Língbǎo tiānzūn shuō lùkù shòushēng jīng 靈寶天尊說祿庫受生經
Scripture on the Treasury-of-Salary for Receiving Life, Spoken by the Heavenly Worthy of the Numinous Treasure
About the work
A short, five-folio Sòng-era ritual scripture on the reimbursement of the “life-loans” (shòushēng qián 受生錢) that every human being is understood to have contracted, at birth, against the celestial and terrestrial bureaus of destiny. The scripture supplies both the doctrinal rationale and the ritual apparatus — including a table of debts calibrated to one’s birth-gānzhī and a list of the celestial officers to whom the notional payments must be addressed during the sānbǎo 三寶 offering rite.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The text opens directly with the revelation scene at Fúluó shìjiè 浮羅世界 and carries no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century by Hou Ching-lang (Monnaies d’offrandes et la notion de trésorerie dans la religion chinoise, 35–36), whose study remains the indispensable reference. The scriptural frame: the Língbǎo tiānzūn 靈寶天尊, enthroned in the Jìngmíng 淨明 (“Land of Clarity”) under the seven-treasure tree of Shànjī shān 善積山, is asked by the zhēnrén Guāngmiàoyīn 光妙音 why human fortunes differ so radically — why some are noble, some base, some rich, some poor. The Heavenly Worthy responds that every person’s life depends on a Celestial Bureau (tiāncáo 天曹) and body on a Terrestrial Court (dìfǔ 地府), and that at the moment of conception each individual contracts a quantifiable debt against the “Treasury of Salary” (lùkù 祿庫). The debt is fixed by the cyclical year of birth — the text provides a numerical table — and must be reimbursed through ritual offering of paper money. Failure to reimburse, or failure to recite this scripture while doing so, exposes the deceased to infernal torment and ensures poverty in subsequent existence. The scripture concludes with the names of the officers of the Celestial and Terrestrial bureaus to whom the “notes” (qián 錢) are to be sent, and with the zhēnrén’s vow to propagate the teaching.
The text is a foundational document for understanding the Chinese ritual-economic complex of the shòushēng paper-money offering, still current in popular and Daoist practice.
Translations and research
- Hou Ching-lang 侯錦郎. Monnaies d’offrandes et la notion de trésorerie dans la religion chinoise. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises, 1975. Full translation and study at 35–36, with synoptic discussion of the cognate Wǔdǒu jīnzhāng shòushēng jīng 五斗金章受生經 (DZ 653) at 41.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2:1107–1108 (DZ 333).
Other points of interest
The Lùkù shòushēng jīng and its cognate DZ 653 Tàishàng lǎojūn shuō wǔdǒu jīnzhāng shòushēng jīng remain in active liturgical use in contemporary Daoism for the rite of bǔ kù 補庫 (“replenishing the treasury”) on behalf of the living and of huán shòushēng qián 還受生錢 on behalf of the deceased.