Saturday, September 19, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Ethics and Response
Daoist moral instruction and retribution texts on response, consequence, and ethical conduct.
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Texts
Poems Admonishing a Courtesan — Jie Ji ShiTwo short, unattributed quatrains warning a courtesan that beauty is as brief as a flower's bloom, preserved in the Chinese Wikisource Daoist-classics collection — with the complete source text.The Golden Scripture of the God of Blessing and Virtue — Fude Zhengshen JinjingA vernacular spirit-written scripture of the Earth God, Fude Zhengshen, urging chanting, charity, filial devotion, and an end to animal sacrifice — with its complete Daozang-packet source text.The Precept Scripture of the Most High Lord Lao — Taishang Laojun Jie JingA short precept scripture attributed to the Louguan lineage in which the Most High Lord Lao gives Yin Xi the Five Precepts and explains their cosmic and bodily correspondences — with its complete Daozang source text.The Scripture on the Wheel of the Five Paths and the Causes of Past Lives — Taishang Shuo Zhuanlun Wudao Suming Yinyuan JingA medieval Daoist morality scripture, spoken in the voice of the Most High Lord Lao, that ties the fortunes and afflictions of the present body to specific deeds of a past life — with its complete Daozang source text.The Song of the Utmost Truth of Cause and Effect — Yinguo Zhili GeA short anonymous verse song from the popular Chinese morality-book tradition, arguing through images of nature that no one can disguise their true character, and urging readers toward hidden virtue and kind speech — with its complete Chinese source text.The Treatise on Cultivating the Self and Rectifying the Qi — Xiushen Zhengqi LunA short, anonymous Chinese treatise of moral exhortation arguing, through the figure of a tree's root and stem, that a heart-mind ruled by Heaven's principle yields good deeds and a flourishing household — with its complete source text.The True Scripture of Loyalty, Filial Piety, and Righteousness — San Jie Fu Mo Guan Sheng Dijun Zhongxiao Zhongyi ZhenjingA Ming-dynasty scripture of nineteen four-character-verse chapters spoken in the voice of the deified general Guan Yu, teaching loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness through his own legendary life and a wide range of everyday moral instruction — with its complete Daozang source text.The True Scripture on Awakening the World — Guan Sheng Dijun Jueshi ZhenjingA popular Chinese morality scripture, spoken in the voice of the deified general Guan Yu and most often dated to the Qing dynasty, urging loyalty, filial devotion, and right conduct under pain of stern retribution — with its complete source text from the Chinese Wikisource transcription.The Wondrous Scripture on the Twelve Ranks of the Flying-Heaven Dharma Wheel — Taishang Shi'er Shangpin Feitian Falun Quanjie MiaojingA Daoist precepts scripture spoken by the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, setting out twelve categories of wrongdoing and their karmic retributions — with its complete Daozang source text.Treatise on Response and RetributionThe most widely circulated moral text in Chinese history — the Most Exalted One's teaching on how good and evil summon their own reward. Good Works Translation.Verses Exhorting the World — Quan Shi ShiA short, anonymous Chinese verse of popular moral exhortation — on charity, honesty, and cultivating the heart rather than consulting fortune-tellers — with its complete source text.Yin Chih Wen, The Tract of the Quiet Way — Suzuki and CarusA 1906 translation of a popular Chinese Daoist-Confucian-Buddhist morality tract, with the Chinese commentator's notes and the translators' own notes.