Page 55 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

OVERVIEW I5

of Original Commencement (Yuanshi tianzun 51J€1 ;:: ~ ; see * sanqing) had
the texts cast on gold tablets and stored in his celestial archives. Thereafter,
he granted lesser deities access to them if they underwent the proper rituals.
Five eons passed before the Celestial Worthy decided it was time transmit
the texts to a mortal. At his behest three of the Perfected descended with a
cortege of carriages, an escort of cavaliers and a retinue of immortal lads and
jade maids in the millions. That host landed on Mount Tiantai (*Tiantai shan,
Zhejiang) where the Perfected bestowed the scriptures, one by one, on Ge
Hong's uncle who had made himself worthy of receiving them by suffering
through innumerable reincarnations and having compassionately vowed to
strive for the salvation of all mankind.
Transmission and ordination. These traditions, however fanciful, served a pur-
pose. They established the sanctity of the scriptures as direct gifts from the
gods. They also laid the foundations for mundane transmissions of sacred texts.
Once the texts found their way into human hands it was the responsibility of
the recipients to pass them on to worthy recipients. By the fifth century with
the appearance of the first liturgy for ordinations, compiled by *Lu Xiujing,
the process of transmission became codified (see *Lingbao shoudu yi). Taoist
investitures were the liturgical confirmation of a master's transmission of texts
to his disciple and were overwhelmingly juridical in nature. There were three
legal formalities required of ordinands. The first were covenants by which they
bound themselves to the gods and promised to venerate the scriptures. The
punishment for violating such pacts was condemnation to the dark prisons
of eternal night in hell. The second were vows. Ordinands gave their word
that they would be temperate, chaste, compassionate, humane, benevolent,
tolerant, and filial. The third were oaths. Ordinands swore never to transmit
the canon indiscriminately, reveal its contents, violate its admonitions, converse
or disparage the scriptures, or bestow the texts for a fee. To guarantee that
they would never breach their word, they had to submit pledges in the form
of gold, cash and textiles.
Charles D. BENN

m Benn 1991, 72-98; Lagerwey 1981b, 105-20, II7-40, and 149-70; Seidel 1983a;
Stein R. A. 1968; Stein R. A. 1969a

* INlTIATIO ; LINEAGES; ORDINATION AND PRIESTHOOD; REVELATIONS AND
SACRED TEXTS