The Primordial Twenty-Fourfold Precepts FULL NAME IS
The Classic of the Twenty-Four Gates of Precepts, Spoken by the Taiji True Immortal
The author is unknown.
Judging from its content and linguistic style, it was presumably composed by Taoist priests in the Northern and Southern Dynasties or the Sui and Tang dynasties.
It is a single scroll, incorporated into the section of Precepts and Commandments under The Dongzhen Section of The Daozang.
The scripture is pseudonymously attributed to the discourse of the Taiji True Immortal. It first points out that each year and each month have the Ten Pure Fasting Days, the Fasting Days of the Eight Solar Terms, the Fasting Days of the Three Primes, the Fasting Days of the Four Beginnings, and the Collective Fasting Days.
All the aforementioned fasting days are the dates when heavenly spirits and deities inspect and record the merits and transgressions of mortal beings. Those who observe fasting and recite the precepts on these days can eradicate their karmic sins and avoid falling into the underworld. Next, it records the Twenty-Four Gates of Precepts, consisting of twenty-four articles in total, exhorting people to refrain from killing, theft and alcohol consumption, not to defy the scriptures or treat The Dao with contempt, not to break fasting vows, not to demolish sacred statues, not to expose one’s body wantonly, and not to pluck flowers and fruits or damage gardens and woodlands, among other injunctions.
It is stated that those who uphold these precepts shall attain all manner of blessed rewards, whereas "those who violate them shall suffer the torment of sharp blades for ten thousand kalpas, and their living souls shall be perpetually trapped in tribulation".
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