Knowledge of Daoist Petition Documents

I. The Importance of "Petition Documents" in Zhai Jiao Rituals

Zhai Jiao (Daoist rituals), Zhang Biao (memorials), and Shu Wen (petitions) are forms of Daoist practice. Existing Zhai Jiao rituals include opening the altar, presenting requests, sprinkling purification, applying talismanic water, chanting scriptures, consecrating deity statues, submitting petitions, visualization, and burning memorial tablets; rituals for the deceased include summoning spirits, breaking open hell, and using precious talismans, demonstrating profound and extensive knowledge. Petition documents are the most crucial aspect of Zhai Jiao.

Simply put, "Shu Wen" refers to "written documents by mortals praying to deities," similar to correspondence between people. Shu Wen is a linguistic expression of faith in deities, reverence for heaven, and ancestor worship. It is a way for people to convey their requests through kneeling, bowing, and visualizing the blessings of heavenly deities. Using ink and brush on paper, sealed in jade-like containers, and then burned, they are delivered by the Four Value Meritorious Officials (representing year, month, day, and hour) on flying clouds to the Heavenly Lord, and then presented to the Heavenly Court, building a bridge between the immortal and mortal realms, thereby communicating human wishes to deities and realizing the prayed-for purposes.

As the saying goes, "There are deities three feet above your head," let alone the deities of the "Thirty-Six Heavens." Therefore, people hope to receive silent blessings from deities through Zhai Jiao and memorials. The methods of expression include praying for blessings and fulfilling vows, submitting memorials, chanting scriptures, and repenting through Zhai Jiao rituals; combined with quiet reflection, repentance, accumulating virtue, and doing good deeds, one can escape suffering, eliminate demonic obstacles, and naturally "blessings arrive when prayed for, and disasters vanish when warded off."

The earliest application of Shu Wen originates from ancient times when "the Son of Heaven sacrificed to Heaven and Earth, or the Five Sacred Mountains and Four Great Rivers." The Eastern Han Dynasty's Grand Celestial Master inherited and applied the initial template for sacrificing to Heaven, Earth, and Water, the "Three Officials' Handwritten Letters" (San Guan Shu Shu). The content required that on the Shangyuan Festival (15th day of the first lunar month), one would write down "prayers" in a document, burn it, and intend for it to reach the "Heavenly Official" to seek blessings. On the Zhongyuan Festival (15th day of the seventh lunar month), one would write down "atonement for sins" in a document, burn it, and bury it on a mountain, visualizing it reaching the palace of the "Earthly Official" to pardon all sins. On the Xiayuan Festival (15th day of the tenth lunar month), one would write down "releasing grievances" in a document, burn it, and cast it into the water, seeking the Water Official to remove all disasters and calamities. Because the Three Officials (Heaven, Earth, Water) govern the fortunes and misfortunes of the human and underworld realms, Shu Wen is presented to the palaces of the Three Officials, "San Yuan Miao Wei Palace" and "San Yuan Dou Hui Fu."

After Zhang Daoling founded the religion, Daoism inherited this method of talismans and "Shu Wen." Later, Zhai Jiao, memorials, and petitions were organized by the high Daoists Kou Qianzhi of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Lu Xiujing of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Daoist Zhai Jiao and ritual system became very large and categorized. Until the Five Dynasties period, Du Guangting, known as "Guangcheng Xiansheng," compiled them. From then on, there began to be memorial texts and petition documents, compiled into "Lingbao Wen Jian" and "Guangcheng Ji Yao." The content included talismans, memorials, petitions, and official documents, mainly for "warding off disasters and relieving calamities, praying for heirs and prolonging life, praying for clear skies and rain, warding off locusts, and cremating corpses." This book had a significant influence on later Daoist Zhai Jiao and rituals.

"Lingbao Wen Jian" and "Xin Xiang Miao Yu" are the comprehensive collections of Daoist Shu Wen. In the prefaces of these two books, the origin of Shu Wen is explained: "In ancient times, people wore grass clothes and ate wood, living in cliffs and caves, living to a hundred years and dying in their proper beds. When Sui Ren Shi appeared, drilling wood to make fire, people began cooking. Eating cooked food damaged essence and blood; without cultivation, this led to hundreds of diseases and a failure to live out one's natural lifespan." Therefore, Zhu Rong drew talismans, dividing causes of illness into upper, middle, and lower categories to treat diseases with incantations in the "Zhu You Ke." This is also the precursor to Zhai Jiao "Shu Wen."

"Shu Wen" is a memorial document formed by text, serving as a bridge between the immortal and mortal realms. Whether for personal requests or national affairs, it can be used. Shu Wen types can be divided into two main parts: Yang rituals and Yin rituals.

The writing format and character size of Shu Wen have strict normative requirements, and the language is also rigorous. One must pay attention to clearly writing the deity's palace and their sacred title, ensuring they match. Generally, "Shu Wen" is used to celebrate birthdays on the deities' sacred days, submitting memorials, or on auspicious days to perform Zhai Jiao activities for believers, such as praying for blessings. "Lingbao Wen Jian" and "Xin Xiang Miao Yu" are books specifically about writing "Shu Wen," but today they need reform to be both practical and retain ancient traditions. They should not only be easy to understand but also theoretically rigorous, maintaining standard writing norms.

The book "Lingbao Wen Jian" considers the purpose of Shu Wen to be "expounding Daoist laws, a ferry for benefiting the world." The words of prayer, memorials, and documents are categorized with clear clauses. This book was later edited by descendants and praised in Daoist scriptures. Another book, "Xin Xiang Miao Yu," requires Shu Wen to be "harmonious and fluent, with words precise and meaning sincere." In this way, when people read it, they cannot help but sigh at the greatness of this Dao and the fact that there is nothing the gods and heaven cannot influence.

The purpose of bowing to deities is to pray, which must rely on the meaning of the Shu Wen; the intention moves from inner sincerity, and the Shu Wen moves the intention to influence the deities. Therefore, the heart must be sincere. Thus, the book "Xin Xiang Miao Yu" categorizes prayers and Zhai Jiao, with clear logic and fluent words, suitable for each use. In this way, the prayed meaning is presented to the gods and heaven to receive a response. Dao is based on sincerity, using Shu Wen memorials as a medium, showing the importance of Shu Wen in Daoist faith.

II. Precautions for Zhai Jiao, Memorials, and Shu Wen

Zhai Jiao rituals have certain norms, and memorials and Shu Wen require even greater rigor. What key contents should be noted? The wording should be simple and concise: "Plain in language but not ornate, straightforward but not awkward, simple but not dirty, truthful but not false, direct but not excessive, clear but not verbose, pure but not turbid, true but not evil, brief and conveying, sincere enough to move heaven and earth and spirits, reaching the Heavenly Bureau, with immediate retribution. The writer must be proficient in classics and rituals, understand the format for submitting memorials, write in regular script with reverence and order, and not profane the deities."

When writing memorials, one must use soft yellow paper: "Clean paper should be used; those with damaged, oily, or stained ink marks are not accepted." At the same time, "writing must not be seen by outsiders or dogs and cats entering the room; one must not speak with outsiders, ensuring strokes do not split or omit errors. The paper specifications are 1.2 chi in length, 8 fen wide at the top, and tapering to the width of an ant's path at the bottom." This is the Tian Di (Heaven and Earth) format of Shu Wen. One should note that "the founder's (or Heavenly Lord's) sacred title cannot be placed at the bottom; disciples or those calling themselves subjects should not be at the top; the character 'ghost' should not be at the beginning; nor should one expose life or death, or reveal people's surnames. As for character size, it should be two or two and a half fen; the final year and month should leave three or four spaces to the left. Of course, 'Die Wen' (official documents) characters are larger, three and a half to four fen; if arbitrary sizes are used, it will not conform to the style."

When submitting memorials to the Founders and writing the Heavenly Lord's sacred title, one must fall into the auspicious grid, starting from "According to," following the auspicious days: Qing Long, Ming Tang, Tian Xing, Zhu Que... For memory convenience, one can use the twelve characters: "Dao yuan ji shi tong, da lu yao he ri huan xiang" (How long is the distant road to connect, how many days until the long road returns home). Characters with the radical "walk" (zou) are auspicious, such as: Dao, Yuan. The rest are inauspicious. If the sacred title falls on a character without the "walk" radical, one can write the two characters "Zhong Xie" (Middle Thanks) until the sacred title falls into the lower grid's auspicious position.

"Lingbao Wen Jian" states: "Memorials, petitions, and official documents must also borrow the seal of the Heavenly Treasury to show trust. The seals have different master transmissions, wanting heaven, earth, deities, and ghosts to know the methods practiced and that they have received them, so that nothing cannot be done."

The final "Shu Wen" is stamped with a seal. Water (or wine) is used for sealing; oil seals are taboo. Generally, water seals are for upper-level Shu Wen, and oil seals are for lower-level submissions, while oily ones are not accepted by deities. The final year and month must be stamped with "Dao Jing Shi" (Dao, Scripture, Teacher). If it is the Tai Sui (Bing Wu) year, one must not stamp it upright; this seal in the year and month (indicating it comes from the book) is not taken. Currently, the Quanzhen Dao generally places the seal in the lower half of the character "Nian" (Year) or "Wu" (Noon). If it is a "Die Wen," the seal is placed on the character "Feng" (Seal) in "Liu Xia Tu" (Leave Earth Below).

Using a vermilion pen to dot the Die Zha (official documents) and notices, the number of dead names can be dotted differently; other scholars must not dot them arbitrarily. It is particularly emphasized: after the reading of the memorial is completed, it is put into the incinerator: "Burning memorial texts must not have oily substances, and oil candles cannot be used for direct burning."

III. Auspicious Days for Submitting Memorials

According to the Eastern Jin Dynasty's Xu Zhenjun (239-374) "Yu Xia Ji," auspicious days for submitting petitions are: "Suitable for Tian Yue De, Tian Yue De He, Yue Kong, Sheng Xin, Mu Cang, Jie Shen, Ding Cheng days," all of which are Tian Kai Huang Dao (Heaven Opens Auspicious Path) or auspicious gods presiding over the day.

For example, the mnemonic for selecting auspicious days for Tian De: "First month Ding, second month Shen (Shen Palace), third month Ren, fourth month Xin, fifth month Qian (Hai), sixth month Jia, seventh month Gui, eighth month Gen (Yin) meets; ninth month Bing, tenth month Yi, Zi month Xun (Si), Chou month Geng in the middle.

Selecting auspicious days for Tian De He: Tian De in the first month is in Ding (Ding Si, Ding Wei), which combines with Ren. Whenever Ren appears in the first month, it is Tian De He. (According to the ten Heavenly Stems, Jia combines with Ji, Yi with Geng, Bing with Xin, Ding with Ren, Wu with Gui; whenever Ren appears in the first month, such as Ren Zi, Ren Yin... Ren Xu, it is an auspicious day for Tian De He). Other months... twelfth (Chou) month follow this pattern.

For all Daoist ritual activities, opening the altar must choose auspicious days, avoiding Bing Yin, Ding Mao, Bing Shen, Ding You, Wu Xu, Wu Chen, and the inauspicious days of Tiger and Dragon receiving death. Why is this important? According to Lu Pu'an's "Zhi Ding Ji" in "Xuan Du Lv": "Submitting memorials must avoid Wu Xu and Wu Chen. Why? Chen is the Heavenly Gate, Xu is the Earthly Door; Chen is governed by the Dragon, Xu by the Dog. On these days, the Supreme Elder visits the Supreme Laojun, the Nine Qi Elder visits the Nine Old Immortal Capital, to review the registers of all men and women in the world who should live or die. And the Heavenly Emperor reviews the sins of men and women, so the Heavenly Gate does not open. When opening the Zhai Jiao altar, one must avoid the thunder 'court' and the Great White Tiger Sha; if the White Tiger enters the Central Palace, on that day, one must not use bells, drums, and ritual music in the main hall; violating this brings great misfortune. Also, one must not submit memorials for the ten evils and five rebellions; during strong winds and heavy rains, one must not submit memorials; if one has six ailments, one must not submit memorials for virtuous people. Establishing Zhai Jiao Three Meetings, Eight Festivals, Five Labors, Small Meetings, Four Beginnings, and本命日 (Destiny Days) for vows, submitting memorials, repenting, and setting up Zhai Jiao benefits both the living and the deceased."

Daoism generally does not worship the sacred on days with "Wu" in Zhai Jiao. In special cases, such as the Founder's birthday or three-day or seven-day or longer rituals, if it falls on a "Wu Zi" day, one must avoid the "Zi" hour. Except for the特殊性 (special nature) of large rituals, generally speaking, "Wu does not worship the True One" and certainly does not submit memorials.

In the study of Daoist Zhai Jiao rituals and Shu Wen, the so-called "Die Zha Fu Ming" (official documents and talismanic orders) writing format is basically a continuation and inheritance of early Daoism. For birthday celebrations, submitting "Beidou Shu" (Big Dipper Petition) to ward off disasters, or submitting "Wenchang Shu" (Wenchang Petition) to request official positions and career advancement, each has specific Shu Wen content. Except for some individual words that can be added or removed, the beginning and ending cannot be changed. It is stipulated that if not done this way, it will incur "sin." Therefore, when performing Zhai Jiao rituals, one should use Shu Wen, this Daoist culture, as perfectly as possible.