《太上洞玄灵宝三元品戒功德轻重经》

The Most High Dongxuan (Cavern Mystery) Lingbao Jing (scripture) on the Graded Precepts of the Three Primes and the Relative Weight of Merit and Demerit

The Celestial Worthy said: When the Heavenly Official of the first grade of the Upper Prime was born, primordial Qi (vital energy) began to coalesce, the sun, moon, and stars appeared, and the three kinds of Qi—blue-green, yellow, and white—gathered together, establishing the Three Palaces of the Upper Prime.

The first palace is named the “Purple Tenuity Palace of the Seven Treasures of Primordial Yang in the Capital of Great Mystery.” The initiating yang Qi of the blue-green prime is governed from this palace, which oversees the High August Thearch of the Jade Void of the Upper Perfected and the Spontaneous, the thearchs and kings of the various heavens, and the great gods of the upper sages. Within the palace are exceedingly many ranks of halls and towers, filled layer upon layer with blue-green yang Qi. The immortal officials and the beings there are likewise beyond counting, all condensed from the spontaneous blue-green primordial Qi. The immortals of the palace wear blue-green feathered robes.

The Purple Tenuity Palace holds the “Talisman of Extending Life” (a talisman used to bring a person into being). When the talisman is written and set in the eight directions, the Qi of the eight directions swiftly gathers in response and a person takes form; if the talisman is destroyed and burned with fire, the person likewise disperses with the smoke and returns to primordial Qi. Only those who have attained the Dao (the Way) and whose names are entered on the golden slips and jade registers can practice this art. The related talismanic writing appears only once every forty thousand kalpas; it is in the charge of the Fire Official of the Great Yang and is carried out by the Upper Bureau of Great Mystery.

The Purple Tenuity Palace has three bureaus, of the left, the center, and the right. The left bureau governs life and is examined by the Fire Official of the Great Yang; the right bureau governs death and is examined by the Water Official of the Great Yin (Yin-Yang); the central bureau examines the registers of offenses of life and death and administers the ordeal of the wind-blades. Each of the three bureaus commands ninety million officials, and together they oversee the twelve departments, the offices charged with the offenses and blessings of life and death. They are listed as follows: the Department of Illumined Truth of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery.

The Upper Prime of Grand Mystery (Taixuan Shangyuan) maintains twelve bureaus, among them the Bureau of Opening the Numinous (Kailing Cao), the Bureau of Restraining Spirits (Jinshen Cao), the Bureau of Penetrating Brightness (Tongming Cao), the Bureau of Upright Spirits (Zhengshen Cao), the Bureau of Opening Brightness (Kaiming Cao), the Bureau of the Three Capitals (Sandu Cao), and the Southern Upper Bureau (Nanshang Cao), which are charged specifically with the work of examination. A cao is an official bureau of the celestial realm. The twelve bureaus were established by the Azure Lady of Grand Mystery (Taixuan Nüqing) and stand under the Palace of Purple Tenuity (Ziwei Gong). They respectively oversee the solar fire officials of the Left Bureau, the lunar water officials of the Right Bureau, and the divine officials of the Central Bureau who conduct penal examination by the wind-blades.

Each bureau is staffed with one hundred and twenty examining officials, one thousand two hundred examining clerks, twelve thousand examining soldiers, and one hundred and twenty thousand examining officers. Together they record and verify the merits, faults, and sins of the Superior Perfected (Shangzhen)—exalted deities of the celestial realm—whether they have already attained the Dao or have not yet done so, as well as those of the men and women among the people of the world. Examination is divided into three grades, great, middling, and lesser, carried out once every three years, nine years, and twenty-four years respectively. Blessings and recompense are likewise divided into three grades, great, middling, and lesser, corresponding to three years, nine years, and twenty-four years. Punishment and blessing are applied together, and merit and fault each receive their due retribution.

The registers of good and evil are kept in the seven-treasure casket of the Jade Cabinet of Luminous Perfection in the Mysterious Capital (Xuandu Mingzhen Yugui).

The Left Palace of the Central Yellow Qi (vital energy) of the Celestial Origin, of the First Rank of the Upper Prime, is named the Left Palace of the Primordial Yellow Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) of the Capital of Great Mystery. This is the place where the Primordial Yellow Qi of the Primordial Beginning gathers. It has overall charge of the name registers, among the Upper Perfected (realized immortals who have attained the Dao (the Way)), of those who have already attained the Dao, those who have already passed away, and those who have not yet attained the Dao, and it also keeps the ledgers of life of ordinary men and women.

Within the palace are tier upon tier of palaces and towers in exceedingly vast numbers, filled with Primordial Yellow Qi; the divine officials and the common people are likewise beyond counting. All of them are formed by the condensation of spontaneously generated Primordial Yellow Qi, and they wear yellow feather robes. The Left Palace of Taiji is provided with the Talisman for Summoning the Numinous. The rites and procedures for its use resemble the statutory forms of the life-extending ritual of the Purple Tenuity Palace (a palace-office of the Daoist celestial realm); they are presided over by the wind-blade examining officials and carried out by the Left Bureau of Great Mystery.

The Left Palace of Taiji has three bureaus, of the left, the right, and the center. The Left Bureau is in charge of life and is subject to examination by the fire officials of the Great Yang; the Right Bureau is in charge of death and is subject to examination by the water officials of the Great Yin; the Central Bureau registers the offenses connected with life and death and carries out the wind-blade examination. The three bureaus each command numerous officials and jointly administer the affairs of life and death, guilt and blessing. There are twelve departmental offices (celestial bureaus that divide among them the various affairs). The Jing (scripture/classic) lists eleven of them: the Luminous Brahma Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Majestic Spirits Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Grand Constancy Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Great Clarity Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Proclaiming Majesty Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Luminous Capital Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Capital of Spirits Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Grand Ceremony Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Luminous Law Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, the Examination and Rectification Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery, and the Luminous Majesty Department of the Upper Prime of Great Mystery.

The Upper Prime of Taixuan has nine administrative offices.

Taken together, the foregoing make twelve offices. They were established by Taixuan Nüqing and are subordinate to the Left Palace of Yuanhuang Taiji (Supreme Ultimate). They oversee the Solar Fire Palace of the Left Bureau, the Lunar Water Palace of the Right Bureau, and the wind-and-blade penal examinations of the Central Bureau. Each office is staffed with one hundred twenty examining officials, one thousand two hundred examining clerks, twelve thousand examining soldiers, and one hundred twenty thousand examining officers. They have overall charge of the longevity registers of those who have already attained the Dao (the Way), of those in past lives and the present life who have not yet attained the Dao, and of ordinary men and women; they also oversee the jade slips of those who are to attain the Dao and become immortals. A person’s merits and faults are entered in the registers, and grade of rank is raised or lowered accordingly. Retribution for guilt and blessing is likewise carried out according to the term of years fixed by the Ziwei Palace. The registers are sealed in the Yangsheng case of the Mingzhen jade casket of the Mystic Capital.

The Right Palace belonging to the Cavern-White Qi (vital energy) of the Heavenly Prime, of the first grade of the Upper Prime, is named the Cavern-White Taiji Right Palace of the Taixuan Capital. The Cavern-White Qi of the Heavenly Prime has overall charge of those who have already attained the Dao and of those in past lives and the present life who have not yet attained it, and it also administers the immortal registers of deliverance and the death registers of criminal liability for ordinary men and women. The palaces rise in exceedingly many tiers; the original text describes their number as “five hundred million, fifty thousand, five thousand, five hundred, five billion five hundred million, and fifty thousand storeys.” The immortal officials and the host of deities within them are described with the same exaggerated figures. All are formed by the condensation of spontaneous Cavern-White Qi and wear white feathered robes. Within the Taiji Right Palace are set Mingzhen talismans, used in the same way as the life-prolonging ritual regulations of the Ziwei Palace. The Taiyin Water Official is charged with directing the penal examinations, and the Right Bureau of Taixuan is charged with carrying them out.

The Right Palace of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) is furnished with three offices—Left, Right, and Middle. The Left Office administers the affairs of life and is examined by the Officials of Solar Fire; the Right Office administers the affairs of death and is examined by the Officials of Great Yin (Taiyin) Water; the Middle Office keeps the registers of offenses concerning life and death and carries out the “Examination of the Wind Blades,” an investigation and chastisement named for the wind blades. Each of the three offices commands ninety million officials, and together they oversee the twelve bureaus that govern life and death, sin and blessing.

These twelve bureaus are the Bureau of Rectification of the Upper Prime of the Supreme Mystery (Taixuan Shangyuan Sizheng Cao), the Bureau of Fourfold Brightness (Siming Cao), the Bureau Supervising Heaven (Jiantian Cao), the Bureau of Execution (Sisha Cao), the Bureau of the Covenant with Heaven (Mengtian Cao), the Bureau of the Dark Capital (Youdu Cao), the Bureau of Majestic Protocol (Weiyi Cao), the Bureau of Great Yin (Taiyin Cao), the Bureau of the Lower Prime (Xiayuan Cao), the Bureau of Supervisory Oversight (Jiansi Cao), the Bureau Supervising Numinous Spirits (Jianling Cao), and the Bureau of Great Brightness (Taiming Cao).

The twelve bureaus above were established by Nüqing of the Supreme Mystery (Taixuan Nüqing) and are subordinate to the Right Palace of Taiji of Yuandongbai (the White of the Primordial Cavern). They are charged with overseeing the Examination of the Wind Blades as carried out by the Solar Fire Palace of the Left Office, the Great Yin Water Officials of the Right Office, and the Middle Office. Each bureau is staffed with one hundred twenty examining officials, one thousand two hundred examining clerks, twelve thousand examining soldiers, and one hundred twenty thousand examining officers.

The twelve bureaus collectively manage the examination of those among the Higher Perfected who have already attained the Dao (the Way) and of persons of former lives. They also govern the share of blessings that those who have not yet attained the Dao enjoy while alive, the cases in which men and women among the people are due to exhaust their allotted deliverance and have their immortal names reduced, and they record the name-registers of the dead together with the years and months. They further determine the grades and titles of immortals and the retribution of sin and blessing; the system of terms of years is the same as that of the Purple Tenuity Palace (Ziwei Gong). The relevant registers are sealed in the northern repository of the Jade Casket of the Ninefold Darkness in the Bureau of Eternal Night, and are administered by the offices of Han, You, Ding, and others.

The Celestial Official of the Upper Prime, of the first rank, maintains three offices—upper, middle, and lower—and each office commands twelve departments, thirty-six bureaus in all. These offices and bureaus govern affairs above the Primordial Yang and within the Great Void, and they have charge of those who have already attained the Dao (the Way), those who have already left this world, and those who have not yet attained the Dao, together with the registers of merit and demerit of ordinary men and women as they pass between life and death.

The High Sovereign Jade Emperor, the holy hosts of the various heavens, the great deities of the ten directions, the Limitless Taiyi, the Upper Perfected of the Southern Pole, the Perfected of Wondrous Conduct, the sun, moon, and stellar mansions, the zongji and yuheng (the stars and celestial phenomena), and countless other honored deities assemble each year on the fifteenth day of the first month, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and the fifteenth day of the tenth month to examine the registers of merit and demerit of persons of every kind. On these occasions the examining officials of the three offices, who administer Yin-Yang, water and fire, the wind-knives, and related matters, together with the officers of the thirty-six bureaus, reckon item by item the weight of merits, offenses, and evil deeds, and record the relevant years, months, days, and time limits. They enter these matters separately in the green registers and the black registers, and then report them respectively to the Palace of Purple Tenuity, the Left Palace of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate), and the Right Palace of Taiji.

Those whose merit is complete and who meet the conditions for becoming immortals have their names entered in the Palace of Purple Tenuity. Those who have performed good deeds and accumulated merit, and who reverently believe in and honor the Great Dao, have their names entered in the Left Palace of Taiji. Those whose evil deeds have accumulated, who are contrary to the Dao and to righteousness, and whose crimes merit death, have their names entered in the Right Palace of Taiji.

The Palace of Purple Tenuity registers those qualified for immortality in the immortal rolls of jade names and golden records, and notifies the Earth Official to expunge their former registers and the Water Official to remove the related rosters, commanding the Shen (spirits) of the Three Realms to protect them and forbidding any violation; these procedures are carried out according to the provisions of the Nüqing texts. The Left Palace of Taiji registers the good and the faithful in the Register of the Green Primordial, the Jade Calendar of Long Life, and the Rolls of the Southern Superior, and notifies the Officials of Water and Earth to protect them separately, likewise forbidding any violation; the related procedures are likewise carried out according to the Nüqing texts. The Right Palace of Taiji enters the guilty in the black registers, transfers them to the Bureau of Eternal Night and the Nine Darknesses, and notifies the Officials of Water and Earth to seize their hun and po souls and hand them over to the offices in charge of capital punishment, to be dispatched into penal service.

If the results of the examination of good and evil, merit and demerit, have not yet been confirmed, they must be reported to the Three Assemblies (the periods of examination and collation held three times each year), and only after review and confirmation are they submitted upward.

The Second-Rank Earth Official of the Middle Prime—the underworld divine official who oversees the affairs of the Middle Prime—was formed when the blended numinous Qi (vital energy) of the Primordial Cavern, the interfused primordial Qi that constitutes this realm, condensed into the Jing (essence) of the Yellow Ultimate. He is established within the Three Palaces of the Middle Prime, the three palaces under the jurisdiction of the Earth Official of the Middle Prime.

The first palace is called the Palace of Cavernous Emptiness and Pure Numinosity (Dongkong Qingling Gong). It has overall charge of the Perfected of the Five Emperors and the Five Marchmounts, together with the great gods and immortals on earth who have already attained the Dao (the Way). The palace is filled, layer upon layer, with blended numinous Qi, and its immortals, spirits, and officials number nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety thousand in all. These officials are persons who possessed merit in life and, after death, received salvation and were appointed to fill posts under the Earth Official. Each has a term of office; when the term is fulfilled, one may be promoted to an office among the celestial immortals, or one may be reborn as a human being. Whenever a post falls vacant, someone is appointed to fill it.

The Palace of Cavernous Emptiness and Pure Numinosity is also called the Palace of Bright Dawn and Martial City (Mingchen Wucheng Gong). Within the palace are established three bureaus—left, right, and center. The left bureau, named the Naifan Bright Dawn Bureau (Naifan Mingchen Fu), governs affairs of life and is responsible for the examinations of the Fire Official of the Great Yang. The right bureau, named the Zhoujue Yin Heaven Bureau (Zhoujue Yintian Fu), governs affairs of death and is responsible for the examinations of the Water Official of the Great Yin. The central bureau, named the Qifei Tranquil Radiance Bureau (Qifei Tianzhao Fu), keeps the registers of sins concerning life and death and administers the Examination of the Wind Blades, the underworld judgment in which the guilty are tested by punishments such as the wind blades. Each of the three bureaus commands fifty million beings, and together they oversee the fourteen department officials who record life and death, sin and blessing.

These fourteen departments are the Department of the Numinous Capital of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of Upholding Rectitude of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of Numinous Might of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of the Yellow Spirit of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of Dongxuan (Cavernous Mystery) of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of Majestic Elevation of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of the Numinous Pivot of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of Marchmount Rectitude of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of the Grotto-Heavens of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of the Nine Capitals of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of the Five Assemblies of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of Penetrating Brightness of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, the Department of Ritual Norms of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime, and the Department of the Nine Examinations of the Grand Mystery Middle Prime.

The fourteen departments above were established by Nüqing of the Grand Mystery (Taixuan Nüqing, a Daoist divine name). They are subordinate to the Palace of Cavernous Emptiness and Pure Numinosity and fall respectively under the authority of the Fire Official of the Great Yang of the left bureau and the Water Official of the Great Yin of the right bureau.

The Taixuan Zhongyuan Tongming Cao (Department of Penetrating Clarity of the Middle Prime of the Grand Mystery) is the office in charge of thorough comprehension and clear discernment; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Yifan Cao (Department of Ritual Norms of the Middle Prime of the Grand Mystery) oversees ritual institutions and statutory measures; and the Taixuan Zhongyuan Jiukao Cao (Department of the Nine Assessments of the Middle Prime of the Grand Mystery) oversees the nine categories of assessment.

The foregoing make fourteen departments (Cao) in all. They were established by Taixuan Nüqing and are subordinate to the Dongkong Qingling Gong (Palace of Clear Numinosity of the Cavernous Void), with responsibility for the assessment affairs of the Solar Fire Officials of the Left Bureau, the Lunar Water Officials of the Right Bureau, and the Wind Blades (Fengdao) of the Central Bureau. In each of the fourteen departments there are 120 assessing officials, 1,200 assessing clerks, 12,000 assessing soldiers, and 120,000 assessing gentlemen. They register the divine immortals and perfected persons of the Five Peaks (Wuyue), those who have already attained the Dao (the Way) and those still engaged in cultivation and study, together with the merits, faults, and sins of ordinary men and women. A major assessment is held once every three years, a middle assessment once every nine years, and a minor assessment once every twenty-four years. The bestowal of blessings is likewise divided into three grades—major, middle, and minor—carried out respectively every three, nine, and twenty-four years. Sin and blessing, merit and fault are all reckoned together and requited accordingly, and the related registers are sealed and stored in the cavern chambers of the Five Peaks.

The left palace of the second rank of the Middle Prime (Zhongyuan) is named the Nandongyang Gong (Palace of Southern Cavernous Yang), also called the Zongtian Gong (Palace of Ancestral Heaven). It governs the Soil Emperors (Tuhuang) of the Nine Earths (Jiutu) upon the ground and the various numinous officials of the four quarters and eight extremities, and it also administers the lifespan registers of cultivators who have not yet attained the Dao and of ordinary men and women. The palace is filled with an incalculable abundance of mixed yellow Qi (vital energy). The officials of the terrestrial Soil Bureau number 999,090,000 in all; all of them are souls who, after death, were delivered and elevated because of merit earned in life and were then appointed to corresponding posts.

The Nandongyang Palace has three bureaus—left, right, and center. The left bureau, named the Liangshi Fu (Bureau of Deliberating Affairs), has charge of the living and is responsible for the assessment of the Solar Fire Officials. The right bureau, named the Zongling Fu (Bureau of Ancestral Numina), has charge of the dead and is responsible for the assessment of the Lunar Water Officials. The central bureau, named the Lingniu Shenfu (Divine Bureau of the Numinous Nexus), has charge of the registers of sins of life and death and of the Wind-Blade assessment. Each of the three bureaus commands fifty million persons, and together they oversee the officials of the fourteen departments that administer life and death, sin and blessing.

Among these are the Taixuan Zhongyuan Nanchang Cao (Nanchang Department of the Middle Prime of the Grand Mystery), the Taixuan Zhongyuan Kaosuan Cao (Department of Assessment and Reckoning of the Middle Prime of the Grand Mystery), and the Taixuan Zhongyuan Zhaoling Cao (Department of Summoning the Numinous of the Middle Prime of the Grand Mystery).

The Solar Bureau (Taiyang Cao), Bureau of Illumined Mechanism (Mingji Cao), Bureau of Metropolitan Statutes (Dulu Cao), Bureau of the Nine Ordinances (Jiuling Cao), Bureau of the Illumined Capital (Mingdu Cao), Bureau Supervising Heaven (Jiantian Cao), Bureau Proclaiming the Wilds (Xuanye Cao), Bureau Supervising Ordinances (Jianling Cao), Bureau of Mound Reception (Qiucheng Cao), Bureau of the Nine Qi (Jiuqi Cao), and Bureau of the Central Spirits (Zhongshen Cao) of the Great Mystery Middle Origin (Taixuan Zhongyuan), together with the others, make fourteen Cao in all. A Cao is a celestial office charged with examination and with recording merits and faults.

These fourteen Cao were established by Lady Nüqing of the Great Mystery (Taixuan Nüqing) and stand under the Southern Palace of Cavernous Yang (Nandongyang Gong). They handle the examination of the Solar Fire Officials of the Left Bureau, the Great Yin Water Officials of the Right Bureau, and the Wind Blades of the Central Bureau. Each Cao is staffed with one hundred twenty examining officials, one thousand two hundred examining clerks, twelve thousand examining soldiers, and one hundred twenty thousand examining servicemen. They oversee the host of numinous officials of the nine soils of the earth and of the four intermediate directions and eight extremities. They also record the merits, faults, and sins of cultivators who have not yet attained the Dao (the Way) and of ordinary men and women, and they register the retribution of sin and blessing. The term of their examination is the same as that of the Palace of Pure Numinosity (Qingling Gong). The related registers are sealed within the stone of the Primordial Yang Terrace (Yuanyang Tai) in the Southern Cinnabar Cavern Chamber (Nandan Dongshi).

The Right Palace of the second rank of the Middle Origin is called the Northern Feng Palace (Beifeng Gong), also known as the Palace of Yin Heaven (Yintian Gong). It has general charge of the numinous officials upon the earth, and of the sin registers and death registers of those who have already attained the Dao, those who have already died, and cultivators and ordinary men and women who have not yet attained the Dao. The palace is filled with layer upon layer of turbid yellow Qi (vital energy). The officials of the Earth Bureau and upon the earth number nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred thousand. These officials, too, are meritorious departed souls who, after deliverance and transformation, are appointed to the corresponding posts.

The Northern Feng Palace comprises three bureaus: Left, Right, and Center. The Left Bureau is named Lianwan Shang, and its officials likewise number nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred thousand. They, too, are meritorious departed souls who, after receiving deliverance, are appointed to posts within the bureau.

The Northern Feng Palace (Beifeng Gong) is provided with three bureaus: left, middle, and right. The left bureau, called the Lianwan Quanqu Bureau, has charge of the living, who are examined and assessed by the Solar Fire Official. The right bureau, called the Taisha Jiuyou Bureau, has charge of the dead, who are examined and assessed by the Lunar Water Official. The middle bureau, called the Zuiqi Xianchi Bureau, keeps the registers of sins of life and death and examines sinners by the punishment of the wind-blade; its name refers to the Qi (vital energy) of sin and the Xianchi pool. Each of the three bureaus commands fifty million officials. In all, fourteen departments are established to administer matters of life and death and of sin and blessing: the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department of the Nine Killings; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department for Overseeing Faults; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Hansi Department; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department of Requital and Rectification; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department for Supervising Killing; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department for Hastening Examination; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department for Seizing Qi; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department for Overseeing Killing; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Doujia Department; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department Presiding over Striking; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department for Overseeing the Subtle; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department of the Nine Darknesses; the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department of Deliverance; and the Taixuan Zhongyuan Department of the Cold Night.

These fourteen departments were established by Nüqing of the Great Mystery and are subordinate to the Northern Feng Palace. Between them they administer the Solar Fire Official of the left bureau, the Lunar Water Official of the right bureau, and the wind-blade examinations of the middle bureau. Each department is staffed with one hundred and twenty examining officials, one thousand two hundred examining clerks, twelve thousand examining soldiers, and one hundred and twenty thousand examining officers.

These offices register the offenses of those who cultivate the Dao (the Way) and of ordinary men and women throughout the nine lands of the earth and the four quarters and eight extremities, recording them in the black registers. For those who ought to receive deliverance—that is, to be released from punishment through salvation—they also verify the recompense of sin and blessing. Summons for examination and the determination of terms of years are handled according to the regulations of the Qingling Palace. The relevant registers are sealed and stored in the repository on the northern wall of Xuanyin.

The Earth Official of the Second Rank of the Middle Primordial, the divine officer of the underworld who oversees the affairs of the Middle Primordial, maintains three palaces, divided into the Left, Middle, and Right Prefectures. Each prefecture commands fourteen bureaus, forty-two in all, which together govern the secluded and mysterious realms of the mountains and caverns. These offices all bear titles that arise of themselves. They have authority over the immortals, Perfected Persons, and spirits of the Five Sacred Peaks and of the four quarters and eight extremities upon the earth, and they also keep the registers of those who have attained the Dao and passed away, of those who have not yet attained the Dao and remain in the world, and of the life and death, merits and faults, and sins and blessings of ordinary men and women.

The Great Saints of the various heavens, the venerable gods of the ten directions, the Perfected Persons of wondrous conduct, the Southern Dipper and the Northern Dipper, the sun, moon, and stellar lodges, the Xuanji Yuheng—that is, the movements of the heavenly bodies and the configurations of the stars—and innumerable venerable deities descend, whenever the Eight Nodes arrive, the eight major festivals of the Daoist calendrical year, to the three palaces of Qingling, Dongyang, and Northern Feng. There they assemble to examine the registers of the life and death, merits and faults, and sins and blessings of all beings on earth. On these days the Imperial Lords of the Five Directions, the immortals and Perfected Persons of the Five Sacred Peaks, the Earth Emperors of the Four Offices of the Earth Prefecture, together with the numinous officials of the eight extremities, the earth deities, and the officers of the Three Realms, all gather as well.

The investigating and summoning officers of the Three Palaces, the Nine Prefectures, and the Forty-two Bureaus each have charge of the green registers and the black registers that record life and death. According to merits and faults, sins and blessings, and the circumstances of life and death, they reckon lifespans and weigh the years and months. Every matter is entered separately in the green and black registers and then submitted, level by level, to the Three Palaces. Each year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and the fifteenth day of the tenth month, the Three Palaces report to Heaven: those who ought to be born again are reported to the Left Palace; those who ought to become immortals are reported to the Middle Palace; and those who ought to die are reported to the Right Palace. Offices above and below check their records against one another, so that merits and faults, life and death, and the count of years, months, and days are without error. If, upon examination, a record is found not yet to have been verified, it is declared at the Three Assemblies, and only after it has been investigated and corrected is it reported upward.

The Water Officials of the Three Grades of the Lower Prime (Xiayuan), the divine order charged with the Water Bureau of the Lower Prime, are formed of the Qi (vital energy) of Dongyuan Wind-and-Marsh—vital energy symbolizing wind and water—and of the Jing (essence) of Chenhao, and are established in the Three Palaces of the Lower Prime.

The first palace is named Yanggu Dongyuan Palace, also called Qinghua Fangzhu Palace. The Qi of Dongyuan Wind-and-Marsh is governed from this palace. It has overall charge of the Water Emperor, the Divine King of Yanggu; of Hebo, River Earl of the Water Bureau of the Nine Rivers; of the immortals and the various Zhenren (Perfected); of the great gods in the waters; and of the immortal registers of those who have already attained the Dao (the Way) and those who have not yet attained it, together with the men and women of the common people.

Within the palace are layer upon layer of Wind-and-Marsh Qi. The water gods, immortals, and officials of every rank number nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred thousand in all. Souls who possess merit after death may, once they have received deliverance, be appointed to fill posts as water officials. Each term of office has its limit; when merit is fulfilled, they may rise to the offices of celestial immortals or be reborn in the human world. Turning through cultivation in this way, all can in the end become superior immortals. Whenever an office falls vacant, a successor is appointed at once, so that its duties remain filled.

Yanggu Palace further establishes three bureaus, of the left, the center, and the right. The left bureau, named the Qingyuan Lingyuan Bureau, is in charge of affairs of life and oversees the examination conducted by the Fire Officials of Great Yang. The right bureau, named the Nine Waters Cold Night Bureau, is in charge of affairs of death and oversees the examination conducted by the Water Officials of Great Yin. The central bureau, named the Shuodan Qingling Bureau, is in charge of the registers of offenses of life and death and oversees the examination of the wind-blades. Each of the three bureaus has fifty million officials. Together they command the fourteen Cao offices responsible for affairs of life and death and of sin and blessing—offices that, according to their several duties, separately handle documents and assessment: the Taixuan Lower Prime Water-Brilliance Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Prime-Clarity Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Blazing Fire Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Three Luminaries Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Register-Matching Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Water-Ordinances Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Luminous Models Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Cavern-Source Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Inspection and Assembly Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Kalpa-Reckoning Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Urging-the-Waters Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Cavern-Yang Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Dragon-Stables Cao, and the Taixuan Lower Prime Pivot-and-Occasion Cao.

The foregoing fourteen bureaus, the offices charged with examining merit and demerit, were established by Taixuan Nüqing and stand under the Yanggu Dongyuan Palace. They direct the examination of the solar fire officials of the Left Bureau, the examination of the lunar water officials of the Right Bureau, and the wind-blade examination of the Middle Bureau, a penal scrutiny that takes its name from the wind-blade.

Each of the fourteen bureaus is staffed with 120 examining officials, 1,200 examining clerks, 12,000 examining soldiers, and 120,000 examining officers. They have charge of the divinities of the Water Prefectures, including those of the Nine Rivers, the Three Rivers, and the Four Seas, and of the registers of merit and demerit for the common people, both men and women. A major examination is held once every three years, an intermediate examination once every nine years, and a minor examination once every twenty-four years. The bestowal of blessings is likewise graded as major, intermediate, and minor, reckoned on terms of three, nine, and twenty-four years respectively. Punishment and blessing are carried out together, and merit and demerit are requited alike; the relevant registers are all sealed and stored in the cavern chambers of the Nine Rivers.

The Left Palace of the third rank of the Lower Prime is called the Qingling Palace, also known as the Palace of the Assembly of the Southern Waters. Within it, the major examination comes every three years, the intermediate every nine years, and the minor every twenty-four years. The bestowal of blessings is likewise divided into major, intermediate, and minor grades, on terms of three, nine, and twenty-four years. Punishment and blessing proceed side by side, merit and demerit are requited together, and the registers are sealed and stored in the cavern chambers of the Nine Rivers.

The Qingling Palace has general charge of the myriad kinds of numinous beings in the waters, including jiao-dragons, whales, and others. It also administers the large-scale examination of floods and the numerical measures and time limits associated with the Water Mother and the Dragon Gate. At the same time it registers the names, births and deaths, and merits and demerits of the common people, men and women, and determines whether these are light or grave. The palace is filled with 1,000,105,550 layers of the adamantine Qi (vital energy) of wind and marsh. The water divinities, immortals, and officials within it number 999,900 in all. These divine hosts also include souls who have merit after death: once they have undergone deliverance and transformation, they may be appointed to offices among the Water Officials.

The Qingling Palace, also known as the Palace of the Southern Water Assembly, is organized into three bureaus: Left, Right, and Center. The Left Bureau is named the Bureau of Lifespan and Kalpa; it has charge of the affairs of life and is responsible for the examinations of the Solar Fire Official. The Right Bureau is named the Bureau of the Long Night and the Cold Court; it has charge of the affairs of death and is responsible for the examinations of the Great Yin Water Official. The Central Bureau is named the Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) Bureau of the Kalpa Blade; it has charge of the registers of the sins of life and death, together with the examination by the wind-knives. Here “examination” means the scrutiny and judgment that divine offices pass upon human conduct and upon sins and blessings. Each of the three bureaus commands a bureaucracy on the scale of fifty million officials, and they exercise overall authority over life and death, sins and blessings, and the affairs of every kind of spirit in the waters at the time of kalpa assemblies.

Fourteen Cao officials are established in addition. Cao is the name of an administrative office or a functional charge. They are the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Luminous Kalpas, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of the Mechanism of Allotted Years, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Water-Brahma, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Sins and Blessings, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Register Assemblies, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Hastening Qi (vital energy), the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Seizing Spirits, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Summoning Dragons, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of the Nine Rivers, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Exemplary Women, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Opening to Light, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Delivering Souls, the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Inspecting Jing (essence), and the Great Mystery Lower Prime Cao of Purity and Rectitude.

These fourteen Cao stand under the authority of Nüqing of the Great Mystery.

The fourteen Cao offices above (administrative offices set up according to their respective duties) were established by Taixuan Nüqing and are subordinate to Qingleng Palace (the Palace of Clear Cold). They oversee the investigations of the Taiyang (Great Yang) Fire Officials of the Left Bureau, the Taiyin (Great Yin) Water Officials of the Right Bureau, and the Wind-Blades of the Central Bureau, and they also administer affairs of life and death, sin and blessing, and kalpic destiny concerning the myriad kinds of spirits (Shen) in the waters. Each Cao office is staffed with one hundred and twenty examining officials, one thousand two hundred examining clerks, twelve thousand examining soldiers, and one hundred and twenty thousand examining officers. They take charge of the kalpic affairs of the divine spirits of the water palaces of the Nine Rivers, the Four Seas, the Three Rivers, the Huai River, the Ji River, and the like, and they register the merits and faults, the retribution of sins and blessings, and the limits of the allotted lifespans of common men and women. The related records are handled according to the regulations of Yanggu Palace (the Palace of the Valley of the Rising Sun) and are sealed and stored in the Yangquan Cavern Chamber.

The Right Palace of the Lower Prime of the Third Grade is called Northern Fengdu Palace, also known as Luofeng Palace. It has overall charge of the dead ghosts long detained in the waters, the souls condemned to banishment, punishment, and forced labor, and every class of ghosts, gods, and spirit-beings, and it also keeps the Black Registers of those commoners who are due to die (registers recording the name-rolls of the dead). The palace is filled with the extremely vast Qi (vital energy) of the Brahma-conduct of wind and marsh. Within it are water-immortal divine officials and their staff, numbering in all nine hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety thousand persons, among whom are also souls who had merit in life and who, after death, received deliverance and were appointed to official posts.

Northern Fengdu Palace, also called Luofeng Palace, comprises three bureaus: Left, Central, and Right. The Left Bureau, named the Bureau of Opening Deliverance and Measuring Kalpas, administers the Registers of the Living (registers recording the name-rolls of the living) and the investigations of the Taiyang Fire Officials. The Right Bureau, named the Bureau of the Ghosts and Spirits of the Winding Springs, administers the Registers of the Dead and the investigations of the Taiyin Water Officials. The Central Bureau, named the Bureau of Spirit-Communion and the Great Kalpa, is charged with recording the sins and faults of life and death, together with the Wind-Blade investigations and the affairs of ghosts and spirits. Each of the three bureaus has fifty million subordinate officials, and together they exercise overall charge of the affairs of life and death, sin and blessing, and ghosts and spirits.

The titles of the offices among the fourteen Cao include the Taixuan Lower Prime Northern Prime Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Examination and Rectification Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Nine Sections Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Four Extremes Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Dark Night Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Long Kalpa Cao, the Taixuan Lower Prime Suffering Spirits Cao, and the Taixuan Lower Prime Three Calamities Cao.

The Taixuan Lower Prime Five-Laws Bureau, the Taixuan Lower Prime Myriad-Scourges Bureau, the Taixuan Lower Prime Poison-Blade Bureau, the Taixuan Lower Prime Dark-Night Bureau, the Taixuan Lower Prime Long-Kalpa Bureau, the Taixuan Lower Prime Suffering-Spirits Bureau, and the Taixuan Lower Prime Three-Hardships Bureau; there are further listed the Five-Laws Bureau, the Myriad-Scourges Bureau, the Poison-Blade Bureau, the Long-Night Bureau, the Vast-Waves Bureau, and the Limitless Bureau. All of these are the names of the bureaus belonging to the Water Official of the Lower Prime (Xiayuan).

These fourteen bureaus were established by Taixuan Nüqing and are subordinate to the officials of Beidu Luofeng (in Daoist conception, the governmental offices of the underworld). They respectively oversee the assessments conducted at the Solar Fire Palace of the Left Office, under the Great Yin Water Official of the Right Office, and at the Wind Blades of the Central Office and similar places, as well as the affairs of ghosts and spirits who undergo censure and punishment and are assigned to labor service. Each bureau is staffed with one hundred and twenty examining officials, one thousand two hundred examining clerks, twelve thousand examining soldiers, and one hundred and twenty thousand examining officers.

These bureaus are in charge of the water sources of every place, the Three Rivers, the Nine Rivers, and the Four Waterways (a general term for the major river systems), and the affairs of the souls of the dead and of ghosts and spirits amid the vast waves and the long night. They also record the merits and faults, the sins and blessings, and the years of retribution of the common people. The system of registers they use is the same as that of Yanggu Palace, and the registers so recorded are sealed and stored in the Cavern Chamber of the Nine Sources.

The three palaces of the Three-Grade Water Official of the Lower Prime—the Left Office, the Right Office, and the Central Office—each command fourteen bureaus, forty-two bureaus in all, which together govern the Cavern Chamber of the Nine Rivers. All of these are designations established of themselves by nature, and they are located in the Cavern Chamber of the Nine Sources.

The Lower Origin (the Water Official’s festival on the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month) comprises Water Officials of three grades, established respectively in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Palaces. Each palace further has three bureaus—Left, Right, and Center—and each bureau commands fourteen departments, forty-two departments in all. These offices jointly govern the grotto chambers of the Nine Rivers; their names all arise of themselves from nature. They also preside over the water palaces of the Three Rivers, the Four Seas, and the Nine Rivers, together with the Water Emperors, divine kings, River Earls, and other holy deities of the four great rivers, including the Huai and the Ji, and every spirit within those waters.

The Water Officials also oversee the progress of the spirits in the waters in cultivating the Dao (the Way), as well as the merits and faults, sins and blessings, and name registers of ordinary men and women. They further administer the long-term banishment of the dead to labor service, and the appointed terms of the greater and lesser kalpa assemblies for the various spirits, fish, dragons, and Jing (essence) prodigies of the water palaces.

The Great Saints of the many heavens, the Perfected of Wondrous Practice, the sun, moon, and stellar lodges, the Xuanji and Yuheng (the ancient stellar officials who observe celestial phenomena), the divine immortals and Perfected of the Five Marchmounts on earth, the Jade Maidens, the subordinate officers of the Three Officials, and all venerable deities regularly, on the days of Taisui, Jiazi, and Gengshen, proceed to Yanggu, Qingling, Northern Fengdu, and the Three Palaces. There they assemble to examine the name registers of the living and the dead throughout the Nine Rivers, the Four Seas, the Three Rivers, the Huai and the Ji, and related regions; they also examine the terms of service of dead souls in the underworld, and the various kalpa assemblies encountered by the spirits of the water palaces.

On these days the host of deities of the water palaces all gather. The officers of the forty-two departments of the nine bureaus of the Three Palaces each hold the blue registers and black registers that record life and death. They verify the number of years for which dead souls have been demoted to service, together with the kalpa assemblies met by the myriad spirits in the waters and related matters, then record these separately and submit them to the Three Palaces.

Each year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the fifteenth of the seventh month, and the fifteenth of the tenth month, the Three Palaces report merits and faults, sins and blessings, and the name registers of life and death to the celestial court: those who ought to continue living are reported to the Left Palace; those who ought to become immortals, to the Middle Palace; and those who ought to die, to the Right Palace. Matters concerning the service of dead souls, kalpa assemblies, and the spirits in the waters are likewise submitted upward, level by level, according to their particular circumstances. If the records of assessment are found still to contain inaccuracies, they are declared anew on the days of the Three Assemblies, and a report is made only after they have been examined and confirmed.

The Heavenly Official of the Upper Prime—the divine official who oversees the Upper Prime and presides over examination and adjudication in the celestial realm—is provided with three palaces, three bureaus, and thirty-six departments. The Earthly Official of the Middle Prime—the divine official who oversees the Middle Prime and presides over examination and adjudication in the terrestrial realm—is provided with three palaces, three bureaus, and forty-two departments. The Water Official of the Lower Prime—the divine official who oversees the Lower Prime and presides over examination and adjudication in the watery realm—is provided with three palaces, three bureaus, and forty-two departments. The Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water together comprise nine palaces, nine bureaus, and one hundred twenty departments. Each office of the Three Officials receives the affairs that fall to it, recording the life and death of all living beings, their sins and blessings, and the relative weight of their merits and faults, examining them and assigning punishment, and handling these matters according to year, month, and day, without error. Whether one cultivates immortality and accumulates good deeds, or does evil and incurs guilt, all is recorded separately by the examining officials under whose charge one falls.

The Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water each maintain palaces, bureaus, and departmental offices, and their number is not limited to these. The other names are alternative designations of branch offices, charged with surveillance and prohibition, punishment, and the investigation of people’s merits, faults, and crimes, which they then report to the principal departments in charge. The one hundred twenty departments are the principal departmental offices of the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water.

The human body likewise contains three palaces, six bureaus, one hundred twenty joints, and thirty-six thousand Shen (spirits). The “body spirits” spoken of here are the divinities that Daoism holds to dwell within the human body and to be bound up with a person’s life and conduct. When a person does evil, the body spirits report it to the Three Officials; when one does good, an immortal name may be entered in the register. A person’s sins and blessings, life and death, are first of all recorded by the body spirits, so that conduct and retribution correspond of themselves.

Human beings are born of Qi (vital energy); when Qi condenses, it becomes Shen. If a person can nurture and preserve primordial Qi, Shen can long endure; if the mind inwardly contemplates and holds to original truth, that original truth does not depart from the body. If one obtains the Talisman of Taixuan for Prolonging Life—a Daoist Fulu (talismans and registers) used to prolong life and protect one’s allotted span—the thirty-six thousand spirits condense Qi and manifest in form, jointly upholding this body, so that one ascends to Heaven in broad daylight, rides the clouds, and enters the void. If Jing (essence) and Qi are wasted and depleted, the host of spirits disperses; when Shen departs and Qi scatters, nothing remains in the end but an empty shell, and the bodily form perishes with it.

The central bureau of one palace of the Heavenly Official comprises twelve departments; the central bureau of one palace of the Earthly Official comprises fourteen departments; and the central bureau of one palace of the Water Official likewise comprises fourteen departments.

The titles of the Upper Perfected—realized persons of high rank who have attained the Dao (the Way)—are distinguished by higher and lower standing and by degrees of honor and humility; their merits and faults, and the ritual protocols proper to them, likewise differ.

The norms of merit and demerit govern the court homage of the Supreme Perfected (Shangzhen) and the assembled sages, together with the ritual of performing the circling steps. They govern attendants who follow in retinue and wait upon the carriage when the Great Sages of the Supreme Perfected roam and banquet, and attendants who follow in retinue and wait upon the carriage when the Middle Sages of the Supreme Perfected roam and banquet. They also govern the Supreme Perfected in their overall collation of the charts and registers of life and death.

The norms of merit and demerit govern the rites of worship and circumambulatory procession. They again govern attendants who follow in retinue and wait upon the carriage when the Great Sages of the Supreme Perfected roam and banquet, and attendants who follow in retinue and wait upon the carriage when the Middle Sages of the Supreme Perfected roam and banquet. They again govern the Supreme Perfected in their overall collation of the charts and registers of life and death.

The norms of merit and demerit govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of the registers of destiny in life and death and of the records in which lifespan is reckoned. They govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of weighing whether merit and De (Virtue/Power), in matters of life and death, are slight or grave. They govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of the merit and De of ghosts and spirits, of retribution, and of rebirth within the cycle of transmigration. They govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of the culpability borne by ghosts and spirits in the dark underworld, and who carry out their release from that culpability and their deliverance. They govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of causing the souls of the dead to ascend and be delivered, and to be reborn. They govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of the souls of the dead receiving Liandu and obtaining new life. Liandu is the Daoist ritual of salvation performed for the souls of the dead. They govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of the year and month in which divine immortals attain the Dao (the Way), and of their grades and ordered stations. They govern the Supreme Perfected who have overall charge of the sounds of the ballads and songs of the myriad demons.

Catalog of Offenses in the Graded Precepts of the Three Primes

The entries of offenses listed in the Graded Precepts of the Three Primes (Sanyuan pinjie) are as follows. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet neither believing in nor revering the scriptures (Jing, scripture/classic) and the precepts, and of harboring doubt in the heart. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet slighting the classics of the sages and presuming to comment on them recklessly. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet slighting one’s teachers and elders and violating covenantal oaths. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet slandering one’s master and failing to honor the moral principles of the Heavenly Dao. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet privately stealing the scriptures and failing to adhere to the lineage received from one’s teacher and to its school. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet instructing disciples without ever having received transmission from a teacher. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet arbitrarily taking scriptures from elsewhere and transmitting them to disciples. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao and, after obtaining the scriptures, not undergoing the covenantal oath before a teacher and the rite of transmission and ordination. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet instructing disciples without ever having received transmission from a teacher. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet arbitrarily taking scriptures from elsewhere and transmitting them to disciples. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao and, after obtaining the scriptures, not undergoing the covenantal oath before a teacher and the rite of transmission and ordination. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao and, when the scriptures are received, transmitting them otherwise than according to the Keyi (liturgy) and the term of years prescribed by the scriptural text. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao yet transmitting the scriptures to unsuitable persons. There is the offense, when one who studies the Supreme Dao receives a lineage transmission of ritual methods, that the master’s school has not fulfilled the required course of merit in initiation and transmission. There is the offense of studying the Supreme Dao and transmitting the teaching to disciples when one oneself has no merit or De.

When one studies the higher Dao (Dao, the Way)—the superior methods of the Dao—and transmits those methods without first submitting a memorial report as the rules require, this is an offense of failing to conform to the master’s teaching.

To study the higher Dao and, before transmitting the Jing (scriptures/classics) and their methods, to fail to submit a prior memorial report to the Five Emperors (the celestial emperors of the five directions venerated in Daoism) is an offense.

To study the higher Dao and receive the scriptures and methods without sincerity and trust in one’s heart is an offense of slighting the Dao and its methods.

When studying the higher Dao, to block the path by which worthy and capable people seek the Dao, while oneself seeks reputation and credit, is an offense.

One who studies the higher Dao and does not pay homage to the master on the first day of each month and on the eight festival days (the important days of fasting, abstinence, and worship prescribed in Daoism) commits an offense.

One who studies the higher Dao and does not cultivate zhaizhi (the practice of fasting, abstinence, and holding to what is upright) commits an offense; to cultivate zhaizhi without concentration and rigor is also an offense.

One who studies the higher Dao and omits passages or skips ahead when reciting the scriptures commits an offense.

One who studies the higher Dao and, during the ritual circumambulation (walking in a circuit while paying homage), fails to keep the proper order and strives to push ahead commits an offense.

One who studies the higher Dao and harbors resentment and anger toward the master commits an offense.

For students and common people (ordinary folk) to attack good persons is an offense; to speak evil words and stir up gossip is also an offense.

For students and common people to discuss and pass judgment on their masters (teachers and elders) and on the common people is an offense.

For students and common people to lose their normal composure after drinking wine is an offense; to harm and destroy life in secret is also an offense.

For students and common people to be excessively covetous, proud, and unrestrained is an offense; to defile the methods of the Dao and cause them to lose their purity is also an offense.

For students and common people to curse ghosts and spirits is an offense; to kill living beings is also an offense.

For students and common people to speak in exaggerated and falsely embellished words, to sow discord, and to break faith is an offense.

For students and common people to engage in illicit sexual conduct and filthy acts is an offense; to steal property is also an offense.

For students and common people to envy the worthy and capable is an offense; to forget the master’s kindness and turn away from the bonds of the master’s school is also an offense.

For students and common people to deceive the master and forsake the methods of the Dao is an offense.

The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in divulging the documents of the celestial realm and the secret workings of Heaven. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in slandering the scriptures (jing) and the teachings of the religion. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in turning back halfway while cultivating the scriptural methods. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in being disloyal to those above them. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in deceiving and slighting their subordinates. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in deceiving their fellow students. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in speaking of good deeds with the mouth while doing evil in the heart. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in publicizing the faults and wicked deeds of others. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in treating with contempt the sun, the moon, and the stars—the Three Luminaries (sanguang). The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in insulting and slighting the divine spirits (shen) and ghostly deities.

The sixty offenses above are examined under the charge of the Wind-Blade Examiners in the various bureaus and departments belonging to the Three Officials (sanguan)—the Official of Heaven, the Official of Earth, and the Official of Water. The Three Officials are the Daoist divine order that governs the three realms of heaven, earth, and water; a “department” (cao) is an administrative office; and the Wind-Blade Examiners (fengdao kaoguan) are divine officers responsible for investigating and punishing offenses.

The twelve departments of the Left Bureau of the Left Palace of the Official of Heaven, the fourteen departments of the Left Bureau of the Left Palace of the Official of Earth, and the fourteen departments of the Left Bureau of the Left Palace of the Official of Water are responsible for examining the following offenses. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in being jealous of their fellow students. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in empty show and false ornament, and in speaking untruthfully. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in coveting profit, taking it as their own, and never knowing contentment. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in hoarding salary and precious goods without any thought of bringing them out for almsgiving. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in coveting the property of others and hoping to make it their own. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in wishing that others suffer harm and failure and that their family property be scattered. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in privately storing swords and weapons. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in slaughtering the six kinds of domestic animals, such as oxen and sheep. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in killing wild beasts and flying birds by stabbing, shooting, and similar means. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in burning mountain forests and hunting. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in setting fish traps and other fishing gear to catch fish. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in eating from vessels of gold and silver. The offense of seekers of learning and ordinary people in coveting high rank and salary and oppressing the people with tyrannical rule.

Those who cultivate the Dao (the Way), and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they burn and destroy things that have already manifested and are in the process of taking form.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they cast food into water.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they covet glory and official salary, yet govern with cruelty and harsh oppression.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they crave food of rich, heavy flavor—greasy, meaty, and pungent.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they crave the five pungent plants (five strongly scented vegetables from which Daoist precepts ordinarily require abstinence).

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they write carelessly, practice falsification, and depart from the original meaning.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they gather bands of ruffians from the wilds.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they scheme after another person’s wife or daughter.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they recklessly discuss the affairs of the state.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they plot to seize and appropriate another person’s goods and property.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they exchange coarse, inferior things for the good things of others.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they curry favor with the powerful and the noble—feudal lords, princes, and marquises—and keep company and dealings with them.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they speak recklessly of the weather, the seasons, and the movements of the stars.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they set fires that burn fields and mountain forests.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they fell trees or pick flowers and grasses.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they associate with wicked people and draw close to beings of another kind.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they consort with worldly people and chase after vanity and competitive display.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if, in the midst of a crowd, they eat by themselves and pay no heed to others who suffer hunger.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they conspire with worldly people to destroy another person’s marriage.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if, in the world, they indulge and lose themselves in song, dance, and music.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they praise people of the world to their faces and, in secret, slander those who are good.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they speak of the faults and evil deeds of elders or of those in higher station.

Those who cultivate the Dao, and ordinary people as well, incur a transgression if they disclose another person’s hidden misdeeds and private secrets.

Those who cultivate the Dao (the Way), and ordinary people as well, commit a transgression if they attack good people without cause or falsely charge them with crimes. To peer into another person’s letters and documents, or to pry into subtle and hidden matters, is a transgression.

To travel or converse alone with a woman is a transgression; for men and women to gather and associate without distinction is a transgression; and for men and women to eat at the same table or wear one another’s clothing indiscriminately is also a transgression. When men and women instruct one another yet lead people into improper conduct, this is a transgression. To regard oneself as exalted, and to be arrogant and unrestrained, is a transgression.

To use official business as a means of avenging a private grudge is a transgression; to break up a family is a transgression; and to induce abortion or harm a fetus is a transgression. To estrange oneself from clan and kin while drawing close to those of other surnames is a transgression; to cast poison into water and thereby harm living beings is a transgression.

To show partiality and conceal a disciple’s faults is a transgression; to assemble a crowd is a transgression; and to send letters that denounce and falsely accuse others is a transgression. To cling stubbornly to one’s own views and act willfully is a transgression; to arbitrarily establish taboos is a transgression; and to covet other people’s affairs and possessions is a transgression.

To discuss the strengths and shortcomings of teachers and friends is a transgression; to slight the Jing (scriptures) and proper instruction is a transgression. To despise the elderly or the sick is a transgression; to spurn those who beg is a transgression; and to rely on power and influence to oppress people is also a transgression.

Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who show partiality toward those close to them commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who cause parents and brothers to live apart from one another commit an offense.

The sixty offenses above are examined by the various departments of the Left Palace and Left Bureau under the Heavenly Official, the Earthly Official, and the Water Official respectively, together with the investigating officers of the Solar Fire Official. The various departments of the Right Palace and Right Bureau under the Heavenly Official, the Earthly Official, and the Water Official also take part in the examination.

Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who grow angry with disciples commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who rebuke the good commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who refuse to release living beings or to save and deliver those near death commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who, after attaining wealth and rank, forget their teachers commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who, on the Zhai days of the various heavens (days set aside in Daoism for the purification ritual, Zhaijiao, for cultivation and the veneration of the deities), do not keep the Great Dao in mind commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who grow angry with their teachers and elders commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who speak of wealth and rank while forgetting their teachers commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who, on the Zhai days of the various heavens, do not keep the Great Dao in mind commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who grow angry with their teachers and elders commit an offense.

Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who talk about the faults and evil deeds of others commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who mock others for sparse beards, or for poverty and low station, commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who urge others to do evil commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who prevent others from doing good commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who take pleasure in the faults of others commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people whose comings and goings, movements and pauses, all run counter to the correct Dao commit an offense.

Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who do not revere the Five Sacred Peaks (the five great mountains) and the Three Rivers commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who defile the Five Sacred Peaks and the Three Rivers commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who seize what others cherish commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who chase after worldly fashions and contend in the world for fame and profit commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who use the red and white occasions of the world (celebrations and condolences) to curry favor with the crowd commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who pass off the merits of others as their own De (Virtue/Power) commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who comment on others’ preferences in food and drink commit an offense. Those who study the Dao and ordinary people who use the calamities and hardships of the common people to frighten them commit an offense. Those who study the Dao who act for the sake of their own De commit an offense.

The offenses incurred by those who pursue learning and by ordinary people through being fastidious about food and drink and through their likes and dislikes; through causing the common people to feel alarm and dread at calamity and hardship; through driving away birds and beasts and forcing them into places of distress; through frightening the elderly and children; through slighting and bullying officials and those who oversee affairs; through discussing the rights and wrongs of the world; through recklessly talking of the rise and decline of the state; through bestowing favor and then becoming stingy and regretful; through indulging in amusement without restraint; through climbing to a high place so as to oppress and deceive those below; through using cages and nets to seize birds and beasts; through gloating and feeling glad at heart upon seeing others meet with bereavement or misfortune; and through obstructing travelers with thorns.

The offenses incurred by those who pursue learning and by ordinary people through worshipping gods and ghosts; through failing to revere Heaven and Earth, the sun and moon, and the other Three Luminaries; through scolding and reviling wind and rain; through borrowing things or money and failing to return them; through deceiving others and falsely claiming a fine name; through treating the Three Treasures—Dao (the Way), Jing (scripture), and the master—with arrogance, and through slighting and neglecting the Celestial Worthy; through plotting to harm the ruler, one’s superiors, and one’s teacher; through urging people not to show filial respect toward parents and brothers; through fabricating an identity, claiming to be set apart from others, and falsely calling oneself a Perfected Person (Zhenren, a practitioner who has attained the Dao); through believing in heterodox ways, confused and deviant teachings, and erroneous views; and through falsely claiming to pursue learning without the guidance of a scriptural master, thereby deceiving the spirits and the people of the world.

Those who study the methods of the Dao (the Way), together with ordinary people, commit offenses if they claim to be studying without ever having received transmission from a master of the Jing (scripture/classic), and thereby deceive the gods and spirits; if they have clothing and property to spare yet give nothing to the poor; if they privately copy the scriptural precepts and then, treating them with irreverence, leak and make them public; if they adorn garments of coarse cloth with excessive splendor; if their bodies are unclean yet they ascend the high seat for expounding the scriptures and transmitting the precepts; if within the master’s gate they are filthy, breach propriety, and show no respect; if, when the master meets with grief and distress, they hold no purification rite and offer no prayers; if they forget the master and pursue worldly fame; if, seeing the master become eminent and wealthy, they seek to attach themselves, hoping that they too may enjoy glory and abundance; if, when the master falls ill or suffers calamity, they neither tend to nor visit him; if, encountering disaster far away, they hasten to avoid it and seek only their own ease; if, when entering or leaving the gate of the Dao, they do not close the door behind them; if they bring others into the gate of the Dao to converse without authorization; if, when they set up a purification rite and make petition, they do not entreat the Three Officials—the Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water—to transfer offenses and accumulate merit; if they worry only over their own household and give no thought to the calamities of others; if, when someone in the family dies or falls ill, they resent the methods of the Dao and blame the master; if, having received scriptures and methods of the Dao transmitted by the master, they claim these as attainments they themselves have already cultivated; if, when transmitting the master’s methods of the Dao, they do not, as the rules require, fold a slip, send a message, and swear an oath of covenant; and if, on the Eight Nodes—the eight festivals that Daoism holds in special regard—they do not invoke the titles of the Five Emperors. All these acts are classed as offenses.

The sixty offenses above are subject to the examination of the twelve bureaus of the Right Palace and Right Bureau of the Heavenly Official, the fourteen bureaus of the Right Palace and Right Bureau of the Earthly Official, the fourteen bureaus of the Right Palace and Right Bureau of the Water Official, and the examining officers of the Great Yin Water Official.

The Graded Precepts of the Three Primordials (Sanyuan pinjie) are divided into three sections, each with sixty articles, making one hundred eighty precepts in all. Every precept is examined by officials who oversee such matters as Yin-Yang, left and right, water and fire, and wind and blade.

The fifteenth day of the first month is the day on which the Upper Primordial examines the precepts; the fifteenth day of the seventh month is the day on which the Middle Primordial examines the precepts; and the fifteenth day of the tenth month is the day on which the Lower Primordial examines the precepts. On these three days of the year, the spirits of the earth, the Five Emperors, the immortals of the Five Sacred Mountains and numinous peaks, the divine officials of the Three Realms, and the officers of the various Water Bureaus who administer punishments all take part in the inspection. Nothing within their jurisdiction, whether deep or shallow, near or far, large or small, is overlooked.

At that time the host of spirits proceeds together to the Palace of the Three Primordials in the Mysterious Capital of the Upper Three Heavens (the palace in the celestial realm that oversees the affairs of the Three Primordials). They bring the name registers of those in heaven and in the human world who have attained the Dao (the Way) and those who have not, together with the records of the blessings and fortunes of all living beings and the ledgers of the people’s births and deaths, causal connections, and the roots of former lives, and they report to the celestial court how heavy or light each person’s merits and faults are.

On this day the Limitless Heavenly Worthy, the Great Saints of the Ten Directions, the Emperors of the Thirty-Two Heavens, the Divine Kings Who Fly through the Heavens, the Lofty Supreme Great Gods of the Jade Void and Utmost Perfection, the Most High Lord Lao of the Limitless Great Dao, the various Lords and Elders, the Five Elder Imperial Lords, the Southern and Northern Poles, the Eastern and Western Hua, the True Mother of the Nine Numina, the Primordial Lady of the Upper South, the Jade Maidens of Great Harmony, and the rest of the holy assembly all come to the Palace of the Three Primordials. After the saints have gathered, the flying immortals, divine immortals, Perfected, and jade maidens of the various heavens, together with the deities who govern life and the registers—those of longevity, the Directors of Destiny, the Directors of Records, and the Directors of Death—and the gods of the Southern Dipper, the Northern Dipper, the sun, the moon, and the stars, all arrive as well.

The Three Officials, the Nine Bureaus, and the one hundred twenty departments of the left, right, and central palaces of the Three Primordials, together with the officials who oversee Yin-Yang, left and right, water and fire, and the penal examinations of wind and blade, tally the ledgers of life and death in heaven and in the human world and check them against one another. Those who do good and accumulate merit have their names entered in the Azure Register; those whose offenses are grave have their names entered in the Black Register. Every quarter reports merits and faults, good and evil, to the Three Officials, and the records are minute and exact, without the slightest discrepancy.

On this day, if one can follow the Method of Confessing Faults of the Three Primordials (the rite, performed on the days of the Three Primordials, of stating one’s faults before the deities and repenting them), observe a pure fast, burn incense, and conduct oneself according to the Mysterious Regulations (the norms of Daoist ritual), and persist for one hundred days, the earth deities will dispatch spirits to guard one’s household. If one persists for eight years, one will receive the recommendation of the Three Officials, one’s name will be entered in the Azure Register, and in the end one may hope to become a superior immortal, without losing the opportunity to cultivate the Dao and attain immortality.

The Daojun (Lord of the Dao), one of the revered deities of Daoism, paid respects to the Tianzun (Celestial Worthy) and sought instruction: How, precisely, are the relative weight of merit, and the ranks and order of precedence in the deliverance of departed souls, to be arranged? When a previous generation—ancestors or a past life—has incurred grave offenses, are these borne by that person alone, or do they extend to descendants? When a person commits evil, does that person alone receive retribution, or are the previously deceased also implicated?

Among the common people now seen, men and women alike suffer bitterly while alive, beset by every kind of pain and unable to free themselves. One also sees the forms and souls of the dead, sorrowful and distressed, drifting through the three paths and five sufferings—the places of torment and the punishments of the netherworld—passing through realms of cold and darkness and through bitter punishments like blades of wind, unable to gain release even after tens of millions of kalpas.

Some scriptures say that if evil was done in a previous life, calamity will flow down to descendants; some say that if a person’s offenses are grave, they will implicate the previously deceased; and others say that good and evil each have their corresponding causes and conditions, and that the guilt and blessings of life and death each have roots fixed by destiny. If retribution in every case returns to the person alone, there should no longer be any talk of implicating the previously deceased or one’s descendants. The scriptures further say that without merit to rescue and deliver them, the souls of previous generations who suffer condemnation and punishment have no way to be released, and that only after merit has been established do the circumstances of the living and the dead turn for the better. Yet if good and evil each have their own causes and conditions, then after death the evildoer will sink for a long time into darkness and pass through myriad kalpas—how, then, can merit be established again so as to uproot the retribution of offenses and redeem oneself? And if descendants establish merit in order to deliver the deceased, how does this differ from the claim that a person’s karmic offenses implicate the previously deceased?

My understanding is shallow, and I truly cannot comprehend this. Since the Tianzun has opened the method of pardon and salvation, making the principles of life and death clear, the distinction between the netherworld and the human world ought to be explained thoroughly, so that the ignorant are not left confused by these two accounts. I have been raised up and appointed to the office of general overseer; I ought to proclaim the orthodox teaching, instruct later generations, cause the sound of the teaching to spread throughout the heavens and not cease for a hundred million kalpas, allow the methods of Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) to endure, bring blessing and protection to both the living and the dead, and manifest the Tianzun’s grace of pardon and salvation. For this reason I specially present this memorial and beg the Tianzun to look down with compassion.

The Celestial Worthy (Tianzun) answered with delight: “Well asked, well asked! What you ask concerns profound principles. Although you understand Lingxu (the grotto-heaven where immortals and perfected beings dwell), you have not yet exhausted its hidden source; although you have read of Dayou (the immortal realm, or the scriptures, spoken of in Daoist texts), you still find it hard to grasp Longhan (the remote ancient kalpa spoken of in Daoism). The transformations of Qi (vital energy) have no end, and the kalpas are likewise hard to exhaust: there are times of dying and being born again, and of darkness turning to light.

Heaven and Earth revolve like a chariot wheel; the birth and passing of human beings follow as a shadow follows form, and so they are hard to speak of to the end. The various breaths succeed one another without cease, forming the causes and conditions of every kind of life; good and evil, calamity and blessing, each have their own root. These are not decided by Heaven, Earth, or other people alone; the crux lies in one’s own mind. The mind is Shen (spirit), and the bodily form is not an eternal self.

The life I have received comes from emptiness and spontaneous suchness; causes and conditions lodge it in the womb, and through transformation I am born. The parents who bore me are not my original parents; the true root-parents are not here. The parents of this present life are profound in kindness and love, and honored beyond compare. They are the place where my causes and conditions are entrusted, and they have given me the grace of nurture, so I should repay them with ritual propriety and call them father and mother.

The bodily form I have received is likewise not a form that belongs to me forever. It is like a house in which I lodge for a time; relying on it, a body is fashioned, so that I appear between the formed and the formless. Therefore, one who has attained the Dao (the Way) is no longer bound by bodily form. When one reaches the state of having no body, what is there left to worry about? The reason a person has worries is precisely that there is this body.

Once there is a body, every kind of worry arises with it; without a body, one returns to spontaneous suchness. Cultivate practice and establish De (Virtue/Power), and accord with the Great Dao, and body and Shen become one. When body and spirit are united, one becomes a true body, returns to the original source, and in the end attains the Dao, no longer subject to worry and not destined at last for death. Even if the bodily form undergoes miedu (deliverance beyond birth and death), Shen still goes forth; the form does not turn to ashes. A life will in the end return to its root, and body and Shen are not separated.

If the body commits many evil deeds and dies after suffering the full retribution of its offenses, only this is called “death.” After death the bodily form is destroyed and returns to the parents through whom one was lodged and born; if the causes and conditions of sinful karma are not yet settled, one cannot return to the true root-parents. Shen is drawn along and put to service, and the bodily form turns to dust; the dust scatters and transforms, becoming again “shuang” (the numinous quality formed after the hun and po souls disperse). When the hun-spirit is released and joins with the shuang, hun and shuang transform and fuse into one, and one can receive birth again and become a human being once more. Form and Shen follow one another and from first to last are not separated.

From this it can be seen that the retribution of good and evil is borne by each person himself; how could one blame forebears or later descendants? From before Longhan down to Chiming (a kalpic age spoken of in Daoism), the older texts record that the retribution of life and death returns to the individual alone: it does not reach upward to implicate ancestors, nor downward to affect descendants; offense and blessing are borne by the person himself. From after Chiming down to Shanghuang (the name of an ancient kalpa), human hearts grew corrupt; men and women lost their purity, and envied, contended with, and harmed one another. When the heart could not keep itself, people dragged in grandfathers and descendants to serve as witnesses in the swearing of oaths, reporting them to the gods, yet did not believe their own words and forsook their vows. Thereupon the Three Officials (Sanguan, the Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water spoken of in Daoism) registered the offenses and, after death, confined people in the offices of ghosts, both wrongly harming the previously deceased and implicating descendants, so that calamity spread through an entire clan, great and small entangled with one another, unable for a long time to be released. This is a great disaster that those who do evil bring upon themselves. The law of the Jing (scripture/classic) has already made clear that such conduct can in no way accord with the correct Dao. Persons of penetrating understanding who accumulate good deeds should begin with themselves, and not shift the responsibility onto others. Could the ancient texts that set forth the truth be empty words?”

The Celestial Worthy (Tianzun) once again told the Most High Lord of the Dao (Taishang Daojun): “The Dao (the Way) of great compassion places the salvation of all people first. Without meritorious service, one should not receive reward; without De (Virtue/Power), one cannot be raised; without faith, one cannot obtain salvation; and without cultivation, one cannot become an immortal.

Merit may be established for Heaven and Earth, the sun, moon, and stars, emperors, the common people, ancestors, the family, and all living beings, and it may also be established for oneself. As the Jing (scripture/classic) says: if one wishes to save oneself, one ought first to save others. So long as the multitude has not yet been saved, one can never ultimately be saved oneself. Compassion is vast and profound, and its grace is inexhaustible; even the gods of Heaven and the people of the world look up to it—how much more so one’s ancestors of seven generations and one’s own parents?

Sin and blessing cannot cancel one another; as for merit, there is the kindness of karmic connection and reciprocal recompense. If a person sincerely reproaches himself, Heaven will turn and save him; the response born of wholehearted sincerity can cause humans and spirits together to open the gate of salvation. How much more, then, those who once lodged in the womb and received Qi (vital energy), and who were raised to adulthood by their parents, having received such deep kindness—how can they fail to accumulate abundant merit, open for one another the path of salvation, and relieve the departed souls in the unseen realm?

From Longhan (the name of a kalpa-cycle) to Chiming (the name of another kalpa-cycle), those who have attained the Dao, and those who in the present life enjoy blessed recompense, whose households stand in honor, and who in the next life meet with good conditions, have all done so only because they accumulated merit, moved the various heavens, and thus received a corresponding reward. Those who dwell in the Jiuyou (the depths of the unseen realm) and the long night, bearing the guilt of former lives yet gaining release, have likewise redeemed their sins through merit and received salvation, and only thus have been able to return to the human world. Heavenly offices such as the Vermilion Palace of Nanling and the Jiudu all record these persons’ names; the principle of karmic retribution admits not the slightest discrepancy, and as the months and years pass it appears with complete clarity.”

The Lord of the Dao bowed and said: “Now that I have heard the Celestial Worthy set forth karmic conditions, grievances and adversaries, and the recompense of merit, the doubts in my heart have suddenly dispersed; within, I am joyful and at ease, and there is no longer any obstruction. I ought diligently to practice and proclaim the Great Dao, so that the people, men and women alike, throughout the various heavens and the boundless worlds may follow and carry it out, and so that everyone may understand these principles.”

The Supreme Lord of the Dao (Taishang Daojun) addressed the Celestial Worthy (Tianzun), saying: “You have already given instruction and teaching, so that the doubts of all have been resolved. I still do not understand how the various kinds of merit ought to be ranked in order. Reciting and comprehending the words of the Mingzhen Ke (Code of Illuminating the Perfected) and the Wisdom of the Highest Grade (Zhihui Shangpin) can uproot the roots of transgression. Does merit end there, or are there still other methods? For example, sincerely vowing to redeem one’s transgressions, teaching the young and the unenlightened, establishing quiet lodges (places where cultivators may still the mind and practice), making offerings to the Master Treasure (Shibao—the revered teacher, the Dao (the Way) and its methods, and the like), distributing fragrant oil and lighting lamps at night, constantly harboring good intentions and rescuing living beings, loving one’s kin and fulfilling loyalty and filial devotion, relieving the poor, and even feeding crows with food without the least stinginess. Do these merits differ in weight, or are they entirely the same? How, then, should their relative high and low, honored and humble standing be distinguished? I earnestly request your guidance.”

The Celestial Worthy said: Whenever merit is performed, whether the deed is great or small and whether one’s standing is high or low, the merit itself is the same; the weight of the retribution received depends on the person’s intention. If one can devote oneself wholly to doing good, persevere without cease, and not turn back even through hardship, such merit is hard to measure, and the De (Virtue/Power) is hard to exhaust in words. If there is sincerity yet one cannot practice it with single-minded dedication, at most one can only be spared from offense. If the heart has no sincerity and one merely does good in a superficial way, then even if something is given, it is hard to gain anything.

Wealthy families cherish their possessions and are unwilling to distribute wealth in relief or to eradicate the roots of transgression. They pursue the Dao (the Way) only in the heart, hoping to obtain a great reward of blessing; in the end this is vain and of no benefit. The Heavenly Dao does not sternly demand that a person must produce material goods, nor does it compel anyone to perform merit. Rather, it looks to see whether a person is stingy and tests the truth of the heart. If one has wealth yet will not give it, what else can one seek? If the poor can arouse a firm resolve and a clear will, diligently serve the teacher’s lineage, and not fear toil, the Dao has long since perceived them; the merit of such people can move all the heavens to respond. Thus the giving of wealth and the offering of sincere intention correspond to one another, and the merit of the two is equal.

What the ancients sought was the inner heart; what people of the latter age seek is material wealth. The ancients cultivated the Dao by the heart and thereby became immortals, whereas people of the latter age often hold that without wealth one cannot attain deliverance. This is because the latter age values money and goods but does not value the Dao. Even if ten thousand catties of gold and a single immortal Jing (scripture/classic) were placed in barren mountains for people to give in charity, the merit of the two would be equal; yet people of the latter age, it is to be feared, would covet the gold and would not covet the immortal Jing. Gold may instead invite misfortune, while the immortal Jing may prolong life. One ought to understand this principle, yet still cannot free oneself from stinginess and greed—how can one be said to have truly realized the Dao? This is the meaning of the saying that “the Dao cannot broaden the person.”

The Mingzhen ritual codes (Daoist precepts and methods of cultivation) and the Supreme Grade of Wisdom can uproot the roots of transgression and deliver beings beyond birth and death, and the rules they contain are of the greatest importance. As for those who cultivate the Dao, if they have not yet entered meditative concentration and still dwell amid the clamor of the dusty world, how could they be wholly without fault? In daily conduct and in all that they do, good and evil, blessing and offense, often stand side by side. Therefore the Three Officials, the Nine Bureaus, and the One Hundred and Twenty Departments (the divine offices that oversee human good and evil, merit and fault), together with such divine posts as the examining officials of left and right, of Yin-Yang, and of water and fire, all record a person’s gains and losses. Those who do good and establish merit are registered in the Left Palace; those who do evil are registered in the Right Palace. Their merits and faults are examined and pressed according to the length and the nearness or distance of years, months, and days. The weight of merit differs, and retribution arrives at its proper time like tides gathering together, without the least error.

What is said here concerns only the differences in the weight of retribution and in whether it comes early or late. This method is now specially made known and must be diligently proclaimed, so that good men and women of future ages may know that between heaven and earth there truly are resonant responses that arrive unbidden. These are true words.

The Method of Confessing Offenses of the Three Primes (the ritual for repenting offenses at the seasonal observances of the Three Primes) is now entrusted to you. It is an ancient Jing of the supreme Dao of the Primordial Beginning, kept secret in the Palace of the Three Primes. It is transmitted and put into practice only once in ten thousand kalpas, and it has never been passed on to later ages. If someone is able to see its chapter titles, this shows that good roots from former lives will cause the roots of transgression to be pulled out and the bonds to be released. It should be treasured and carried out, and great blessing will surely be drawn near. If it is rashly divulged, disaster will come, even bringing ruin upon the whole clan. These words have been spoken to the full in all sincerity; the ritual codes must be guarded with care.

The Lord of the Dao rejoiced and bowed his head in homage. At that time all the heavens together acclaimed it as good and bowed their heads in compliance.

Here ends the Scripture (Jing) of the Upper Dongxuan Lingbao on the Graded Precepts of the Three Primes and the Relative Weight of Merit.

The annotation states that the character “宜” was originally miswritten as “宣” and has been corrected on the basis of Dunhuang manuscript S.6659.