The Numinous Treasure's Golden Register Liturgy 灵宝金箓斋仪

This treatise is collated from four fragmentary Taoist manuscript copies among the Dunhuang Taoist relics, namely S4652, P4965, P2989 and S3071. All four manuscripts are incomplete at the beginning and the end, with no original title attached.

Based on the textual content of the manuscripts, Ōbuchi Ninji proposed the titleRitual of the Golden Register Fasting of the Numinous Treasurein hisCatalogue of Dunhuang Taoist Scriptures, and textual research dates its compilation to approximately the lateNorthern and Southern Dynastiesto the early Tang Dynasty.

The Golden Register Fasting is one of the six major fasting rituals of the Numinous Treasure tradition in Taoism, a ritual method already mentioned by Lu Xiujing of the Southern Dynasties. Primarily performed as imperial court-sponsored fasting ceremonies, it was intended to harmonize yin and yang, eliminate calamities and subdue anomalies, and pray for blessings and the prolongation of imperial reign for emperors and sovereigns. More than ten versions of the Golden Register Fasting rituals preserved inThe Daozangwere all revised, abridged and supplemented by Du Guangting in the late Tang Dynasty, Yang Jie and Zhang Shangying in the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as Taoist priests in the Ming Dynasty, thus dating from a much later period.

Dating from the early Tang Dynasty, these Dunhuang fragmentary manuscripts preserve ritual texts including imperial decrees to hold fasting ceremonies and cultivate the Dao for the state, burn incense and light lamps, pay homage to the Supreme Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerable of the Ten Directions and the Infinite, and offer prayers for the imperial ancestors, the emperor and empress, the crown prince, as well as all kings and princesses. They retain partial contents of the early Golden Register Fasting rituals, embodying the solemn ritual connotation ofThe Daoin imperial sacrifice and blessing.

These manuscripts constitute precious materials for the study of the development of Taoist fasting and sacrificial rituals.

TheCatalogue of the Central Alliance Scriptures of the Numinous Treasurerecords:"Ritual of the Golden Register Fasting of the Numinous Treasure, one scroll", which is suspected to refer to this very text.