The Dong Xuan Ling Bao Er Shi Si Sheng Tu Jing 洞玄灵宝二十四生图经

It is one of the ancient Numinous Treasure Scriptures of Taoism, which was roughly compiled during the Jin Dynasty.

The Baopuzi·Chapter of Distant Views had already recorded The Scripture of the Twenty-Four Births.

Lu Xiujing’s Catalogue of Numinous Treasure Scriptures also listed The Supreme Cavern Mysterious Numinous Treasure’s Record and Ritual of the Three Parts, Eight Scenes, and Natural Divine True Beings in the Twenty-Four Births Diagrams (one scroll), which is exactly this text.

The extant version is included in the Orthodox One Section of the Daozang (Taoist Canon).

The scripture is pseudonymously presented as a teaching imparted by the Primordial Heavenly Venerable to the Supreme Infinite Lord of the Dao, expounding the method of visualizing and contemplating the Twenty-Four Gods of the Three Parts and Eight Scenes.

The Twenty-Four Gods of the Three Parts and Eight Scenes are the revered deities within the human body, who guard the Upper Prime Palace (brain), Middle Prime Palace (chest), and Lower Prime Palace (abdomen) respectively, with eight gods in each palace.

It is claimed that by visualizing and contemplating the Twenty-Four Gods of the Three Parts and Eight Scenes guarding the body, practitioners can ascend to become immortals. The Twenty-Four Births Diagrams contained in this text are twenty-four eulogistic poems for contemplating deities and ascending to immortality. Arranged in the order of the Eight Scenes Gods of the upper, middle, and lower parts, each deity is accompanied by a large talisman and a five-character eulogistic poem. At the end, there is The Jade Clear Seven Treasures Immortal Diagram, which summarizes the previous twenty-four deity diagrams. At the very end of the entire text, it also details the numbers, names, and talismans of the immortal officials and divine soldiers under each of the Twenty-Four Gods of the Three Parts and Eight Scenes.

The Taoist methods in this text represent a development compared with those in The Yellow Court Scripture.