The Thousand Perfected’s Code of Conduct 洞玄灵宝千真科

The author is unknown.

It was probably compiled in the Northern and Southern Dynasties or the transitional period of the Sui and Tang dynasties. Over dozens of passages from this text were already quoted in Excerpts of the Essential Rituals, Precepts and Disciplines compiled by Zhu Faman of the Tang Dynasty. The extant version is a single scroll, incorporated into the Zhengyi Section of The Daozang.

Its textual content differs considerably from the quotations cited by Zhu Faman. A brief preface opens the scroll, stating that on the first lunar month of the third year of the Chiwu reign of the Wu Kingdom (240 CE), the Supreme Lord of the Dao descended to Mount Laosheng, and ordered the Thousand True Immortals to expound these disciplinary precepts to Ge Xuan, the Taiji Left Immortal Duke. This account is scarcely credible.

The text records more than a hundred disciplinary precepts, all referring to various codes of conduct and rituals that Taoist priests ought to abide by in their daily meals and living routines, as well as in their cultivation of The Dao and monastic life. The content is rather multifarious and detailed, generally exhorting people to do good and renounce evil, strictly uphold the religious rules, and keep to one’s place and perform one’s duty faithfully.