The Ling Bao Tou Jian Fu Wen Yao Jue 太上洞玄灵宝投简符文要诀

The author is unknown.

Judging from its content and wording, it was presumably compiled by Taoist priests in the Tang and Song dynasties by excerpting and adapting various early Numinous Treasure scriptures.

This text was already cataloged in Tongzhi·Bibliographical Survey.

It consists of one scroll and is included in the category of "Divine Talismans" in the Cave Mysterium Division of the Taoist Canon.

The main content of this text is the secret instructions for practicing Numinous Treasure talismanic and incantatory Taoist methods, which can be divided into four parts.

It focuses on the practice of the way of ascending to immortality and the method of transcending mortality through corpse liberation. It lists 254 characters of talismanic scripts and specifies the essential instructions for writing talismans and reciting incantations in the four seasons and twelve months of the year.

It details the method of offering jade slips to submit one’s name to deities for erasing sin records. It presents 184 characters of talismanic scripts corresponding to the Five Directions and Five Heavens, and notes the key instructions for writing talismans and offering jade slips at the Five Sacred Mountains on the eight solar terms.

It expounds the method of ingesting the Five Fangs (Five Teeth) qi. It lists 60 characters of the Red Script Jade Texts of the Five Directions (also known as the Five Teeth Talismans), and specifies the essential guidelines for practicing Taoist inner cultivation such as daoyin (guided breathing), qi circulation, swallowing talismans, and reciting incantations.

It describes the method of practicing the Five Chapters of True Text of the Numinous Treasure tradition to contemplate deities and aspire to immortality. Only the instructions for contemplating deities and reciting incantations during the four seasons and eight solar terms are provided, with no accompanying talismans.

Most of the aforementioned Taoist methods have already appeared in the ancient Numinous Treasure scriptures of the Six Dynasties, such as The Heavenly Scripture of the True Text Jade Chapters of the Red Script of the Primordial Five Elders and The Supreme Cave Mysterium Numinous Treasure Red Script Jade Instructions Wonderful Scripture.