《太上妙始经》

The Most High Lord Lao said: The Dao (the Way) arises from within the formless, having neither name, sound, color, nor flavor. It is bland, empty, and still, taking emptiness and non-being as its root, arising in accordance with nature, with the clear, subtle, and mysterious primordial Qi (vital energy) as its origin, and possessing inexhaustible functions. It has neither exterior nor interior, nor above and below, front and back; still and perfectly unified as one, it exists prior to Heaven and Earth. Its mystery is vast and profound, pervading without bound, and cannot be explained by any name; therefore it is provisionally given the designation “Dao.”

When the Dao condenses it becomes primordial Qi; when it disperses it forms Heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth come together once every three thousand six hundred billion years. When the numerical principles of the movements of Heaven and Earth reach the stages of three, five, seven, and nine, their allotted lifespan comes to an end. When the lifespan of Heaven and Earth is exhausted, yang Jing (essence) transforms into fire and yin Jing into water. First fire burns, reaching up to the Six Heavens and down to the Nine Earths; then water washes everything level, mixing all things into one. After another three thousand six hundred billion years, Heaven and Earth open anew, and primordial Qi differentiates once more: the clear and light becomes Heaven, the turbid and heavy becomes Earth. The color of Heaven is dark-cyan, clear and bright; the substance of Earth is thick, heavy, and yellow. The Jing-Qi of the Greater Yang transforms into the sun; the Jing-Qi of the Greater Yin transforms into the moon. The Jing-Qi of the sun and moon further differentiate into the stars and the twenty-eight lunar lodges. In Heaven there are the four seasons, the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), the Six Jia, and the twelve double-hours.

After the Qi of Heaven and Earth intermingle, humans, birds and beasts, plants and trees, clams and mollusks, and all kinds of wriggling creatures appear in succession. Subsequently the Five Sacred Peaks, the Four Great Rivers, and thirty-six famous mountains arise, and from these clouds and rain are formed. The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors govern the world, and the common people multiply and flourish. Primordial Qi thus condenses and disperses, cycling again and again without end. From the beginning until now, thousands of millions of years have already elapsed, and the number of times Heaven and Earth have opened and closed cannot be calculated. When Heaven and Earth finally come to an end, the forms of all things return to emptiness. Only True Persons and Daoist adepts, relying on immeasurable merit and virtue, are able to undergo a thousand transformations and change their forms, dwelling above the Mysterious Primordial of the Nine Heavens, and thus can thoroughly investigate the thousands of millions of transformations undergone by Heaven and Earth. This is precisely the functioning of the Limitless Qi.

At that time, only spiritual deities and primordial Qi existed. Primordial Qi takes the Dao as prior, so nothing under Heaven is greater than the Dao. Heaven, Earth, the four directions, above and below have an outer form like an egg, or like a cartwheel; primordial Qi encircles it, like a solar halo, formed by the diffusion of primordial Jing. The central region of Heaven and Earth measures eighteen thousand li on each of its four sides. The mountains here are composed of gold, lapis lazuli, crystal, and other precious treasures; palaces, plants, trees, birds, and beasts all appear in the forms of the Seven Treasures. Upon the mountain is the dwelling and governing place of the Heavenly Emperor, who oversees the records of the thirty-six thousand deities under Heaven.

After death, all things return to Mount Kunlun. Upon Mount Kunlun there are also the Nine Heavens. “Nine Heavens” is only a general term; in reality there are tens of millions of layers of heaven. They are roughly divided into nine because nine is the limit of numbers. The palaces of each heaven hang suspended in the void. The people of the heavenly realms have empty and numinous bodies, are able to fly, possess keen sight and hearing, and can transform and ascend into the realm of the Three Heavens. The Three Heavens are the supreme and unsurpassed realm of the perfectly true Dao; only those of the highest merit and virtue can be born there. The heavens below are inhabited in layers according to the amount of merit and virtue.

Below Mount Kunlun there are the Nine Earths. Beneath the earth there is a layer of water, and beneath the water there is wind; wind, water, and earth each have nine layers, supporting one another. Earthquakes that occur nowadays are caused by the shaking of wind and water. If a ruler possesses great merit and virtue, or if there are grievances and tragic injustices in the world, Heaven and Earth will also tremble, and ghosts and spirits will respond. Beneath the Nine Earths there are multiple layers of ghostly official bureaus and hells; there are also prisons within the Nine Heavens. Above the Nine Heavens is the dwelling place of immortals and sages; below the Nine Heavens is where ghosts and spirits dwell, under the jurisdiction of heterodox officials and false authorities. In each place there are rulers who manage and register one another, without the slightest discrepancy.

The Gate of Heaven is in the northwest, the Door of Earth in the southeast; the two face each other. The east is called Jun Tian, with eighty-one countries, each eighty-one thousand li in length and breadth. South of the mountain is called Yan Tian, with sixty-four countries, each sixty-four thousand li square. West of the mountain is called Su Tian, with forty-nine countries, each forty-nine thousand li square. North of the mountain is called Xuan Tian, with twenty-five countries, each twenty-five thousand li square. The lands inhabited by the people of these four directional heavenly realms each differ, and each has its own sun, moon, stars, Five Sacred Peaks, Four Great Rivers, and thirty-six mountains. The circumstances of those born in the remaining three heavens also each differ, relating to the sins and blessings people have created. These matters are not recorded in ancient books.

From ancient times to the present, the sages born of Heaven have not allowed people to write these matters down; what is spoken of here refers precisely to our own land. Here, people have distinctions of ruler and subject, father and son, high and low, as well as good and evil. The common people must farm, weave, bear taxes and corvée labor, and suffer hunger and thirst, illness, official control, and the sufferings of birth and death. If a person while alive can observe the precepts of the Daoist teaching, then within seven days after death they can be born into the blessed dwellings of the various heavens, dwelling securely in the Qi of the Dao, no longer subject to punishment. The blessings will also extend to descendants and can help dissolve the accumulated sinful karma of seven generations. If they are reborn in the human world, they will certainly become the descendants of a wealthy and noble family.

If a person while alive has only evil deeds and no good ones, after death they will descend into hell, where the hun and po souls are interrogated and punished, enduring all kinds of suffering, and must repay their offenses through hardship. If reborn as a human, they will certainly be born into a poor, lowly, and ignorant family. Beyond the four sides of Kunlun there is the Iron Encircling Mountain; beyond the mountain is a place unilluminated by sun or moon, called the Eight Dark Realms. That is the seat of the Lord of Mount Tai (the deity in charge of the souls of the dead and the affairs of the netherworld), who oversees the various hells. After death, people return there; first their good and evil, merits and faults are examined, then they are assigned to different hells. In the hells there are punishments of boiling cauldrons, revolving wheels, copper pillars, iron awls, knives and swords, and the suffering is inexhaustible to describe.

Beyond the Nine Heavens, Nine Earths, and the four sides of Kunlun, the extent of Heaven, Earth, the four directions, above and below comes to an end. Further outward there is only the empty realm encircled by primordial Qi, which even sages and worthies cannot discern. Earth’s Qi belongs to yellow; yellow governs the center, so Mount Kunlun is like the axle of a cartwheel, supporting Heaven, Earth, and the four directions.

Nowadays the sun and moon rise from Tang Valley, in which there is a tree called Fusang. When the sun rises, it ascends the Fusang tree and then travels through mid-air; in the evening it sets into Mengfan. Both Mengfan and Tang Valley are names of waters that communicate with the first layer of water beneath the earth. Therefore Earth and the sun and moon seem to move together; the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the length of day and night, the waxing and waning, and the laws of celestial movement all arise from this. The principles of the birth, death, and transformation of Heaven and Earth are all contained therein. Within Heaven, Earth, the four directions, above and below, all things are born and die, cycling back and forth.

I admonish you: if you wish to escape the sorrows brought by the Three Officials (the divine bureaus in charge of Heaven, Earth, and Water), you should observe the precepts of the Daoist teaching, constantly maintaining reverence for teachers and elders and faith in the Dao. The Dao does not deceive people. The Dao is constantly in the human world, saving and delivering sentient beings generation after generation. The Dao sometimes transforms into emperors and kings, low-ranking officials, commoners, people in distress, beggars, birds and beasts, aged things, or stars, so people cannot recognize it.

If you worthies can do good and not evil, and accumulate sufficient merit and virtue, you may even ascend to Heaven in broad daylight. Even if you become a Corpse-Liberation Immortal (one who attains immortality by leaving behind the physical form or through a substitution), you cannot thereby be exempt from the end of your allotted lifespan; after the lifespan ends you must still return to death. A person’s allotted destiny is predetermined; one should not resent the Dao.

The people of the heavenly realms are about one zhang three chi in height; human bodies usually do not exceed eight chi, and ghostly bodies usually do not exceed five chi. Humans correspond to Heaven and Earth; within the body there are thirty-six thousand spirits (Shen), eighteen thousand official bureaus, and three hundred sixty offices, so one is born after ten months of gestation, which also takes the numerical principle of the ten directions of Heaven and Earth. A person’s face corresponds to the Five Sacred Peaks and Four Great Rivers, and also possesses the Bagua (Eight Trigrams), the Five Phases, the Six Jia, the twelve earthly branches, and the Four Images. The Four Images refer to wind, water, fire, and earth; only when these four Qi combine can a person be formed.

A person must come from the Yin-Yang union of father and mother, with all the spirits complete, before a fetus can be formed. The fetus in the placenta is as if wrapped in a net; before the net has fallen away, it still remembers its past origins. Upon birth it cries, enters the human path, and forgets all these memories. The movement of a person’s blood vessels and the warmth of flesh and bone are all the result of the Four Images. At death, when breath ceases, it is the wind Qi departing; when the body grows cold, it is the fire Qi departing; when blood congeals, it is the water Qi stopping; when the body stiffens, it is the earth Qi remaining. The six domestic animals are also affected by Yin-Yang and the Five Phases, only they cannot fully comprehend the principles, and so are regarded as lowly. While a person lives, harmonious Qi gathers the form; at death, vigorous wind Qi causes the form to dissolve—this is birth and death.

The law of the Dao accords with nature. Therefore the good and evil a person practices while alive naturally attract corresponding sin and blessing, like a shadow following the form or an echo answering a sound. You should seek the true Dao and hold to a single mind, and only then can you encounter the Great Dao. The methods of the Dao are pure, correct, and solemn, and must not be transmitted casually. The Dao is constantly among humans and has never departed for even a moment; it is only that people do not know it. On the first, fifteenth, and last days of each month, the Heavenly Emperor sends the messengers of the Six Departments of the Capital Recorders to patrol the world and record people’s good and evil—how can one not be cautious?

Laozi said: Since the opening of heaven and earth, the Jing (scriptures) I have expounded number in the millions of volumes. Some are stored in the Lantai, Yuhan, and Shishi, kept secret and never revealed to the world. Among these Jing, some record the retribution of good and evil for those who inspect the world and manage documents. How can one not treat this with caution? How can one not treat this with caution?

Laozi further said: Since the opening of heaven and earth, the Jing I have spoken number in the millions of volumes, some of which are hidden in the Lantai, Yuhan, and Shishi, not shown to people and too numerous to calculate. When King You of Zhou reigned and the world declined into chaos, I came to Hangu Pass and transmitted the arts of the Dao (the Way) to the Pass Commander Yin Xi. After Yin Xi attained the Dao and became a Zhenren, I led him westward into the lands of the Hu.

We first arrived at Jushan in the Jibin region to cultivate the Dao. There I was burned by the king, yet I did not regard it as suffering. The Dao manifested a body of emptiness, with sunlight upon the neck, the body as firm as vajra, endowed with seventy-two marks of appearance and eighty-one excellent forms. The king believed and accepted my methods of the Dao. I also composed forty thousand characters of Jing for the Hu people, titled the Prajnaparamita and the Daode Five Thousand Words in thirty chapters.

Later Yin Xi and I came to the kingdom of Shewei. On the eighth day of the fourth month I transformed and was born as the crown prince of that country; at the age of fifteen I left the kingdom to seek the Dao, and after attaining it I became Shakyamuni Buddha. “Fo” is a Hu word; in Chinese it is called “Xian.” The Pass Commander Yin Xi changed his name to Ananda. The one thousand two hundred fifty shramana disciples who studied under him were called Pusa. “Pusa” is a designation of the Hu lands, equivalent to what we now call daomin.

After converting the people of the Hu lands, on the fifteenth day of the fifth month I departed by shijie (the Daoist means of leaving the physical form to become an immortal), lodging in the Niwan. Niwan is Wuwei (non-action). The Dao has no fixed name or form; sometimes it is called Shakyamuni Buddha, sometimes Vimalakirti, sometimes a Chakravartin King. In this manner it differentiates bodies, circulates and transforms Qi (vital energy), continuously instructing the world in various appearances, with diverse transformations. Therefore those who understand the teaching imitate these images, constructing stupas and making clay sculptures and painted wooden statues.

After I returned to Hanzhong I was titled Taishang. The Great Dao is Wuwei; “Taishang” means there is nothing higher. “Laojun” means I was born prior to heaven and earth, possessing the Qi of Wuji, hence called “Lao.” The methods of the Dao esteem Wuwei, love life and abhor killing, taking compassion as the root. Worldly people do not comprehend this, instead killing living beings to seek longevity, abandoning the Dao of Wuwei and turning to Youwei, thus epidemics spread, diseases increase, and the world cannot promptly attain peace.

I shall proclaim the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Mengwei Dao, to command the thirty-six thousand spirits within the eight directions and four seas, as well as the hosts of immortals, troops, officers, soldiers, the Six Ding and Eight Historians, and so forth, to awe evil influences and subdue ghosts and demons, causing them all to return to the Zhenyi. Thus heaven and earth will have no more evil influences, monsters, or hosts of demons, and all disasters will cease.

The teaching of the Dao takes transmission from master to disciple as primary. Therefore I transmitted the Zhengyi methods to Zhang Zhennan, commanding his descendants to uphold the Jing and teachings generation after generation, to instruct the common people, and to arrange male and female Daoists to teach and lead the populace. When heaven and earth undergo transformation, the Dao should also verify and administer the registers, enabling people to assist and save one another.

Worthy ones, please listen attentively: Jing and precepts are the root of the Dao. The Three Caverns (Dongzhen/Dongxuan/Dongshen) Jing, precepts, and Keyi (liturgy) regulations are numerous; I fear worldly people cannot fully possess them, so I transmitted the Mengwei Zhengfa to save ordinary people. Now I deliver all of this to you together; you must cautiously observe and practice it.