Taishang Dongxuan Lingbao Tianzun Shuo Jiku Jing — Spoken by the Celestial Worthy of the Cavern of Mystery, Numinous Treasure
This is a short scripture of the Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) tradition, preserved in the Daoist Canon within its Dongxuan ("Cavern of Mystery") division, the division set aside for Lingbao revelation. It belongs to a large and still little-studied family of scriptures, most of them undated, in which a Celestial Worthy speaks directly in the first person and promises rescue to anyone who calls on him: the sick, the imprisoned, a woman in dangerous labor. Nothing internal to this text fixes its date more precisely than "medieval," and no catalogue number could be confirmed in preparing this translation, so none is given. It is written throughout in prose, as a sequence of first-person pronouncements, each opening "The Celestial Worthy said."
The scripture is a working text of protection and healing rather than a philosophical treatise. It lists seven secret "methods" by which the Celestial Worthy can be called on in an emergency, promises that reciting their names will bring him flying to the sufferer's house with his retinue, and closes with instructions for its own ritual use: how often to recite it, with what cleanliness of mouth and mind, and what protection and prosperity it secures for a household that keeps and copies it.
One phrase deserves a note. Near its center the scripture names three "Great Ways" taught across the ages, the last being what this translation renders "the Great Way of Non-Action, Great Peace, and the Pure Covenant." The Pure Covenant (清約, qingyue) is the technical name, in the earliest Way of the Celestial Masters, for the pact by which Lord Lao is said to have bound Zhang Daoling's followers to renounce blood sacrifice to local gods. Its appearance here, in a much later liturgical text, is a small trace of how long that memory persisted inside the tradition; this translation keeps the phrase intact rather than smoothing it into something more generic.
Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, printed in full below the translation. To our knowledge, this is the scripture's first complete published English translation. We state this as the limit of our knowledge, not as a certainty.
Translation
The Celestial Worthy said: I have fathomed the unfathomable, and reached the very limit of the Limitless. I possess seven methods, called: Hidden Light, Abiding Light, Hidden Form, Bright Concealment, Hidden Transformation, Hidden Truth, and Great Virtue. Across the ages I go forth to transform the world, observing all living beings and discerning their good and evil. Whoever, man or woman, can honor my Law — advancing in earnest faith and reverence, mindful of the Way in walking and in sitting, ever keeping the fasts and the precepts, wearing clean garments, dwelling in a pure and clean place, burning incense day and night, bowing in worship at the appointed times, making offerings to the ten directions, chanting hymns as they practice the Way, praising all the sages, and keeping the long fast month after month without a single day's lapse — should such a person meet with sickness and suffering beyond cure, or be bound in confinement, or should a woman in labor be unable to deliver, let the names of these seven methods be recited on their behalf, calling and praying to me. Then, following the sound of their plea, I will come with my host of followers, riding upon the void, straight to that house, to rescue the afflicted, to pursue their wandering soul and call it back into its own body, so that they are healed. If they are amid the hardship of prison, I will likewise loose their cangue and chains. If a woman suffers difficult labor, she shall at once find her delivery made easy. Moreover, whatever filth and evil lodge within the house — wandering plague-ghosts, deviant demons and goblins, poisonous vapors and mountain-sprites, undeserved waste and drain — I will drive them all far away. Curses, poison-sorcery, envy, and malicious slander I will send back to whoever first raised them; whoever acted to give such offense shall bear the fault themselves. I will send attendant boys and jade maidens to guard and protect that household, that it may dwell always in blessing and joy: the aged shall have their years further extended, the young shall gain increase of life, every good thing shall attach itself to them, and every evil shall melt away like ice. Whoever receives this in wholehearted faith and puts it into spontaneous practice shall attain the reality of the Way.
The Celestial Worthy said: My Law goes forth to transform the world; as for those who believe in it, they apply themselves in person to receiving, upholding, and reciting it. Such people of the Dao I will forever surround and guard. Moved by their discipline and their reverence for the Dao and its Law, I remove their afflictions, so that in the end they meet no wrongful or violent harm. In life they know no grief or suffering; in death they meet no calamity or blame. Wherever they go, they go without striving; they abide always in joy and good affinity, obtaining blessing spontaneously, and transcend the world to ascend among the immortals.
The Celestial Worthy said: My officiants, the Daoist priests, are the teachers of your order. They receive your offerings, and for you they transmit the Law and chant the scriptures; they conduct the fasts and confer the precepts, and report all this before me. When you petition with utmost sincerity, I know it of myself; if you fail to follow the proper method, I know that too. You, my people of the Dao, need only be diligent in making offerings, and must never show contempt or disrespect — for slander breeds the karma of speech. Whoever gives in life with a grudging heart will surely gain no merit in death. This I will surely observe: a single fault is never laid on two; I take up the sincerity of the heart itself. Whoever gives much gains much; whoever gives little gains little. The copying of scriptures and the making of images follow the same rule. And whoever is able to raise up a temple, seat my image within it, surround it with banners and flowers, and keep its lamps burning without a break, giving their strength to see it accomplished — their merit towers beyond all counting. In time they shall rise to good fortune and gain entry into the ranks of the immortals.
The Celestial Worthy said: Before Heaven and Earth, I alone existed. Without birth, without extinction, I changed and transformed of myself. When Heaven came to be, and Earth came to be, only then were there rulers and subjects. I brought forth scriptures and teachings, and across the reigns of emperors I served as their teacher; I became, too, a Great Spirit of Heavenly Truth, comforting and receiving the multitudes. In the East I worked my transformation in the Azure Empyrean; in the South, in the Blazing Brightness; in the West, in the Great Hall; in the North, in Uttarakuru. When my work of conversion had reached everywhere, I withdrew again to my sovereign realm. I ferry all in the ten directions across to deliverance, and all come to honor the Dao. Those who had not yet perceived cause and effect, once they take utmost delight in the Law with a whole heart, shall gain entry into the ranks of the immortals.
The first is the Great Way of the Limitless. The second is the Supreme Way of Correct Truth. The third is the Great Way of Non-Action, Great Peace, and the Pure Covenant.
The Celestial Worthy said: Let this scripture, in one scroll, be recited three times each day, invoking my Three Treasures, and it will manifestly guard this person, so that they know no fear or dread. Should they have committed any transgression, that too shall be wiped away. You, my people of the Dao — if you read this scripture with an unclean mouth, defiled through carelessness, you will in time be stained with transgression amid filth and turbidity. If you wish to read and recite it, you must first rinse the mouth clean and pure, and hold the mind in right mindfulness. Pray for a son, and a son is obtained; pray for a daughter, and a daughter is obtained; pray for long life, and the greatest peace and joy is obtained, with clothing and food in full abundance. This scripture, in one scroll, holds great numinous power, and ferries the living and the dead alike to their deliverance. Whoever, man or woman, copies it out, receives and upholds it, and keeps it in a clean and pure place — their household shall be safe and settled, their sons and daughters shall flourish, all the sages shall lend their aid and protection, and the people of the world shall honor and love them. Wealth and joy, ease without striving, come to them by the power of this merit. Their good deeds shall increase and spread; seven generations shall be born into Heaven; every kind of being within the whole reach of the Dharma-realm shall together receive this blessing. Believe, receive, and practice it with reverence.
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Lingbao Salvation Scriptures shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The scripture is continuous prose throughout — a series of pronouncements each introduced by "The Celestial Worthy said" — and is presented here as paragraphs rather than as verse, following the source's own lack of internal verse structure; the one short enumerated list near its center ("the first is... the second is... the third is...") is likewise kept as a single paragraph, matching the source.
Before the claim above was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed. The two local bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western-language translation supplied for this project — Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud update of the same survey — were searched under the scripture's Chinese title, its pinyin, and its component terms, and returned no entry for this text under any title. Two further web searches were run, for the Chinese title and for the pinyin title, each combined with "translation." Neither search surfaced a published translation of this scripture; one search returned material on a different, similarly named scripture, the Taishang Dongxuan Lingbao Tianzun Shuo Jiuku Miaojing ("the Wondrous Scripture on Rescue from Suffering," 救苦 jiùkǔ rather than our 濟苦 jìkǔ), which was checked and confirmed to be a distinct text, not this one. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of the Taishang Dongxuan Lingbao Tianzun Shuo Jiku Jing. We state this as the limit of our knowledge, not as a certainty.
A few passages resisted full confidence and are flagged here rather than smoothed over. The seven named "methods" near the opening (Hidden Light, Abiding Light, Hidden Form, Bright Concealment, Hidden Transformation, Hidden Truth, Great Virtue) are rendered by their literal component characters; the text does not gloss what distinguishes one from another, and neither could this translation. The four realms named for the four directions — here rendered the Azure Empyrean, the Blazing Brightness, the Great Hall, and Uttarakuru — are likewise rendered by literal sense; the fourth, yudan 鬱單, plausibly transliterates the Buddhist cosmological realm Uttarakuru, but this is an inference rather than a certainty. And wugu xuhao 無辜虛耗, translated "undeserved waste and drain," may name a specific folk affliction rather than describe one in general terms; either reading is offered honestly as uncertain.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.
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Source Text: 太上洞玄靈寶天尊說濟苦經
Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
天尊言：我窮乎無窮，極乎無極。我有七道之法，曰隱光，曰處光，曰隱相，曰明隱，曰隱變，曰隱真，曰大德。歷化世間，觀察眾生，鍊其善惡。若男若女，能崇我法，精進信敬，行坐念道，恒持齋戒，著净衣服，清潔之所，晝夜燒香，依時禮拜，供養十方，行道吟詠，讚歎諸聖，月直長齋，日日不闕。是人若遭病困，痛苦無療，及在繫閉，并諸婦人，臨產不分，當為誦此七道名字，呪請於我。我則尋聲，將徒眾乘空而來，徑赴是家，救拔病人，追其遊魂，令還本身，則得除愈。若在牢獄厄難之中，亦令枷鎖解脫。若有婦人難產，便得易產。復於宅中有諸穢惡，浮遊病鬼，邪魔魍魎，毒氣魑魅，無辜虛耗，驅除遠去。呪詛蠱道，妬忌赤口，遣還本主，動作觸犯，受其過尤。我使侍童玉女，衛護其家，常居福慶，老命更延，少年益壽，諸善附體，萬惡冰消。一心信受，奉行自然，得獲道真。
天尊言：我法行化，以為信者，勤身受持讀誦。如是道民，我恒圍衛，愍其鍊行，能敬道法，為除煩惱，終無枉橫。生無憂苦，死無殃咎，去處無為，常樂善緣，獲福自然，超越升仙。
天尊言：我臣道士，是汝門師，受汝供養，為汝授法，轉讀經文。過齋度戒，通傳我前。啟請精誠，我自知之。若不依法，我亦知之。汝等道民，但好供養，勿有侮慢，謗生口業，生施有悔，死必無功。我當觀察，罪無兩主，直心取念，多施多獲，少施少得。造經造像，亦復如是。及能安立宮觀，坐我形像，旛花圍遶，然燈續明，施力成就者，其功巍巍，計不可勝。時登善福，得入升仙。
天尊言：惟我先天地前，我獨有之。無生無滅，變易自然。有天有地，始有君民。我出經教，歷帝為師，復為天真大神，撫接蒼生。東化碧落，南化炎明，西化大堂，北化鬱單。化緣既徧，遷還帝境。濟度十方，皆來奉道。未覩因果，至心樂法，得入升仙。
一者無極大道，二者無上正真道，三者無為太平清約大道。
天尊言：此經一卷，日誦三徧，稱我三寶，彰衛此人，令無怖畏。若有罪犯，亦復除滅。汝等道民，若讀此經，口氣不净，故汙不慎，未來染罪，穢濁之中。若欲讀誦，必當漱口潔净，持心正念。求男得男，求女得女，求長命得最安樂，衣食豐足。此經一卷，大有神德，濟度生死，若男若女，抄寫受持，清净安置。即宅舍安穩，男女昌熾，眾聖助衛，世人敬愛。富樂無為，福力之故。善行增廣，七世生天，法界有類，俱持斯福，信受奉行。
Source Colophon
The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this scripture (article 太上洞玄靈寶天尊說濟苦經, revision of 18 July 2009), inspected from a witness copy captured on 8 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the scripture itself is ancient and in the public domain. The wiki header and license templates have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.
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