Shao Fu Zhou — The Taoist Incantation for Burning Talismans

To my left is the Lord of the Sun; to my right is the Lord of the Moon.
Before me is thunder and lightning; behind me are wind and clouds.
Heaven trembles and earth shakes; dragons and gods are rebuked into submission.
I have received the true qi of the Tao; I have received the true writings of the registers.
Thirty thousand mighty warriors; the Six-Jia Generals.
Stars gather to my left and right; thunder rushes before and behind me.
Yin and yang transform and create; responding to my hand and voice at once.
A thousand chariots and ten thousand cavalry — I urgently summon your divine presence.
Heed my commands and instructions; receive my orders and carry out your assignments.
By edict, seize the ghost-thieves; manifest your divine power in accordance with my command.
Swift, swift — in accordance with the edict of the Great Emperor of the North Yin Dark Heaven, Fengdu, the Realm of Ultimate Severance!

The Shao Fu Zhou (烧符咒, Incantation for Burning Talismans) is the ritual incantation recited at the moment a Taoist talisman (符, fu) is committed to fire. In classical Taoist ritual practice, the burning of a talisman is not the destruction of the talisman but its activation and transmission: the fire transforms the physical talisman into smoke and ash, releasing the divine commands written upon it into the spiritual realm where they can be received and acted upon by the celestial forces to which they are addressed. The Shao Fu Zhou is the verbal component of this activation — the incantation that empowers the burning and ensures that the talisman's commands are received, acknowledged, and executed by the appropriate divine agents.

This incantation belongs to the broader tradition of Taoist talisman practice documented in the Eight Great Divine Incantations of Taoism, which together form the core verbal framework of classical Taoist ritual. The Shao Fu Zhou is specifically designed for the moment of burning — the most critical moment in the talisman's lifecycle, when its written commands cross from the physical world into the spiritual realm.

The incantation's fifth line — 三万力士，六甲将军 ("Thirty thousand mighty warriors; the Six-Jia Generals") — invokes two of the most powerful military forces in the Taoist celestial hierarchy. The thirty thousand mighty warriors (三万力士) are the vast divine army that responds to the talisman's commands, while the Six-Jia Generals (六甲将军) are their commanders — six divine generals associated with the six jiazi cycles of the Chinese calendar, each commanding a specific division of the celestial military. The Six-Jia Generals are among the most frequently invoked divine commanders in Taoist ritual, appearing across a wide range of incantations and talisman traditions as the primary agents of divine military force.

The incantation closes with the authority of the Great Emperor of the North Yin Dark Heaven, Fengdu (北阴玄天酆都郁绝大帝) — the supreme judicial authority of the Taoist underworld. This closing invocation serves the same function as the Fengdu warning in the Xia Ling Zhou: it ensures that the divine generals summoned by the talisman are bound not only by the practitioner's command but by the ultimate judicial authority of the underworld itself, making non-compliance cosmically impossible.