Great Rites of the Shangqing Lingbao 上清灵宝大法

Formerly titled as transmitted by Ning Quanzhen and compiled by Wang Qizhen. Both were renowned Taoist Priests of the Lingbao Sect during the Southern Song Dynasty.

Comprising sixty-six volumes, the book is included in the Zhengyi Section of The Daozang. As a comprehensive work of Lingbao Sect’s Taoist methods from the early Southern Song Dynasty, it is divided into twenty-seven sections, collecting various practices including cultivation, fasting, repentance, deity invocation, prayer and exorcism, initiation, recitation, talismans, as well as memorials for fast and ritual ceremonies. It also traces the origins of Lingbao scriptures, precepts and talismans, expounds their essential teachings and the merits of practice.

Great Rites of the Shangqing Lingbao

In the late Northern Song and early Southern Song dynasties, several such comprehensive works of Taoist methods were compiled by Lingbao Taoists. This book belongs to the Donghua branch of the Lingbao Sect, and was prevalent in the Tiantai region of eastern Zhejiang. Its teachings not only inherit the traditional fasting, ritual and refinement arts of the talisman sects, but also absorb inner alchemy and Thunder Magic, emphasizing the practice of the “Method of Great Stability”: clarifying the mind, eliminating distractions, and internally refining essence and Qi as the foundation for external application of talismans.