Page 437 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

THE ENCYCLO PEDI A OF TAOISM A- L

bajing = 5I:)\~) or of the Three Regions (sanbu bajing = m)\~ ; see *bajing).
Talismanic charts designed to allow the practitioner to see and control these
spirits existed as early as the third century, as attested in *Ge Hong's list of
the scriptures possessed by his master *Zheng Yin.
The surviving scripture of this name is the Dongxuan lingbao ershisi sheng
tu jing WTI"E" ~:e: _ + !ill 1: ~ ~~ (Scripture of the Charts of the Twenty-Four
Life[-GiversJ of Lingbao, Cavern of Mystery Section; CT I407). In this text,
fourth-century *Shangqing revisions of ancient practices concerning the
twenty-four charts have been further modified to accord with the cosmic and
soteriological views of the *Lingbao scriptures. The scripture relates the genesis
of the twenty-four spirits and their charts in the earliest kalpa-periods (*jie)
and then goes on to tell how *Li Hong, Saint of the Latter Age, was provided
with the text. Li Hong's ability to control and exteriorize his twenty-four
bodily spirits as human envoys who would save the elect from the cataclysms
attending the end of the world-age had, prior to the composition of this text,
already featured in a Shangqing text, the *Lingshu ziwen. Versions of the charts
possessed by other Shangqing deities are also said here to have originated in
this Lingbao scripture. The charts themselves are named according to earlier
Taoist charts said by Ge Hong to have been in the possession of Zheng Yin.
In addition to talismanic charts and chants associated with the twenty-four
spirits, the text lists the spiritual underlings associated with each, including the
spirits that are to be exteriorized in Lingbao ritual. This list figures prominently
among the items bestowed on initiates in *Lu Xiujing's *Lingbao shoudu yi.
Stephen R. BOKENKAMP

m Bokenkamp I983, 458-60; Ofuchi Ninji I997, I47-48
* Lingbao