The Dengzhen Yinjue 登真隐诀

Secret Instructions for Ascending to Immortality (Dengzhen Yinjue) was compiled by Tao Hongjing, a Taoist priest of the Liang Dynasty.

The original version consisted of either 24 or 25 scrolls.

Only one scroll of the existing version in the Daozang (Taoist Canon) survives, and it is included in the Yujue Lei (Jade Commentaries Category) of the Dongxuan Bu (Mysterious Grotto Section).

Additionally, there is one fragmentary scroll of a Dunhuang manuscript (P.2732) of this text. Numerous lost passages of this work are also quoted in various Taoist texts and reference books from the Tang and Song dynasties.

This text was compiled by Tao Hongjing, who extracted techniques and secrets related to cultivating immortality and ascending to immortalhood from early Shangqing School classics.

The surviving upper scroll of the Daozang version discusses methods of wearing talismans and contemplating deities, including practices such as writing and wearing the "True Talisman of the Taiji Emperor Lord" and the "Precious Seal of the Taiji Emperor Lord," as well as contemplating the true deities of the Nine Palaces on the human head.

The main content of the middle scroll focuses on health-preserving techniques, including massage, guided stretching (daoyin), inhaling vital energy (qi), swallowing saliva, bathing, inward contemplation and visualization, swallowing talismans, reciting incantations, and exorcising demons and controlling ghosts.

The lower scroll contains methods for reciting the Huangting Jing (Yellow Court Scripture), as well as techniques transmitted by Heavenly Master Zhang to Lady Wei of Nanyue. These techniques include entering a meditative state, burning incense and paying ritual respect, writing talismans and submitting memorials to heaven, inviting heavenly soldiers and generals to exorcise ghosts and dispel disasters, and relieving all kinds of illnesses.

The above Taoist techniques have identical or similar records in Taoist texts such as Zhengao (True Declarations), Biography of Lady Wei of Nanyue (Nanyue Wei Furen Zhuan), Biography of Lord Su, Upper Minister of Xuanzhou (Xuanzhou Shangqing Sujun Zhuan), and Zhenji Jing (Scripture of Authentic Traces). All of them are common immortal-cultivating techniques used by the early Shangqing School.