The Supreme Yellow Register Grand Liturgy 无上黄箓大斋立成仪

Compiled by Jiang Shuyu of the Southern Song Dynasty.

According to The Origin and Development of the Revised Text, written by Jiang Chongsuyu (son of Jiang Shuyu) and others at the end of the compilation, this work was originally entitled The Numinous Treasure Jade Records. Compiled and collated with textual research by Jiang Shuyu, it was based on the ritual norms of the Numinous Treasure Fasting method passed down by his mentor Liu Yongguang. The original complete text has been lost, with only thirty-six scrolls of its Rituals of the Yellow Register Fasting surviving to this day.

The existing version preserved in The Daozang consists of fifty-seven scrolls, which was further augmented and revised by later generations, and its final compilation can be dated to the late Ming Dynasty. It is incorporated into the Ritual Norms Section of the Cavern Mystery Division. Rooted in the primordial cosmic doctrine of Taiji, this text represents the culmination of the Yellow Register Fasting methods.

It systematically categorizes and elaborates on a wide array of ritual observances for the Yellow Register Fasting and sacrificial ceremonies, including the regulations for constructing ritual altars, ritual implements, ritual vestments, the sequential proceedings of fasting rituals, memorial addresses and official petitions, incantations, talismanic diagrams, hymns, eulogies and introductory verses, among others. It also selectively incorporates the ritual norms of fasting and sacrificial ceremonies revised by predecessors such as Lu Xiujing, Zhang Wanfu, Du Guangting and Li Jingqi, thus preserving numerous lost materials concerning ancient Taoist fasting rituals.

The entire text is divided into twenty-four thematic divisions, boasting an extensive scope of content, precise textual research and discrimination, as well as a well-organized structure of its volumes and categories—an exceptional feature rarely seen in the extant Taoist texts on fasting rituals. The Catalogue of Scriptures for Pacifying and Consecrating the Fasting Altar recorded in its first scroll also holds significant reference value for the textual research of the scriptures of the Numinous Treasure School during the Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang dynasties.