《雷法议玄篇》

Long ago, on Dragon Mountain beside fair waters, I met the master who instructed me and heard him expound the Dao (the Way) of Hunyuan Taiyi (Primordial Origin and the Supreme One), together with the methods of commanding the Five Thunders and expelling malign spirits. This body of methods was divided into twenty-four sections in three volumes—upper, middle, and lower—and comprised more than two hundred pieces, including talismanic diagrams, seal instructions, secret incantations, and talisman formulas. As for the particular practices of pacing the Gang, treading the Dipper, forming mudras, and reckoning on the fingers, they were too numerous to list one by one. After reading through them again and again, I said to my master: “This is truly a scripture whose methods run deep and wide. I have heard that the supreme Dao is not elaborate, and that the supreme method is the simplest. The numinous writings before me could not all be copied even if every brush and drop of ink were used up.” The master said: “Only if you can swear an oath before Heaven will I transmit to you the concise and subtle method.” I replied: “If I am granted my master’s compassion and receive the essential secrets of the primordial mystery, I am willing to cut my flesh and burn incense, cut my hair and take the oath—what is there to hesitate over?” The master then took one booklet from the slim volumes concealed in his pouch, swore an oath to Heaven, and transmitted it to me. The talismans, seals, incantations, and instructions in it came to no more than some thirty chapters, and the ritual forms and Gang instructions could all be held in the mind. The master said: “The method of utmost mystery and utmost wonder lies precisely in these brief words.”

The master continued: “Have you heard of the thirty-six of Heaven? From the standpoint of the supreme Dao, this is the number of the True One of Primordial Qian. Qian is Yang, and it represents the Qi (vital energy) of the True One of the Cinnabar Numen. When the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning first sent forth his transforming power, the Miluo Heaven (the supreme celestial realm spoken of in Daoism) condensed and took form—deep, vast, and impossible to exhaust. At times it appeared in the images of carriages, canopies, gate-towers, and palaces, constituting Heaven from thirty-six kinds of Qi. Heaven is the root of the myriad things; thus Heaven endows them with their bodies, and the Dao endows them with their appearances. If a cultivator of the Dao seeks long life and a span equal to Heaven’s, yet does not grasp the wondrous use of the thirty-six Qi, how can he unite with the Dao and merge with the Real, driving dragons and commanding lightning?”

Only on hearing these words did I understand that the Dao’s creation and nurturing of the myriad things, and the operation and transformation wrought by magical methods, rest in the end upon one and the same principle.

The Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions (the twenty-eight groups of constellations distributed around the celestial regions) are arrayed through the four directions and the four corners, under the command of the True August Great Emperor. The imperial palace of the inner seat of the Yellow Court is laid out according to the number “six times six”; therefore the Great Kui of the Central Dipper oversees all the spirits, assists the Celestial Emperor in carrying out teaching and transformation, and holds authority over the cycles of the kalpas and over crucial powers. The various numinous officials and martial officers each have their duties and act upon the orders of the True Emperor. Thus the Ji star governs wind, the Bi star governs rain, the Mao star governs clear weather, and the Xu and Wei stars govern snow; what the text calls the “directing mansion” governs thunder. Wind, clear skies, rain, and snow, as well as hail, lightning, and thunderbolts, each have the stellar mansion that presides over them. Mighty stars, great luminaries, fierce generals, venomous thunders, and the like all likewise dwell within the thirty-six Brahma Qi, and are commanded by the system of the stars. The courses of the stars have their regular pattern; though the thunder gods are mighty, they too must act on orders. The various stars, the great luminaries, the swift generals, and the fierce spirits turn day and night with the mechanisms of Qi.

The performance of the rites has its proper times and directions, and their cessation likewise has its rules. If one does not understand these directions and measures of time, how can the methods prove efficacious? Only a person who comprehends the unseen world and penetrates the mechanisms of Heaven can know when the mighty stars and great luminaries move and when they rest. When, for example, one prays for rain at the wu hour on a jia or yi day, even if one knows the direction in which the Bi star lies, one must still understand what command to use in order to set it in motion. The military text Discussion of Dunjia likewise says that one must first understand the true numbers of Taiyi and observe whether the stars and luminaries are auspicious or baleful, and that on taking the field one must clearly distinguish the positions of the Open Gate, the Rest Gate, the Life Gate, and the rest. When troops are sent out at the wei hour on a bing or ding day, where are the Open Gate, the Rest Gate, and the Life Gate? One who has grasped this can decide victory a thousand li away; one who does not understand it cannot advance a single step. Practitioners of Yin-Yang and fengshui, when choosing years and months and arranging construction, must also examine the stars and luminaries. Those of high attainment know fortune and misfortune and distinguish the auspicious luminaries, and so can avoid calamity and obtain good fortune. All these are instances of knowing the stellar mechanisms through secretly transmitted knowledge and of putting subtle methods to use. The profound essentials can be gathered in the palm; what matters is not the piling up of elaborate phrases. My master, Lord Wang the Shichen (Attendant of the Imperial Court), once raised wind and made rain by the arts held in the palm, moved the sovereign, and was confirmed again and again. If this were not the wondrous working of the method in the palm, how else should it be explained? In sum, one who cultivates these methods must understand Yin-Yang, the stellar mansions, and baleful Qi, and must know how the mechanisms of Qi join and clash. One should also first study the essential secrets of the Supreme Thearch and the Jade Slips of the Primordial Emperor (the secretly transmitted documents of the celestial realm, as they are called in Daoism); only then can the methods possibly take effect.

Thus the wondrous workings of the Thunder Rites (Leifa) have seldom been matched from ancient times to the present. The banished immortals of successive ages who attained the Dao (the Way)—immortals demoted to the human world for one cause or another—have mostly relied on transmission from mouth to ear, and have been unable to record them in full. Hence the Taishang Mijue (Supreme Secret Formula) says: “Let down the hair and draw near to the crux of the Thunder Rites; only when one further obtains the jade slip of Yuanhuang (a revered deity of the Dao) will the ritual arts prove efficacious.”

The Taishang Mijue also says: “With hair unbound, pace the Dipper and seek the Sha Qi; at the sword’s tip kindle fire and burn the True Writs.” This means that the practitioner lets down the hair, treads the Gang and paces the Dipper (performing the rite according to a prescribed sequence of steps), seeks out the Sha Qi (a special current of Qi, vital energy, used in carrying out the rites), and then kindles fire at the tip of the sword to burn the True Writs. The “True Writs” spoken of here are the dragon chapters and phoenix seal-script formed when, before Heaven and Earth had yet differentiated, the Zhenwang Shangdi (True King and Lord on High), above the Feixuan True Realm, spread Fan Qi between the jade-blue empyrean and the purple Han, where it congealed. They illumine the ten directions and shake the six quarters. The Zhenwang Shangdi then commanded the Tianhuang Zhenren (Perfected of the Celestial Sovereign) to take up the brush according to the established regulations and write them out as texts. In the Longyang Bright Palace, Yuanshi Shangdi (the Supreme Lord of Primordial Beginning) conferred the True Writs upon the True King; the remainder congealed into talismanic writs, which were bestowed and stored in the Dragon Palace and the oceanic repository, forever guarding the four quarters of Heaven and Earth.

The ritual instructions of the Dao comprise many levels, and the Thunder Rites are regarded as one class among them that takes effect swiftly. Students of later generations, however, are often proud in temperament and sharp in bearing, while their cultivation is shallow and their words rash. Even when they meet a true master, how many truly inquire into the mystery within? Thus they have never heard the essentials of deploying the method in the palm, nor have they ever seen the True Writs upon the sword. Because their attainment is slight and verified results are few, the rites fail them when matters arise; they then abandon the path halfway, and even resent the methods of the Dao and blame their teacher. This is because an error occurred in transmission and misled those who came after. They do not realize that, without thoroughly investigating the root of the ritual arts, what they have obtained is nothing more than the transmission and conferral of the method performed by the true master.

The true forms of Chuhuo circulating in the world—the images of the divine general Chuhuo—and the true likenesses of Leigong, pictorial images of the Thunder Lord, are often riddled with errors, jumbled and untrue to the original. Not only does a rite performed on the spot then have no effect, but one is also ridiculed by people and by spirits. As for the Great Mulang Spell, an incantation of the Daoist thunder rites, if a ritual master can master it in full, that already counts as creditable.

Even if all these arts have been learned completely, how is one to grasp the essentials of creation concealed within the talismans and registers (Fulu)? There is also a crucial oral formula, “Qian tian yao hui yu chi dong” (“Radiance of Qian Heaven, east of the Jade Pool”), that has not been understood. If this line is to be written across the image of Leigong from head to foot, how should the Fulu be placed when the brush is set down? The sacred image of Leigong and the true form of Chuhuo sit astride a dragon, mallet in hand. Within them every line of the oral formula secretly accords with creation, every character is clear and distinct, and each has its own rule in the drawing. Other Fulu are broadly the same.

Then there is setting an altar to pray for rain. If the dragon pool lies a hundred li from the ritual altar, one must use the Overturning-the-Sea Talisman and go there in person to cast it in. Even if it proves efficacious, the method has already fallen to the second rank. My true master did not do this. He first drew a talisman on the Xuantan, the altar ground where the rite is performed, to summon the Gongcao, the divine officers who transmit the ritual master’s commands. When the Gongcao arrived, he presented another talisman to summon the Leigong of a certain place. When Leigong arrived, he used a further talisman to summon the dragon spirit of a certain place. The moment the dragon spirit arrived, wind rose and clouds gathered, lightning flashed and thunder pealed; he then carried out the rite according to the formula, gave a single shout of command, and the rain fell.

All these methods are called supremely marvelous, yet my teacher still held that their steps were too many, and that they could not yet count as arts that take effect at once before the eyes. When I meet with a prayer for rain, I only draw a single talisman on an iron slip, strike and cast it toward the direction of the Bi mansion, and at the same time work the method according to the formula and send a flying talisman to convey the order. With one shout of command, the rain falls. This may be called an art of the utmost mystery.

As for the ritual methods one is commanded to use in striking down and destroying an evil shrine, they ought, by all accounts, to take effect very quickly. The method set out by my master is this: whenever one encounters an evil spirit that has long been doing harm and endangering human life, one should exterminate it according to the proper rite.

First one calculates in the palm the “Great Baleful Star of the Metal Tiger” (a stellar position in the mantic arts representing a baleful killer), and then checks, among the twenty-four directions, in which direction the “Baleful Star of Flowing Fire” (regarded as a kind of baleful star) falls for this month, this day, and this hour. Once the direction is determined, one activates it with a Thunder-Fire Talisman—a Fulu (talismans and registers) used to summon thunder and carry out the rite. That star belongs to Metal, and this talisman belongs to Fire; according to the theory of mutual conquest among the Five Phases (Wuxing), Fire can conquer Metal, and so it is said that one may seize the momentum to strike and thereupon destroy the evil shrine.

Alas, these arcane proclamations of the Celestial Treasure and these secret writings precious as tinkling jade are all profound and treasured texts of esoteric transmission. Unless they are personally transmitted by an extraordinary adept and one receives the guidance of a true master’s oral formulas, even if one pores over them until one’s hair turns white, one may in the end gain nothing at all.

For example, a ritual specialist who ordinarily practices the method of raising thunder must first submit a memorial to the Lord on High, and then take up the “Writ of Retribution” (a kind of document so named in the scripture, or Jing; its specific contents are not explained here). Without personal transmission by an extraordinary adept and the oral instruction of a true master, even if one studies until one’s hair is white, one may ultimately obtain nothing.

Those who ordinarily practice Thunder Magic (Leifa) must first submit a memorial to the Lord on High and request permission, and only after a response has been received may they proceed. Yet driving out evil and treating illness, cutting away poisonous harm, and sweeping off demonic forces are, more often than not, matters as urgent as fighting a fire. If one waits for the command of the Lord on High to come down, how can that compare with memorializing and calling for aid at the same time, and pressing on at once to fight the fire? How can one stand and wait?

Thus the True King left this teaching: “The Jade Bureau of Thunder (the divine bureau that governs thunder) has command over all the departments of the Five Thunders. Charged by the Lord on High to reward the good and punish the evil, it may also act with expedient discretion as circumstances require.” My teacher, Master Wang Taisu, grasped this essential method of expedient action transmitted by the True King. Were one not a person of numinous refinement and innate spiritual capacity, how could one encounter such a method? And were one not loyal and filial, with a will firm and resolute, who could bear its charge?

The practice of Thunder Magic is a shortcut in the cultivation of the True. Yet if one has not cultivated to the point at which Shen (spirit) and Qi (vital energy) are complete, how can one command ghosts and spirits to relieve grave illness? By means of the Primordial Unitary True Qi (the true energy that is original and purely unitary), the patriarch transformed and brought forth countless great generals, destroyed the demons of the Six Heavens, accumulated merit and virtuous deeds, and at last ascended to court at the Golden Portal (the dwelling of the Celestial Emperor).

Therefore, if a practitioner cannot penetrate the subtle and exquisite purport of the method, the bodily form will inevitably be ruined; without accumulating hidden virtue, one can hardly reach the mysterious realm; without refining and nurturing Jing (essence), spiritual consciousness can hardly become clear, calm, and joyful; without relieving illness and suffering, the fruit of the Dao (the Way) is hard to attain. All who wish to seek immortality and study the Dao ought to exert themselves for the state and the people, promote what is beneficial and remove what is harmful, hold to uprightness and clear discernment, and diligently and conscientiously perform the rites of incense and fire, so as to expiate the offenses of the Nine Mysteries and Seven Ancestors (nine generations of forebears and seven generations of ancestors) and to efface the faults accumulated over a thousand kalpas and a hundred lifetimes. If, by good fortune in the karmic conditions of former lives, one meets teachers and companions, one must not violate the sworn covenant; cultivated in this way, there is hope of ascending in flight. If one rashly offends the precepts of the Mysterious Gate, one will sink into the sea of suffering. Cultivate with a sincere heart, and the response will appear swiftly, as an echo answers a call. Those who come afterward to study must not take these teachings lightly.

Leifa Yuanhai Zhengyan Shu (Correct Methods in the Exposition of the Ocean of Thunder Magic)

In ancient times, those who cultivated the ritual arts relied on the inner mind to enter into sympathetic resonance with things outside themselves, and by means of the correct Dao (the Way) they subdued baleful spirits. When the heart-mind was upright, the hundred spirits manifested their power; when one’s own person was upright, the myriad evils withdrew. As the age grew ever more distant from the ways of antiquity, people gradually abandoned the root and pursued the branches. They therefore established teachings and methods by which to drive and command ghosts and spirits, and they employed the arts of Fulu (talismans and registers) to summon the gods.

Thunder is the force by which Heaven issues its commands, formed by the union of the two Qi (vital energy) of Yin-Yang. When gathered in, it is still; when set in motion, it surges forth. Thunder is born in the Zhen lunar mansion and rises from the Xun gate, the direction or portal that symbolizes wind. It does not break out at just any time, but is governed by spirits and gods. Among Daoist practitioners, some enact thunder according to the method, and some borrow thunder according to the method. Is this not a claim startling enough to shock the world?

Whence, then, does the teaching of Zhengyan (“Correct Exposition”) come? Ah, now I understand: one sets the thoughts of the mind aright and honestly guards one’s intention, joining in accord with the Dao of Heaven, so that the realm attained is profound and unfathomable, like the great sea; and one promotes the correct Dao so that it is transmitted, unfolds, and continues without end. Yet is this not still a claim that shocks the world? Whence does the teaching of Zhengyan come? Ah, now I understand: one sets the thoughts of the mind aright and honestly guards one’s intention, joining in accord with the Dao of Heaven, so that the realm attained is profound and unfathomable, like the great sea; and one promotes the correct Dao so that it is transmitted, unfolds, and continues without end. Still, unless one has attained the wondrous principles of Xuanyuan, the origin of the Dao, and penetrated the hidden essentials of subtle transformation, one is not yet qualified to speak of these things.

There was such a person, who for a long time practiced the methods of the supreme vehicle and broadly brought relief to the people. He met a master who transmitted the teaching and conferred ordination, received the most fitting principles, and on Heaven’s behalf carried out true moral transformation. He grasped the ancients’ essential aim of communing with the spirits through an upright mind, and he could also perform feigang niedou—pacing the guideline and treading the Dipper, the ritual steps of Daoist liturgy—and form mudras and finger-seals. He burned the incense of the heart and kindled the talisman of the mind; once a command was issued, the host of spirits obeyed. He could swiftly align with the position of the Thunder mansion and fully exercise the authority of the Master of Rain: a single written proclamation made the thunder roar, a single shouted order brought down a great rain, and a call on this side was answered at once on that.

Turning to those who practice thunder only in a vague and superficial way, one finds that they do not understand the mystery of setting transformation in motion, nor do they know the reason by which spirits are summoned. They merely pick up the surface traces of the ancients, yet they presume to discourse on the profound principles of this teaching. Their words and deeds do not agree; their inner minds are disturbed by external things. They glare and raise their brows, making an empty show of force, hoping the arts will take effect—yet nothing ever stirs. The distance between the two is truly a gulf of thousands upon thousands of miles.

As for the Fire Master Wang Ruogu, he received from the True King—a revered Daoist deity, or one who confers the method—the authority to act as circumstances required, and he could rebuke the thunderbolts and command wind and rain. He held the essentials for directing the true pivot, and inwardly preserved Taisu, the original and simple state of the Dao. Through fasting and purification he served the Supreme Thearch, and with utmost sincerity he entered into resonance with ghosts and spirits. His commands were clear and strict, and rewards and punishments were certain to be carried out. Amid an easy and unhurried bearing, he silently accorded with the Dao. Assisting Heaven in the work of teaching and transformation, aiding the state and relieving the people, he could be said to have a conscience free of shame.

If one now wishes to clarify and carry forward the teaching of Zhengyan, one must first transmit the writings of Zhengyan. This is not done merely for the sake of appearances in the present moment, but so that they may serve as a standard for later students to follow. I dared not keep them hidden, and so with effort I had them carved and printed as a book, that they might circulate widely. I hope that those of like mind will not treat this book lightly.

Written by Guyin on the Zhenyuan Festival, in the second month of the eighth year of Chunyou in the reign of Emperor Lizong of the Song (1248).

Talk of enacting thunder according to the method is found everywhere in the world, yet those who have truly received the transmission and understand its secrets are, I fear, very few. How could the art of Zhengyan be mastered by the shallow? One must not only be able to expound it, but must also be able to put it to actual use; therefore I have not sealed it away and withheld it from transmission. I have carefully set it down in writing so as to benefit later generations. Is this not a matter of real help?

When the Great Simplicity (Taipu—the undifferentiated state before Heaven and Earth had divided and the myriad things had come into being) had not yet dispersed, Yin-Yang had already begun to stir. Once the two fundamental forces of Yin-Yang were established, the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) took form. The trigrams Zhen and Xun preside over wind and thunder: they arise through the transformation of water and Qi (vital energy), and when they meet fire they manifest brightness. Taking their impetus from the Fu hexagram, they gradually develop and grow strong, causing withered things to flourish once more.

Thunder methods (Leifa) can drive celestial phenomena upward and proclaim commands, and downward they endow the myriad things with form. Who, after all, governs this power and sends forth the sound of thunder in due season? It rises from the Earth Gate (the portal leading to the earthly realm) and reaches straight to the Imperial Court (the place where the Celestial Emperor resides). The Pivot Terrace (the divine bureau in the celestial realm that oversees the pivotal mechanism) holds overall command, and Fanqi (the primordial Qi spoken of in Daoism) condenses into method. Its numbers begin with one, nine, and three, and its source lies in Yuqing (one of the celestial realms venerated in Daoism). All these methods belong to Shenxiao (the celestial realm to which Daoist thunder methods pertain) and are recorded in the Yu Jing (scripture/classic). To employ them according to proper norms is by no means a trivial matter.

These transmissions have continued from antiquity to the present. The words within them are profoundly abstruse, sufficient to reach through to the hidden and the dark. Yet after the ways of the age declined and customs grew shallow, falsehood and selfishness also began to breed. Some claim to come from the ancestral altar (the altar through which lineages of Daoist method are transmitted) and presumptuously assert that they can command immortal officials. When asked about their actual practice, the name does not match the reality. Summoning divine generals and driving spirit troops by passing error on to error, their so-called mystery is like a deaf person hearing a sound: they cannot comprehend it at all. Occasionally someone knows a little, yet the mind is restless and bent on other aims.

Heaven, concerned that this way of method would sink into obscurity and decline, therefore charged Lord Tian (here called “Chunbai Tianjun,” Lord Tian of Pure Whiteness) to continue the transmission. Lord Tian deeply comprehended its principles and quietly cultivated the Huangting Jing (an important Daoist classic of visualization and self-cultivation). He was outstanding among the awakened of earlier generations and eminent among later students, and thus was able to put directly into practice the secretly transmitted formulas of the Purple Emperor (a celestial imperial lord venerated in Daoism). He inquired deeply into the root, did not pursue fame or profit, took the succor of the world as his concern, and persisted constantly in cultivation and study.

Looking downward, he examined the five directions; looking upward, he verified the arrayed stars. He grasped the essentials of the methods and kept them in unceasing operation. When clear weather was prayed for, there was a response; when malign afflictions were investigated and treated, people could be brought to peace. He was unwilling to seek only his own attainment, and also guided and assisted those of the same path. His writings are orderly and detailed, and from them one may envision the realm in which he communed with spirit and illumination.

The approach to employing thunder methods was thereby laid suddenly open, so that even the foolish and unperceiving could be inspired. He ought to stand alongside the two masters Wang and Xue in the Jade Capital (Yaojing—the realm of the immortals). Those who can seek the purport of the methods, their minds empty and still, will in the end be filled. Reading his writings, I praised them without cease and felt great astonishment. To recount his deeds and learning is not empty flattery, but a hope of benefiting later generations, so that his fair name may circulate for a hundred ages, enduring together with the methods, as vivid as cinnabar and blue.

Words, in the end, cannot fully express the heart’s intent; therefore I compose this encomium and carve an inscription to be handed down.

Who truly understands the methods of the Yuxiao lineage? The subtle and profound workings within them remain hidden and do not show themselves, and are hard to fathom. Wondrous methods depend on transmission from mind to mind; how many layers of them still remain today? Even the “scholars of the Eight Vehicles” (those who cultivate higher-order Daoist arts), thoroughly versed in the profound methods of the Dao (the Way), seldom grasp their true meaning.

The King of Return to the True, of the Metropolitan Thunder of the Crimson Heaven, holds overall command, and the Great General of Sudden Fire (Chuahuo; a thunder general in the thunder rites) dwells in the chamber. A single point of subtlety lies hidden in the two palaces of Chou and Wei (the directions, or palace-positions, used in the ritual art); the two generals Wei and Niu stand in attendance beside the master.

This ritual art has been handed down, yet few in the world know of it. Heaven’s intent seems to fear that this lineage of the Dao is about to decline. The banished immortal of the Jade Bureau, Perfected Official Kuang (an immortal perfected banished from the celestial Jade Bureau down into the human world), personally transmitted to Lord He the essential mechanisms of its circulation and creative transformation.

After Lord He had comprehended them, he expounded this Great Dao. Practice does not depart from the celestial circuit of eighteen (the celestial-circuit revolution, or the stages of cultivation, in this method, reckoned by the number eighteen). Prayers for clear skies and supplications for rain are answered as soon as they are spoken; when the matter is finished, the ritual art is gathered back in, and one returns to enjoy the bright moon.

In the midst of quiet sitting, the whole chamber all at once shines with brilliant light. The Primordial Pearl (Yuanzhu; a term in cultivation for inner numinous clarity, or for the source of the elixir) runs straight through and links with the master’s Kunlun. Within this, an infant presides over divine and wondrous transformation, rides a fire dragon, and goes to pay homage to the Dijun (the Thearch).

Detailed Treatise on the True Form of Sudden Fire

In the Yixuan Pian, Patriarch Xuanxu Wanjun says: the true forms of Xuhuo (images of the divine generals of the Thunder Department) and the cinnabar seal-scripts of the Thunder Lord (Leigong; talismanic scripts depicting his appearance) that circulate in the world are mostly riddled with errors, cluttered and confused, and without any proper method. Not only do they fail to take effect at once; they also draw the ridicule of spirits and ghosts. If a ritual master can master the Great Spell of Mulang (an incantation used in thunder rites) in full, it does indeed have marvelous efficacy; yet even if one learns it completely, without understanding the principle of creative transformation within it, what use can one make of it?

The spell opens with the line, “The crystalline radiance of Qian flows east of the Jade Pool.” The moment this sentence is set down by the brush, the corresponding divine majesty must be generated in the Thunder Lord’s image from head to foot. The sacred visage of the Thunder Lord and the true form of Xuhuo, together with such features as sitting astride a dragon and holding the thunder hammer, must each appear in turn within the lines of the spell; every character has its own principle of generation and transformation. Other true seal-scripts are broadly the same.

From about the age of twenty, after reading the profound discussion in the Yixuan Pian, I continually sought out teachers and inquired of them, investigating it with painstaking care. Although teachers and friends instructed me many times, I still could not grasp the essential purport of the worthies of earlier generations. In the guichou year, while I was living in Jinling, I happened upon a secret canon, said to have been transmitted by Lord Zeng, a lineage master of the Yuanfeng period. The Zeng family had preserved it for three generations and dared not handle it lightly; if anyone carelessly brushed the dust from the book, disaster would befall them. It would seem the book itself was awaiting its proper moment of transmission.

After obtaining the secret canon, I burned incense and opened it. The first thing I read was the principle by which the true form of Xuhuo and the sacred visage of the Thunder Lord are generated and transformed. Doubts accumulated over many years dissolved at once, and when I practiced according to it there were indeed extraordinary results. Later I transmitted the method to one or two people who inherited the ritual lineage, yet I never met a truly fitting successor. Now I am advanced in years. If I do not transmit it, I fear the secret method of the celestial Dao (the Way) will be lost; if I am to transmit it, a suitable person is hard to choose. I have therefore written this book of detailed discussion and disclosed one or two of its essentials, leaving them for later students, in the hope that they may follow the stream back to the source and not let the secret canon sink into oblivion.

Whoever would practice this method must first ingest and refine the innate ancestral Qi (Qi, vital energy; regarded as the primordial original energy at the root of the myriad things), and use it to transmute the Qi of the ordinary embryo throughout the body. Innate ancestral Qi is the root of the Great Dao of the primordial mist; it must be sought in the chaos before Heaven and Earth have yet divided. Every method arises from this. It is not the turbid Qi formed after the union of father and mother; the previous chapter has already discussed this in detail.

Only after one has obtained the ancestral Qi and used it to transform away the ordinary turbid Qi may one practice the method. When writing the talisman, one first calculates the time of generation and flourishing, then enters the jing chamber (the quiet chamber used for ritual), commands and summons the thunder, and causes the myriad spirits to assemble and fill the cosmos, as if Heaven and Earth had darkened. When the two Qi of Yin and Yang (Yin-Yang) rise and descend, one conceals the form and transforms the body; the five Qi generate one another and gradually congeal into a sacred embryo. This is the process of employing the way of the “Ten Revolutions That Return the Numen” and according with the profound mechanism of the “Nine Heavens Giving Birth to Shen (spirit).”

One then spreads the ancestral Qi through the great void of the Three Luminaries, and at the position of the primordial true earth generates the Mysterious Female (the root from which Yin and Yang transform and give birth). One next circulates in sequence the nine kinds of Qi of the life-source, each winding nine times about its corresponding root of life: the Qi of Mysterious Unity and Yellow Unfolding winds about the mandate of the womb; the Qi of Cavernous Darkness and the Purple Portal winds about the mandate of the embryo; the Qi of Enduring Numen and Bright Immortality winds about the mandate of the hun-soul; the Qi of Dangshi, Dark Unfolding, and Issuing Forth winds about the mandate of the po-soul; the Qi of the Five Immortals and the Central Numen winds about the viscera; the Qi of Lofty Perfection and Surging Harmony winds about the Numinous Prefecture; the Qi of Lofty Immortality and the Cavern Registers winds about the Primordial Prefecture; the Qi of True Numen Transforming and Congealing winds about the Floral Prefecture; and the Qi of Spontaneous Mysterious Illumination winds about the Marchmount Prefecture. Together these make nine times nine, eighty-one layers, and from them the five viscera and six bowels, the three passes and nine palaces, are generated, so that the hundred spirits are complete.

One then writes the corresponding spell-lines according to the different parts of the Thunder Lord’s image. When writing the crystalline Qian beneath the two eyes, one recites, “The crystalline radiance of Qian flows east of the Jade Pool.” The nose is the mountains, so one recites, “Mulang and Taiyi, the three mountains stand mighty.” For the hand holding the axe, one recites, “Golden hammer and jade axe blaze through the celestial palace.” For the hand holding the thunder drill, one recites, “The thunderbolt splits stone and the spring-source runs through.” Writing the two feet is meant to bestow vast divine power, enabling them to shake mountains and roll up seas and to raise and lower Yin and Yang, so one recites, “Guanbo shakes the peaks of Kunlun; the hidden spirits overturn the sea, as one with Xuanming.” When writing the claws, one must make them keen, and therefore recites, “Huangli, sword in hand, slays the horned dragons.”

One then summons celestial thunder, divine thunder, dragon thunder, water thunder, and altar-command thunder, stirring them to surge forth and transform into a pair of wings, and therefore recites, “Both wings beat in flight, roaming the Great Void.” When writing the aureole (the halo of light behind the deity’s head), one must make it shine in every direction like a vanguard, and so recites, “Taiyi, swift and sudden, goes first to ward off the baleful.” When the aureole is bright and reveals the sacred countenance, one recites, “Crimson hair, great wings, and both eyes vermilion.” When writing the firelight of samadhi upon the aureole, one recites, “Thunder-light bursts through the void, fierce fire burning red.” The creative transformation of the flying dragon beneath the seat is equally subtle: from head to tail, every line contains the principle of generation and transformation.

When writing the four feet, for example, one must summon the divine powers of the Five Marchmounts, the Man-thunders of the four commands, the five primordial generals, and the like, distributing their majestic force to assist the vanguard. Such a method cannot be set beside shallow Fulu (talismans and registers) or simple creative transformations.

Once the talisman has been written, one further employs true water and true fire, so that the spirit leaves the embryo and is born through transformation, divides its form and changes, and is drawn into the talisman. One may then visualize the fire spirit beating its wings and the divine dragon roaring, soaring between Heaven and Earth and overturning mountains and seas; the various thunder spirits all come with them, awaiting command. Before the ritual altar I plant a sword and work the method, turning the creative transformations and pressing the orders; before long wind rises and clouds gather, lightning flashes and thunder rolls, and sweet rain forthwith descends.

Whether one prays for clear skies or for snow, or performs rites to cut down baleful influences and subdue demons and monsters, none of these services can do without this true talisman of the sacred visage. It is the crucial root of the great primordial method. The Great Spell of Mulang has ninety-seven lines in all, and each line contains a clear principle of creative transformation. If one can comprehend what is subtle within it, the thunder methods of every school can be commanded and put to use, and in practice there is nowhere they do not reach. Students ought to study it deeply.

On the fifth day of the fifth month, take a piece of yellow silk gauze one chi and two cun long and, according to the ritual method, write out the “Scarlet Rooster and Purple Goose Fulu” (talismans and registers used in Daoist ritual). After burning incense, recite the Mulang Incantation one hundred times, then sink the talisman into water in the northeast. Afterwards, return to a pure and quiet room, set out four places of blood offerings (with livestock as the sacrificial items), present wine, and summon the four deities, including the Jade Thunder Radiant Master Lord. Once the wine has been offered, the forms of a rooster and a goose will appear.

The bodily forms of the deities will then appear as well, and one may pray to them at will. Burn paper money in offering. In years of drought and little rain, whatever is prayed for will be answered.

The Wulei Jing (Scripture of the Five Thunders) says that these four deities are the water Jing (essence) from the beginning of heaven and earth, when chaos had not yet divided. When Yu the Great regulated the waters, he ordered them to guard the four directions. Another account holds that they are the spirits of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) and govern clouds and rain. If sacrifice is offered to them every year, clouds and rain can be summoned very quickly.

The four deities are as follows. The Jade Thunder Radiant Master Lord is the deity of the east inclining toward the south, with a human head and a turtle’s body, and presides over spring. The Cavern Yang Hidden Spirit Lord is the deity of the east inclining toward the north, with a human head and a snake’s body, and presides over summer. The Void Sovereign Great Splendor Lord is the deity of the west inclining toward the north, with a human head and a fish’s body, and presides over winter. The Fire Light Flowing Jing Lord is the deity of the west inclining toward the south, with a human head and a dragon’s body, and presides over autumn.

The end of the text also lists the gods of the four seas: Aming, god of the Eastern Sea; Zhurong, god of the Southern Sea; Jucheng, god of the Western Sea; and Yuqiang, god of the Northern Sea.