Page 128 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

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88 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I

als attest to increasingly elaborate soteriologies among a number of Taoist
groups. Celestial Master (*Tianshi dao) tomb ordinances from the fifth and
early sixth centuries, excavated in Hunan and Hubei, address a pantheon of
tomb spirits that shares many members with the Han grave-securing writs, but
the orders proceed from the deified Laozi. Additionally, the tomb spirits are
instructed, not only to forbear from harassing the deceased and the survivors,
but also to assist the deceased with her or his ascent to the Three Heavens:
"shampooing and bathing, capping and girding him," "sealing and binding up
his *hun and po, and opening the way for him."

"Salvation through extinction." A *Lingbao scripture, the Miedu wulian shengshi
miaojing ~llJi~1:P ~)~1Jf (Wondrous Scripture on Salvation through
Extinction and the Fivefold Refinement of the Corpse; CT 369), likewise
prescribes the use of a set of five tomb ordinances, with the exact content of
each varying according to the *wuxing. These Lingbao ordinances are highly
consistent both with the Celestial Master ordinances and their Han dynasty
predecessors. According to the Lingbao ordinances, the deceased's body is to
go to Great Darkness, while the hun is to be released from the underground
prison of the hells of the Nine Shades (jiuyou JL ~). This dual transfer is pre-
paratory to the reunification of spirit and body and their rebirth in the human
world after a set number of years. These notions are founded on the Lingbao
notion of "salvation through extinction" (miedu mtJi). Initially an early Chi-
nese Buddhist term for nirviil).a, here the phrase refers to successive cycles of
death, ascent to heaven, and rebirth, by which the individual eventually could
reach the rank of "transcendent king" (Bokenkamp 1989; Bokenkamp 1990;
Nickerson 1996b, chapter 3).
Likewise echoing the Xiang'er's conception of Great Darkness, the Lingbao
* Duren jing (Scripture on Salvation) claims that those of insufficient merit will
have to pass bodily through Darkness. However, recitation of the scripture can
release their spirits to the Southern Palace (Nangong mE;). Then the deceased
may, after repeated cycles of rebirth, achieve transcendence (Bokenkamp 1997,
428-89). The connection between alchemical transformation and salvation
was deepened through new forms of mortuary rites developed in the Song,
in particular that of Salvation through Refinement (*liandu), in which the
priest's own inner-alchemical visualizations effected the deliverance of the
deceased (Boltz]. M. 1983).

Sepulchral plaints. Notions of death and afterlife in early Taoism relate not
only to rites for the newly deceased, but also and especially to the need to
settle the spirits of the unquiet dead. Such problems typically took the form
of sepulchral plaints (zhongsong ~~0 )-lawsuits filed before the magistracies
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of the underworld by the aggrieved dead-either directly against the living or