Highest Secret Rites to Aid the People 太上助国救民总真秘要
Paul PengHighest Secret Rites to Aid the People
Compiled by Yuan Miaozong, a Taoist priest of the Tianxin Sect in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Ten scrolls, included in the Zhengyi Section of The Daozang.
At the beginning of the book is a preface by Yuan Miaozong dated the sixth year of the Zhenghe reign (1116). He states that he had traveled to famous mountains everywhere to seek teachings from masters. Later, he was summoned by Emperor Huizong to the capital’s Scripture Bureau to collate and print Taoist scriptures. He thus compiled secret methods, formulas, talismans, seals, and the arts of pacing the Big Dipper for salvation and healing, and presented this work.
Highest Secret Rites to Aid the People
The Taoist methods recorded in this book are mainly the Tianxin Orthodox Dharma.
- Volume One expounds the essentials of the Tianxin Orthodox Dharma. It states that this Dharma is the method of the Northern Pole Central Dipper. The Northern Pole is the center of heaven, where all phenomena converge; the Big Dipper is the central dipper of heaven, from which all qi receives its endowment—hence the name “Tianxin” (Heavenly Heart) Orthodox Dharma. It also records nine rules for prayer and ransom in the Tianxin Orthodox Dharma, to be followed by the afflicted.
- Volumes Two and Three contain numinous scripts, talismans, and incantations under the Dipper of the Tianxin Orthodox Dharma, talismanic formulas for expelling consumption and various illnesses, as well as the True Dharma of Tianpeng for Subduing Demons.
- Volumes Four through Six record nineteen talismans from Hidden Writings of the Upper Clarity: Marrow Spiritual Scriptures, and 115 rules, models, and ceremonies of the Demon Laws and Jade Statutes. These talismans are said to have been transmitted from the Heavenly Master Zhang in the late Han Dynasty and Master Ye Fashan in the Tang Dynasty, “their merits and marvels beyond measure.”
- Volume Seven contains various methods for interrogating ghosts and summoning gods.
- Volume Eight has illustrated texts on the Yuabu pacing, Dipper guidelines, and palm-and-eye formulas.
- Volume Nine sets forth formulas and methods for transmission, dark prisons, the terrace of living heaven, Dipper lamps, and divination.
- Volume Ten collects formats of official documents used by the Northern Pole Expelling Demons Court of the Upper Clarity.
