The Tai Shang Jiu Ku Jing 太上洞玄灵宝救苦妙经

Also known as The Supreme Scripture of Saving the Suffering, its author remains unknown.

Judging from its content and wording, it was presumably composed by Taoist priests during the Tang and Song dynasties.

The Continued Catalogue of the Four Treasuries Missing from the Imperial Secretariat of the Song Dynasty recorded “Scripture of Saving the Suffering (one scroll)”, which refers precisely to this text.

The existing version is included in the Text Category of the Cave Mysterious Section of the Daoist Canon.

Written in five-character rhymed verses, this scripture eulogizes the Supreme Lord of Saving the Suffering for rescuing all living beings from the path of delusion and helping them transcend the Three Realms.

It states that all beings who “submit their destiny to the Supreme Venerable can eradicate all sins”; constant recitation of this scripture will bring about “the enjoyment of great blessings in heaven and the end of cries of agony in hell”.

Attached to the end of the scripture is a short account by Zhao Ziqiu, the Supervisor of Chizhou in the Northern Song Dynasty. It records a miraculous event that occurred in the Jiaxu year of the Xuanhe era (1124 CE) of Emperor Huizong of Song: Mo Daoju, a young monk in Chizhou, recited this scripture to perform salvation rites for Zhao’s deceased mother, and the ritual yielded remarkable spiritual efficacy.