《道教靈驗記》Vol. 14

This scripture records two miraculous accounts demonstrating the efficacy of the Yellow Register Retreat (Huanglu zhai), an important Daoist ritual for blessings and disaster relief.

The first story takes place during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Chen dynasty in the Southern Dynasties period. Shortly after ascending the throne, the emperor faced a severe drought in the Jiangnan region, withering crops and causing widespread famine. He implemented various measures—pardoning prisoners, reducing imperial meals, dismissing palace maidens, releasing captive birds and beasts, aiding the poor, and praying at sacred mountains—yet the drought persisted for two years, drastically reducing the population. Eventually, Imperial Censor Cao Qianling recommended the Hengshan Daoist master Ge Boyun (said to be several hundred years old, a devoted reciter of the Yinfu Jing, and protected by mountain deities, tigers, and wolves). Summoned by the emperor, Ge proposed performing the Yellow Register Retreat to worship Heaven and Earth. Miraculously, on the third day, heavy rain fell continuously for three days and nights, reviving the crops and yielding a bountiful harvest that year. In gratitude, the emperor decreed an annual Yellow Register Retreat and established the Huanglu Temple on Dongting Mountain, selecting 1,200 Daoist priests to vigorously promote the Daoist tradition.

The second story occurs during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty. Though the newly founded Sui dynasty enjoyed peace, the former Zhou official Wang Qian rebelled, occupying the Shu region. Despite repeated military campaigns, the imperial forces suffered defeats, with many soldiers dying from epidemics. The emperor then held a Yellow Register Retreat in the inner palace, praying for divine assistance. Three days later, he dreamed of a celestial being who declared: "Dynastic change follows the Mandate of Heaven—how can Shu resist the entire realm?" Regarding the soldiers' illnesses, the deity explained that northerners were unaccustomed to the southern miasmic air. Soon after, the rebellion was indeed quelled.

Both stories highlight the Yellow Register Retreat’s extraordinary power in summoning rain and quelling rebellions, reflecting ancient people’s deep faith in Daoist ritual efficacy.

The Daoist Miracles Record documents several miraculous accounts from Chinese history:

The first story recounts how during a military epidemic, a divine figure took ritual water from a Daoist altar (the sacred space for ceremonies) and sprinkled it toward the southwest, prophesying that the disease would vanish with the coming rain. True to the prediction, ten days later a thunderstorm drenched the military camp, healing all afflicted soldiers, after which the army successfully pacified the Shu region.

Another entry chronicles Emperor Gaozu of Tang (Li Yuan). When his forces advanced from Taiyuan to Chang'an, he bestowed upon Louguan Temple (a major Daoist monastery) the 200-qing estate of Su Wei, a Sui dynasty minister, renaming it Zongsheng Temple. During Prince Qin (Li Shimin's) campaigns, Gaozu personally conducted a zhaijiao (Daoist sacrificial rite) there. Temple master Qi Pingding prophesied the prince's inevitable victory as heaven's mandate. Though initially worried about drought amid unstable governance, after offering devout incense before Laozi's statue, three days of nourishing rain fell during Gaozu's return to the capital, relieving the drought. For this, Qi Pingding was appointed Chamberlain for the Palace Treasury.

The third account dates to Emperor Gaozong's reign. He frequently held purification rituals (zhaijiao) in the inner palace for his people's welfare. In 664 CE (Linde 1st Year), he dispatched Daoist priest Song Yuquan and others to perform the "Dragon Tablet Casting" rite (a ritual involving submerged dragon-shaped tablets) at Jiangdu Pond on the 11th day of the first lunar month—whereupon the pond miraculously swelled while six-petal snowflakes appeared. Similar marvels occurred during subsequent rites: a divine dragon manifested at Longshan County's Dingbi River on the 11th of the second month, and auspicious signs emerged at Zhenxuan Altar's Sanlang Well on the 13th of the third month—all interpreted as celestial responses to the emperor's piety.

This account documents several miraculous events related to Daoism during Emperor Xuanzong's reign of the Tang Dynasty.

The first incident occurred in Shu (modern Sichuan). Someone dreamed that the Three Platforms stars (important Daoist constellations) descended upon Shu and transformed into a surging well, with a golden crow perching on a giant tree. Later, a three-legged golden crow was indeed discovered resting on a massive tree by the Pi River in Pi County. Emperor Xuanzong consequently ordered the construction of the Golden Crow Temple beneath the tree. During the fourth lunar month, a Dragon Casting ritual (a Daoist ceremonial practice involving submerging inscribed metal dragons into water) was performed at the Jade Maiden Grotto on Jiulong Mountain, yielding a pair of azure birds and seven trees with interlocking branches, witnessed by over forty local officials. A stone stele was erected to commemorate these events, which still stands beside the Dutemple today.

The second record describes how Emperor Xuanzong received the Three Caverns (Dongzhen/Dongxuan/Dongshen) Precious Registers from Celestial Master (Tianshi) Sima. After observing purification rituals in the inner palace, a golden dragon was cast into the Huangmao Pool southeast of Siming Mountain. Following the Dragon Casting ceremony, the pool waters churned and produced a wooden plaque inscribed with the characters "Great Treasure" and "Eternal Prosperity." That same day, a violent storm struck the capital, and a dragon appeared in the imperial palace bearing cinnabar markings that precisely matched the golden dragon cast by Xuanzong. The emperor thus named the ritual site Great Treasure Temple (Dabao Guan) and the pool Eternal Prosperity Pool (Yongchang Tan).

The third account tells of Emperor Xuanzong commissioning Daoist priest Xiao Miao to oversee the construction of Zhaocheng Temple for conducting a seven-day Mingzhen ritual to bless Empress Zhaocheng. On the second day of the ceremony, auspicious clouds enveloped the altar while celestial music resonated through the hall, followed by further auspicious signs appearing at night. These phenomena were all regarded as tangible proof of the efficacy of Daoist rituals.

Thirty golden-armored divine warriors stood on either side of the altar as a voice from the heavens declared, "Filial virtue has moved Heaven." These miraculous events were recorded in Xiao Xuanyu's biography and stele inscriptions.

During Emperor Xuanzong's reign of the Tang Dynasty, the emperor personally composed yellow silk prayer texts. For over thirty years of peace during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras, celestial beings secretly assisted governance. With virtuous ministers at court and the emperor's heart yearning for the Dao (the Way), he diligently attended to state affairs. On the first day of Tianbao 4 (745 CE), Xuanzong personally inscribed a yellow silk prayer for the people's welfare. As incense was lit and the memorial presented, the prayer suddenly flew into the sky and vanished, leaving only purple auspicious clouds hovering above the imperial desk. A divine voice proclaimed, "The Sacred Emperor's lifespan is extended," prompting all officials to submit congratulatory memorials—an event duly recorded in imperial archives.

When Emperor Xizong ascended the throne, he initially upheld frugality and followed ancestral institutions. However, from the third to fifth months of the Yiwu year (875 CE), a severe drought persisted despite numerous rainmaking rituals. Two Jiangzhe ritual masters, Zhong Changman and Gu Zhaozhi, renowned for their wind-summoning and rain-controlling arts, were dispatched with eunuch supervision to perform scripture-offering rituals on Southern Mountain, yet only scattered showers resulted. Prime Minister Zheng Tian memorialized that wind, rain, drought, and flood ultimately followed celestial will, proposing that during the Yingtian Festival, fourteen high-ranking Daoist priests (Gaogong) be selected from capital temples to conduct a seven-day Golden Register (Jinlu, the highest-grade Daoist purification ritual) retreat in the inner palace. Simultaneously, eighteen sacred mountains including Qingcheng, Emei, and Maoshan were ordered to hold concurrent ceremonies. When the emperor personally offered incense on the eleventh night, celestial resonance manifested, bringing widespread rainfall by the twelfth day.

The Daoist Records of Spiritual Efficacy preserves two accounts of auspicious omens appearing after Tang dynasty emperors conducted Daoist zhaijiao (purification rituals).

The first recounts how during Emperor Xizong's stay in Chengdu, court astronomers observed celestial anomalies—a meteor streaking across the Xu-Wei constellation (an ancient asterism), mirroring similar phenomena witnessed during Emperor Xuanzong's earlier retreat to Sichuan. The emperor dispatched Daoist priests to perform zhaijiao rituals at Mount Qingcheng. Extraordinary signs manifested during the ceremony: temple bells rang without being struck, sacred lanterns illuminated the mountains like a rainbow bridge among blossoms, and a golden-horned serpent appeared on the altar. More remarkably, villagers below the mountain witnessed dead palm trees suddenly sprouting six new branches that grew several feet within a month. The emperor commemorated these events in an imperial decree and had them inscribed on the "Stele of the Imperial Sojourn in Shu."

The second record describes a severe drought during which the emperor personally offered incense to pray for rain. Immediately after the ritual, wondrous signs appeared: though the sky had been perfectly clear, winds arose and clouds gathered during the imperial retinue's return, culminating in heavy afternoon rains that persisted for days, relieving the drought around the capital. As the rains continued, the emperor extended the originally planned three-day ritual assembly. The people rejoiced, and the harvest that year proved exceptionally abundant.

The "zhaijiao" mentioned here constitutes a major Daoist ceremonial complex involving scripture recitation, ritual prostrations, and repentance, often performed to invoke blessings or avert disasters. Mount Qingcheng, one of Daoism's sacred birthplaces, is traditionally associated with the Yellow Emperor's study of the Dragon Stepping Classic under Master Ningfeng—through which he gained the art of flight—leading to Ningfeng's posthumous title "Elder of the Five Sacred Peaks." These accounts reflect both the Tang imperial house's devotion to Daoism and the traditional worldview that interpreted natural phenomena through the lens of religious practice.

This deity wears a celestial crown symbolizing the heavenly realms, adorned in crimson ritual robes and bearing the Three Dantian (upper, middle, and lower energy centers) treasure seal. As the supreme ruler overseeing the sacred mountains' deities, he stands alongside the Hidden Mountain's Director of Destinies (the immortal governing life and death) and Mount Lu's Emissary as one of the Three Highest Divine Authorities. He commands the Five Sacred Mountain deities to pay monthly homage to the realm of emptiness, where sprinkling sacred water replaces conventional timekeeping. Though successive dynasties established altars for worship, it wasn't until the first year of Emperor Xizong's Zhonghe era (881 CE) on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month that officials like Yuan Yijian were dispatched to conduct the grand Daoist Zhaijiao (purification ritual), formally conferring upon him the title "Venerable Sovereign of Five Peaks, the Ineffable True Lord." During a severe drought when crops withered, the night of this investiture ceremony witnessed dragon songs echoing from the mountain stream near the temple, followed by torrential rains that revived the parched seedlings, resulting in an unprecedented harvest—an event recorded in imperial annals.

Regarding the miraculous manifestations of Ye Fashan (renowned Tang dynasty Daoist): This Celestial Master (Tianshi) hailed from Kuazhou, with three generations of Daoist priests in his lineage, all versed in spirit communication and transcendence arts. Ye particularly mastered Fulu (talismans and registers), commanding supernatural beings. During Emperor Gaozong's Xianqing reign, he was summoned to the imperial ritual arena and received exceptional honors. Later, when the emperor toured Luoyang, Ye conducted a grand Keyi (liturgy) with a fire altar at Lingkong Temple, drawing crowds. When dozens suddenly rushed into the flames yet emerged unscathed, Ye explained they were possessed by malevolent spirits subdued by his power—confirmed upon interrogation and cured by his rituals. Serving five successive reigns (Gaozong, Zhongzong, Wu Zetian, Ruizong, and Xuanzong), he was frequently summoned to court and enfeoffed as Duke of Yue in 713 CE.

Another wonder concerns Liu Tu: At fifteen, he carried the Seventy-Five General Talismans (protective incantations). As a young clerk in Jiangxia County, he maintained unwavering integrity. On the tenth night of the second lunar month in 109 CE (third year of Emperor An's Yongchu era), Mount Tai's Ruler dispatched emissary Ya Yu to escort him for celestial record-keeping. Assuring his family of his return, Liu ascended to behold the Supreme Venerable Sovereign (Taishang Laojun) enthroned in the north, with Mount Tai's Ruler attending in the east.

This painting depicts the seating arrangement of five divine beings: the Secluded Immortal Lord sits in the south, the Celestial Master (Tianshi) in the west, while the Lord of Dao and De occupies the central position. After paying respects to these five deities, the Supreme Elder Lord (Taishang Laojun, one of Daoism's highest divinities) addresses the protagonist "Tu" in the painting: "I know you were devout in serving the Dao and steadfast in virtuous conduct during your lifetime, yet met an untimely demise. Because of your expertise in calculations, I have summoned you to assist in verifying the Registers of Life and Death for all beings."

The Lord of Mount Tai (Taishan Fujun, deity overseeing underworld affairs) dispatched an emissary named Yayu to escort Tu to meet the Left and Right Assistant Magistrates (underworld officials). Together they spent three days and two nights examining all documents, determining who should die and who should live. Upon completing this task, Tu requested to return. The Supreme Elder Lord instructed Yayu to show Tu the realms where retribution for sins and blessings for merits are displayed.

Yayu first led Tu into the first level of hell, where they saw over three thousand women hanging upside down from great trees, their feet shackled with hundred-pound iron cangues. The second level held three thousand men undergoing similar torment. From the third to the tenth levels, each revealed various suffering sinners: some wore iron cangues, some hung inverted, some had hands bound behind their backs, some boiled in cauldrons, some bore massive stones on their heads, some were pierced by iron forks, some roasted in flames, and others flogging each other—all with flesh torn and suffering unbearably. Yayu explained these punishments befell those who slandered the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) or oppressed common people during their lives.

Upon reaching the eleventh level, Tu saw his deceased father and three hundred men mutually flogging themselves. Kneeling beside the Heavenly Realm's Pingkang Prison, Tu wept bitterly and kowtowed, asking why his father endured such suffering. Yayu revealed: "Your father, as a prison official in life, wantonly killed innocents and wronged good people. For seven years after death he has endured this retribution. I may plead with the Celestial Officials for his release."

After returning to kowtow a million times before the Supreme Elder Lord to beg mercy, the deity agreed to release Tu's father. Next, Yayu escorted Tu to the Grand Pure Palace (Taiqing Gong, Daoist celestial realm), where thirty-six thousand people in blue robes held golden tablets, chanting scriptures while enjoying celestial delicacies and music. Yayu explained: "These cultivators persistently practiced talismans and registers (Fulu) with unrelenting diligence during life, thus attaining this blissful reward after death." When Tu requested to return, the Elder Lord told him...

This is a warning about karmic retribution from classic Daoist scriptures. The deities admonish all people under heaven: every individual's sins and blessings will receive corresponding retribution—do not commit transgressions. Here we briefly outline several important precepts that require both Daoist practitioners and ordinary people to engage in monthly self-reflection and repentance to cleanse their accumulated transgressions. The deities promise to meet with sincerely repentant individuals during specific hours (Zi and Chou periods) at the White Tiger Diagram (a sacred Daoist site) to receive their reverent gratitude.

During human life, all matters of life, death, misfortune, and fortune are meticulously recorded by the Celestial Offices (heavenly bureaucracy) and Earth Officials (underworld institutions), with not the slightest omission. As the scripture states: "The net of heaven is vast; though its meshes are wide, nothing slips through." In the northern Gui region stands Mount Luofeng, towering 2,600 li high with a circumference of 20,000 li—its cavern-heavens extending boundlessly. Within the mountain lie six palaces, each spanning a thousand li, where the deities and spirits of the Six Heavens reside. All deceased must pass through here, receiving punishments corresponding to their karmic deeds from life.

This mountain contains twenty-four hells distributed across upper, middle, and lower tiers of eight hells each. Beneath Mount Tai exist five additional hell-mansions, while other mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas all maintain their own hells. Each hell is governed by judges and jailers who examine sinners through the trials of Yin-Yang, water, and fire. The punished endure the Three Torments (fiery torment, bloody torment, blade torment) and Five Sufferings (birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from loved ones). Some must transport stones from Mount Meng to fill Mount Tai; others draw water from Western Fords to pour into the Eastern Sea. Some are reborn as beasts, borderland barbarians, lowly persons, or with congenital disabilities—all repaying karmic debts from past lives.

Laozi (Lord Lao) taught: "The virtuous ascend to heavenly paradises; the wicked descend into hells." They must experience the Three Torments, Five Sufferings, and Eight Calamities before being reborn as lowly creatures or in savage lands. The sages, moved by compassion, meticulously documented these karmic consequences. This is explicitly recorded in Master Yin Xi's (Wenshi Xiansheng) Inner Biography. Some ignorant people mistakenly believe Daoism speaks only of serene Wuwei (non-action) without addressing karmic retribution—some even mock and blaspheme. This deeply grieves Laozi, who therefore commanded the creation of sin-and-blessing diagrams, ensuring all may understand these truths and reform their wicked ways toward virtue.