《太上登真三矫灵应经》

Anyone who studies and cultivates the way of the immortals, upon encountering the Scripture of the Three Jiao (Sanjiao jing), can enter the subtle and wondrous realm of the Dao (the Way). This scripture differs from other Daoist methods and mantic-numerical arts. When it is applied, it is as swift as a spark struck from stone, and its efficacy appears at once like a flash of lightning, so that one may quickly roam the realms of the immortals. The so-called “Three Jiao” are the Dragon Jiao above, the Tiger Jiao in the middle, and the Deer Jiao below. This scripture is said to be a secret classic transmitted within the Palace of Supreme Clarity (Shangqing gong).

In the way of cultivating immortality, the method of the Dragon Jiao is especially important. The dragon can ascend to heaven and enter the earth, pass through mountains and plunge into waters; one who practices this art is difficult even for ghosts and spirits to fathom. It can help those who revere the Dao and cultivate to enter deep and mysterious realms, and thereby to penetrate the Great Dao.

What the Dragon Jiao refers to is Qi (vital energy); Qi is the Dao. By visualizing the Dragon Jiao over a long period and cultivating one’s own person, so that the body is transformed into Qi, one can unite in truth with the Dao, and clouds arise beneath the feet. If those who revere the Dao and cultivate wish to travel the grotto-heavens and blessed lands (the immortal realms of which Daoism speaks), then after practicing the Dragon Jiao, all manner of deviant demons, sprites, and malign beings dare not draw near. Whether one goes to mountains and streams, rivers, or prefectural seats, one can move freely, and the local deities come forth and manifest. Perfected Sun (Sun Zhenren) said that this method is highly efficacious.

The Tiger Jiao is the mother of wind and the child of water. After three years of practice, the tiger comes riding the wind and moves back and forth, just as the wind blows withered leaves and sends them flying up into the sky. When it gathers, it manifests a form; when it disperses, it turns into wind, and it merges as one with the pure Yang Qi between heaven and earth. The Liezi says: “I shall cultivate this method, and naturally be able to attain the Dao.” Those who later receive this method must not divulge it lightly.

Note: In the original text, the passage “Now the Tiger Jiao is the mother of wind and the child of water … Perfected Sun says” appears more than once; the above has been consolidated according to the context.

The “Deer Charm” (Lujiao) is a constant numinous method that can help one who cultivates the Dao (the Way) travel a thousand li in a single day. A person who encounters a white deer may rely on it to find the sacred fungus (lingzhi), knowing the direction in which the lingzhi lies and whether it is near or far. When the white deer comes to the place where the lingzhi grows, it circles the ground three times, and the lingzhi can no longer depart of its own accord. If one gathers and ingests it according to the proper rite, one obtains the lingzhi; if one does not understand this method, one cannot consume it.

The Scripture of the Three Charms (Sanjiao Jing) is a numinous text of heaven and earth, and an art secretly transmitted by the immortals. If it is passed on to an unsuitable person, the one who transmits it first meets with calamity, and the disaster then extends to the nine degrees of kinship. One must therefore establish a covenant oath before the scriptural method may be transmitted to a person of De (Virtue/Power).

Entering the Method

Whoever cultivates the Deer Charm method must first bathe for three days in fragrant water. Thereafter, at midnight on a jiazi day or a gengshen day, one sets up a small altar, with no restriction on its size or height. On the altar one lights a single lamp, sets out one censer of incense, and places three flowers; one spreads eighty-one stalks of white cogongrass and then lays down seven peach leaves. After burning the incense, one reports the prefecture, subprefecture, and county of one’s residence together with one’s name, and prays to the Jade Emperor, saying: “This disciple delights in clarity, stillness, and Wuwei (non-action), and is resolved to look up in reverence to the Great Dao. I now petition the Great Emperor, asking that a white deer of mist and roseate clouds be bestowed to aid this disciple in cultivating the Dao. This disciple vows to accumulate good deeds and to come to the aid of others.” One then holds a seal of the Jade Emperor in the mouth and recites the incantation seven times.

The incantation is:

“White deer, white deer, flowers and fruit held in your mouth; the Jade Emperor commands you to come at once to my home. Quickly, quickly, in accordance with the statutes and ordinances—so be it decreed.”

After the incantation has been recited, no further stray thoughts may arise in the mind. One must concentrate wholly on visualization: one transforms oneself into the Jade Emperor, and imagines a white deer coming through the void and descending onto the altar, with flowers and fruit held in its mouth. At that moment one silently recites once more: “The Jade Emperor commands you to come at once to my home. Quickly, quickly, in accordance with the statutes and ordinances—so be it decreed.”

After you have finished reciting this incantation, let no further thoughts arise in the mind. Settle and concentrate the mind, and devote yourself entirely to visualizing that you yourself are the Jade Emperor (the Celestial Emperor venerated in Daoism). Next, visualize a white deer coming down from the sky onto the altar, holding flowers and fruit in its mouth to offer you. After you have received the flowers and fruit, stroke it with your hand and regulate your breathing. When the white deer has drawn twenty-four breaths, allow it to depart and visualize it no longer.

After cultivating in this manner for thirty days, visualize the white deer as though it were lying curled in your arms, remaining upon the ground, and let it depart only after it has completed eighty-one breaths. When you have practiced for a full forty-nine days, visualize it for three further days, and it will then be able to move back and forth within the hermitage. After another thirty days of practice, you may send it at will to roam throughout the world: it moves as fast as a galloping horse, travels a thousand li in a single day, comes and goes as if in flight, and can enter the mountains to gather lingzhi, subject to no restraint.

Whenever this “Deer Charm” method is employed—a cultivation method centered on visualizing a white deer—one must use some object to conceal it. A bamboo pole may be used: select a sound length of bamboo and set it in place, write the character “horse” upon it, and seal it within the bamboo. The white deer will then be unable to enter. Ordinary people see only the bamboo pole, whereas the practitioner sees a white deer. White chaste-tree wood may also be used: write the character “horse” inside the wood and seal it, and do not let others see it. When writing the character, recite the foregoing incantation once, visualize the white deer, draw in a breath and blow it upon the brush, and only then write the character.

Those who cultivate “Hujiao” (the art of riding a tiger so as to travel) should first observe a fast and purification for seven days. At the hour of zi on a gengyin day, an altar is laid out on the ground: square below and round above. The square portion is one zhang and two chi in length, and the round portion is three chi in diameter, the boundary marked out with ash. Upon the altar are placed seven lamps, one incense burner, seven portions of dried venison, and a handful of white cogongrass. When all is arranged, incense is burned at the hour of zi on the gengyin day, and this prayer is offered:

“This disciple, a person of such-and-such a place and of such-and-such a name, is by nature fond of clarity, stillness, and emptiness, and wishes to enter the Dao (the Way) and cultivate the practice. I now report to the Jade Emperor, praying that he bestow on me a fierce white tiger of wind and crag, for me to ride, so that I may carry out the methods of the Dao and bring relief to all living beings.”

One then holds a seal-talisman of the Jade Emperor in the mouth and recites the incantation:

“Wondrous mechanism of geng and xin, General Wind-Tiger; the decree of the Three Heavens reaches me, and I ride. Quickly, quickly, as by the statutes and commands of the Jade Emperor.”

After the incantation, one must purify the inner mind and keep sole guard over the spirit (Shen), paying no heed to external affairs, letting the breath grow fine, slow, and continuous, and concentrating on visualizing a white tiger coming from the west onto the altar. After the visualization, one strokes the crown of the tiger’s head with the hand for forty-nine breaths, then lets the white tiger depart. That same night the ritual is performed once more according to the procedure above.

When this has been carried on for a full sixty days, a white tiger will come beneath the practitioner’s thighs, and there will be no need to use anything else to command it. The scripture says that this is the complete primordial Qi (vital energy) bestowed by Heaven, brought to completion of itself. The practitioner will feel the body grow light and rise more than a hundred zhang above the ground. One should not be alarmed at this, but may roam the vast heavens and the grotto-heavens and blessed lands. Spectral beings and followers of heterodox paths will not dare to molest one, and wherever one goes, deities will come forward to pay homage and manifest themselves.

If one cultivates according to this method for three years, one will be able to travel by riding the wind, moving as lightly and swiftly as a withered leaf adrift, and in the end unite in truth with the Dao and become one with upright Qi. At the close, the scripture cites the words of the Liezi as a warning: this art cannot be transmitted by another; if one forces its transmission, one will first bring disaster upon oneself, and afterward calamity will reach nine generations of ancestors. This warning is by no means empty talk.

What is called “longjiao” is to be performed on the second day of the first lunar month, on a day chosen as jia-yin. First the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) are drawn in the eight directions, and nine lamps are lit. A board of “autumn wood” is prepared—the original reads “autumn wood,” which may refer to catalpa—two cun and four fen wide, so as to correspond to the numbers of Heaven and Earth, and four cun and four fen long. On the board six characters are written in cinnabar: “Jade Emperor, save life, summon the dragon.”

Cinnabar is then used to stamp a seal of the Jade Emperor on a sheet of paper. The paper is affixed to the wooden board, and the board is placed on a basin of water. A mirror is tied to the board with a cord so that it faces downward and shines on the surface of the water. From fine paper a red dragon is cut, nine cun long, its size otherwise unrestricted, and set in the center of the water. The surface must not be allowed to ripple, nor may the red dragon drift or move onto the board. A bright mirror is used to illuminate it until the dragon’s image is reflected in the mirror.

After this illumination, an incantation is recited:

“Nine Heavens and Nine Earths, enter into my mirror. Look upon it, and the form appears at once; ride the Great Void. Refine it into one body with me, and unite in truth with the Dao (the Way). Quickly, quickly, in accordance with the statutes and ordinances—by imperial command.”

It then says “transform into chonghe,” and the preceding incantation is recited nine times so that the dragon’s image is reflected in the mirror. At the end, the words “after the illumination, recite the incantation” are repeated once more. What is recorded here is a ritual art that summons a dragon to manifest its form by means of talismanic seals, lamps, a mirror, and a basin of water. In the original, the sentences about the final steps are repetitive, and the meaning is not fully coherent.

The Nine Heavens and the Nine Earths—the nine celestial realms and the nine terrestrial realms of which Daoism speaks—all enter my mirror. The moment the mirror is shone upon them, the scene appears at once, and I ride upon it to roam the vast void. I refine and nurture myself so as to unite with the Dao (the Way) and become perfected. I reverently obey the statutes and carry out the charge laid upon me.

One first recites the “Hua Chonghe” incantation nine times, then visualizes a red dragon on the surface of the water, with oneself riding on its back. Like a cloud of fire, the red dragon enters the mirror and swims back and forth. The incantation is recited continuously in this way nine times, once each day, beginning on the jiayin day after the middle of the first lunar month and proceeding in sequence to the ninth liujia day; the nine recitations must not be interrupted. Thereafter the red dragon may be commanded at will. For the day on which the method is performed, a cheng day or a kai day is best. When the hour is chosen, one first recites the foregoing incantation nine times, then faces south, inhales nine breaths of Qi (vital energy), swallows them into the abdomen, and looks by means of the mirror. The red dragon then appears beneath one’s crotch and carries one on a circuit of the eight directions, ascending to Heaven and entering the Earth, passing through caverns of stone without the least obstruction. Whether one enters water or fire, the body cannot be harmed, nor can the hundred poisons do injury.

If one wishes the red dragon to stop, it understands one’s intention: it stops when one wishes it to stop, and moves when one wishes it to move. Even a journey of ten thousand li is reached as swiftly as a spark bursting from stone.

After the method has been practiced eighty-one times in this manner, neither the mirror nor the board is needed any longer. On a bingwu day, at the xu hour, the mirror is buried nine cun deep in the earth of the Qian direction (the northwest) and is not used thereafter. On a wuxu day, at the chou hour, the board is buried one chi and two cun deep at the Gouchen position—a directional term in Daoism—in the center of the courtyard. Thereafter one uses only the seal of the Jade Emperor: the seal is stamped in cinnabar upon paper, burned to ash, mixed with jinghua water (the first water drawn from the well in the early morning), and swallowed. After eighty-one consecutive days, the Qi required—the primordial breath and life-energy of which Daoism speaks—is fully sufficient. One then writes a blue-green talisman (fu) and burns it together with the seal. From then on, whenever one summons at will, the red dragon arrives at once, and no other implements are needed.

If one can ride the red dragon for three years, one may unite with the Dao and become perfected: when gathered, a form appears; when dispersed, it transforms into Qi. Thus it is said that one’s lifespan endures together with primordial Qi, and one’s life is equal to the Taixu (the vast and boundless void).

In high antiquity, the Zhenren (Perfected—those who had succeeded in cultivation) all had to practice according to this talismanic Jing (scripture) before they could ascend as Perfected and become immortals. This book must not be transmitted at will. If it is given to an unsuitable person and the Heavenly Treasure (precious methods of the Dao, the Way) is recklessly disclosed, calamity will reach seven generations of ancestors. If the book is transmitted to a suitable person yet not kept carefully secret, no small misfortune will likewise follow. It should be treated with reverence and properly preserved.

The Form of the Jade Emperor’s Seal (the design and method of making the Jade Emperor’s seal)

It is best made from jujube wood that has been struck by lightning. A day on which the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches accord with one another may be chosen for the carving. The seal measures one cun and two fen on each side and nine fen in thickness. It should be completed on a “Cheng day” (a traditional term of date selection, referring to the Cheng day among the twelve day-officers). On a Gengshen day, at the zi hour of midnight, one offers incense, wine, and fruit in a purificatory sacrifice, remaining clean and devout and using no meat or pungent foods. Place the seal on the table, light nine lamps, and write “Before the seat of the Jade Emperor” on the spirit tablet, setting the seal before the tablet for the offering. At the chou hour, place the seal in a yellow silk pouch.

When this seal is to be used, the same ritual as above is followed. After one holds the seal, one should often aid those in danger, relieve those in hardship, care for the poor, the orphaned and the frail, the elderly and the young, and hold compassion toward sufferers of every illness. Cultivated in this way, spiritual efficacy will soon appear.