Page 582 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

JIAO 541

Table 14
DAY I
I Announcement (*fabiao ~*)
2 Invocation (qibai ~ D)
3 Flag-Raising (yangqi :t&}1iJI)
4 Noon Offering (*wugong Lfw;l
5 Division of the Lamps (*fendeng 5Hi)
6 Sealing the Altar (*jintan ~Jr1)
7 Invocation of the Masters and Saints (qi shisheng ~ ilifi~)
8 Nocturnal Invocation (*suqi :rIUjl,O
DAY 2
9 Morning Audience (zaochao ..If!. ~l )
IQ Noon Audience (wuchao 'i-iYJ)
II Evening Audience (wanchao ~ iYJ)
DAY 3
12 Renewed Invocation (cllOngbai .ill: B)
13 Presentation of the Memorial (jinbiao illl~ , or *baibiao .Ff'i!O
14 "Ten Thousand Sacred Lamps of the Three Realms" (sanjie wangling shengdeng -= W (If,
'Ai~jtiO
15 Orthodox Offering (*zhengjiao LE MO
16 Universal Salvation (*pudu f!f JJt)
Program of a three-day Offering (jiao) ritual. Based on Schipper 1975C, IQ-I!.
For similar programs, see Lagerwey I987C, 293, and Tanaka Issei I989h, 275-79.

The ritual program presented in this anthology testifies to a common
tripartite structure. The first major ritual of most services is the Nocturnal
Invocation (*suqi), through which the sacred area is established, purified, and
consecrated (within the Lingbao tradition this entailed the planting of the
five Authentic Scripts or zhenwen ~)( , i.e., the five Lingbao talismans, in the
five directions of the sacred area-an act that still occurs in the classical jiao
liturgy of southern Taiwan). It is followed by the main rite of communica-
tion-conceived as an audience with the supreme deities-in which a Dec-
laration (ci ~iij) is read. The program concludes with the Statement of Merit
(yangong j§:rj]), the purpose of which is to reward the spirits that have assisted
the priest in transmitting his messages to heaven. In the earlier Zhengyi form
of the zhai liturgy, the Statement of Merit was commonly postponed until a
later time, when the ritual was determined to have had its effect (see Cedzich
1987, 97-102). In later forms of the jiao liturgy, the ritual corresponding to the
Statement of Merit (in present-day southern Taiwan, the Presentation of the
Memorial, jinbiao j1t'&) is accompanied by large-scale displays of offerings
addressed to the Jade Sovereign (*Yuhuang) and inaugurates a whole series of
additional major rituals in which offerings are presented to all categories of
the spirit-world. These offering rituals are conspicuously absent in the early