Page 362 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

DAO M EN KELtiE 323

Northern Dippers (j. 49- 54); H. Longevity (j. 55- 62); 12. *Zhenwu (j. 63-68); 13.
Immortality (j. 75- 78); 14. Presenting the Petition for Salvation to the Eastern
Peak (j. 79-85); 15. Revering the deities (j. 86- 87). It is not always clear on what
basis or principle of classification the individual rituals are allocated to these
categories. Each ritual is divided into two parts: Inaugurating the Altar (qitan
m1fD and the Three Audiences (*sanchao) of morning, noon, and evening.
MARUYAMA Hiroshi

m Qing Xitai 1994, 2: 150-51
* Du Guangting; jiao; zhai

Daomen kelii.e

Abridged Codes for the Taoist Community

The Daomen kelii.e (CT H27) is a polemic written in the fifth century for both
rulers and the religious elite, calling for reform of the Taoist church. Attributed
to *Lu Xiujing (406- 77), the first systematizer of *Lingbao texts and rituals, it
includes a commentary not clearly distinguished from the main text. Both the
text and the commentary may have been written by Lu himself, or one of his
disciples may have abridged the original text and appended a commentary.
As a normative text, the Daomen kelii.e provides not only an ideal image of
the Taoist organization but also an invaluable view of social and religious
life in fifth-century China. Lu Xiujing supports the Taoist organizational
structure directly derived from the Celestial Masters (*Tianshi dao), one of
whose cornerstones was the family register (see *LU). According to the Daomen
kelii.e, in the original Celestial Masters community of the late second century
the names of all members of the community were entered into records that
listed the dates of births, deaths, and marriages. Nominally meant to avoid
confu ion in the otherworld, and thus prevent premature summonses from
otherworldly officials, these registers were modeled on records used by the
government, and organized the community for social and religious purposes
such as taxes, corvee labor, rituals, and healing. The records were updated
three times a year by both Taoist priests and otherworldly officials at the
Three Assemblies (*sanhui). Similarly, cuisine-feasts (*chu) were performed
at each birth and marriage. However, by Lu's time such practices had fallen
into disuse, and Lu attributes the disorganization of the Taoist community
to their neglect.