The Grand Tenuity’s Merit Ledger 太微仙君功过格

Composed by Youxuanzi, a Taoist priest of the Song Dynasty in the Jin period.

It is a single scroll, incorporated into the section of Precepts and Commandments under The Dongzhen Section of The Daozang.

A self-preface by the author opens the scroll, stating that in the Xinmao year of the Dading reign (1171), he dreamed of traveling to the Purple Mansion, paid homage to the Immortal Lord of Taiwei, and received the guidelines for merits and transgressions in the dream; he compiled this book right after waking up from the vision.

The text enumerates a systematic code of merits and transgressions, including thirty-six articles of merit classified into four categories: the Gate of Relief and Succor, the Gate of Teaching and Scripture Transmission, the Gate of Alchemy and Cultivation, and the Gate of Practical Conduct. It also lists thirty-nine articles of transgression, divided into four corresponding categories: the Gate of Inhumanity, the Gate of Malevolence, the Gate of Injustice, and the Gate of Aberrance.

All acts of practicing the Dao and performing benevolent deeds are counted as merits, such as almsgiving and donating wealth, relieving the poor and destitute, repairing roads and thoroughfares, imparting Taoist scriptures and teachings, constructing temples and sculpting divine statues, holding fasting rituals to deliver the deceased, and other virtuous conduct. All acts of defying the Dao and committing evil deeds are deemed as transgressions, such as refusing to succor the poor, destroying temples and divine statues, cursing the sacred deities, envying the virtuous and begrudging the talented, inciting disputes and litigations, acquiring wealth through unjust means, theft, killing living beings, excessive drinking, and inducing lechery, among others.

Mortals may record their daily and monthly words, deeds, merits and transgressions in accordance with the above code, and examine their conduct at fixed times. In this way, one may clearly know the measure of one’s merits and transgressions, which aligns manifestly with the assessments of the heavenly spiritual supervisors. By cultivating oneself in adherence to these guidelines, abandoning evil and turning to good, and accumulating merits and virtues steadily, one shall be "not far from immortality".

This book exerted a considerable influence on later generations: Taoist priests of the Jingming Sect in the Yuan Dynasty upheld and practiced its teachings earnestly, and Confucian scholars also cited it in their writings.