Page 623 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

JINQ UE DIJ UN s8r

Jinque dijun

Imperial Lord of the Golden Portal

The Lord of the Golden Portal, also known as the Saint of the Latter Age
(*housheng), is a deity of *Shangqing Taoism with a strong messianic compo-
nent. He is a direct successor to the earlier messiah, *Li Hong, who appears
either as Laozi himself or as his messenger. According to a Shangqing prophecy,
the Lord of the Golden Portal was to come forth in a year marked by the cycli-
cal signs renchen =E JP( (the twenty-ninth of the sexagesimal cycle; see table IQ)
from Mount Qingcheng (*Qingcheng shan, Sichuan) to establish a new world
inhabited by the chosen or "seed-people" (*zhongmin) of the Dao.
The key source for this figure is a southern text of the fourth century en-
titled *Housheng daojun lieji (Chronicle of the Lord of the Dao, Saint of the
Latter Age). It contains a biography of Li Hong as Lord of the Golden Portal
together with predictions of an age of decadence and destruction before the
complete renewal of the world. The same biography also appears, in a sightly
abbreviated form, in the Taipingjingchao :;t ~ ~~ t) (Excerpts from the Scrip-
ture of Great Peace), compiled on the basis of lost *Taipingjing passages in
the sixth century and now found in the Taoist Canon as the first chapter of
the Taipingjing (CT IIOI).
According to this text, the Lord of the Golden Portal was an avatar of Lord
Lao, sharing with him the family name Li * and the title Emptiness and
Non-being (Xuwu JlI[~), an epithet of the Dao. His early life, too, is written
in imitation of Lord Lao: he himself makes the decision to be born, actively
assembles his cosmic energy, completes his form, and descends to earth in
the mythical country of the north, where his mother, like Laozi's Mother Li,
is waiting for him in a valley of plum trees (li *). His divine appearance on
earth is honored by three suns rising from the east and nine dragons coming
to spray water over him. He grows up bright and beautiful, curious about the
Dao and eager to learn the techniques of immortality.
After a long process of searching and refinement, the Lord of the Golden
Portal attains full realization of the Dao and gains access to the heavenly
realms, winning power over mortals and immortals. He then becomes "the
sole ruler of the nine levels (jiuchong All!) of heaven and the ten ramparts
(shidie r~) of earth." In due course he collects his expertise and efficacious
talismans into several sacred scriptures that he reveals to suitable representa-