Page 713 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LIN G BAO DAFA 671

Lingbao dafa

Great Rites of the Numinous Treasure

This synthetic ritual tradition that priests used and criticized in the Southern
Song, Yuan, and Ming periods focused on saving the dead. It goes by several
names in various twelfth- to fourteenth-century texts that seek to embody or
to castigate the tradition. While "Great Rites of the Numinous Treasure Tradi-
tion" was commonly used by its promoters and "Rites of Tiantai" (Tiantai fa 7C
~) by its detractors, others called it the "Great Rites for Salvation" (Duren
dafa Jt A."* ~) because of the prominence given to the *Duren jing (Scripture
on Salvation). Other sources use the expression 'Way of [the Lord of] Eastern
Florescence" (Donghua dao *~m). Widely disseminated in southeast China,
the Great Rites combined new exorcistic practices and forms of contemplation
with a new way of reading and understanding *Lingbao scriptures and rituals,
especially those based on the Duren jingo The popularity of this eclectic ritual
tradition was scorned and ridiculed by Song and Yuan era priests who favored
a return to the simpler classical protocols of Taoist ritual.
Most later ritualists credited *Ning Benli (IIOI-BI) with first codifying the
tradition by integrating what he had learned from Tian Ziji EEl ~~ (I074-?) in
Kaifeng (Henan) with teachings he got from the southern master Shi Zixian it
T {w after the fall of the Northern Song in II26. Tian Ziji's teachings blended the
"canonical teachings of the Three Caverns" (sandongjingjiao -= m ~ ~) ritual
traditions with an obscure form of alchemy known as the Mysterious Purport
of [the Perfected of] the Cinnabar Origin of Eastern Florescence (Donghua
danyuanxuanzhi *~fj-5t"R" §?). Sb...i Zixian wove the "Forty-Nine Rubrics of
the Numinous Treasure Mysterious Standards" (Lingbao xuanfan sishijiu pin ii
J!f"R" fIlB g:g + 1L 5b) together with the *Tongchu (Youthful Incipience) teachings
of Yang Xizhen m;ffi" ~ (IIOI- 24), specifically the "talismans (*FU), writs, seals,
and mudras of the Five Bureaus' Jade Fascicles" (see *Daofa huiyuan, 17I.2b).
The core of the Great Rites comprises incantations, talismans, and rituals
stemming from a secret reading of the Duren jing, in which each of the four-
character phrases of the scripture forms a talisman that heals any illness and
protects its bearer (*Lingbao wuliang duren shangjing dafa,j. 5- 7). These methods
are described as "the Way to save souls from hell" (id., 53.la). Before attaining
this goal, adepts strive to ascend through a series of purifications that culmi-
nate in their initiation in the rites of salvation by the main Lingbao deity, the
Celestial Worthy of Original Commencement (Yuanshi tianzun 5tP~7C~).