The Golden Register Liturgical Dispatch 金箓斋投简仪

Compiled and revised by imperial edict by Zhang Shangying of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is a single scroll and included in the Ritual Norms Section of the Cavern Mystery Division of The Daozang.

At the end of the text is Preface to the Golden Register Fasting Rituals written by Zhang Shangying, which states that the Golden Register rituals were first expounded by immortals and practiced by Lu Xiujing of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in ancient times.

Thereafter, Du Guangting of the late Tang Dynasty collected and collated these rituals, and Yang Jie of the Northern Song Dynasty compiled them into a complete text. As the old rituals suffered from jumbled sequence and inconsistent elaboration, the author rearranged, abridged and supplemented them anew by imperial edict, finalizing the compilation into nine distinct rituals.

The Ritual of Presenting Talismans for the Golden Register Fasting recorded herein is surely one of these nine rituals. This ceremony was performed after the emperor's completion of the Golden Register Fasting: a grand celestial sacrificial ritual was held to swear an oath with Heaven and Earth, whereupon officials and Taoist priests were dispatched to place talismanic records in mountains, rivers and the earth. It was intended to pray for immortals to submit memorials to the Nine Heavens, declaring the performance of the fasting and sacrificial rituals and embodying the solemn ritual connotation of The Dao in imperial blessing ceremonies.

The text first sets forth the ritual procedures, benedictory prayers and incantations of the Talisman-Presentation Rite, followed by the formal formats of the talismanic texts.