Dongxuan Lingbao Feixian Shangpin Miaojing — Spoken by the Celestial Worthy

This is an anonymous scripture of the Lingbao (靈寶, "Numinous Treasure") tradition, preserved in the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon under the title Dongxuan Lingbao Feixian Shangpin Miaojing, "the Wondrous Scripture of the Upper Chapters on Flying Immortality," from the Cavern of Mystery (洞玄) division of the Three Caverns. Its vocabulary — kalpas, Jambudvīpa, the Six Penetrations, "good sons and good daughters," fields of blessing — belongs to the broad current of medieval Lingbao scripture that absorbed Buddhist cosmology wholesale; beyond that, this Good Works Translation has no secure grounds for dating it more precisely, and no Daozang catalogue number could be confirmed in the sources consulted.

The scripture opens as a revelation narrative: a great assembly of immortals begs the Celestial Worthy to save the unbelieving from a coming flood that will destroy heaven and earth, and he answers by teaching the way of ordination, registers, and precept-keeping that leads to "flying immortality" (飛仙, fēixiān) — bodily ascent into the ranks of the transcendent. At its center the scripture opens into a long litany: fifty-one short lines, each naming a single act — holding a fast, digging a roadside well, tending the sick, serving one's master without complaint, planting a thousand trees — and each closing on the same refrain. A second narrative frame follows, in which an assembly of immortal kings and immortal youths gathers to hear the scripture, one of their number is judged and banished to the moon for losing an argument, and the Celestial Worthy answers a further question by describing the nine grades of sage, perfected, and immortal, and the kalpas of suffering that lie behind every attainment of the Way.

A note on the title word: fēixiān (飛仙) literally means "flying immortal," and the text uses it as a kind of shorthand verb — yì dé fēixiān (亦得飛仙), "also attains flying immortality" — closing all fifty-one lines of its central litany. This translation keeps that refrain identical every time, as the Chinese does, rather than varying it for English elegance: the repetition is the point. 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.

Translation

The scripture relates: The Flying Immortal Scripture arose from within the Palace of Mystery and Wonder, on the Mountain of the Great Origin (Taiyuan). The Perfected One, Dharma Master Void-Emptiness, together with the Most High Ones of the ten directions, the immortals of the Five Sacred Peaks, and a host of seven hundred thousand Jade Maidens of the Nine Heavens, came to the Purple Jade Terrace in the Jade Capital of the Mysterious Metropolis, and there expounded the Great Scripture of Measureless Sacred Ruan in Samadhi, its transforming teaching spreading through all the world.

At that time the assemblies of immortals of all the heavens, three hundred twenty thousand in number, came and bowed their heads to the ground, asking the Celestial Worthy: "We, your disciples, are foolish of mind and bound by the Six Extremities; we cannot understand its opening and its closing. Long ago we were graced by the compassionate care of our former teachers, who bestowed on us the Yellow, Red, and Purple Talismans and the true secrets of the Three Caverns, that we might practice the Way and save others without ourselves lapsing midway. But the present age is shallow and dissolute; most people no longer trust the teachings of the Way and the transforming power of the Three Caverns. These foolish ones all hold to deviant, upside-down views, and are bound for the Hall of Eternal Night in the Nine Darknesses, with no day of release. Since the foolish will not believe, what more can be done? The great kalpa-cycle is drawing near, and heaven and earth are about to be destroyed. Before long the waters will come and sweep away nine hundred million multitudes; the people will collapse and scatter, swept along with the mud, as waters return to the sea — how can such as these be saved? With the Celestial Worthy's heart of great compassion, we do not know how people so shallow and stubborn might be saved. Surely there is some other way — may we be permitted to hear it?"

The Celestial Worthy said: "Excellent indeed is your question, concerning the measureless Way. There is now a method of the immortals; listen closely, and it shall be imparted to you in turn."

The scripture relates: In the lands of Jambudvīpa, people are taught yet do not believe. Whoever wishes to ascend to immortality must first seek to receive the registers. The Yellow, Red, and Purple Talismans are the wellspring that opens the path. Afterward one obtains the Three Masters, who carry the transmission through to its completion, and receives the Perfected Ones' measureless Thirty-Six Divisions of Scripture-Covenants and the Great Brightness of the Three Heavens, thereby receiving the divine spells that slay demons and give life to the living. Daoist priests heal sickness and relieve the common people; for this they should receive this scripture. The hosts of the Great Formless coil about, bearing the Talismans of the Nine Heavens' Armies, which summon and marshal the hundred ghosts. The Great Talisman of Cloud and Thunder wards off calamity sent from Heaven. The True Covenant of Great Unity is the very root of attaining immortality. When a Daoist priest has received these inner and outer registers of the Law, he becomes an immortal. In the course of attaining the Way, one should practice it according to the rites; when merit is fulfilled at three thousand deeds, one ascends to Heaven in broad daylight. On gengshen and jiazi days, on the day of one's own natal destiny, at the Six Fasts and the Ten Direct Days, one should also burn incense and perform the rites of the Way, dispelling calamity and misfortune, settling the household and seeking blessing. Carry this out point by point, and do not perform it in secret. The reckoning reaches even to one's sons and grandsons, to the seven generations of ancestors, who will suffer the Eternal Night of the Nine Darknesses; and not only that — one is made lowly and poor besides. Quarrels and lawsuits will exhaust one day after day, and clerks and soldiers will follow at one's side. If you wish to seek the Way, it lies in your own heart.

Serving the Way with a single heart — also attains flying immortality.
Helping others hold a fast — also attains flying immortality.
Digging a well beside the road — also attains flying immortality.
Teaching others to do good — also attains flying immortality.
Making offerings to Daoist priests — also attains flying immortality.
Assisting in works of salvation — also attains flying immortality.
Honoring the old and the young — also attains flying immortality.
Holding a fast every month — also attains flying immortality.
Completing a fast of three weeks — also attains flying immortality.
Fasting so as to provide for one's master — also attains flying immortality.
Speaking no evil — also attains flying immortality.
Revering the teaching with a single heart — also attains flying immortality.
Not coveting worldly gain — also attains flying immortality.
Neither […] nor envious — also attains flying immortality.
Not corrupting others' hearts — also attains flying immortality.
Not seeking to outdo others — also attains flying immortality.
Holding no partiality — also attains flying immortality.
Regarding all with an equal heart — also attains flying immortality.
Speaking always kindly — also attains flying immortality.
Giving alms to Daoist priests — also attains flying immortality.
Tending the sick — also attains flying immortality.
Lending to the poor — also attains flying immortality.
Establishing and maintaining fasting-halls — also attains flying immortality.
Building bridges to carry people across — also attains flying immortality.
Giving scriptures to others — also attains flying immortality.
Helping to put out fires — also attains flying immortality.
Rescuing those in desperate want — also attains flying immortality.
Pulling people from the water — also attains flying immortality.
Remembering one's master, recalling the Way — also attains flying immortality.
Burning incense day and night — also attains flying immortality.
Helping in the fasting-kitchen — also attains flying immortality.
Setting an example of good conduct — also attains flying immortality.
Providing for one's master — also attains flying immortality.
Never provoking one's master to anger — also attains flying immortality.
Contemplating the Way and cultivating practice — also attains flying immortality.
Giving one's master a dwelling — also attains flying immortality.
Serving one's master with diligence through hardship — also attains flying immortality.
Keeping the heart always turned to the Way — also attains flying immortality.
Fasting continually, day upon day — also attains flying immortality.
Not stealing others' goods — also attains flying immortality.
Practicing the Way without weariness — also attains flying immortality.
Loving goodness and performing worship — also attains flying immortality.
Giving people cloth and hats — also attains flying immortality.
Cherishing the orphaned and the poor — also attains flying immortality.
Instructing and transforming disciples — also attains flying immortality.
Making yearly offerings to Heaven and the ancestors — also attains flying immortality.
Never letting food run short through the year — also attains flying immortality.
Never transgressing the Way — also attains flying immortality.
Giving one's life over to one's master — also attains flying immortality.
Planting a thousand trees — also attains flying immortality.
Ferrying people across at the crossing — also attains flying immortality.

The scripture relates: When a Daoist priest seeks immortality and studies the Way, the first thing is to establish a fast. Then ten thousand spirits will be present within the void and mystery, and clerks and soldiers, numberless as they are, will all be present within the hall of the fast. If you are of a single mind, you may come to expound the rites of the Dharma. The measureless flying immortals, the heavenly beings in their myriads, a hundred thousand Jade Maidens, and the Most High Ones beyond counting, all come down to watch over people as they hold their fast. The rite of fasting depends on diligence; you must not fail to be careful in it.

The scripture relates: At that time the Immortal King who Flies through Heaven, the Immortal King of the Celestial Sovereign, and the Immortal Kings of the Thirty-Six Heavens, together with the Immortal Youths — the Youth of the Village, the Youth of Might, the Youth of the Commandery, the Youth of the Crossing, the Youth of the Raven, the Youth of the True, and others — thirty-six thousand in all, came together to the Palace of Great Web Heaven (Daluo), to make their rounds and pay audience to the Celestial Worthy. Their heads and faces touched the ground as they bowed low in obeisance; joyful and leaping for gladness, they took their seats each according to rank. They circled the Celestial Worthy three full times, and attended at his seat for a long while, reverent and respectful in their obeisance. Looking up, they received his awesome radiance, and were able to behold the great sages of all the heavens. Now, gathered together, they listened, receiving the Flying Immortal Scripture through the fullness of the day and on into the night.

At that time there was among the assembly one immortal, surnamed Hao and named Gangwen, who fell into debate with the Most High Perfected One, and on a point of meaning the two could not be reconciled. The Immortal King then rose and addressed the Celestial Worthy: "We cannot discern which of the two is right and which is wrong, and the whole assembly cannot judge who has the better of it. We humbly beg the Celestial Worthy to grant a ruling and an explanation."

The Celestial Worthy then spoke: "Gangwen was without reason. Let him be demoted from his immortal rank and set within the moon, to chop at the cassia tree, and he shall have no companion from this time on."

At that time the Immortal King again addressed the Celestial Worthy: "To attend at your seat today is truly a cause of overflowing joy. Such great sages and the rest of this assembly, thirty-six thousand in number, are gathered together before the Way — sages, Perfected Ones, and immortals, all of them, in ages past, were wise and worthy Dharma Masters. Roaming at large in the emptiness of the void, they cultivated merit and established virtue; but the causes and conditions by which they attained the Way are now all forgotten, so that none any longer recognize the ranks and grades of sages and immortals. And in the ages to come, the Daoist priests who study immortality, and all the good men and good women, will understand none of it — nor the giving of alms, nor the merit of entering the sacred precinct, nor the study of long life, nor the causes and conditions for the deliverance of the Mud-Pellet (Niwan). We humbly beg the Celestial Worthy to explain this in turn, so that people of ages to come may know the good bridges that carry one across, know the good causes and conditions, and know the good fields of blessing."

At that time the Celestial Worthy, within the Seven-Jeweled Terrace of the Jade Capital of the Mysterious Metropolis, rose up and snapped his fingers, and sighed, saying: "Excellent, excellent!" All the heavenly halls trembled at once, and he then told the Immortal King and the assembled lords: "That you have been able to raise this question opens the understanding of all beings; for the ages and generations to come, this is of the utmost importance. Now, in order, I shall reveal to you the causes and conditions of former times — like the building of great boats and oars, like the building of great bridges, like the making of good causes and conditions, the making of good fields of blessing. Listen well, and hold it in your hearts.

"From measureless kalpas past, through birth and through death, you have today attained the rank of Heavenly King. Such merit is inconceivable, and it all comes from cultivation. Your merit having been perfected, you ascend by degrees to the unsurpassed fruit of the Way, and the wisdom of the Six Penetrations extends to all those seated below you. Sages have nine grades; the Perfected have nine grades; Immortals have nine grades. Do you understand this, my lords? All this multitude, in ages past — in the first year of Kaiguang, in the eras of Longhan and Chiming — followed kalpa after kalpa to reach this place. They cultivated merit and established virtue, turning through birth and death, and entered every manner of hell: cast into cauldrons of boiling water and burning coals, onto mountains of knives and through forests of swords, bound to pillars of bronze and beds of iron, made to swallow fire and eat coals; or they took on the bodies of beasts, enduring every kind of suffering to its very end. Now they have attained accomplishment, arriving at the place of long life, neither born nor dying, abiding there in tranquil clarity.

"Immortal King, you and the rest must all know this: the ordinary and the sagely are never far apart. An ordinary person studies the Way and rises to Immortal; from Immortal to Perfected; from Perfected to Sage; and from Sage continues to accumulate merit in just this way — all of it arising from among ordinary people. It is like the building of a terrace: one begins from the base. A journey of a thousand li begins beneath one's feet. Hence it is said: when merit is fulfilled at three thousand deeds, one ascends to Heaven in broad daylight."

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's prose frame and its one long litany of fifty-one four-character conditions (each closing on the refrain 亦得飛仙, "also attains flying immortality") are both rendered as they stand in the source: the litany is set as fifty-one short lines to preserve its insistent, repeating form, which is closer to the effect of the Chinese than a single run-on paragraph would be.

Before the claim below was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed: the two local bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western-language translation (Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud update) were grepped for this scripture's Chinese title, its pinyin, and its abbreviated self-title 飛仙經 — no entry was found for it (Komjathy's bibliography does list the very differently structured Lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing, the sixty-one-chapter "Scripture on Salvation," but that is an unrelated text of the same general family). Two web searches were then run — the Chinese title with "English translation," and the pinyin title with "translation" — and both returned only the bare Chinese source text (via the Chinese Text Project) and, again, results for the unrelated Duren jing; no English translation of this scripture surfaced. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of the Dongxuan Lingbao Feixian Shangpin Miaojing. We state this as the limit of our knowledge, not as a certainty.

A few notes on difficult points. One character is missing from the Wikisource transcription itself, left blank in the litany's fourteenth line (不, then a blank space, then 不妬); rendered here as "neither […] nor envious." Two further passages resisted full confidence and are translated as literally as possible: the title of a second scripture mentioned within this one, 三昧無量神阮大經, whose middle element 神阮 does not resolve into a clear sense; and a description of a set of talismans, 大無之衆盤馱九天兵符, where 盤馱 was read as a verb ("coil about, bearing") for lack of a better-attested sense. The scripture also names the era 開光, "Kaiguang," where the more usual name in Lingbao kalpa-cosmology is 開皇, "Kaihuang" — translated here exactly as written, without emendation. 泥丸 (Niwan), the "Mud-Pellet," is the standard term in Daoist inner alchemy for the uppermost of the three elixir fields, seated in the head.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.

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Source Text: 洞玄靈寶飛仙上品妙經

Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

道言：《飛仙經》者，出於太原之山玄妙宮中。真人空虛法師，與十方太上五嶽仙人，九天玉女七十萬人之衆來，在玄都玉京紫玉臺之上，說《三昧無量神阮大經》，化於天下。當爾之時，諸天仙衆三十二萬人來，稽首請問天尊曰：我等弟子，愚心六極，不解開閉。昔蒙先師垂眷，賜授黃赤紫符、三洞真秘，行道救人，不自中替。今世淺薄浮逸，人多不信道法、三洞之化。其愚人皆信邪倒見，當入九幽長夜之府，無有出期。愚人不信，無復奈何？大劫運至，天地將壞。不久水來，蕩除九億萬衆。人民崩散，與泥同流。如水歸海，何可以為化？天尊大慈之心，不審如此薄頑之人，何以救之？當有異法，可得聞不？

天尊曰：汝所問甚是善哉，無量之道。今有仙人之術，子但諦聽，當次受汝。
道言：閰浮之國，化而不信。欲求升仙，先求受籙。黃赤紫符，開導之源。後得三師，過度分了。得真人無量三十六部經契，三天大明。以受神呪，殺鬼生人。道士治病，救濟百姓，當受此經。大無之衆盤馱，九天兵符，召籙百鬼。雲雷大符，天捍厄。太一真契，得仙之本也。道士以受此內外法籙，便成仙人。得道之次，當如法行道。功滿三千，白日昇天。庚申甲子本命日，六齋十直。亦當燒香行道，消灾散禍，安宅求福。一二行之，不得自隱而行之。考及子孫，七祖父母，當受長夜九幽。不但自身，即令下賤貧窮。口舌官事，日日虛使，吏兵從其身。子欲求道，在子心也。

一心奉道，亦得飛仙。助人作齋，亦得飛仙。當路作井，亦得飛仙。教人作善，亦得飛仙。供養道士，亦得飛仙。救拔法門，亦得飛仙。敬重老少，亦得飛仙。月月建齋，亦得飛仙。齋滿三七，亦得飛仙。不食供師，亦得飛仙。口不說惡，亦得飛仙。一心敬法，亦得飛仙。不貪世業，亦得飛仙。不　不妬，亦得飛仙。不壞人心，亦得飛仙。不求好勝，亦得飛仙。無有偏心，亦得飛仙。平等一心，亦得飛仙。口常好語，亦得飛仙。布施道士，亦得飛仙。看侍疾病，亦得飛仙。借貸貧窮，亦得飛仙。立治齋堂，亦得飛仙。橋梁度人，亦得飛仙。施人經書，亦得飛仙。火起助滅，亦得飛仙。救人懸乏，亦得飛仙。水中接人，亦得飛仙。念師憶道，亦得飛仙。晝夜燒香，亦得飛仙。助人齋廚，亦得飛仙。為人立行，亦得飛仙。供養給師，亦得飛仙。不使師怒，亦得飛仙。念道修行，亦得飛仙。與師屋舍，亦得飛仙。奉師勤苦，亦得飛仙。心常向道，亦得飛仙。日 日長齋，亦得飛仙。不偷人物，亦得飛仙。行道不厭，亦得飛仙。好善禮拜，亦得飛仙。施人巾帽，亦得飛仙。愛念孤貧，亦得飛仙。教化弟子，亦得飛仙。天祖年輸，亦得飛仙。歲食不缺，亦得飛仙。不有違道，亦得飛仙。投命為師，亦得飛仙。種樹千根，亦得飛仙。渡頭渡人，亦得飛仙。

道言：道士求仙學道，第一建齋，便有萬神在空玄之中，吏兵萬兆悉在齋堂之中。子等一心，得講論法事。達此無量飛仙，天人萬兆，玉女一十萬人，太上無數之人，來下看人作齋。齋法在勤，子等不可不慎之。

道言：爾時，飛天仙王，天帝仙王，三十六天仙王，復有仙鄉童子，仙威童子，仙郡童子，仙度童子，仙鴉童子，仙真童子等，三萬六千人，俱到大羅宮中，巡謁天尊。頭面著地，稽首作禮。歡喜踴躍，依位而坐。圍繞天尊，三匝畢竟。侍座良久，虔恭作禮。仰承威光，得見諸天大聖。今同會聽，受《飛仙經》彌日繼夜。是時，衆中有一仙人，姓昊名剛文，與太上真人論議，於義不得解釋。仙王時即上白天尊：未審二人孰是孰非，於衆座思勝。伏願天尊，賜垂判釋。

天尊即語：剛文無理，退仙之位，令在月中，伐於桂樹。不得同侣于今爾。是時，仙王重白天尊：今日侍座，實為傾喜。如此大聖等衆，有三萬六千人，同在道前。聖人真人仙人，如斯等衆，並是往時賢哲法師。於虛空縱，有修功立德。成道因緣，今由忘矣，不識仙聖階品。及將來世，學仙道士，諸善男子善女人等，悉皆不曉。及諸布施，入於道場功德，學於長生，度脫泥丸因緣。伏願天尊，次為解說。使來世人，知善橋梁，知善因緣，知善福田。爾時，天尊在玄都玉京七寶臺中，舉身彈指，歎言：善哉，善哉。天堂悉皆振動，即告仙王卿等，須能作此問，開悟一切。將來後世，甚為要乎。今當以次，為汝開示昔日因緣。作大舟檝，作大橋梁。作善因緣，作善福田、盛聽在心。汝昔從無量劫來，從生至死，今日得登天王之位。功德如此，不可思議，皆從修來。汝等功德成就，漸登無上道果。六通智慧，往諸下座。聖有九品，真有九品，仙有九品。卿解乎？如此等衆，並是往昔開光元年，龍漢赤明，皆逐劫而來。修功立德，輸轉生死，入諸地獄。擭湯鑪炭，刀山劍樹，銅柱鐵牀，吞火食炭。或作畜生身，種種訖竟。今得成就，至長壽處，不生不死，湛然當住。仙王汝等須皆知，凡聖不相去離。凡人學道至仙，從仙至真，從真至聖，從聖如許積功，皆從凡人間來。譬如造臺，先從下起。千里之行，始於足下。故謂功滿三千，白日升天矣。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 洞玄靈寶飛仙上品妙經, revision of 6 March 2011), 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 text 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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