Taishang Laojun Shuo Yisuan Shenfu Miaojing — Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao
This is a short talismanic scripture of the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) tradition, preserved in the Daoist Canon (catalogued in some modern listings as CT/DZ 672). It is set at the founding of the Zhengyi lineage: the deified Laozi, the Most High Lord Lao, travels with the Celestial Master — Zhang Daoling, the historical founder of the tradition — to Shu (Sichuan) and, before his disciples Zhao Sheng and Wang Chang, reveals a talisman and a register of star-deities that "increase the reckoning" of those who wear it and recite the scripture with sincerity.
The scripture opens as a dialogue in prose, turns to a short gatha in seven-character verse, and then unfolds into a roster of celestial officials — the generals of the Six Jia, the nine Star Lords of the Northern Dipper, the Three Terraces, and five further stars — each assigned a specific power to protect the body and prolong life. It closes with a four-line hymn in the Celestial Master's own voice.
The key word of the title, suàn 筭 (also written 算), is the unit of celestial life-accounting in Chinese moral cosmology: the allotted span of years a person is born with, which the spirits lengthen or shorten according to conduct. This translation keeps it as "reckoning" throughout, so that a reader can watch the text's central image — a life measured out and added to, portion by portion — run unbroken from the title to the final talisman.
Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, which is printed in full below the translation. To our knowledge, this is the scripture's first complete published English translation.
Translation
At that time, the Most High Lord Lao and the Celestial Master, the Perfected One, were together roaming through the land of Chanli, within the realm of the Kingfisher-Blue Firmament. They saw that all living beings were meeting with sudden calamity — sickness, misfortune, and decline, harsh distress and hardship — and that many died before their time. Then the Perfected One rose from his seat and addressed the Most High Lord Lao, saying: "Such beings as these — I do not know what discipline they should practice, what merit they should perform, that they might be saved and crossed over, that in this present life they might gain lasting longevity, free of misfortune and decline."
Lord Lao said: "These beings all suffer, in their bodies, the pain of the Four Great Elements. Not understanding the true Way, they are deluded and confused, and so it comes to this." The Celestial Master bowed his head to the ground and, rising eagerly, asked further about the root of this transgression.
Lord Lao then spoke a gatha for him, saying:
First, in a former life they did not trust the Way;
second, in ages past they did not cultivate practice;
third, having a body, they did not turn it toward the good;
fourth, establishing themselves, they loved all manner of entanglement.
This is what brings on calamity and manifold misfortune,
so that sickness, hardship, decline, and disease follow one upon another, without end.
If you would prop up decline and ward off calamity and affliction,
there is nothing better than pure fasting and chanting to increase the reckoning.
Wear the numinous talisman, and it will forever shield and protect you,
so that you may keep long years and drive away every evil bond.
When Lord Lao had finished speaking this gatha, it was the seventh day of the first month, in a year of the Upper Prime jiazi. Lord Lao mounted his carriage of purple cloud and journeyed together with the Celestial Master to the capital of Shu; and on the fifteenth day of that same month, he spread his seat at Red Stone City and expounded the Way, universally saving all beings. At that time Zhao Sheng and Wang Chang, who trusted and upheld the teaching of the Way, came forward and knelt for long at his feet, begging to become his disciples. Thereupon Lord Lao commanded the Celestial Master to summon the star officials of all the heavens, the Directors of Fates Who Grant Long Life, the generals of the Six Jia, and the spirits of heaven and the gods of earth — a multitude beyond counting — all to come and take their seats together, that they might deliberate this numinous utterance and act to save all beings, delivering each of them from calamity. At that time they engraved it on stone as a pledge, transmitted the divine talisman, and handed down this wondrous scripture, that it might circulate through the world as a means to increase the reckoning. The Perfected One then bowed twice more and addressed him, saying: "Though we have been granted this opening of the darkness, living beings still do not understand it. If there are good men and good women who rely on fasting and precepts and are able to follow the teaching, not betraying their master's compassion, they will forever escape every suffering. But as for those who slander it and do not believe — what further teaching should be given them, that they too might be saved and crossed over?"
Lord Lao said: "Excellent! Your heart pities all living beings, and so you have asked this question. If there are those, generation after generation, who uphold and honor the Way — sincere and reverent without wavering, burning incense, bowing in worship, and reciting this true scripture — they will attain peace and calm in body and mind, their reckoning will be extended, their blessings and emoluments will increase, and day by day they will draw nearer to the utmost Way."
Lord Lao said: "The Way can cover and cherish; the Way can rear and nourish; the Way can bring to birth and completion; the Way can save and protect. If there is one whose allotted life is exhausted, this Way is able to add twelve thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine reckonings to it, so that they become as firm as the Way itself, unite their virtue with Heaven and Earth, and flourish together with the ten thousand things. When the True Lord descends into the world, he grants his disciples long life and an increased reckoning, and all calamity and misfortune are set at peace. If there are those beset by hardship, decline, danger, and distress — any who suffer illness — he at once commands the generals of the Six Jia, the star officials of all the heavens, and forty-eight thousand sages, all to come and heal and save them.
"General Wang Wenqing of Jiazi dispatches one hundred and twenty officers, who grant disciple so-and-so twelve thousand portions of body-reckoning, protecting that person's body and ridding it of a hundred diseases.
"General Zhan Zijiang of Jiaxu dispatches one hundred and twenty officers, who fix disciple so-and-so's mind-reckoning at twelve thousand portions, protecting that person's body and ridding it of demonic delusion.
"General Hu Wenchang of Jiashen dispatches one hundred and twenty officers, who add twelve thousand portions to disciple so-and-so's emolument-reckoning, protecting that person's body and ridding it of wasting depletion.
"General Wei Shangqing of Jiawu dispatches one hundred and twenty officers, who add twelve thousand portions to disciple so-and-so's blessing-reckoning, protecting that person's body and ridding it of unjust harm.
"General Meng Feiqing of Jiachen dispatches one hundred and twenty officers, who preserve disciple so-and-so's wealth-reckoning at twelve thousand portions, protecting that person's body so that it suffers no decline or loss.
"General Ming Wenzhang of Jiayin dispatches one hundred and twenty officers, who make eternal disciple so-and-so's longevity-reckoning at twelve thousand portions, protecting that person's body so that it meets no untimely death."
Lord Lao said: "The Lord of the Six Hundred Sexagenary Cycles Whose Way Brings the Three Origins to Peace, the Lord Who Increases the Reckoning of the Ten Thousand Lives, and Great Compassion of Shining Brightness, together with three thousand five hundred Perfected Ones, descend all at once to save and protect the human body, that it may be extended for ten thousand years and ascend into true rectitude." At that time, the great sages among the stars and constellations of all the heavens acted to sever all enmity and vengeance.
The Star Lord Greedy Wolf of the Northern Dipper governs the dispelling of noxious vapors.
The Star Lord Great Gate of the Northern Dipper governs the dispelling of hidden corpse-demons.
The Star Lord Preserved Emolument of the Northern Dipper governs the dispelling of the hundred ghosts.
The Star Lord Literary Bend of the Northern Dipper governs the dispelling of evil dreams.
The Star Lord Chaste Uprightness of the Northern Dipper governs the dispelling of slander and quarrels.
The Star Lord Military Bend of the Northern Dipper governs the dispelling of litigation.
The Star Lord Army-Breaker of the Northern Dipper governs the dispelling of wasting depletion.
The Star Lord Left Assistant of the Northern Dipper governs a person's life-reckoning.
The Star Lord Right Aide of the Northern Dipper governs a person's bodily form.
The Star Lords of the Three Terraces together increase emolument and longevity, so that no calamity or misfortune occurs.
The first, the Star of Ill Omen; the second, the Star of Good Fortune; the third, the Averting Star; the fourth, the Sparkling Deluder; the fifth, the Star of Peril — these honored star-spirits, every one, act on behalf of disciple so-and-so to dissolve calamity and deliver from hardship, to ward off and expel the pestilential vapors and sicknesses of all under Heaven, and the ghosts of lechery, envy, and malicious harm, each commanding them to depart at once beyond a thousand leagues and ten thousand leagues — swiftly, swiftly, as the ordinance and statute of the Most High's divine talisman!
Lord Lao said: "I now proclaim and transmit this wondrous scripture, and set forth widely the teaching of the Way, saving people by means of this talisman. Whoever wears it must be diligent and sincere, with a heart ever reverent and trusting; then there will be nothing but peace and calm, and a thousand calamities and ten thousand misfortunes will all at once dissolve away. In action and repose, in movement and stillness, auspicious omens will daily draw near, and whatever is sought or wished for will all be gained according to the heart's desire." Thereupon the Celestial Master, having received this wondrous method, composed a hymn, saying:
Divine talisman, divine talisman,
released forth from the Great Void.
It brings forth Heaven, it brings forth Earth,
furling and unfurling together with the Way.
Whoever wears and honors it
has all hardship and calamity dissolved,
and attaining the true Way,
the body ascends to the Mysterious Capital.
When the Celestial Master had finished speaking this hymn, he and his disciples Zhao Sheng and Wang Chang bowed their heads to the ground, took their leave with reverence, and withdrew.
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Daoist shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently, sentence by sentence, from the classical Chinese text printed below. The scripture's frame narrative and its long roster of star-officials are rendered as prose paragraphs following the source's own paragraphing; the two verse passages — Lord Lao's opening gatha and the Celestial Master's closing hymn — are kept as verse, with the line breaks of the original seven- and four-character lines preserved.
A genuine translation-status check was performed before the claim below was written. The two standard bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western translation (Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud survey) were checked for the Chinese title, its pinyin, and the DZ number, and returned no match. Two web searches were then run, for the Chinese title and for the pinyin title together with "translation." Neither turned up a published English translation; one scholarly source (a French-language HAL repository paper on Daoist life-accounting) was found to gloss the title and cite the scripture's Daozang catalogue number in passing, but it does not translate the text. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of the Taishang Laojun Shuo Yisuan Shenfu Miaojing.
A note on terms. Suàn 筭 (the text's own variant of 算), the unit of a person's celestial life-allotment, is kept as "reckoning" throughout, in keeping with the house glossary's rendering of the same word; the text compounds it repeatedly — body-reckoning, mind-reckoning, emolument-reckoning, blessing-reckoning, wealth-reckoning, longevity-reckoning — and these compounds are kept literal so the reader can see the pattern. One passage naming a deity-title, "六百甲子三元道泰君" (rendered here as "the Lord of the Six Hundred Sexagenary Cycles Whose Way Brings the Three Origins to Peace"), is unusual and not attested elsewhere to our knowledge; it is translated as literally as the grammar allows and flagged here as uncertain rather than smoothed into a more familiar-sounding title.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.
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Source Text: 太上老君說益筭神符妙經
Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
太上老君說益筭神符妙經
爾時，太上老君與天師真人，俱遊禪黎國土碧落界中，見諸衆生盡遭橫禍，疾病灾衰，暴厄困苦，夭化者多。於是真人從座而起，上白太上老君曰：如是衆生，未審行何科法，作何功德，可以濟度，今生永壽，無有灾衰？
老君曰：是諸衆生，為身各有四大之苦，不明正道，迷惑致此。天師稽首踊躍，請問罪源。
老君為說偈曰：
一為前生不信道，二為夙世不修行，
三為有身不回向，四為立身愛諸纏，
致使招灾及衆禍，疾厄衰病便聯綿。
若要扶衰禳灾患，無過清齋轉益算，
靈符佩帶常擁護，得保長年驅惡緣。
老君說是偈已，時上元甲子 正月七日 。老君乘紫雲之車，與天師俱往蜀都，是月十五日，於赤石城敷座說法，普濟衆生。時有趙昇、王長信奉道法，詣前長跪，乞為弟子。於是老君命天師召集諸天星官、長生司命、 六甲 將軍、天神地祇，無鞅數衆，俱來就坐，同議靈音，將救衆生，令各免難，時即刻石為信，傳度神符，傳說妙經，流通世間，以為益筭。真人於是再拜啟白：雖蒙開暗，衆生猶未曉了，若乃善男子善女人，依憑齋戒，能遵教法，不負師慈，永脫諸苦，如是毀謗不信之人，復與何說，令得濟度。
老君曰：善哉，爾心憫諸衆生，啟問如是。君有世代奉道之者，篤敬不渝，燒香禮拜，轉誦真經，即得身心安泰，壽筭延長，福禄增崇，日臻至道。
老君曰：道能覆愛，道能育養，道能生成，道能救護，若有命盡之者，是道能增一萬二千九百九十九筭，與道齊堅，天地合德，萬物滋榮，真君下世，與弟子長生益筭，灾祟咸寧。若有諸迍衰危厄難，一切苦病之者，即命 六甲 將軍、諸天星官、四萬八千聖衆，俱來救治。甲子將軍王文卿，遣官一百二十人，生弟子某身筭萬二千道，所護人身，為除百病。甲戌將軍展子江，遣官一百二十人，定弟子某心筭等萬二千道，所護人身，為除魔惑。甲申將軍扈文長，遣官一百二十人，添弟子某禄筭萬二千道，所護人身，為除虛耗。甲午將軍衛上卿，遣官一百二十人，為添弟子某福筭萬二千道，所護人身，為除橫害。甲辰將軍孟非卿，遣官一百二十人，保弟子某財筭萬二千道，所護人身，令無衰損。甲寅將軍明文章，遣官一百二十人，永弟子某壽筭萬二千道，所護人身，令無夭折。
老君曰：六百甲子三 元道泰 君，萬生 益筭 君，大慈曜明等三千五百真人，一時下降，救護人身，得延萬歲，昇入正真。爾時，諸天星宿大聖，為絕冤讎。
北斗貪狼星君，主祛惡氣。
北斗巨門星君，主祛伏屍。
北斗禄存星君，主袪百鬼。
北斗文曲星君，主袪惡夢。
北斗廉貞星君，主袪口舌。
北斗武曲星君，主袪官事。
北斗破軍星君，主袪虛耗。
北斗左輔星君，主人命筭。
北斗右弼星君，主人身形。
三台星君共增禄壽，令無禍殃。
第一惡星，第二良星，第三辟星，第四熒惑星，第五危星，是諸衆星尊神，各為弟子某消灾度難，辟除天下疫氣疾病、姦婬始妬妨害之鬼，各令速去千里萬里之外，急急如太上神符律令！
老君曰：吾今宣傳妙經，廣說道法，以符救人，佩帶之者，當須精勤，心常敬信，無不安寧，千灾萬禍，俱時消化，行藏動靜，善瑞日臻，所求所願，皆得遂心。於是天師受得妙法，而作頌曰：
神符神符，泄自太無。生天生地，與道卷舒。佩奉之者，厄難消除。得成真道，身昇玄都。
天師說是頌畢，與弟子趙昇、王長稽首奉辭而退。
Source Colophon
The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 太上老君說益筭神符妙經, revision of 18 February 2017), 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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