The Celestial Response Canon 太上感应篇

The author is unknown.

It was probably compiled in the late Northern Song and early Southern Song dynasties.

Recorded as The Treatise of the Supreme Lord on Response and Retribution in one scroll in the Secret Catalogue of the Southern Song Dynasty, this is exactly the present work.

Numerous versions of the text survive today, mainly in two forms: a one-scroll edition and an eight-scroll edition, both derived from the annotated version by Li Changling of the Southern Song Dynasty. The edition in The Daozang is divided into thirty chapters, attributed to Li Changling as the expositor and Zheng Qingzhi as the eulogist, and is included in the Pure Clarity Section of the Taoist Canon.

The main text of The Treatise on Response and Retribution comprises merely over a thousand characters, primarily propagating the ideas of yin and yang interaction between heaven and humanity, and karmic retribution for good and evil deeds, with the fundamental purpose of exhorting virtue and punishing vice. It asserts that: "Blessings and misfortunes have no fixed source; they are summoned by man himself. Retributions for good and evil follow like a shadow that clings to a form." There are gods who oversee human transgressions between heaven and earth, a Kitchen God in every household, and the Three Corpse Gods dwelling within the human body. These deities record every good and evil deed of mortals at all times, and submit their reports to heaven punctually. Those who perform good deeds shall surely receive blessings bestowed by heaven, and attain various ranks of immortality according to the merits of their good deeds; those who commit evil deeds shall surely incur calamities inflicted by heaven, with their lifespans reduced or forfeited in accordance with the gravity of their sins. Those whose crimes exceed their retribution shall bring misfortune upon their descendants.

The standards of good and evil enumerated in the text all conform to Confucian ethical morality, making it a representative work of moral instruction through divine mandate. From the Song, Yuan, Ming to Qing dynasties, this treatise circulated extensively and exerted a profound influence across society.

Li Changling’s annotations extensively cite scriptures and classics of the three teachings, enumerating stories of karmic retribution, and earnestly proclaiming that heavenly gods cannot be deceived, and the responsive retributions for one’s deeds are unfailingly efficacious.

Zheng Qingzhi quoted from the Four Books and the Five Classics, praising that every sentence of The Treatise on Response and Retribution holds unalterable truth. Countless Confucian and Taoist scholars of later generations have written annotations for this text, and it has also spread to Japan, Korea and other countries, becoming an important classic that embodies the core moral connotations of The Dao.