Page 80 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

40 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I

assemblies a year (* sanhui), during which
the otherworldly officials also congregated
to correct and collate their copies of these
records. Registers were just as important in
later Taoist traditions. To become a transcen-
dent in the *Shangqing tradition, one's name
had to be inscribed in the celestial registers
(Bokenkamp 1997, 355-60); in the *Lingbao
tradition, rituals were timed to coincide with
these celestial assemblies.
The registers kept in the otherworld
also recorded one's misdeeds. The *Taiping
jing (Scripture of Great Peace), a second-
century text associated with another reli-
gious movement of the Han dynasty, de-
scribes registers of misdeeds that adversely
affect the length of one's life span. Both
the Shangqing and Lingbao traditions in-
herited the notion of registers of life and
death, but the number of gods in charge
of monitoring human behavior increased.
These registers and the idea that one's ac-
tions affect these otherworldly records appear
throughout Taoist scriptures and in Six
Dynasties zhiguai iB f~ tales ("records of the
strange").
Beginning with the Celestial Masters tra-
dition, registers also listed protective dei-
ties. During the transmission of a scripture,
the adept swore a covenant (meng ~.), re-
calling the bond forged between lord and
vassal. This use and role of registers was
replaced in the Shangqing tradition by the
possession, knowledge, and use of revealed

Fig. 6. Great Register of the Most High Orthodox
Unity for Removing Evil (Taishang zhengyi bixie dalu
:* -.t 11: _. Xl$ :rll k f~). Sanwu zhengyi mengwei lu :::: JJ: ll.
~ M Il<IZ f~ (Register of the Covenant with the Powers
of Orthodox Unity of the Three and Five; CT 1208),
6.IOb-I3a.