the dark clouds disperse and turn to brightness, and fair skies return in good time.

If devout men and women apply themselves with single-minded sincerity, recite the Dao (the Way) and cultivate the true, and if, on the Three Primordials and Eight Festivals (important festivals of Daoism), on the birthdays of the various deities, on the first and fifteenth of each month, and on the auspicious day of their own natal destiny, they keep the fast, recite the scriptures, and widely practice good deeds, they will obtain peace and happiness in this life and accumulate blessings and virtue, so that their families flourish, rise to eminence, and enjoy health and ease. Officials will be promoted to higher posts, merchants will find their sources of wealth still more abundant, those who travel by boat will not be alarmed by wind and waves, and journeys by land will proceed safely and smoothly. All affairs of the human world are under the jurisdiction of the Venerable City God.

Thereupon the Heavenly Worthy spoke a gatha:

Great is the City God, truly a deity of De (Virtue/Power) sent down by Heaven. Auspicious Qi (vital energy) spreads over Huazhu, and the mountains and peaks thereby give birth to numinous excellence.

You receive the mandate of Heaven and govern every quarter; you preside over the judgment of life and death, and retribution is clear and distinct.

You reward good conduct and punish evil conduct, without the slightest discrepancy. Your clear discernment is like the sun and moon, and your gracious virtue stands equal with Heaven and Earth.

You keep the capital peaceful and solemn, allowing no treacherous or wicked affairs to arise; you rescue from disaster and deliver from peril, protecting the stability of the state and the health and peace of the people.

The City God temples of every place are solemn and reverent. The state honors the rites of sacrifice, and the ceremonial forms are fully complete.

All under Heaven look up in reverence, and the people of the four directions give their hearts in allegiance. Warding off calamity and guarding against hardship, you forever garrison the eight directions.

The incense of sacrifice continues without cease; may this protection endure for long, spring after spring, generation after generation.

When the Heavenly Worthy had finished this gatha, dragon chariots and crane carriages were seen coming to receive him. The Heavenly Worthy returned to the Heaven of Biluo (the celestial realm spoken of in Daoism), and the many holy deities each returned to the clouds on high.

The Supreme Sage of the City God (the revered City God) bowed his head in farewell and left behind this true scripture (Jing), transmitting it to the human world for people to circulate and recite. If one follows the intent of the scripture, one will obtain boundless blessings in return.

The assembled deities rejoiced, received it in faith, and put it into practice.

The Wondrous Scripture Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao on the City God’s Sympathetic Responses That Dispel Calamities and Gather Blessings comes to an end here.

True Pronouncement of the Metropolitan City God

The City God (Chenghuang, the deity who guards the walled city and the locality) is an ancient orthodox deity of the Sheji (the state and local political authority) and presides over fortune and misfortune, reward and punishment throughout the world. He examines whether officials are loyal to the state and bring benefit to the people, and he acts according to the humane virtue of rewarding the good and punishing the evil.

The Metropolitan City God is the principal deity of the capital, and the City Gods of the various prefectures are subject to his authority. Beneath him are established thirteen Provincial Administration Commissions and eighteen Bureaus, which respectively manage civil affairs and adjudication. Temples of the City God have received worship generation after generation, and his divine favor has long protected the world. The City God holds the power to bestow blessings and display awe, and to keep the registers of life and death.

The City God employs divine power to protect Yingchuan (a place-name). When he encounters the troops and commanders of the underworld, he can also drive off intruders from outside. Supremely numinous and supremely holy, impartial and upright, he bears the honorific title “Responsive Honored Deity, Duke of Majestic Numinosity, Sage King Who Protects the State, Preserves Peace, and Assists the Holy.”