Huoling Liujin Zhanwen Zhou — The Taoist Fire Incantation to Slay Plague Demons

The Supreme Numinous Power, the essence of the Flame Emperor —
Radiant mists and lightning flash; brilliance illuminates the Three Pure Ones.
Fire flows ten thousand li; no ghost can escape its form.
When the divine talisman descends, demons and spirits are reduced to ash.
The Three-Five Generals, the Huoluo officers and soldiers —
Level heaven and strike the earth; the slaying of ghosts does not cease.
Flying talismans and running seals, heads crowned with the Seven Stars —
Hurl fire forward; slay the six celestial demon-spirits.
Plague demons and ghost-thieves — hand them over to the divine soldiers.
The Five Numinous Perfected Elders are my original teachers.
Unobstructed divine power; ten thousand numinous beings return together.
The Five Plagues and Seven Infestations — I am able to slay them all; what ghost dares to cause harm?
Strike down all forms; the Big Dipper severs the corpses.
When the divine talisman descends, ten thousand ghosts sink into silence.
Swift, swift — in accordance with the statutes of the Supreme Sovereign!

The Huoling Liujin Zhanwen Zhou (火铃流金斩瘟咒) is one of the most comprehensive plague-expulsion incantations in the classical Taoist repertoire. Its opening invocation of the Flame Emperor (炎帝) — the primordial fire deity and one of the founding sovereigns of Chinese civilization — establishes fire as the supreme purifying force against pestilence. In Taoist cosmology, plague demons (瘟疫鬼) are understood as entities of yin-stagnation and toxic accumulation; the yang-fire of the Flame Emperor is their elemental opposite and natural destroyer.

This incantation belongs to the broader tradition of Taoist protective incantations documented in the Eight Great Divine Incantations of Taoism. Like the Chi Fu Zhou (Edict Talisman Incantation), it operates through the mechanism of divine edict — the practitioner transmits the authority of the Supreme Sovereign to deploy celestial military forces against spiritual pathogens.

Two of the incantation's most distinctive elements are the Big Dipper (北斗) and the Five Plagues and Seven Infestations (五瘟七疰). In Taoist cosmology, the Big Dipper is not merely an astronomical formation but the celestial mechanism through which life, death, and fate are administered. The incantation's declaration that "the Big Dipper severs the corpses" invokes this authority directly: the Dipper's power to determine life and death is turned against the plague demons, severing their spiritual substance and preventing any reconstitution.

The Five Plagues (五瘟) and Seven Infestations (七疰) are classical Taoist categories of pestilential spiritual entities — organized taxonomies of the demonic forces responsible for epidemic disease. The incantation's boast — "I am able to slay them all; what ghost dares to cause harm?" — is not mere bravado but a formal declaration of ritual authority. For comparison, the water-element approach to expelling pestilence can be seen in the Tuire Huabing Zhou, which deploys arctic cold rather than fire to achieve the same purifying end.