Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao (Jin Yunzhong)上清灵宝大法（金允中）

Also known as

Jin Yunzhong's Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao, Great Rites of Lingbao

Author / transmission

Jin Yunzhong

Period

Southern Song · Written by Jin Yunzhong (active in the early thirteenth century); prefaced around the sixteenth year of the Jiading era (1223).

Canon division

Zhengyi Section

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Zhengyi Section

Category

Ritual Protocol (Keyi)

Fascicles

四十五卷

Synopsis

Jin Yunzhong's recension of the Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao is the culminating work of Southern Song Lingbao ritual, in forty-five juan. Jin Yunzhong was a Southern Song Daoist priest trained in the old Lingbao methods, and this book sets in order the Yellow Register Retreat, refinement and salvation, memorials and petitions, talismans and registers, ritual seals, visualization, altar liturgy and ordination certificates of the Lingbao Great Rites, stating plainly that "in Lingbao, retreat ritual is fundamental," and giving in detail the protocols for establishing the altar, dispatching the memorial, the nocturnal announcement, performing the Dao, audience with the Perfected, feeding the hungry ghosts and refinement and salvation, and the offering of thanksgiving. The author criticizes at length the "new methods" of the Tianxin, Shenxiao and Qingwei traditions then in vogue, upholding the ancient methods of Lingbao and opposing the mixing of Thunder Rites and talismanic methods into retreat liturgy; together with Wang Qizhen's recension and the Golden Book of Salvation according to the Lingbao Tradition it forms one of the three great documents of Song and Yuan Lingbao ritual. The refinement and salvation and rites for the shades set out in it had a lasting influence on the later Yellow Register Retreat and feeding rites of both Zhengyi and Quanzhen.

Key Ideas

• Retreat ritual is fundamental to Lingbao; adherence to the ancient methods
• The complete protocols of the Yellow Register Retreat, refinement and salvation, and memorials and petitions
• Criticism of the admixture of the new methods of Tianxin and Shenxiao
• The institutionalization of ordination certificates, ritual seals and altar liturgy

Structure

Forty-five juan, classified into general discussion, altar liturgy, memorials and petitions, talismans and registers, refinement and salvation, and retreat protocols.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Zhonghua Daozang, vol. 34

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Shangqing lingbao dafa
• CTEXT search

Related scriptures

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