Jade Casket Of Perfected Lord Xu 许真君玉匣记
Paul PengJade Casket Of Perfected Lord Xu
Originally attributed to Xu Jingyang, but actually a pseudonymous work by Taoist priests of the Ming Dynasty.
It is one volume, included in the Supplementary Daozang, a continuation of The Daozang.
Jade Casket Of Perfected Lord Xu
At the beginning of the volume is a preface by Wu Zijin dated the 8th year of Xuande (1433), stating that Xu Jingyang, pitying those who performed prayers and rituals but violated taboos of Heaven and Earth thus bringing disasters, wrote this book. A Daoist friend named Ni Shouyue in Gusu obtained it from a supernatural person and printed it for transmission.
The book states that prayers and ritual ceremonies must be held on auspicious days and hours; otherwise great misfortune will ensue. Attached after the main text are works such as The Master’s Selection Record, The Ultimate Jade Record, Mr. Zhuge’s Ten-Thousand-Year Travel Chart, and The Jade Classic Record — all calendar books of Buddhism and Taoism for choosing auspicious days and divining good or bad fortune, based on the principles of Five Elements.
They include days for vegetarian fasts, auspicious days for bed-making, days for trying new clothes, days for the crown prince’s hair-washing, Manjushri days for cutting clothes, yearly star destinies for males and females, days for visiting the sick, travel days, inauspicious days for falling ill, Yellow Sand days, Ghost Weeping days, auspicious and inauspicious days of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, lucky directions of the Sixty Jiazi, and so on.
