The Dharma Wheel Admonitions 太上十二品飞天法轮劝戒妙经

Originally entitled Transmitted by the Taiji True Immortal to the Left Immortal Elder, judging from its textual content and phrasing, this scripture was compiled and adapted by Taoist priests in the late Northern and Southern Dynasties or the Sui and Tang dynasties, excerpted from The Wonderful Scripture of the True One, Exhortation and Precepts, and the Dharma Wheel of the Supreme Cavern Mystery Numinous Treasure. It is a single scroll, incorporated into the section of Precepts and Commandments under The Dongzhen Section of The Daozang.

This scripture is pseudonymously attributed to the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, who expounded the Dao to the True Immortal of Wonderful Conduct and all the great sages of heaven. It proclaims that all living beings in the mortal world are benighted by ignorance and obsessed with greed, thus dwelling in the dim darkness of the eternal night, denied the light of the Dao. The Heavenly Venerable, filled with compassion and solicitude for all living beings, exhorts mortals to take refuge in the Three Jewels and uphold the Ten Great Precepts.

The Twelve Precepts are as follows: refraining from killing, refraining from theft, refraining from lewdness and depravity, refraining from slander, refraining from abusive and divisive speech, refraining from envy, refraining from miserliness, refraining from anger and resentment, refraining from foolish dullness, refraining from drinking alcohol, and abstaining from disloyalty and filial impiety. Those who faithfully observe these precepts shall attain seven kinds of blessed rewards; those who violate the precepts shall incur various karmic retributions for their sins, embodying the core doctrine of cause and effect and moral retribution upheld in The Dao.