The Lingbao Wufu Jing 太上洞玄灵宝五符序

Also known as The Scripture of the Five Numinous Treasure Talismans, it is one of the ancient Numinous Treasure Scriptures of Taoism, probably compiled around the transition from the Wei to the Jin Dynasty. Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty had quoted its texts several times in Baopuzi Inner Chapters.

Originally consisting of one scroll, it was divided into three scrolls at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the beginning of the Southern Dynasties, and was recorded in Lu Xiujing’s Catalogue of Numinous Treasure Scriptures.

The existing version in the Daoist Canon, which has three scrolls, is derived from the ancient version of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and is included in the Divine Talisman category of the Cave Mysterious Section.

At the beginning of the book, there is an essay titled Preface to the Five Talismans, which details the origin and evolution of the "Five Numinous Treasure Talisman Celestial Scripts".

It claims that the book originated from Xuan Yuan (the Primordial Origin), passed through the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and was handed down to the world during the reign of King Helü of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period. This is a myth compiled by Taoists and is not credible. The main content of the main text is the methods of health preservation and immortality-seeking practiced by alchemists in the Wei and Jin dynasties. Each scroll is divided into several sections, recording several kinds of Taoist methods and immortal prescriptions.

The first scroll focuses on the techniques of contemplating gods and inhaling vital qi; the middle scroll records herbal medicine prescriptions for ingestion; and the lower scroll expounds talismanic and incantatory methods for warding off evil spirits.

The entire book was influenced by the yin-yang and five-element theories in the apocryphal texts of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and most of its Taoist methods were elaborated based on the model of the Five Emperors of the Five Directions.

For example, the "Titles of the Five Emperors and Their Generals of the Numinous Treasure" recorded in the first scroll describes the technique of contemplating the titles of the Five Emperors of the Five Directions, which originated from the apocryphal text Hetu (River Chart). Other Taoist methods, such as the method of ingesting the vital qi of the heavens of the Five Directions, the method of absorbing the essences of the sun and moon, the methods of taking sesame, black sesame, wolfberry wine, and schisandra wine, the method of eliminating the Three Corpses (internal demons), the method of writing and wearing the Five Numinous Treasure Talismans, and the secret incantation for ingesting the Five Sprouts, were all commonly used Taoist techniques by alchemists at the end of the Han Dynasty and in the Wei and Jin dynasties, and most of them had already been mentioned in Baopuzi Inner Chapters.

This book is an important historical material for the study of early Taoist magic and rituals.