《陆先生道门科略》

The Great Dao is originally empty, still, and silent, without any fixed form or appearance. The highest sages, wishing to make the Great Dao manifest, therefore rely on words and teachings to convey it.

Taishang Laojun observed that the world of high antiquity was gradually declining: the honest and substantial customs had become diluted, the way of simplicity was gradually being lost, and the governing order of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors had already vanished. As a result, the human realm and the ghostly realm mixed together in disorder. The old qi of the Six Heavens (ghosts and spirits transformed from former evil qi) falsely claimed official ranks and usurped honorific titles, gathering a hundred kinds of spirits and monsters as well as the ghosts of the Five Injuries (ghosts that cause harm).

Generals who died in defeated armies and soldiers who perished amid chaotic troops are, after death, called “generals” and “ladies.” Followed by ghost soldiers, their armies march and encamp, wandering throughout heaven and earth, arbitrarily exercising power and bestowing blessings. They demand temples and sacrificial offerings from people, disturbing the common folk. People slaughter the three sacrificial animals—oxen, sheep, and pigs—spending thousands upon thousands and exhausting their family fortunes, yet receive no protection and instead suffer calamities; the number of those who die unjustly and violently is countless.

The Most High (Taishang, an honorific for the supreme deity in Daoism) was concerned about this situation and therefore transmitted to the Celestial Master (Tianshi) the Way of Orthodox Unity and Covenanted Authority (Zhengyi Mengwei Dao, the teaching of early Celestial Master Daoism). He established prohibitions, statutes, and regulations to examine and reveal to the people what constitutes compliance and transgression, fortune and misfortune, merit and fault, so that they would understand what to love and what to detest. He established the twenty-four parishes (zhi) and thirty-six hermitages (jinglu) (the administrative districts and cultivation sites of Celestial Master Daoism), appointed 2,400 inner and outer Daoists, and issued ten thousand copies of the Thousand Two Hundred Official Memorials (documents for submitting petitions to heavenly officials). Using Fulu (talismans and registers) to exterminate evil ghosts and suppress illicit shrines, he caused the ghosts to recede so that the people could survive, cleansing heaven and earth and rectifying the Three and Five (the cosmic order of heaven, earth, humans, and so forth). Thus pervading heaven and earth, there should no longer be any illicit or evil ghosts.

All manner of taboos and superstitions ought to be abolished, and the people governed by a simple and clear system. The gods do not rely on food offerings, nor do the masters collect money. The people should cultivate the virtues of kindness and filial piety at home and practice respect and humility outside, assisting the current government, managing education, helping to stabilize the country and support the people’s livelihood. Only the Son of Heaven may sacrifice to Heaven, the Three Dukes may sacrifice to the Five Sacred Peaks, and the feudal lords may sacrifice to mountains and rivers. The common people should sacrifice to their ancestors only on the five auspicious La days and sacrifice to the earth god and stove god on the She days of the second and eighth months. Apart from this, no other sacrifices are permitted. Failure to sacrifice to ancestors on the five La days, or to the earth and stove gods on the spring and autumn She days, constitutes illicit sacrifice.

If the sick cannot endure herbal decoctions or acupuncture, they need only ingest talismans and drink water. All sins committed since birth, even those that according to law should be punished by death, are pardoned. Those who have been ill for a long time or whose illness is severe can all preserve their lives. Therefore superior practitioners can become immortals, those of medium rank can double their lifespan, and those of lower rank can also extend their years.

Yet those who follow the Dao today mostly reverse their practices, violating the orthodox Way in everything. I hereby list the abuses among them as follows. The Celestial Master established parishes and arranged offices just as secular government offices set up commanderies, counties, and city administrations to govern the people and their affairs. All who follow the Dao should be registered in the records, each belonging to a parish. Three assemblies are held each year on the seventh day of the first month, the seventh day of the seventh month, and the fifth day of the tenth month. The people each go to their affiliated parish to pay respects to the parish master, check and revise the parish registers, strike off the names of the deceased, register the living, verify the population, correct names and household registrations, and repeatedly proclaim the commands so that the people know the laws.

On the day of the assembly, heavenly officials and earthly spirits all gather at the parish to check documents with the parish master. Both the parish master and the people should be quiet and solemn, neither drinking wine nor eating meat, nor making noise or chatting and laughing. After the assembly ends, the people return home and should convey the regulations, prohibitions, and ritual rules to the young and old in the family, so that all follow them together. In this way Daoist teaching can be widely promoted, and family and state can be at peace.

Today those who follow the Dao mostly do not attend the assemblies. Some excuse themselves by saying the road is far; some, because they do not go to a certain gate, abandon their original master and cross boundaries to join other parishes. They only value wine and food and even entice one another. The explicitly stipulated regulations and orthodox teachings are abandoned and no longer proclaimed, and thus the legal codes and old statutes sink into oblivion and are lost. Once the fundamental principles and discipline slacken, the detailed regulations and systems fall into chaos and collapse. People no longer understand the laws and only listen to vague, unclear words that cause suspicion and fear. (Here the original text is corrupted and cannot be precisely understood.)

The Daoist followers do not know what is transgression and what is compliance; they only hear that they should prepare wine and dishes. From top to bottom all lose their standards, with nothing left to follow or continue. People act on subjective speculation among themselves, operating in secret; as soon as they act they incur loss. They take the true for the false, the false for the true, the right for the wrong, and the wrong for the right. With a thousand threads and ten thousand strands of affairs, what will they not get wrong? Reversed and chaotic, yet they never become aware. Such masters, after death, will have their descendants cut off; such common people will encounter premature death, unexpected calamities, and ruin. Although later generations may not yet understand these principles, past events are already quite clear. How can a gentleman of understanding not take this as a warning?

The Daoke Zhailu (the register in Daoism that records the population of a household for inspection by the residence-guarding officials) is the supplementary register of the common people. The numbers of males and females in the family should all be recorded in it. The residence-guarding officials rely on it as their basis for protecting the daily movements and living of the household members. Reports are submitted upward three times each year according to established procedures. Any increase or decrease in population must be updated in the register.

When a boy reaches one full month of age, one hundred sheets of paper and a pair of brushes must be prepared, together with an upper kitchen offering (sacrificial provisions presented during rituals) for ten persons. When a girl reaches one full month, a broom, a dustpan, and one mat must be prepared, together with a middle kitchen offering for five persons. When taking a wife, an upper kitchen offering for ten persons must be set out. The head of the household register must take the Zhailu to the local Zhi (the administrative office in charge of local Daoist affairs), where the relevant personnel register them in sequence and add them to the Zhengmingji (the Daoist name register that records an individual’s allotted fate). On each of the Three Assembly days (the three days each year for reporting to the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water), the Three Officials and the myriad spirits inspect the name registers. If population increases without registration, the Heavenly Bureau (the official offices of the celestial realm) cannot locate the person; if population decreases without being removed from the Zhailu, the name list becomes inaccurate.

Nowadays some who follow the Dao (the Way) initially register only one person and thereafter fail to update the record when descendants are born; they also fail to submit written statements on the Three Assembly days. As a result, no one knows the full circumstances of the matter, and the original master (the teacher who transmitted the Dao) cannot investigate it, having no choice but to continue using the previous registration. Some have already died and their bones have decayed, yet they remain recorded in the registers; some have lived to white-haired old age without ever being registered; some take wives without reporting it, and some have daughters marry out without being removed. Thus there appear hundred-year-old virgin boys and hundred-year-old virgin girls, with life and death, presence and absence all in chaotic unreality.

When illness strikes, the patient does not report to the original master to request aid but instead seeks other official deities. Unaware of the circumstances, the other party presents a memorial on their behalf (a prayer document submitted to the spirits). The patient’s name was originally absent from the relevant registers, yet it suddenly appears in the memorial text; he does not fall under the jurisdiction of the residence-guarding officials, the Three Masters do not accept the petition, the name registers of the Three Heavens contain omissions, and the Director of Destinies (the deity in charge of human lifespan) finds no record of the name. Even if one knocks the head until it breaks and bleeds, and no matter how numerous the documents, they do not conform to the proper rules, so that seeking the Dao still fails to obtain protection. How can one not carefully consider such principles?

In the regulations for following the Dao, the master takes the life registers as fundamental, while the Daoist followers take the fate credence (tokens or credentials submitted according to the rules) as essential. The master must report the name registers to the Three Heavens, requesting the residence-guarding officials to protect the family members according to the registers, thereby dispelling disasters and averting misfortune. Although there are three assembly periods in a year, it ordinarily suffices to bring the tokens to the Zhi office once, on the fifth day of the tenth month. If the household is at peace, an upper kitchen offering for five persons may be set out; if the population has decreased, no kitchen offering is set out, yet the tokens are still brought as usual. If the fate credence is not delivered, the life registers cannot be reported upward. Even if there is otherwise profound blessing, it cannot compensate for the fault of failing to submit the fate credence.

Therefore the scripture warns: although a thousand pieces of gold are precious, they cannot compare with this fate credence that concerns the life registers. If a household following the Dao fails to submit the fate credence, as the years accumulate the Three Heavens will delete their name registers, the residence-guarding officials will return to the Heavenly Bureau, the Qi (vital energy) of the Dao will no longer offer protection, and the family members may suffer harm from ghosts and demons, falling ill, dying prematurely, or meeting unexpected calamities. Distressed households that long remain ignorant of the reason instead blame the master and resent the methods of the Dao, which is truly a cause for sorrow.

In households that follow Daoism, the jingshi (a quiet room for conducting fasting, prayers, and other Daoist rituals) is the place of sincere devotion to the Dao (the Way). The jingshi should stand apart from everyday living quarters and must not be connected to other buildings. If this separation is neglected, the spirit officials who guard the residence will return to the heavenly offices (tiancao), the Qi (vital energy) of the Dao will cease to protect the home, and the family may suffer harm from ghosts and demons, leading to deaths, illnesses, and unforeseen disasters. Households that meet with such misfortunes often never understand the cause and instead blame their master or resent the methods of the Dao. How can this fail to bring about decline?

Inside the jingshi the space must be quiet, empty, and free of clutter. Doors and windows should be opened and closed without careless bumping or striking. The room is to be carefully swept and kept clean and solemn, as though deities were dwelling within it. Only four items belong there: an incense burner, an incense lamp, a petition table (zhang’an, the desk used for writing memorials and performing rituals), and a writing knife (shudao, a small knife for trimming writing materials). The furnishings should be simple and clean; a little more than a hundred coins is quite sufficient.

By contrast, some worldly households fill their rooms with beds, chairs, images of deities, banners, canopies, and assorted decorations. Is the difference between the two—in simplicity versus complexity, and austerity versus ostentation—not considerable?

Nowadays many families that follow the Dao have no proper quiet jingshi. Some merely enclose a plot with railings to serve as a Daoist altar yet never tend it, so that weeds grow taller than a person. Some have built a structure but left it without a door, allowing livestock to come and go freely while dung piles almost to the knees. Others call it a quiet room yet fill it with household odds and ends, with people constantly coming and going and rats and dogs nesting inside. To seek the exalted and mysterious methods of the Dao in such a place—is one not very far from the true Dao?

Daoist ritual vestments, like the official robes of the secular imperial court, follow hierarchical regulations for nobles, scholars, and commoners, using a five-rank system to distinguish the honorable from the humble. Thus the Xiaojing (Classic of Filial Piety) says: “Clothing not prescribed by the former kings, one dares not wear.” Traditional ritual vestments include the unlined robe, the lined headdress (jiaze, a lined headcloth), and the kuzhe (a style of upper garment and trousers) worn by register-holders (lusheng); these are the tokens of credence at the time of receiving ordination. Men wear the unlined robe and a black headdress, women wear deep-blue clothing. The relevant regulations are written with great clarity, sufficient to dispel any doubts.

The headdress and coarse robe (jinhe) and the cape (pei, a robe-like outer garment worn over the body) belong to the vestments of superior Daoist methods: the coarse robe is worn for ritual worship, the cape for reciting scriptures. This is the norm of the Three Caverns (Dongzhen/Dongxuan/Dongshen), the system of Daoist scriptures and transmission, and it is not for those cultivating methods of a lower level to employ at will. Recently some have only just received a minor ordination (xiaozhi, a lower-level conferral of registers or transmission of methods), yet the register-holders arbitrarily don the cape and coarse robe, which already gravely violates the rules; others wear hats and kuzhe over the combination of cape and skirt, or trousers beneath the cape and coarse robe. Such chaotic intermingling is truly indescribable.

The styles, lengths, and number of seams of the headdress, coarse robe, skirt, and cape each have their own standards, and therefore they are called “ritual vestments”; these garments are each guarded by awe-inspiring spirits. The Perfected of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) said: “If they are made not according to the standards, ghosts and spirits will send down punishment upon people.” Since overstepping one’s station and usurping their use is already improper, how can there be no calamity?

According to the regulations in Master Lu’s Abridged Codes of the Daoist Community, three instances of diligent conduct together count as one merit; three merits together count as one De (Virtue/Power). Only those who possess three De stand apart from ordinary people and may await the bestowal of Falu (talismans and registers), the credentials of Daoist identity and office. After receiving the registers, one must continue accumulating merit in order to advance step by step, beginning with the Register of Ten Generals and rising successively to the Register of One Hundred Fifty Generals.

Among the register officials, if there are those who are loyal, honest and simple, cautious and reverent, diligent in study and devoted to the Dao (the Way), able to review old knowledge and acquire new learning, and also capable of taking on the duty of preaching and instruction, they may be appointed as scattered-Qi Daoists. Among the scattered-Qi Daoists, those who cultivate in purity and stillness may be promoted to a Separate Parish; among those of the Separate Parishes, those who are diligent and sincere may be promoted to an Itinerant Parish; among those of the Itinerant Parishes, those who are rigorous and capable may be promoted to a Lower Parish; among those of the Lower Parishes, those whose merits are outstanding may be promoted to an Attached Parish. If among those of the Attached Parishes there are persons who conform to the norms of Daoist law, the Daoists of the home parish should all recommend them and submit a memorial to the descendants of the Celestial Master (Tianshi), requesting the conferral of the three ranks of eight grades. First they are granted offices of the lower eight grades; if they can concentrate diligently on the Dao and have merit in exhorting and converting others, they may then be promoted to the middle eight grades; if they can succor the people of the world, support those in danger and aid the weak, and save and deliver persons of the three kinds of allotted lifespan, they may be promoted to the upper eight grades. If they can understand the methods of cultivating Daoist Qi (vital energy), relieve the multitude, eliminate ghostly Qi, and cause the people to submit, they may be granted offices in the three Qi parishes of Yangping, Lutang, and Heming. When examining merits and De and selecting persons for office, one must scrutinize carefully: talented and virtuous persons must not be hindered by official posts, nor must offices fall into the hands of those unequal to them.

If one studies the Dao without completing the study under a master, it is as if one has no foundation; if one does not receive transmission from one’s original master, it is like grass without roots. Receiving the Dao by skipping ranks is called “not born from the root”; not receiving transmission from the original master is called “not inheriting the origin.” Nowadays some people receive registers without corresponding De, and hold parish offices without corresponding ability; De includes the three De mentioned earlier, while ability is the capacity to preach and instruct. Some have no master-disciple name register at all; some formerly practiced the Dao but long ago lost their affiliation and no longer belong to any Daoist organization; still others were originally ordinary commoners, wandering about and merely pretending to believe. Daoists, without instructing them according to the rules, directly confer registers and parish offices. The titles these people obtain are all false; even if they are diligent in cultivation and do good, the Three Heavens have no register of their names, and thus they may still suffer unjust calamities, let alone those who are dissolute, negligent, and who violate the precepts.

Having a master but no name register means that although there is a master, one does not attend the Three Assemblies, does not arrive at the parish office on time, and does not report to the Celestial Bureau; thus the name register is cancelled by the Celestial Bureau. Some have a master-disciple name register but no De; when receiving registers they skip ranks and go over to other offices, neither returning to their home parish nor advancing in proper sequence, arbitrarily assigning offices to others without examining whether the appointees are suitable. They compete to receive more registers and more parish offices, and moreover compare themselves with one another and inflate their titles: they themselves receive only low-ranking offices yet confer high grades on others. For example, they themselves receive only offices of the Celestial Master’s Pinggai or Yuju type, yet confer Yangping or Lutang on others; or they themselves receive only a White Board Parish (a low-ranking parish office) yet unauthorizedly add higher offices for others. Without having been approved by the Celestial Master, they rank themselves for life at the bottom of the White Board Parish, yet arbitrarily promote others in grade, causing titles to be disordered and ranks inverted. They, with bodies accumulated from offenses, wear false parish registers.

There are also some without household registers, or who have lost contact with Daoism because of old age; some were originally laypeople who had offered sacrificial food to ghosts and spirits, yet without clearing away old entanglements and debts they leap into the methods of the Dao. Their lives are a jumble of offenses, yet they still refuse to reform, and they go to seek arrogant and false masters, receiving inauthentic arts.

If those who receive the Dao do not keep the precepts, do not heed the teachings and commands, violate the regulations, and break the prohibitions, they are treating the methods of the Dao with contempt. Those who receive the Dao should inwardly keep the precepts and outwardly observe dignified deportment, avoiding taboos according to the regulations and following the teachings and commands. The scriptures say that if a Daoist does not receive the One Hundred Eighty Precepts of Lord Lao, he has no Dao and De, cannot be counted a Daoist, cannot accept the homage of the people, and still less can he subdue and govern ghosts and spirits on others’ behalf. If one is benighted and ignorant, does not respect Dao, De, and the laws, and behaves in a frivolous manner, one will treat the arts of the Dao with contempt.

Some people indulge their greed and cravings and are addicted to wine and food. They practice the methods of the Dao not in order to accumulate merit and establish De, and when treating illness they have no compassionate heart, wanting only to obtain goods and to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves. They do not explain the regulations and precepts to the people, but instead demand goods and pick out tasty things to eat. The five pungent plants (onions, garlic, and other strongly scented alliums) and the meat of the six domestic animals are all Daoist taboos; they themselves already violate the precepts by eating them, and they even kill chickens, geese, and ducks, get thoroughly drunk, and then go to submit petitions, or even sleep outside the quiet altar and vomit beside the table. Such people are not rare.

The Covenant of Orthodox Unity takes purity and covenant as the orthodox teaching: the ritual master does not collect money, the spirits do not receive offerings of food and drink—this is called “purity and covenant”; treating illness does not rely on acupuncture and medicines, but uses only talisman water, confession and reform, submitting petitions, and similar methods. In matters of dwelling, burial, moving house, and the like, one does not rely on choosing days and inquiring about hours, but acts according to the heart and sets up no taboos or avoidances—this also belongs to purity and covenant. Honoring Lord Lao and the Three Masters, respecting the thousand spirits and myriad deities—this alone is called “orthodox teaching.” By contrast, sacrificing to ghosts and spirits in order to seek blessings is called “heterodox”; falsely claiming to transmit the words of ghosts and spirits and divining fortune and misfortune is called “illicit cult”; not following master-disciple transmission and Lord Lao’s teachings and regulations, but arbitrarily creating taboos, is called “shamanism.” Moreover, composing charts and texts on divination, tombs and dwellings, foundations, fengshui, and types of good and ill fortune and disaster, considering it necessary to submit petitions to drive them away; also compiling calendars and picking days and selecting hours—all these are ignorant and perverse practices. Matters clearly forbidden by the orthodox regulations they refuse to follow, yet they compete to adopt forbidden methods, turning away from the correct Dao toward falsity—this is called “inversion.”

The methods of the Dao require Daoists to be honest, frugal, and retiring; they respond only when someone seeks the methods, and do not actively solicit. They should cultivate with a quiet mind, wait for those seeking help to come sincerely, and then receive and handle them. If they actively run about the streets soliciting, they violate the legal prohibitions.

If the common people violate Daoist rules and suffer examinations, punishments, and disasters, Daoists should according to the regulations dissolve their guilt. Even Daoist believers, if they have long lost their master-disciple affiliation, have no parish name register and no household register of talismans, may no longer belong to the Daoist people. Those who have a master, if on the auspicious days of the Three Assemblies they do not attend the assembly and do not keep faith, yet come to seek help only when they encounter urgent difficulty, and having received gracious aid still refuse to reform—this is called “evasion.” Although they practice the methods of the Dao, they do not keep the regulations and prohibitions, violate the precept against lust, kill living beings, superstitiously believe in divination, and all kinds of improper conduct, even to the point of being fierce and rebellious—this is called “transgression.” For such people of evasion and transgression, the Celestial Bureau will reduce their allotted lifespan and cancel their name registers; the Three Officials dispatch examining officers and order officials to secretly keep watch at the gates, investigating the household members and bringing about disasters. Those whose offenses are heavy suffer the six harms; those whose offenses are light suffer the five disasters, including death, illness, lawsuits and imprisonment, water and fire disasters, and robbery. If they seek help in urgent difficulty, Daoists should according to the regulations dissolve and resolve the examinations and punishments; only if they can submit, repent, confess their guilt, and swear an oath, establishing a covenant with the Three Officials and making a credential, can they be succoured according to sequence.

Ignorant and false Daoists have no regulations and precepts to rely on, and cannot distinguish whether guilt is genuine; they can only deal with the situation using incorrect petitions and Fulu, with the beginning and end of the texts not matching, so they cannot serve as credentials. They arbitrarily alter documents according to their own imaginings, soil the paper and brushes, and write haphazardly; what they write seeks only to cater to the other party’s demands, fabricating empty words, not checking the facts, violating fundamental legal principles, and instead offending the examining officers. Sometimes they wrongly arrest guiltless ghosts and wrongly accuse spirits who have caused no haunting; sometimes when they ought to dissolve guilt they instead increase the implications; sometimes when they ought to campaign against the offending spirits they mistakenly treat it as a relocation, handling things inverted, without any standard. When they enter the quiet chamber (the still room for performing rites and submitting petitions) to make their announcement, they also do not understand the wording of the petitions: the parts they can recite they read aloud in a loud voice, so that the neighbors can all hear; the parts they do not understand they slur over. Such people cannot command the official troops of spirit soldiers, Daoist Qi will not descend, the examinations and punishments instead become more urgent, the illness grows ever more severe, and the prayers and exorcisms have no effect. Both those seeking help and the Daoists fall into confusion, not knowing where the fault lies, and in the end they slander the methods of the Dao, complain against the deities, even burn the Fulu and destroy the quiet chamber and the altar. The disasters brought on by serving ghosts and spirits may be so severe as to destroy the family and kill its members. Are these faults not worthy of vigilance?