《太上灵宝净明洞神上品经》

The Taishang Lingbao Jingming Dongshen Shangpin Jing is divided into upper and lower scrolls and lists the titles of thirty-five chapters. The upper scroll runs from “Wushang Shiqing” to “Miaoyou Baotu,” and its contents concern the official ranks of the celestial realm, entering the Dao (the Way) and cultivating the self, putting the teachings into practice, ascending to perfection and recognizing Shen (spirit), together with numinous writings, diagrams, and registers. The lower scroll runs from “Peifu Baolu” to “Anzhen Huzhao,” and its chapter titles concern the wearing of Fulu (talismans and registers), incantations and rites for summoning spirits, the cultivation of merit and the completion of the Dao, insight into events of a former life, restoring the dead to life, investigation of the underworld, Jingming Fulu, as well as the deliverance of relatives, the refining and nourishing of the body, the treatment of illness, the subduing of malign spirits, and pacifying, stabilizing, and summoning.

What is marked at the end is “Taishang Lingbao Jingming Dongshen Shangpin Jing, Upper Scroll.”

Part One: The Unsurpassed Primordial Azure

In the loftiest and unsurpassed realm of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) there is the primordial azure Qi (vital energy) of the Great Canopy Heaven. Within it dwell Perfected Ones, who transcend life and death and are neither born nor die. The most exalted beings in the celestial realm are called the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing): in the Palace of Jade Clarity is the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning; in the Palace of Supreme Clarity is the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure; and in the Palace of Great Clarity is the Celestial Worthy of the Dao (the Way) and De (Virtue/Power). Each of the three venerable deities is assisted by Perfected Ones, who hold such offices as director-assistants and left and right chancellors. There are also Jade Lads, Jade Maidens, clerks in charge of the Jing (scripture/classic), and scholars who keep the registers. They attend to textual and archival matters, including explaining the scriptures, copying books, and registering them. Judicial officers, censors, vice-censors, and similar posts preside over the related affairs.

The sovereign who governs the cosmos is called the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor receives the commands of the Three Pure Ones and oversees affairs in the Court of Purple Tenuity (the central hub of the celestial realm). Officers of the attendant guard are charged with receiving the commands of the Three Pure Ones. The Court of Purple Tenuity is the pivot that commands the hundred spirits: minor matters are handled by the various bureaus according to their duties, while major matters are reported upward level by level, and regulations are established in the Palace of the Jade Emperor. The ministers who carry out affairs answer upward to the Three Pure Ones. In addition there are further officials, each with a title of their own.

The Southern Dipper and the Northern Dipper are the divine lords who govern life and death. On the left is the Lord of Grand Tenuity, and on the right is the Lord of Lesser Tenuity. The Mysterious Capital presides over judgment, and the Celestial Pivot maintains order and discipline. Seventy-four bureaus hold the duty of transmitting commands, and officials such as the chief registrars and the recorders are responsible for investigating good and evil. This place is called the Assembly Prefecture and is provided with five departments of the Department of State Affairs. The governing organs of Grand Tenuity, Lesser Tenuity, and the Mysterious Capital are together called the Three Departments and the Six Sections. The establishment of the judges of the ritual altar is likewise similar to the above.

Those who cultivate this Dao, once they understand the titles and duties of these spirits, are able to gain insight. They may also, according to the corresponding offices, be numbered among the immortal officials and take part in attending the Jade Court (the palace halls of the celestial realm). The Three-and-Five Flying Steps are a kind of Daoist ritual pacing of the sort that steps the stars and treads the Dipper.

Part Two: The Ordered Ranks of the Celestial Officials

The Great Dao holds sway over all that exists, and the officials of the celestial realm stand arrayed in solemn order. The stars of the celestial officials are set forth in the heavens and come to audience at the Imperial Homeland (the place where the Celestial Emperor dwells). Those who cultivate this Dao, if they can rise to the corresponding ranks, are able to gain insight. They may also be numbered among the immortal officials, take part in attending the Jade Court, and practice the Three-and-Five Flying Steps.

The Great Dao (Dao, the Way) holds sway over all things, and the celestial officials—the officers of the heavenly realm—stand arrayed in solemn order. The stars corresponding to these celestial officials face the Imperial Homeland, the dwelling place of the Celestial Emperor. By cultivating my methods of the Dao, one may ascend to the Jade Emperor, the Celestial Emperor revered in Daoism. To attain such a rank is to transcend the secular world and stand apart from ordinary people.

Some cultivators are ranked among the civil officials, while others hold military posts. They are arrayed to the left and right of the Jade Emperor, adorned with gold ornaments and with pearls and jade, joining his ceremonial retinue and standing in attendance beside the Purple Tenuity, the celestial palace where the Celestial Emperor resides. Some serve in the offices of the heavenly realm and become chancellors of the various heavens; they may also belong to the bureaus that govern the sun and moon, or serve as subordinate officers of the Twenty-Eight Lodges, the twenty-eight stellar mansions of heaven. All of them are called Perfected Persons, and they are able to move by paced steps within the guiding order of the celestial realm.

As for the Yellow Path, the White Path, and the Black Path—the differing courses or bearings involved in the movements of the heavenly bodies—one must understand the regularities within them. Once one comprehends my methods of the Dao, one may walk at ease upon the clouds and take flight. What is the Metal Duke, and what is the Wood Wife? Only by cultivating perfection and refining Qi (vital energy)—nurturing body and mind and refining primordial energy—can one grasp the mystery within them.

If one can make filial piety and fraternal respect shine forth, and if loyalty and righteousness are without defect, then even without the Great Medicine, the numinous medicine or elixir spoken of in cultivation, one may still come to some understanding. The names of methods are many and illustrious; some people use talismanic spells, ritual water, and medicines to relieve those in peril, yet all of these belong to a lower grade of practice. None compares with absorbing Qi according to the way of filial piety and fraternal duty—nurturing the breath through inhalation and exhalation—while serving one’s parents and preserving one’s own person. Such a person, even without undergoing corpse-liberation, the Daoist shedding of the mortal remains by which one becomes an immortal, can transcend the ordinary and enter the true. This cultivation of absorbing Qi, grounded in filial piety, is therefore ranked among the celestial beings.

The way of the celestial being is not difficult; it is people themselves who find it difficult. Becoming an immortal is no hard matter. What matters is not harming oneself and not going against one’s parents and elders; only then can one truly benefit others. Not cultivating oneself and not serving one’s parents and elders is like living in poverty while wishing to obtain gold. The order of ranks among the celestial officials is not easy to enter in a register, yet leaving them unrecorded is not difficult either; to say that this is not difficult is also not easy—and this is precisely the subtlety of the ultimate Dao. As for paying homage to the divinities and praying for divine aid, these are matters people do not readily understand, yet they too all arise from refining the form, the cultivation of the body and its physical shape.

When a person is born, the body is what the parents have left behind. One ought to understand how to care for one's parents, and also know how to respect and serve them. The bodies of the parents are likewise regarded as the place where the Celestial Worthy is present; if one can serve one's parents with wholehearted devotion, the Celestial Worthy will send down a spiritual response. If one wishes to worship the stars, one should also treat one's brothers with affection and reverence; the bodies of one's brothers are likewise regarded as the place where the Perfected Ones of the various heavens are present.

Only by understanding these principles may one refine elixir medicines and write Fulu (talismans and registers), so that the hundred ghosts fear one's name. If one cannot do these things, one may not yet enter the Dao (the Way) or serve the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the three deities revered in Daoism. Otherwise, yakshas will devour one's flesh, and demons will slay one's Shen (spirit) and soul. Even if one possesses ten thousand scrolls of elixir texts, one cannot on that account ascend and become an immortal; even with chests full of Fulu, one cannot command ghosts and spirits. The hundred demons and myriad monsters, and every kind of sprite, will mock him and seek to devour him.

After death, one will still be interrogated and punished in Fengdu (the underworld of Daoist legend), suffering punishment upon punishment without cease, and the spirit-soul will find no peace. The superior immortals of the Southern Palace (immortal officials of Daoist legend) detest hearing of such a person; they cover their noses, stop their ears, clench their teeth, and refuse to listen. Only one who understands loyalty and filial piety may study the Dao. The principle is in fact easy to understand and not difficult to practice.

To repent of one's faults, awaken, and study the Dao is the finest of good deeds. If one was unfilial in the past and now turns to filial conduct, one can still attain the highest filial piety. The highest filial piety is not difficult: as soon as one commits a fault, one corrects it at once. If one formerly offended one's parents, one does not repeat the offense thereafter; from this day forward, one vows never to act in that way again. Then the Lord on High will send a Perfected One to descend into the human world and transmit the true secret teachings, enabling him to cultivate himself, aid all living beings, accumulate good deeds, and become an immortal.

If one cannot grasp these principles, it is like wishing to cross a river without a raft: one will only transmigrate without end through long kalpas and sink to become a lowly kind of ghost.

Chapter Four, "Entering the Dao and Cultivating the Self."

The Dao (the Way) is in fact plain and easy, and has never been difficult. People become cut off from the Great Dao only when they lose their direction and turn away from the proper path. The scriptures therefore set out the stages of entering the Dao, taking the renunciation of worldly vices as the gate of cultivation. Cultivating the Dao can enable parents to ascend together into the True, and husband and wife to stand together in the ranks of the immortals. Even when one is anxious about one’s own circumstances and about supporting one’s parents, one should still give full loyalty through filial conduct. The root of human nature is originally firm, like the mountains; yet when the mind and Shen (spirit) of ordinary people waver, they fall into danger. They neglect the nurturing of Qi (vital energy)—the tending of life’s vital breath—and do not understand how to serve their parents. Once primordial Qi declines, even deep bonds of kindness disappear. How could such a person serve the ruler? He would instead betray Heaven’s original intent. Offenses thus accumulate like rivers, and the underworld officials—the officers of the netherworld charged with examining sin and blessing—will investigate them.

All you who are my people, hear what I say. If I deceive you, then let both my eyes go blind and both my ears go deaf, my nose be stopped, my mouth be unable to speak, and my hands and feet grow numb, so that I cannot enter the palace of the Celestial Emperor or ride the clouds and ascend to Heaven, and so that for untold myriads of generations I am examined by Fengdu, the netherworld of the dead as Daoism describes it. I wish only that my people will always keep filial piety in their hearts, support their parents at home, and remain loyal to the ruler at court, and that they will not crave sensual desire or recklessly dissipate Jing (essence) and Qi. They will then receive the blessings of the divine spirits, and those blessings will well up like a spring and continue of themselves without end.

If one recites this scripture day and night, the hun-soul and Qi will naturally meet with a numinous response. Should relatives in the household suffer calamity or illness, they too may naturally be restored to peace and safety. Should one offer rites of deliverance for the hun-souls of the dead and for po-spirits lingering in the dark underworld, one may also free them from that darkness. If one constantly holds in mind the power of the Tianzun (Celestial Worthy), the Celestial Worthy can save the people of the world. The people of the world do not understand the principles of nurturing life, and they harbor in their hearts the Five Rebellions—five grave crimes of violently overturning the moral order. Once the Five Rebellions dwell in the heart, the Celestial Worthy weeps tears of grief like rain. The Celestial Worthy does not mean to abandon you; you should recognize the sincerity of my intent.

Chapter Five: Cultivating the Self and Revering the Teaching

Those who patrol the Three Realms, the Five Marchmounts, and the Three Officials—the Daoist system of divine offices governing Heaven, Earth, and Water—include the Day-Roaming Divine Lord and the Demon Kings of the Ten Heavens. They compile the records of offenses and blessings under the command of the Chief Recorder of the Celestial Pivot, the divine office that keeps the master register. Seven others assist them, and together they preside over the seventy-four teachings.

Those who oversee the affairs of the Three Realms—the celestial realm, the terrestrial realm, and the watery realm—are the gods of the Five Sacred Mountains and the Three Officials, the deities who govern the realms of heaven, earth, and water. Divine beings such as the Divine Lord Who Roams by Day and the Demon Kings of the Ten Heavens jointly take charge of the registers of transgressions and blessings, all under the authority of the Chief Registrar of the Celestial Pivot. The Chief Registrar has seven assistants and commands seventy-four offices that administer guilt. Matters great and small are all entered in the records, and nothing is omitted.

When the Three Primordials and the Three Assemblies arrive—the regular gatherings of the Upper Prime, the Middle Prime, and the Lower Prime—these records are submitted to the Northern and Southern Bureaus. The two bureaus determine the weight of sins and blessings and then report them upward to Purple Tenuity, the celestial court where the Heavenly Emperor resides. Lesser matters are given over to the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, the Twelve Palace Chronograms, and the Thirty-Two Heavens to be examined separately. Major matters are handled directly by the Jade Emperor and are sometimes also adjudicated by the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the three highest deities venerated in Daoism. Their judgments are as clear as a mirror and as impartial as water.

To practice the methods of my Dao (the Way), one must keep the precepts and cultivate. Filial reverence toward one’s parents is the root. Refining the bodily form is like the skin and flesh of the body; saving and delivering all beings is like the hair upon the body; and merit is like clothing that protects the person. If one is greedy for wealth and fond of sensual desire, with a mind that is sinister and vicious, one will be cast down into the lower realm.

Those who crave the pleasures of the mouth and belly and love to eat meat must also take warning. Another person’s property is like a sovereign’s grain and must not be taken for oneself. Another person’s wife and daughters must be regarded as one’s own mother and daughters, and one must not act licentiously toward them. When others do good, one should treat them with respect and must not harm them out of ill will. Even the many kinds of wild beasts and domestic animals should be cherished as one’s own children, and one should not bear to eat their flesh.

Therefore I wish to study the Dao and become an immortal, to be a True Child endowed with the Ten Virtues—one who cultivates the Way and attains the true—and to bring the Five Blessings to fulfillment. In life I would become a terrestrial immortal, and after death I would enter the Golden House. I would eat neither food cooked over smoke and fire nor the five grains. My hun and po souls would remain in Zhuling, the place where, in Daoist conception, souls are refined, receive refinement and deliverance, and dwell there in peace, moving through Yuxu, the pure and empty immortal realm spoken of in Daoism, and take my place among the divine immortals.

“On Receiving the Teaching and Cultivating Perfection,” the sixth section.

Learning the Dao (the Way) has its foundation, and ascent to immortality has its steps. One must know the secret essentials of cultivating the Dao before one can penetrate principles that are profound and subtle. One’s conduct must be such that the conscience is clear, and the heart holds no doubt. Quietly abide in Wuwei (non-action); at night, contemplate in stillness, and let the divine lords of the five viscera—the spirits that Daoism holds to preside respectively over the five organs—soar upward one by one, reach the Celestial Pivot, and proceed to the divine offices that administer essential affairs. Since there is no fault, merit can then be made plain.

By day one ingests the essence of the sun; by night one absorbs the fluid of the moon, so that the hun and po are clarified and refined, and benefit arises of itself. When spirit-consciousness flies beyond the realm of the Three and the Five and ascends in audience before the Celestial Pole, one’s name is naturally entered among the Celestial Chiefs. The Two Lords of South and North will take your name and appearance and lead you in to audience at the celestial court. The Gate of Heaven will not dare to bar the way, and the hundred officials of the Celestial Pivot will come forth to receive you. By these means one first receives the great blessing bestowed by Heaven, and only afterward accumulates fundamental merit in the human world.

When cultivation is accomplished, one can also inscribe talismans to summon rain and command the clouds and wind by voice. While alive, one is invested from afar with a true immortal office; after death, one is formally enrolled in the lineage of the immortals. One does not fall into evil paths, nor is one detained by the judicial offices of the netherworld. One oneself becomes a True Governor of Heaven, administering the affairs of the lower realm. Above, one can shelter nine generations of ancestors so that they too ascend into the boundless realm; below, one can protect nine generations of descendants so that all of them possess the endowment for immortality. One suffers neither cold nor hunger, and good fortune follows of itself.

Do not conceal my words; they should be made known to others. Instruct my innocent children—pure, sincere, and earnest disciples—each to correct faults and abandon error. Reciting this Jing (scripture/classic) enables one to ascend to the True and become immortal. It can dispel warfare for kings and imperial rulers; it can also plant in advance, for parents, brothers, and kin, the good affinities of former lives; and it can deliver the bodies of the dead so that they obtain liberation. Whatever is sought will turn out as wished and accord with your heart’s desire. So long as one’s resolve does not retreat, one may learn the Dao. Those who learn the Dao should carefully revere and follow my teaching.

Chapter Seven: Ascending to the True and Recognizing the Spirits

When one learns the Dao and ascends to the True, one then mounts the clouds and rises. A celestial writ descends, and the immortal palaces come forth to receive you. Who are the immortal officials that receive you? They are the various Perfected. Those who are truly able to learn the Dao should carefully revere and follow my teaching.

After you have cultivated the methods of the Dao (the Way) and realized the true Dao, you ride the clouds and ascend. The celestial realm sends down a celestial writ, and the immortal palaces dispatch envoys to receive you. Which immortal officials come to welcome you? They are the various Perfected. They ride in carriages drawn by paired dragons, while strongmen bear the ceremonial insignia; mighty celestial guards protect the front and rear, jade lads and jade maidens carry ribbons of office and seals, and minor officials wearing silver ornaments orally transmit the command of the Celestial Emperor. At this point you need not fear or be alarmed; your hun and po souls will naturally undergo refinement and deliverance in Zhuling (the immortal realm where the souls of the dead are refined and delivered). The great general of Zhuling releases the flowing-gold fire bells and opens for you the road into the celestial realm.

The celestial realm has four gates. The Eastern Florescence Gate is administered by the gate office. Within the gate are the presiding deity, the Yuanjun on daily duty, the venerable recorder spirits who adjudicate affairs, and the vajra strongmen who guard the gate. These three perfected immortals will ask your name, examine the offenses you have committed, and assess your merits; only after the record has been confirmed as accurate and without error may you enter the gate. Two recorders lead you onward and upward. The Southern Dipper and the Northern Dipper each have their True Lords; after the recorders withdraw, the True Lords receive you. They report in turn and conduct you to the Court of Purple Tenuity. At this point your immortal Dao has been accomplished.

You bow in homage to the Primordial Jade Clarity of the Daluo Heaven, the Jade Emperor of Vast Heaven, and the Celestial Worthies of the Three Luminaries. You cannot see them with your own eyes, but only auspicious clouds; jade lads transmit the celestial command, which can be faintly heard. The Celestial Worthies bestow on you elixir medicine, a golden pendant, and a pearl tassel. After receiving these gifts, you should make obeisance and dance with joy; perfected immortals will of themselves teach you how to attend the audience. The principles of this Jing (scripture) are true and profound, and they are only briefly explained here. You should hold them in visualization within the heart and cultivate them with care, neither deviating nor falling into disorder; if you recite the true Jing with single-minded devotion, the spirit officials will bestow medicine and enable you to receive celestial rank.

Chapter Eight: Corpse Liberation When Practice Is Still Shallow: the chapter on becoming an immortal by means of corpse liberation while cultivation is still shallow. “Corpse liberation” refers to a way of attaining immortality in Daoism in which the practitioner leaves the physical body behind, or departs the mortal world through a transformation of the physical body.

Those whose cultivation of the Dao (the Way) is still shallow, if they can ascend to immortality through shijie—the “liberation of the corpse,” which Daoism describes as casting off the bodily form so that the spirit-soul (Shen) rises to immortality—must already have possessed good karmic affinity before they have actually died. Once the ordained calamities of the dusty world come to an end, their names are struck from the registers of both the Eastern Peak and the Western Peak. Two envoys serving the Divine Lord of the Communal Altar (the deity who presides over communal offerings and transmits divine commands) will come to lead their spirit-souls.

At this moment you must keep firmly in mind your own origin. After you meet the underworld officials (the officers of the nether realm), you will find prisons set up in the courtyards of the dark passes, a sight that inspires fear and dread. You need not be afraid. You should state your circumstances directly, explain the reasons, and speak frankly, concealing nothing. Your name does not appear on the register of evil, but it is recorded on the register of good.

There the Perfected One of the Eastern Pole Who Relieves Suffering (a revered deity in Daoism who delivers the souls of the dead) will question you with kindly words and welcome you with joy, inviting you to mount the jade carriage together. The carriage has four wheels, with divine generals guarding it on the left and the right, and the ceremonial escort is the same as that for ascent among the perfected. You should remember their surnames and given names. They will escort your spirit-soul to Zhuling to undergo refinement (Daoism holds that the souls of the dead receive refinement and deliverance in the Palace of Zhuling, so as to be purified and advanced). Then, taking your place in due order, you rise freely and at ease, ascend the gate of Heaven, and enter the Court of Purple Tenuity (the dwelling of the Celestial Thearch). Sometimes elixir medicine is bestowed; sometimes true scriptures (Jing) are transmitted. Jade lads convey the imperial edict, and the scene is the same as ascension in flight.

Your bones remain where they are, becoming a mere bodily shell, like the slough of a snake or the cast skin of a cicada. Although they rot and stink, they thereby manifest the marvel of the spirit-soul’s transformation and ascent. Your descendants will bury you with all their care; this, too, is a lingering attachment to kinship and affection. In the end, people do not easily part from their kin, and the habits of former days remain just so. The spirit-soul sometimes returns to look in on them, yet the descendants see only the form and not the person, and so they weep. If at this time you still cannot forget your feelings, and your thoughts remain bound to the dusty world, you cannot enter the hidden darkness, nor can you cast off the defilement of the world. You should sever affection and love and establish your own foundation in the Dao. Your descendants may thereby also receive protection, rise above their obscuration, and set foot on the steps of immortal ascent. Those steps lie before one’s eyes, yet people of the world often do not know it.

Chapter Nine: Taking One’s Place in the Ranks and Ascending the Registers

Ascent to Heaven through shijie, although the paths taken differ, is in every case called transcendence of the ordinary, and the name is entered in the register of immortals and perfected. Some have already received the immortal register from afar while still in the world; others obtain deliverance and registration only after death. There is only the case of having received the immortal register from afar in life and yet receiving no deliverance and registration after death. The case of not having received the immortal register from afar in life, yet obtaining deliverance and registration after death, is not known.

There are many paths of ascent to heaven through corpse liberation (shijie)—what Daoism means by abandoning the physical body so that form and spirit are set free. Although the roads differ, all are called transcendence of the ordinary, and the names are entered in the registers of immortals and perfected ones. Some are granted an immortal office from afar while still alive; others are elevated and registered only after death. There are cases in which a person receives the conferral in life yet is not elevated and registered after death; there are no cases of elevation and registration after death in which the person had never received the conferral.

Some serve as officials of the Celestial Pivot, the central hub of the heavenly realm; others are responsible for the arrangements and furnishings within the Celestial Pivot. Each has a rank, and in the end all ascend to the realm of the Unsurpassed Primordial Azure. The registers record the various immortal offices together with the names of those who hold them. The upper grade takes filial conduct as its foundation; the middle grade advances through the refinement of bodily form; the lower grade takes the salvation of living beings as its merit. All of these enable a person to leave the dusty world. The norms of the Dao (the Way) circulate of themselves, and immortals and perfected ones take their places in due order. Entry into the immortal registers and the recording of names are simple rather than elaborate.

The heavenly realm is provided with Left and Right Bureaus and with the Supremely Subtle Altar of Prohibition, the heavenly altar of precepts and bans. Among these is a nearer altar of prohibition, called the Purple Tenuity Azure Altar, and a place of special importance, called the Golden Portal Crimson Altar. Beside the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the highest deities of Daoism, there are attendant ministers and Left and Right Assistants; the Thirty-two Heavens are likewise provided with Supreme Ministers. The heavenly realm has both territories and institutions, and also civil officials, military officials, and ministers of merit. Among envoys there are grand envoys, minor envoys, and envoys of every miscellaneous kind. Perfected Persons command the hosts, organized into six offices and twelve offices. When the Supreme Thearch bestows favor, each is given a secret character as a credential.

Immortals and perfected ones prize plainness and simplicity. Their words are not ornate; so long as speech accords with the inner heart, there is nothing to fault. Riding cloud carriages and driving cloud horses, they return to the realm of the Three Pure Ones. Cultivation is like cutting and polishing jade or washing and refining gold ore: it can temper a person into a finished vessel. If one cannot be formed into such a vessel, one is cast aside and destroyed. All whose names are listed among the higher immortals each have an immortal station; civil officials and military officials likewise each have their registers, distinguished of themselves. The Dao of the Most High is simple and clear, and does not necessarily depend on records in paper and ink. So long as one constantly holds the true scripture (Jing) in mind and gives rise to no doubt, the hun-soul and Shen (spirit) grow daily more mature, and attainment comes of itself.

Taking One’s Place in the Ranks and Entering a Grade, Chapter Ten

Human advancement has its order of precedence. The upper grade cultivates learning until it penetrates the true Dao; the middle grade accumulates good deeds; the lower grade establishes itself through meritorious achievement. Some hold pure and select offices in the Nine Palaces, the palaces of the heavenly realm; others serve as clerks of lower rank. So long as one constantly holds the true scripture in mind and gives rise to no doubt, the hun-soul and spirit gradually mature, and one naturally comes to gain something.

People differ in aptitude and in the course of their study, each according to an order of precedence. Those of the highest grade study until they thoroughly comprehend the true Dao (the Way); those of the middle grade accumulate good deeds; those of the lower grade devote themselves to establishing merit. Some hold pure and honored offices in the Nine Palaces, while others become officials of lower rank. Each is appointed to fill a post according to his or her own capacity, and their names are entered in the rolls of the armies of heaven. The clerks and soldiers of the River Source of the Three Heavens and of the Six Bureaus, whether their abilities are strong or weak and whether they are men or women, need only cultivate and study continually as conditions allow, and they will obtain this rare and excellent causal affinity.

There are women among the Jade Lads (celestial attendants) as well. Women of a lower level of cultivation may likewise become female soldiers. Each person has inborn skills and spiritual capacity. The causes of goodness arise from study, and study is brought to fulfillment by keeping the precepts. When one first takes up practice, one must observe the precepts with care and must not treat conscripted labor as a method of cultivation. One must also study the principles set forth in the scriptures (Jing) and accumulate every kind of virtuous conduct (De). What is learned in life becomes one’s support after death. After death one may take one’s place in the ranks along the cloud-roads of heaven, or receive office in the hidden darkness (the underworld). Each brings his or her particular strengths into play and naturally will not become confused or lose composure.

Practitioners of the highest grade, relying on good deeds, can do what they formerly could not do, recognize what they formerly did not understand, and comprehend what they formerly did not know. This is the power of the Ten Good Deeds (ten kinds of virtuous action). Thus some remain pure, quiet, and plain, peacefully nourishing themselves, and are listed among the sinecure officials (officials without fixed duties). The Lord on High issues a talismanic mandate and entrusts affairs to them for investigation and examination. Some are placed in offices of the inner precincts, attending beside the Celestial Emperor; others serve as officers of miscellaneous duties. Some serve as Jade Lads in the imperial chambers of the Morning Pole; some serve as stewards, hurrying about their business along the halls and corridors; some serve as strongmen, the armor and shields they wear shining with light; and still others rank as senior generals, leading armies out on campaign. There are also those who manage the affairs of the generals, or who become ordinary officials and common soldiers.

The blessed lands of eight-by-nine, the grotto-heavens of six-by-six, and the rivers, seas, mountains, and peaks each have their own names. All receive office according to merit, without the slightest discrepancy and without partiality. The archives of the Celestial Pivot (the celestial office that keeps the registers) maintain the comprehensive record and conduct affairs, verifying appointments and dismissals, advances and withdrawals; in everything they handle, nothing departs from the regulations.

Chapter Eleven: Aspiring to Study and Attaining the Dao

Those who have attained the Dao (the Way) ought likewise to set their resolve on studying the Great Dao. They are not selfish, not crooked or deviant, and they do not give way to licentious desire. Even if only a single such thought arises in the mind, the mingguan—officers of the netherworld charged with investigation and judgment—will examine it and inflict punishment. The statutes of the celestial realm and the arrangements of the divinities are, by their very nature, profound and hard to fathom. Those who cultivate the Way should hold fast to themselves, neither indulging nor growing slack, so as to preserve long life and never again fall into the dusty world.

People of the dusty world—whether emperors, the host of officials and noble kin, or farmers—so long as they live in the lower realm, each has prior causes. According to the karma they have created, that is, their actions and the cause and effect these bring, people receive corresponding destinies: some are exalted, some poor, some humble, some wealthy, and all of this is bound up with their own thoughts.

The divinities of the various heavens were once people of this world; when people of the world cultivate the Great Dao, they can become celestial gods. If celestial gods abandon cultivation and study, they will again be ordered to return to the dusty world. By continuing to learn, one may avoid falling; only by observing the precepts can one proceed in accordance with the Dao.

The Venerable God Tianpeng passed through five hundred thousand kalpas (jie, spans of time of immense length), General Zhenwu through twenty-four kalpas, the Perfected One Who Relieves Suffering through ten million kalpas, and the Primordial Lady of the Day Watch through fifteen kalpas, before they became celestial gods. They were not transformation-bodies produced by divinities, but people of the world who became gods after death, or who ascended into the celestial realm after cultivating immortality.

The Celestial Official records their surnames, the Terrestrial Official registers their given names, and the Water Official records their merits; the Metropolitan Office of the Celestial Pivot registers their offices and ranks of nobility. Having merit and no fault, they do not fall even after passing through kalpas. After examination and evaluation by the Three Origins (Sanyuan, the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water), their names are entered in a special grade. The Jade Emperor orders that their virtue be praised. Great immortals of this kind are too numerous to record one by one; only one or two are briefly cited here to make the principle clear.

We who take up cultivation and study afterward ought to set our resolve and not change it. The celestial realm has documents and also name registers; cultivation can accumulate merit and can also redeem offenses. Since the means of cultivating the Way are already at hand, one should not abandon them oneself. Hungry ghosts and animals are not alien kinds wholly unrelated to human beings; they too result from people being reborn because of the offenses they committed. Therefore, neither the hells nor the celestial prisons should be regarded lightly.

Secret Writings on the Celestial Dao, Chapter Twelve

Anyone who cultivates the Way (Dao) of the superior immortals must know its essential points. Concealed within the celestial realm are both the names of the gods and their divine characters. The title of the Most High Three Pure Ones (Sanqing) is “Kongtong Chi’er,” and the designation of the Jade Emperor and Purple Tenuity is “Zhiyuan Zhongzhi.” The divine names recorded for the Northern and Southern Dippers and the Three Terraces include the gods Zixin, Ziyin, Gengwu, Dingren, and Zigui. There are also the titles Mengshu, Mengliang, Zhongbao, Zhongqing, Jiyu, and Jiqian. All of these are the divine names of the Two Courts.

Within the Three Terraces are four holy divine lords: Yunyu, Qijing, Fengliang, and Qingqi. The Great Yang and the Great Yin are the revered stars of the sun and the moon, named Xuan and Nü, and these are likewise titles of the gods of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water). The five planets have still other names: Mercury is called Yan, Mars is called Ying, Jupiter is called Miao, Venus is called Jian, and Saturn is called Zhen.

They hold sway over every kind of authority and also govern the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions and the Thirty-Two Heavens. Gonghua, Yaobo, Yangguan, Tangxuan, Muju, Zitai, Ana, Dongxuan, Danfa, Changjia, Zhihou, Gunteng, Shajie, Nachou, Huifu, and Yangzhan are all secret divine names of the celestial realm, and the related titles are recorded in the method of salvation.

Zhuzong Liju, Chuantong Kuilun, Qiaozi Meijin, Shoushan Teling, Yueshi Baojia, Fenglü Zhuyan, and Baipeng Deshu are all titles of the fixed stars. The five planets are ranged and move across the heavens, each with its own transformed body. The lord of the Celestial Pivot is called Daoling; he comprehends every form upon the earth and is the chief of all the gods. The Five Marchmounts and the Four Rivers—the five sacred mountains and the four great rivers—are each under the charge of spirits, and their duties and essential points are all set down in the Numinous Writ.

To recite these titles can dispel calamity, and the hundred ghosts will fear them. The names of the people of the Sha River do not belong within the ordering of these titles.

Numinous Writ, Upper Grade, Chapter Thirteen

This passage of the Jing (scripture) consists mainly of transliterated mantras, preserving the phonetic spellings of Sanskrit or other foreign languages, and cannot be translated character by character as ordinary Chinese. Syllables such as “都翳昙扬岐啰……悉地腾崩伽梵阿弊跋夜茶” recur in the mantra and belong to the wording recited in ritual; on the basis of the existing text alone, the specific meaning of each syllable cannot be reliably determined. The closing phrase “灵书下品篇第十四” is the chapter title, indicating the fourteenth chapter of the Lingshu Xiaopin (Lower Grade of the Numinous Writ).

In this passage a great many characters appear garbled, or to come from incantations that cannot be made out, and the text cannot be read through coherently on that basis. What can be recognized seems to include phrases such as “wind-wheel fire-chariot” and “driving out evil and cutting down violence,” together with esoteric mantra syllables such as om, hūṃ, and svāhā. These may be connected with Daoist rites of exorcism and the averting of harm, yet the wording that survives is not enough to fix their precise meaning.

“Lingshu Shifan pian, Chapter Fifteen” is the title of the section, meaning the fifteenth chapter of the Lingshu Shifan.

The Supreme—the highest Dao (the Way)—dwells amid primordial chaos, and within it there are divine immortals; among those immortals there are, in turn, the great immortals. Scattered through the heavens like the stars and constellations, they are circled in their courses by the Four Symbols: the Azure Dragon (Qinglong), the White Tiger (Baihu), the Vermilion Bird (Zhuque), and the Dark Warrior (Xuanwu). These immortals once lived in the human world and cultivated the true Dao. When their merits and practices had become illustrious and complete, they suddenly ascended to the heavens. The Celestial Emperor appointed them to office and granted them seats and banquet fare; the Lord on High further bestowed titles upon them and, in numinous writs, recorded their subtle and mysterious deeds. What the numinous writs record governs the immortals’ name registers and the affairs that concern them.

“Danta Sujia” is the foremost among them. Reciting this chapter can unravel and dispel evil conditions. Hearing your call, they come together before you: at times one seems to see cloud-robes fluttering, at times one hears the clear ring of jade pendants. Sometimes they transform into Daoist priests or officials, sometimes into strongmen or valiant guards, protecting you as you recite the scripture. The meaning of this scripture is profound beyond profound. Close the eyes and meditate in stillness, and one may ascend to perfection within the Thirty-Two Heavens, so that spiritual consciousness is raised. When the hun and po souls have been cultivated to maturity, one naturally enters the ranks of the immortals and the perfected.

I possess precious charts, and I also possess precious registers—documents that record the names and titles of immortals, talismanic mandates, or methods and instructions. Whoever can cultivate according to them will naturally come to be fully endowed with the attainment of the Dao. The methods of refining the bodily form, the arts of cultivating the true, the medicinal formulas for saving people, and the blessing methods for teaching and transforming others all take filial piety and fraternal affection—honoring one’s parents and loving one’s brothers—as their foundation, and are further used to support and protect others. The light of the heavens, the Jing (essence) of the heavens, the elixir of the heavens, and the excellence of the heavens can all be gained through cultivation of this kind. Once you have practiced accordingly, you will be able to obtain them.

Recite this scripture ten thousand times, and you may dwell in the Southern Palace, a palace of the heavens, your name carried up to the Lord on High. Riding the wind and traveling through the void, you come and go freely, now to the west, now to the east. Those who study and cultivate in later times are likewise willing to heed this and practice in accordance with it.

The text may be included as chapter sixteen.

All who cultivate the immortal Dao (the Way) must understand the concentration of Shen (spirit). What is the concentration of Shen? It means making the spirit unified and single-minded, and thereby transforming the bodily form. Practiced in this way, one cultivates and nourishes oneself and naturally attains ascent to the True and becomes an immortal.

What is ascent to the True? One must first recognize Shen. How can Shen be recognized? By obtaining the precious chart that I transmit. The precious chart is the source of primordial Qi (vital energy)—the fundamental energy that constitutes heaven, earth, and the myriad things—and it is also the guiding outline of how primordial Qi circulates and transforms. It is the medicine of immortality, and it is also the method of becoming immortal. How is the precious chart obtained, and on what does this depend? It depends on filial reverence toward one’s parents, affection toward one’s brothers, and kind treatment of the six relations (parents, brothers, wife, and other kin). Only those who can practice filial piety and fraternal duty may cultivate according to my book.

My book is no ordinary work. It is Fulu (talismans and registers) bestowed by the Lord on High. Wear the Fulu and practice according to the charts and methods, and you may suddenly mount the void and ascend. Take the radiance of the sun and moon together with the Jing (essence) and Qi of the five stars, compound and refine them into an elixir, and use it to nourish the body. Take the keen Qi of the sun and moon together with the sharp edge of the five stars, forge them into a precious sword, and use it to protect yourself. Once the body is made firm, nature and life are settled as well. There are also numinous talismans that can drive out ghosts and malign spirits. When ghosts and malign spirits can no longer intrude, the Dao has been accomplished.

Cultivating the Dao can be used to aid the common people, and it can also free one from birth and death. In the celestial realm there are offices and allotted duties, and there is also clothing and food. In the ears there is immortal medicine, and in the eyes there are immortal flowers. When cultivation is complete, one may wander freely and ascend into the heavens, dwelling among the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the highest celestial realm venerated in Daoism. There, offices are fixed and close ministers attend. As a revered deity of the celestial realm, once one receives an office, one’s name is entered among them.

All who cultivate the immortal Dao must not corrupt my teaching. They should practice it with care and cultivate my supreme Dao. If a good person wishes to learn, examine that person’s conduct with a sincere heart, draw up a covenant document, offer gold, and swear an oath before the gods. The Jing (scriptures) must not be transmitted to others at will.

The Precious Chart of Wondrous Being, Chapter Seventeen

What is the precious chart? One should practice with care and cultivate my supreme Dao. If a good person wishes to learn, examine that person’s conduct with a sincere heart, draw up a covenant document, offer gold, and swear an oath before the gods. The scriptures must not be transmitted to others at will.

The Precious Chart of Wondrous Being, Chapter Seventeen

What is the Precious Chart? It is the key to ascending into the realm of the immortals and the perfected. Face south with your back to the north, and visualize yourself within a star altar. The star altar is nine chi and two cun high. The sun and the moon stand to the left and the right, while the Northern Dipper and the Southern Dipper are set before and behind. Above is the floriate canopy, and all around are the Vermilion Bird, the White Tiger, the Azure Dragon, and the Dark Warrior, together with the spirit-positions of Qian, Kun, Gen, Xun, and the other directions of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams), each arranged in its fixed order.

Visualize the deities and guide the Qi (vital energy) within the body—the vital breath of life spoken of in Daoism. Form a hand seal, pressing it upon the lines of the Mao position. Dressed in ritual robes, you are as one who has received the transmission of registers, the rite by which Daoist office and Fulu (talismans and registers) are conferred. Go straight to the Gate of Humanity and enter according to the Ding-gang step method, the Daoist practice of treading the guideline and pacing the stars. Take three Ding-gang steps and ascend one tier of the altar. Walk from the left side of the altar while reciting my divine incantation, and go directly toward the Earth Door; then move to the left again, continuing the incantation, and enter the Gate of Heaven. After entering the Gate of Heaven, it is as though you see immortals.

Two immortals, the Jade Lad and the Jade Maiden, attend beside you, offering incense and conveying words, and transmit the ritual registers to you. You kneel for a long while with eyes closed, as if seeing a divine person riding a five-colored cloud, wearing the ritual robes of Shangqing (Highest Clarity), who transmits the talisman of the Jade Emperor and calls your name. Another person holds a yaojue, a cup made of jade; a fragrance rises from the cup, and the ritual registers are transmitted to you.

You again kneel for a long while with eyes closed, as if seeing a divine person riding a five-colored cloud and wearing Shangqing ritual robes, who transmits the talisman of the Jade Emperor and calls your name. Another person holds a jade cup filled with jade-mist nectar. Within the Northern Dipper there is a stream of black Qi; within the Southern Dipper, a stream of crimson Qi. Within the sun and the moon there are, respectively, red Qi and white Qi; and within the floriate canopy there is five-colored Qi. These Qi flow into the cup. If you are able to receive them, perform two bows and then drink.

Then withdraw the ritual seal, descend from the altar, and exit by circling to the right. As you go out, recite my incantation, and there will naturally be benefit. On Gengshen days and Jiazi days, and at the Sanyuan and Sanhui—particular days of fasting and deity worship in the Daoist calendar—practice diligently, and you will master the secret essentials of the flowing forth of the Primordial Guideline.

Chapter Eighteen: Reverently Wearing the Precious Registers

The Celestial Worthy saves and delivers all living beings. Practice diligently, and you will master the secret essentials of the flowing forth of the Primordial Guideline.

In order to save and deliver the people of the world, the Celestial Worthy transmitted the ritual methods of talismans and registers (Fulu) and of Bugang (pacing the Dipper). After one has ascended the three steps of the altar platform, one may once again drink the broth of flowing rosy clouds. On descending the altar, one turns to the right and departs, treading the steps of Bugang and walking out of the star-pattern of the Northern Dipper. Six stars seem to cover the crown of the head; one turns and enters the mouth of the Dipper. Walking step by step, as if entering a colorless realm, one passes through the Ji lunar mansion and circles the handle of the Dipper. When this whole rite has been completed, one proceeds at ease toward the imperial homeland. Thereupon one beholds the venerable spirits (Shen) within the Golden Portal; I have already wandered the worlds of the ten directions. On leaving the heavenly realm, one receives a noble rank conferred by the celestial court, and the hun and po souls are naturally at peace.

If you wish to know my precious chart, you may consult two scriptural texts (Jing); if you wish to know my precious register, the true instructions of the method are recorded in it. Take the writing of the Jade Emperor, face the Northern Dipper, and write it in cinnabar. On every jiazi day, inscribe it in seal script at home. Ingest one talisman each day, and saliva and refined essence will naturally arise. Wear it on your person and do not let it leave your body, and you may become an immortal. Becoming an immortal is not far off; by following the Yuan'gang (the method of the Way [Dao] that governs the order of heaven and earth), one may ascend into the lofty and distant realm.

Chapter Nineteen: The Spell of the Gates of Heaven and Earth

Whoever wishes to learn the way of the immortals has a method for learning it; the immortal formula is not difficult, for it lies within my precious chart. Wear the Fulu and practice according to the chart, and spirits will naturally grant their protection. The precious register mentioned above may be swallowed. How should one wear it? One must follow the corresponding ritual art. Burn incense and visualize the altar space, so that the altar platform appears lofty and majestic; ascend the altar to invite the spirits, and descend the altar while pacing the Dipper. The hun and po of ordinary people likewise all... The precious register mentioned above may be swallowed. How should one wear it? One must follow the corresponding ritual art. Burn incense and visualize the altar space, so that the altar platform appears lofty and majestic; ascend the altar to invite the spirits, and descend the altar while pacing the Dipper.

The hun and po souls of mortal human beings all require a secret spell. How does one recite the spell? In the daytime, visualize the “Earth Gate” (the portal leading to the earthly realm) and recite:

The Way of the immortals is remote, profound, and subtle; it is the abode of the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun). I wish to ascend the altar, hoping that my mind and spirit will be clear and bright and that my thoughts will be transformed. I pray that the Most High (Taishang) bestow upon me the flowing rosy clouds. The broth of flowing rosy clouds spreads a fragrant vital energy (Qi); after I drink it, I am able to pace the Dipper. Spirit-lords within the five viscera, and incense officers on duty, please hear my secret spell, and may each of you likewise be at peace.

Afterward, when one enters the Gate of Heaven, there is also a secret spell:

The supreme and unsurpassed Daluo Heaven, and within the Daluo Heaven the Realm of Jade Clarity. In the Palace of Jade Clarity dwells the Perfected One Who Delivers by the Method. Please hear me recite the secret incantation, to liberate and ferry my corpse-body; bring forth that jade aurora, and with it purify my spirit-soul (Shen). I now pace the guideline and tread the Dipper (advancing by a prescribed sequence of steps, symbolizing ascent into the heavens), and set out for the Imperial Homeland (the dwelling of the Celestial Emperor). On reaching the Imperial Homeland, I shall go up to have audience with the Jade Emperor. I then recite the secret incantation once more, and the stellar altar descends. The secret incantations are recorded in two chapters of the Numinous Writs.

The Numinous Writs record the names and titles of the hundred spirits, concerning the Thirty-two Heavens and the Twenty-five Divisions (the levels or sections of the celestial realm). The presiding deities of every quarter all come forward to receive me, and the guiding spirits lead me as I circle to and fro. At last I ascend the Golden Portal (the palace towers of the celestial realm) and arrive at the supreme Mysterious Realm.

Chapter Twenty: The Category of Summoning Spirits

The Jingming Jing (Pure Brightness scripture/classic) is the root of every kind of ritual art. Cultivated according to the proper regulations, it enables one to command ghosts and spirits, dispel illness and dissolve calamity, and also summon rain and set the clouds in motion. It can both help people escape the sufferings of life and death and bring relief to the common people. Practitioners uphold the charts of the method and wear Fulu (talismans and registers), pacing the Gang by the prescribed steps—walking in a specific sequence so as to symbolize the movement of Tiangang, the Celestial Gang. When cultivation is complete and merit has been achieved, one’s name and rank are entered in the heavens. Spirits of every kind obey the summons, and demons and specters have nowhere to hide.

The ritual altar is staffed with divine generals such as the Chief Marshal and the Chief Envoy, and is divided into an outer altar and an inner altar. Together the inner and outer altars command thirty-six generals, whose duties include seizing, confining, binding, and interrogating ghosts and monsters; among them are the Disheveled-Haired Yaksha, the Jail-Head Yellow-Head, and others. There are also the Fire Marshal, the Fire Wheel, the Majestic Virtue of the Four Directions, Lingguan Wulang, the Twelve Yakshas, and commanders such as the Roaming Patrol, the Illuminating Captor, the Swift Captor, and the Soul-Pursuer. Each of these divine generals has deputy generals as well. The text further mentions such titles as Qianyuan, Hengli, Tucha, and Guotian.

Summoning living souls and the souls of the dead, and deploying the thunder chariots and the Thunder Ministry, all fall under the regulation of Tianshu, the Celestial Pivot, and the jurisdiction of Tiangang. In performing these arts, each has its corresponding method of invocation. Once the call is sent forth, the sound arrives borne on Qi (vital energy)—the energy of life and of cosmic operation spoken of in Daoism. When Qi meets Shen (spirit), the spirits naturally appear before one’s eyes. One may then command the celestial generals together with their officers and troops. Each class of divine general has a prescribed number, and their dream visitations and manifest responses occur at the appointed times. This is what is called the “Three-Five Flying Paces,” and it is the essential art of commanding ghosts and spirits within the methods of Dongshen (Cavern of Spirit).

Chapter 21: The Three-Five Flying Paces

The Three-Five Flying Paces is the method that takes overall command of the flowing stellar cords. Tianying, Tianren, Tianzhu, Tianxin, Tianqin, Tianfu, Tianchong, and Tiannei, advancing step by step until they reach Tianpeng, are together called the “Seven Transformations.” Upward it corresponds to the patterns of heaven, like that Primordial…

The “Three-Five Flying Steps” (Sanwu Feibu) are the general framework of pacing the Gang and stepping the Dipper (Tagang Budou). Tianying, Tianren, Tianzhu, Tianxin, Tianqin, Tianfu, Tianchong, and Tiannei, finally reaching Tianpeng, are called the “Seven Transformations.” This set of steps corresponds above to the patterns of heaven and, like the Yuangang (Primordial Guideline) in the sky, is exceedingly subtle and marvelous.

The six steps of the Three Terraces (Santai) begin at the mouth of the Northern Dipper. Taking “seven times seven” as the count, one circles to the left and forms the position of Fire; this is Zhengzhen (Orthodox Truth). Walking east for eighty-one steps completes the Great Yang (Taiyang); walking west for sixty-four steps completes the Great Yin (Taiyin). One first turns to the right, then changes direction and proceeds to the left, going back and forth in this manner seven times in all. One then walks leftward toward the east, passing through the stellar lodges of the ten directions.

The stellar lodges of the ten directions include the Twenty-Eight Lodges. The Dinggang of each lodge consists of twelve steps. One spirals from the Ji lodge to the Dou lodge, then spirals back from the Dou lodge to the Ji lodge, gazing directly upon Dakui (a stellar deity of the Northern Dipper). Turning left and facing south, one walks forty-nine steps; this is called Jiaofeng (the crossing of points), indicating that one again passes the position of the Fire Star. Passing the position of Great Yin, one walks six times six—thirty-six steps—and enters the Water lodge; from the Water lodge one then walks east to beside the Great Yang and, proceeding left for sixty-four steps, forms the position of Wood.

Turning back and advancing once more is called Wuying (the name of a stellar deity). The Gongzi (the name of a stellar deity) passes through the Water lodge and, by means of the Gang steps, sets out again from beside the moon, forming the position of the Metal Star—that is, the Venerable Deity Baiyuan (the deity corresponding to the Metal Star). With fine steps one proceeds to the center and then to the mouth of the Dipper, walking thirty-five steps and forming the position of Earth. Earth commands and gathers the breath (Qi, vital energy); borrowing the Gang steps of the Metal quarter, one returns to Wuying. The Gongzi passes through the Water lodge and, by means of the Gang steps, sets out again from beside the moon, forming the position of the Metal Star and the Venerable Deity Baiyuan; with fine steps one proceeds to the center and reaches the mouth of the Dipper, walking thirty-five steps to form Earth; Earth again commands and gathers the breath and, borrowing the Metal Gang, one returns to the Water lodge and enters Muchen (the chronogram of Wood).

Finally, facing north and gazing upward, one walks the eight steps of the Eight Effulgences (Bajing) and pays homage at the Celestial Portal (Tianque, the place where the Celestial Emperor resides). The “Three-Five” stepping method above is only an essential outline; when it is fully worked out, the numbers of steps recorded still never depart from the numbers three and five. Practiced in this way, the method allows one to summon the various deities and employ them in service.

“Paying Court to Heaven and Seeing the Emperor,” chapter 22.

The eight effulgences of Tianying (a celestial asterism, or a named rank in the heavenly realm) are all called chaotian, that is, paying court to the heavenly realm. The Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the three supreme deities revered in Daoism, and Ziwei Haotian (the Ziwei celestial palace and the Supreme Emperor of Vast Heaven) are all included among them. When one clicks the teeth five times (the spirit-visualization ritual of tooth-clicking performed five times), it is as if the gods all appear before one’s eyes, and whatever one thinks of or seeks in the heart may be set forth to Heaven. This is what is called “pacing the Dipper and paying court to Heaven” (the Daoist ritual of walking the stations of the Northern Dipper while visualizing an audience with Heaven). This method is said to cure illness and dispel calamity, nourish the true and pursue cultivation, fulfill filial piety, and also command ghosts and spirits. The Four Sages of Tianpeng (the four divine generals of the Tianpeng division) and the various perfected, immortals who have attained the Dao (the Way), will all come forward to receive the practitioner.

When this method is practiced, a numinous elixir appears in heaven: on the left one obtains the “seven bindings,” which serve as the Lord of the Sun; on the right one obtains the “seven killers,” which serve as the Lord of the Moon. Taken and refined through swallowing and breathing, they are called the True Elixir. This elixir is divided into odd and even, Yin-Yang. Ingesting the Yin-Yang elixir is said to confer long life: some can thereby extend their lifespan and in the end become perfected through shijie (becoming immortal by shedding the remains of the physical body); others gain penetrating vision and can closely observe the many spirits. The oral instructions, scriptures (Jing), official posts, and duties of the heavenly realm can all be obtained within oneself. They need not be transmitted by a master, but arise as Heaven’s own accomplishment. What is called “Heaven’s own accomplishment” is precisely the method of paying court to Heaven; by means of it one may enter the supreme wondrous realm and reach Shiqing of one’s own accord (a celestial domain spoken of in Daoism). At this time the Demon Kings of the Ten Heavens, the Great Gods of Long Life, and the True Emperors of the Five Directions all guard the practitioner’s body. Cultivation is like the sun and moon: the longer it continues, the brighter it becomes; it is also like the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), cycling on without cease. Some can even cause their parents to ascend to heaven and bring blessings upon their descendants. This is truly the manifestation of Qi (vital energy) entering a mysterious and wondrous realm.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Cultivating Merit until It Is Fulfilled

Who does not wish to attain the Dao and become an immortal? Learning to become an immortal should begin in youth. In youth one should practice loyalty and filial piety and accumulate De (Virtue/Power) over a long time. In this way one may perhaps enable one’s parents to ascend to heaven and one’s descendants to receive blessings. This is precisely the manifestation of Qi entering a mysterious and wondrous realm.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Cultivating Merit until It Is Fulfilled

Who does not wish to attain the Dao (the Way) and become an immortal? One should begin learning the way of immortality while still young. By practicing loyalty and filial piety in youth and accumulating it over a long time, one can nurture the roots of goodness. One then brings primordial Qi (vital energy) and the Qi and blood to fullness and completion, so that their rising and descending circulation returns to the Dantian (energy center). Holding talismans to aid the sick, the hidden merit thus accumulated can elevate and advance a person. If one cultivates according to my method, need one still worry about being unable to ascend to Heaven?

I have the Jingming Jing (Pure Brightness Scripture). Recite it, study loyalty and filial piety, and at the same time cultivate the body. Divine spirits will come to assist, and one will then be able to cure every kind of illness. Raising fundamental merit and practice from this, one can reach the realm of the immortals. One leaves the gate of affliction and enters the realm of clarity and purity; riding the mysterious crane and the Qi of the clouds, one naturally ascends and soars through the void. Should one wish to command ghosts and spirits, they will follow like pages and servants. The methods of the Six Jia and the Six Ding (divine generals spoken of in Daoism) also originate in this lineage. So long as the work of cultivation is genuine and not empty, and one tempers oneself through it again and again, one will naturally master my methods.

After a full hundred days of cultivation, one can see ghosts and spirits. Why do they come to assist the Lord on High? It is the Lord on High who sends them to aid you. If you are able to revere the Dao well, even demons and specters may come to pay you homage. This is because you possess the root nature of loyalty and filial piety, and your true Qi is full and complete. When merit and practice extend to all living beings, one can take a place in the ranks of the immortals. If one cannot practice this Dao, obtaining the methods will surely be difficult; even if one obtains my arts, they will surely have no effect. Without loyalty and filial piety in the heart, primordial Qi and the Qi and blood are depleted by the pursuit of selfish gain. In this way, the Dao of immortality grows ever more distant. To obtain the methods yet not cultivate is like steaming sand to cook a meal: however much effort one expends, it still will not cook; even when the heat of the fire has made it hot, what has been steamed still cannot be eaten. Among the exalted immortals of the Southern Palace, one has never heard of anyone who was unfilial. Practice the way of filial piety in order to learn immortality, and learning immortality is comparatively easy to achieve.

Secret Standards of Commendation and Honor, Chapter Twenty-Four

The offices established by the Lord on High are the official posts of the various heavens. Each celestial official has a genuine duty, and each also possesses a subtle mystery. Celestial officials receive commendation according to what each has learned; they are granted secret characters, which combine into fine titles, and these are used to bring the higher Dao to completion. To obey and serve one’s parents is filial piety; to revere and serve one’s sovereign is loyalty.

Shangdi (the celestial sovereign venerated in Daoism) appoints the various kinds of celestial officials according to their offices. Each celestial official has a genuine duty, and each has a distinctive mystery of its own. According to what they have learned and practiced, corresponding secret characters are bestowed on them and combined into fine titles, so as to bring to completion the highest undertaking of the Dao (the Way).

Xiao means obeying and providing for one’s parents; zhong means reverently serving one’s ruler; di means being kindly disposed toward one’s elder brothers; he means living in harmony with one’s kin; zhen means preserving and nourishing body and mind together with nature and life; Dao means being thoroughly versed in the scriptural teachings; De (Virtue/Power) means being diligent in rectifying the inner heart; sheng means being able to command ghosts and spirits into service; Shen (spirit) means attaining the realm of utmost sagehood; hui, as wisdom, means clearly discerning what is seen and heard; ling means wisdom shining forth and penetrating the numinous and wondrous; ding means that virtuous conduct remains unchanged from beginning to end; ying means that, while abiding in what is firm and unchanging, one can respond to affairs; gong means diligently carrying out the methods of the Dao; xing means carefully observing the precepts; xian means that virtue, once sufficient, can be made manifest; guang means that after it has been displayed it never changes; zhe means radiance vast and flourishing; bai means that the hun and po souls, through refining cultivation, have become pure; yi means acting decisively and without selfishness; hui, as gathering, means collecting numinous writings far and wide; wen means being plain and yet genuinely of use; zheng means virtuous conduct that is upright and does not enter deviant paths; ren means loving others broadly and never growing weary; xiu means what is excellent and worthy of praise; guo means possessing the fruits formed by every kind of good condition; and su means reverence that endures without slackening.

Titles of this kind are beyond counting—thousands and tens of thousands of them—and all are recorded in the canonical writings. Whoever cultivates the Dao, so long as they diligently practice these qualities, has a way to receive commendation and honor and to enter the secretly transmitted ranks of character.

Jade Statutes of the True Pivot, Chapter 25

The Jade Statutes (Yulü) are important celestial regulations, and within the Purple Court (Ziting) there is the teaching known as Guiqing. Principle and clear understanding have always existed within nature itself. Only by diligently cultivating the orthodox teaching can one attain the Great Dao (the Way); if one is benighted and lost, inverted and without clarity, evil deeds accumulate until they reach their full measure.

Purity without defilement is called “cleanliness,” and cautious vigilance is called “diligence.” When the heart seeks something it has not yet obtained, this is called “the genuine”; coveting what one has not yet obtained is called “genuine greed.” Some acts appear to take and yet not take, to steal and yet not be theft, to be licentious and yet not be licentiousness, to oppose and yet not be opposition, and to comply and yet not be compliance. Compliance and opposition, good and evil, at times transform into one another. To repent of one’s faults, awaken, and learn the methods of the Dao is called “supreme good”; to feign one’s feelings and inborn nature and to go against the true Dao is “great evil.”

Some people, though alive, are not truly living, and some killing is not necessarily killing in substance. Covering up good deeds is a defect; concealing evil deeds is deceit. If the purpose of killing a person is that life may be preserved, this intention is the cherishing of life; to see a person and wish to kill—that alone is called a lust for killing. One who resents father and mother cannot be regarded as truly understanding the principles of nurturing life and of taking life; even while alive, such a person is as one who may be killed. The truly filial do not die, and those whose filial conduct reaches its utmost can become immortals. The way of the immortals is easy to cultivate to completion, yet the way of ghosts is hard to enter.

Goodness is the inherent normal state of human beings, and doing evil is a false deviation; yet if the root of goodness is spoiled by bad habits, it too becomes evil, and if an evil person can reform, that person can turn to good. Therefore those who divulge secrets and act with careless disrespect are instead rewarded, while those who are cautious and reserved are slain. Using falsehood to urge people to do good is called “trustworthiness”; using sincere intent to cover up faults is deceit. Faults committed in secret have a great effect, while faults shown outwardly have a small effect. When a fault arises from the heart and is not revealed, the guilt is already very heavy; when the conduct is displayed outwardly and the heart feels shame, the offense has already been relieved.

Do not suppress the good deeds of others; to suppress good deeds is to depart from the Great Dao. Even if one seizes what another delights in, if this is in order to guide that person toward the Dao, it still counts as tending toward the Great Dao. The light of Heaven manifests from the earth, and the light of fire illuminates a person’s brightness; with the aid of a bright mirror, these principles can be seen clearly.

Chapter Twenty-Six, “Penetrating Insight into What Precedes Life” (Dongshi Shengqian Pian): the chapter on discerning the prior causes of life, the twenty-sixth chapter.

When the ground of the mind is bright and clear and true nature is undimmed, one can discern the experiences of one’s former lives, understand the habits formed in the past, and from this plant the roots of goodness. So long as no error arises in one’s study, there is hope of bringing to completion the Way (Dao) of the immortals. What, after all, is the way of the immortals? It is the realm that spiritual nature is able to reach; only by thoroughly discerning the principles within it can one enter the mysterious and subtle gate of practice. The principles of this mysterious gate are perfectly plain, and from them one can see one’s own past course of cultivation and study.

If one can practice again and again reach this realm, one may naturally attain realization. Realization is not difficult; if one continues to learn, one will in the end arrive. To pass through long ages without change, true knowledge never lost—this is called “cavern discernment” (dongshi). From cavern discernment one goes on to penetrate Dongshen (the Cavern of Spirit); and from Dongshen one gains the capacity to discern things with penetration. What is meant by “cavern” (dong) is that both the obscure and the bright can be seen clearly, and neither light nor darkness can shake the mind—this is wisdom of the highest order.

The practitioner can cause spirit-consciousness to ascend, moving back and forth amid the numbers three and five, and roaming through the heavenly realms; upon each level of the heavens there are Perfected Persons (zhenren, those who have attained the Dao). The Perfected’s methods of cultivation are perfectly clear in principle: cleansing the viscera and nourishing the vital spirit (Shen). The medicine of nature, together with talismans and incantations, is highly efficacious. In cultivation there is the “Heavenly Drum” (tiangu, the name in Daoist internal practice for sounds that resound within the body), which may be struck so that it gives forth sound; there is also the “Jade Spring” (yuquan, the fluids of the mouth), inexhaustible in supply. The Jade Spring is the saliva of the Floral Pool (huachi, the mouth); its flavor is sweet as honey and wholly pure. One swallows the saliva while clicking the teeth to sound them, completing one round in six times. In this way one preserves and nourishes one’s own original spirit, as if bathing the moon and washing the sun. When sun and moon are bright, heaven and earth grow clear along with them; when the myriad forms appear, the spirit-soul transcends and departs.

This is what is called “bright cavern vision,” used to observe ghosts and spirits. It can illumine what lies ten thousand li away, and it can also examine oneself. Ghosts and spirits uphold the practitioner, enabling one to reach realms that are hidden, subtle, and profound.

Gently swallow the saliva, then stroke and press the body, guiding the breath so that Qi (vital energy) unites with the intent of Shen (spirit). The Great Demon of the Five Heavens is the patriarch of the myriad spirits; summon this being, and the inner Zhenren (Perfected Person) will return, guard the root of life, gather in and draw back the hun-spirits, and bring them back to the body, their dwelling, so that they rest unshaken and are no longer scattered and lost. In this way, even withered wood can flower again.

Let body and mind return to primordial chaos and profound stillness, congealing into one and gathering in the Niwan (the palace of Shen and Qi within the head); the Niwan communicates with the Jianggong (the palace of Shen and Qi in the region of the heart). When the spirit of the Jianggong returns, Shen is brought back to its proper place and restored to the true. Thus even dried bones may regain life, and the dead may all rise and become the living.

In this process there are certain appellations: “Moni,” “Fazong,” “Huanzhen,” “Mengcong,” and “Yuluo.” They are envoys of the Five Heavens, also called “Zhao Mengwu.” The ghosts of flying hun and soaring po each have oral formulas for summoning and methods by which they are commanded. They preside over a person’s body and mind and are the Kings of the Law who deliver the dead. In addition, orthodox Qi fills the body within and without; after penetrating inside and outside, it reaches the joints. When body and mind are settled and unshaken, understanding arises of itself.

One then recites the incantation:

“Zhenren Who Restore Life, Zhenren Who Save from Suffering, please cause the saliva to be gently swallowed and the breath to be cultivated and regulated, so that the gathered Qi unites with Shen. May the hun and po return once more and be removed from the register of the dead. O Great Demon of the Five Heavens, please deliver the corpse and restore life to so-and-so (the name of the person for whom the incantation is offered). Quickly, quickly, carry this out in accordance with the statutes and ordinances.”

As for the methods of coordinating hand seals, eye techniques, and the sites of the joints, these are recorded in secret manuals; only when one meets a person of suitable affinity who is fit to receive the teaching may they be transmitted and practiced.

Chapter 28: The Examination and Disposition of Form in Youdu (chapter title: Youdu refers to the dark nether realm; “kaoxing” means examining and disposing of the bodily form).

On Mount Fengdu (the abode of the underworld in Daoist teaching) prisons are established, and the Great Emperor Lord presides over judgment. Many luomo (spirits of the underworld who punish guilty souls) chastise evil ghosts. Guilty souls undergo death hundreds and thousands of times and are reborn again and again; only after long kalpas of transmigration are they at last reborn as the six kinds of livestock. If one asks why these guilty souls receive such retribution, it is in every case because they were unfilial. The Five Rebellions (grave acts that violate ethical order) likewise take root in the heart: the heart is benighted and unwilling to reform, and next one fails to respect and love one’s elder brothers; disrespect toward elder brothers and unfiliality toward parents then develop into disloyalty. Craving wealth, craving sensual allure, craving wine, and craving licentiousness give rise to every kind of fault, offending Yin-Yang and going against Heaven and Earth. Through all twelve double-hours, offenses are recorded and reported to the heavenly court; the heavenly court then orders the Tianshu (the governing office of the celestial realm) to seize and confine the soul, and after death it is consigned to Fengdu.

If someone recites this Jing (scripture), sins can be wiped away. Reciting the Jing while practicing filial piety and loving one’s brothers, correcting one’s conduct and repenting so as to begin anew, one can become a transcendent and naturally ascend into the celestial realm. Yet the path of ascent is not easy; cultivation has its own secret. The secret is not hard to seek: if one truly fulfills filial piety, one naturally attains it. Should one meet a person who understands the principle, that person will explain the meaning of the method. Once one has understood and strives to practice it, one can leave the sufferings of Fengdu.

Even without reciting this Jing, so long as one no longer clings to the offenses of former days, one can still redeem the souls of one’s ancestors. Practicing filial piety and brotherly love in accord with a rectified heart, one need not necessarily recite this Jing. This Jing was established to bring the foolish to repentance and to save those who have sunk into suffering. May the immortal youths of our Daoist tradition never forget filial piety and fraternal respect.

Jingming Zhengyin Pian (Pure Brightness Orthodox Seal), Chapter Twenty-Nine

The various methods of Jingming are gathered together here; from beginning to end the whole text comprises forty chapters. Filial piety can be used to redeem the souls of one’s ancestors. Practicing filial piety and fraternal respect in accord with the heart, one need not necessarily recite this Jing. This Jing serves to bring the foolish to repentance and awakening and to save those who have sunk. May the immortal youths of our Daoist tradition never let filial piety and fraternal respect depart from their hearts.

Jingming Zhengyin Pian, Chapter Twenty-Nine

The various methods of Jingming (Pure Brightness) are all gathered together in this scripture (Jing), forty chapters in all. Cultivation takes filial piety as its foundation and the cultivation of one’s person as its guiding principle. Only the way of filial piety is worth learning; practice according to it, and one may ascend into the celestial palace. The celestial palace has all along been right before one’s eyes; it fails to appear only because the methods I have transmitted have not been put into practice.

Reciting this Jingming Jing and cultivating according to the Jingming methods can dispel a thousand kinds of calamity and can also subdue every sort of demon, monster, and sprite. When cultivation is complete, attainment comes of itself; even after passing through a thousand kalpas, one will not lose one’s life. In the hall there is an elder of a hundred years; among the family, kin draw no distinction between near and distant; white-haired grandchildren still laugh and play in the courtyard. This is to say that by cultivating this fundamental primordial Qi (vital energy)—the qi at the source of life—one can enter a realm both mysterious and profound.

The mysterious ritual methods are divided into thirty-five categories, and besides these there are two exquisite numinous writings. Cultivating according to the scriptural methods, one may prolong one’s years, see ghosts and spirits, cast gold and jade, summon wind and rain, deliver the souls of the dead, and also bring warfare to an end. So long as one firmly believes in and holds to this teaching and recites this scripture, one will receive the protection of the immortals. With these three scriptural texts I teach you to recite, and you will be able to attain the superior perfected (a perfected person, zhenren, of high rank—an immortal perfected).

Becoming a perfected person is not difficult; in learning, one must begin with the way of filial piety. Filial respect toward one’s elder brothers is not hard to practice either; what matters is to follow the wishes of one’s parents and to serve them. Parents are, in their origin, Celestial Worthies (Tianzun); you should take this to heart and understand it.

Jingming Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) Talisman Chapter, the Thirtieth

To cultivate the Jingming Jing (scripture) and practice the Jingming method, one should first carry out the duties of filial piety, and only then learn to refine and nourish the bodily form. Once body and mind are settled, one uses upright Qi (vital energy) to subdue the hundred ghosts and to rescue living beings, and thereby accumulates merit. Merit is not difficult to accumulate, so long as one studies the Jingming Jing with care.

The Jingming Jing contains precious talismans, and the oral formulas and ritual items transmitted in it are all clearly set forth. Among them are deities such as the Venerable of the Numinous Treasure, the Great Perfected of the Numinous Treasure, the Chief Registrar of the Celestial Pivot, and the Great Primordial Lord on daily duty, who oversee the statutes and carry out the secret Keyi (liturgy). Cultivated according to the method, spiritual efficacy appears of itself. There are also the great divine generals, the Great Demon Kings of the Ten Heavens, the Four Sage Great Generals, the sixteen generals of the inner and the outer, and the talisman clerks of the four watches, who deploy numinous talismans for the practitioner and assist in accomplishing the ritual arts.

When an unfilial person cultivates this method, it is like casting snow into hot broth: faults dissolve of themselves, and unfiliality can be transformed into sincere filial conduct. Filial sincerity is the root of practice; going further, one can also rescue the people of the world. When merit accumulates up to Heaven, the way of immortality is naturally achieved. If one wishes to know how to become a person who practices filial piety, one should continue to recite the Jingming Jing.

To practice the Jingming method is like clouds of Qi arising beneath a dragon’s feet. Once the clouds arise, both wind and thunder can be commanded by you, and the precious Jingming talismans will likewise display their efficacy.

Chapter Thirty-One, “On Delivering the Six Kin.”

The first talisman is said to be available to anyone willing to receive and cultivate it. On the natal days of one’s parents and the six close kin—personal auspicious days reckoned from the heavenly stems and earthly branches of their birth—one writes a Fulu (talismans and registers) in cinnabar, while forming hand seals and visualizing oneself as Xiaodao Mingwang, the Brilliant King of the Way of Filial Piety, a revered deity of Daoism. After chanting the incantation and writing the talisman, one has the person swallow it; it is said that the parents and the six kin can then enjoy long life.

The second talisman is likewise said to be for anyone willing to receive and cultivate it. On the day when parents or the six close kin die, one writes the talisman in cinnabar, while forming hand seals and visualizing oneself as Xiaodao Mingwang. After chanting the incantation and writing the talisman, one burns it, mixes the ashes with clay, and places this over the deceased’s heart. The Jing (scripture/classic) says that, by the power of this method, the dead may return from death to life, their hun and po souls regaining life, and thus receive deliverance.

If these two talismans are cultivated with full effort, they can lay a foundation for attaining the fruition of the Dao (the Way); only afterward may one practice the ingestion of Qi (vital energy), the method of drawing in and circulating the breath. In addition, if each day one writes one of each talisman and burns it, it is said that the living receive blessings and protection, while the dead are able to become immortals. This is described as the root of release from birth and death.

Ingesting and Refining the Bodily Form, Chapter 32

Of the talismans transmitted above, the first is said to enable a person to ascend in flight to the heavenly realms, while the second can open the celestial eye, the extraordinary vision of which Daoism speaks. The celestial eye and the celestial ear—the extraordinary hearing of which Daoism speaks—communicate with the Niwan, the site of the upper Dantian (energy center) within the head. This is an important method for ingesting and refining the bodily form, what the scripture calls “transformative birth throughout the various heavens.”

If one can form hand seals and chant incantations, writing these two talismans in cinnabar every day and swallowing them, it is said that the true Qi of the sun, moon, and five planets—the subtle vital energy of heaven, earth, and the stars—will enter the body. After they are taken, one feels no hunger and naturally attains long life. When writing the talismans, one should visualize oneself as Xiaodao Mingwang and as Lingbao Jingming Tianzun, the Heavenly Worthy of Numinous Treasure and Pure Brightness, a revered deity of the Jingming tradition, so that the Heavenly Worthy sends down true Qi and stores it within oneself.

Healing the Hundred Illnesses, Chapter 33

The first method draws a person on the point of death back from the brink and restores that person to life; the second protects life and nurtures the root of life. When someone falls ill, one may close the eyes, still the mind, and visualize, form the hand seal and recite the incantation, and visualize oneself becoming the Brilliant King of the Way of Filial Piety (Xiaodao Mingwang) and the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure and Pure Brightness Who Saves from Suffering (Lingbao Jingming Jiuku Tianzun—the deity venerated by the Jingming school). Talisman pills and incantation water are then given to the patient to take, and the patient will grow calm.

Healing illness by the methods of the Dao (the Way) is called the “power of the Dao”; practicing the methods of the Dao by means of that power is called “fine accumulation”; practicing the methods of the Dao by means of ritual arts is called “attaining the Dao”; and practicing the methods of the Dao by means of the Way of Filial Piety is called the “superior Dao.” The Dao is divided into three grades—upper, middle, and lower—and what is spoken of here is the Dao of the lower grade. Even so, by treating every kind of illness and relieving people’s suffering, one may also attain immortality through this. If one cultivates the Way of Filial Piety and practices fuqi (the Daoist method of breath cultivation, the ingestion of Qi, vital energy), one’s merit and practice are already complete. Mastering these methods is an aid to cultivating the Way of Filial Piety and to refining Qi.

The Thirty-Fourth Section: Binding the Hundred Evils

The talisman on the right is used to bind all manner of evil spirits. If the “Wutong” in an altar or temple—the Wutong deities spoken of in popular religion, or related malign spirits—make mischief and harm people, so that doors and gates open and close by themselves, ponds are damaged, and the like, one should at once take the talisman, recite the incantation, form the hand seal, write it in cinnabar, and post it to suppress them; the evil spirits will then disperse of their own accord.

When writing the incantation and the talismanic script, face north, visualize oneself becoming the Brilliant King of the Way of Filial Piety and the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure and Pure Brightness, and have the Four Saints take up the talisman and carry the rite into effect.

The Thirty-Fifth Section: Securing, Pacifying, and Summoning

Whenever one wishes to summon wind and thunder, the sheling (deities of the soil), or the ghosts and spirits of heaven and earth, one writes a Fulu (talismans and registers) and burns it; after seven days they will arrive. If one wishes to avert calamity and express thanks, one writes the talisman on a large stone and then buries the stone in the ground. These are the secretly transmitted talismanic scripts of the Most High Brilliant King of the Way of Filial Piety and the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure and Pure Brightness. When writing the Fulu, one should visualize oneself becoming the original form of the corresponding deity. There are, in addition, three scrolls of numinous writings, which can be obtained only when one meets a person of the Dao who transmits them.