Longhu Mountain Zhengyi Morning and Evening Liturgy Explained (6): Heaven-and-Earth Purifying Incantation
Heaven-and-Earth Purifying Incantation
Heaven and Earth of themselves; foul qi disperses. Within the cavern, mystery and void; dazzling brightness of Great Origin.
Spirits of the eight directions' might, make me natural of myself. Numinous Treasure talisman-mandate, universally announce to the nine heavens.
Qian-Luo-Da-Na, cavern-gang of Great Mystery; beheading demons, binding evil, slaying myriads of ghosts.
Central Mountain divine incantation, Primordial Beginning jade script—uphold and recite once, ward off illness and prolong years.
Treading through the five peaks, the eight seas hear and know; demon kings bind their hands, attend and guard my pavilion.
Fierce foulness disperses; the Dao-qi forever remains.
This incantation is described in the Wondrous Incantation Scripture of the Northern Emperor Subduing Demons Spoken by the Most High Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning as follows: "Additionally recite this latter incantation three or seven times, and going to bed outside is unobstructed—this is named purifying Heaven and Earth. For foulness and malignity where one dwells, constantly mind the Incantation for Releasing Foulness and Warding Off Corpses. As the scripture says, clicking the teeth makes inner and outer thoroughly open, so that one merely seems to hear them."
It can be seen that when used alone, the recitation requirement is three or seven times, not a single careless pass.
The function of the Heaven-and-Earth Purifying Divine Incantation lies in releasing foul qi, and also warding off corpse-qi. Here foul qi generically refers to unclean objects or environments. This incantation has many uses; practically speaking, one typical application: if one sees a place with a strange unpleasant smell, after reciting the incantation and empowering water, sprinkling some around will immediately improve it—the effect is extremely marked, and very different from sprinkling water without incantation.
In Daoist deliverance there is a secret art of absorbing stench. Because in ancient times travel was inconvenient, and fallen leaves were meant to return to their roots, corpses were carried home; but if the road was too far, in hot summer the corpse could putrefy. Daoism has a secret art by which after absorbing the stench, even a long time passes without foulness. This has also been introduced on some television programs. Actually this operation is very simple—just in the liturgy, use water purified by the Heaven-and-Eath Purifying Divine Incantation and sprinkle it on the corpse, breaking the foul qi, so the corpse will not putrefy for a period. If one specializes in deliverance, a ritual master with strong功力 can also make the corpse temporarily resist decay.
In different settings, the accompanying methods for using this incantation differ. For example, when some schools deliver the dead, while reciting this incantation they will also draw the Golden Light Command and chant: "Open the heavenly gate, close the earthly door, leave the human path, plug the ghost road, pierce the ghost heart, break the ghost belly—golden light of ten thousand zhang illuminates and breaks evil spirits." And when some schools open the altar, while reciting this incantation they will separately use the method of Nine Foulnesses Breaking Foulnesses to empower water. In the Yin Talisman school, the usual open-altar method is roughly: establish the Nine Star ritual altar, take the Five Thunder command and issue orders, use the Seven Star Sword to behead Monthly Wearing; after empowering the pure water of the five directions' divine dragons, recite the Heaven-and-Earth Purifying Incantation, and add Nine Phoenixes Breaking Foulness to draw true qi into the water, then pace the Three Terraces gang and Bagua gang to seal the ghost road, and finally transmit flying talismans. A more concise method takes the Yin Talisman school's heart formula, directly making the command into a talisman-command; no real sword for the Seven Star Sword, use talismans to transform Five Dragon Water, join Three Lights to summon the Great General Nine Phoenixes for breaking foulness, use Five Thunder to seal the ghost gate, exchange for the Seven Star Beheading Evil Talisman cast toward the Monthly Wearing direction, then sprinkle water to clear foulness, and use the incantation to drive a thousand evils and ten thousand baleful influences.
"Within the cavern, mystery and void"—here "within the cavern" does not mean "grotto-heaven." Daoism's "cavern" is a rather mysterious concept for ordinary people; "cavern" is an image, representing a channel of connection between Heaven and humankind. As the common saying "a separate world within the cavern-heaven" means: when one arrives at an inconspicuous place and discovers inside a world of its own. Similarly, "suns and moons within the pot"—the "pot mouth" is like the concept of grotto-heaven. Likewise for the classification of Daoist canons "Dongzhen," "Dongxuan," and "Dongshen"—their inner meaning is that these canons are only a very small face; they are only a bridge or a fuse, through which practitioners can enter a new world. For the meaning of "mystery and void," one may refer to Han Feizi · Explaining Lao: "The sage observes its mystery and void, uses its universal circulation, and force-names it Dao."
"Dazzling brightness of Great Origin"—"Great Origin" refers to the time before the start of the myriad kalpas. Some take the "origin" here as "mystery"; this is wrong, for if "mystery" were changed to "origin" for taboo reasons, why was the previous line not changed? Therefore Great Origin here is not in error. For "dazzling brightness," one should refer to Jin-dynasty Pan Yue's Rhapsody on Autumn Feelings: "Heaven is dazzlingly bright and ever higher; the sun is distant and slowly wanes."—the meaning of its usage.
"Within the cavern, mystery and void; dazzling brightness of Great Origin" means that the obscure and boundless Dao already existed in the time of Great Origin; here there is also a covert reference to "Primordial Beginning."
"Spirits of the eight directions' might, make me natural of myself." At the opening there is "Heaven and Earth of themselves"; here "make me natural of myself" means to make oneself like Heaven and Earth—I and Heaven and Earth are one body. Why the "spirits of the eight directions' might"? In Daoist understanding, humans have spirits outside the body and spirits within; joining inner and outer is to join Heaven and humanity. So when the mighty spirits of the eight directions all come to assist me, I can be as natural as Heaven and Earth.
"Numinous Treasure talisman-mandate, universally announce to the nine heavens." Just as in the story introduced in the Earth-Stabilizing Incantation—that incantation uses the Primordial Beginning command, while the Heaven-and-Earth Purifying Divine Incantation here uses the Numinous Treasure talisman-mandate. In actual ritual work, it is common to use a sword to draw a Numinous Treasure talisman-command, or in some schools at this step usually to burn a foul-clearing talisman into water, and through the talisman-contract universally announce to the nine heavens.
"Qian-Luo-Da-Na, cavern-gang of Great Mystery, beheading demons, binding evil, slaying myriads of ghosts"—"Qian-Luo-Da-Na," "cavern-gang of Great Mystery," and "beheading demons, binding evil" are hard to explain, so some ritual books gloss them as "Qian-Luo-Da-Na, Envoy of Cavern-Gang Great Mystery; divine clerk of beheading demons and binding evil." Other ritual books hold that "Qian-Luo-Da-Na" and "cavern-gang of Great Mystery" are respectively two generals, image in red brocade robe, yellow knotted turban, sword in hand before them; and the later "beheading demons, binding evil, slaying myriads of ghosts" refers to their awesome might (see Great Method of the Northern Dipper Tianpeng Subduing Demons).
One must note that in some liturgies the incantation is modified here to "delivering myriads of ghosts," especially in deliverance liturgies. One understanding: if all ghosts are slain, how can one deliver them? Another understanding: even if the described slaying of myriads of ghosts is only awesome might, ghosts may still fear it, and when summoning spirits there may be insufficient force—hence the change to "delivering myriads of ghosts."
Similarly, in some blessing liturgies this place is changed to "delivering myriads of people." In short, it depends on the situation and cannot be judged in one lump.
"Central Mountain divine incantation, Primordial Beginning jade script"—Central Mountain divine incantation is the name of this divine incantation; Primordial Beginning jade script refers to the nature of this incantation. It is meant to resonate with the power formed before Heaven and Earth, thereby achieving the efficacy of Heaven and Earth of themselves, foul qi dispersing.
"Uphold and recite once, ward off illness and prolong years"—this line is fairly simple, but it is a foul-releasing incantation. Why can one "uphold and recite once, ward off illness and prolong years"? Because foul qi between Heaven and Earth often brings illness to people; breaking foul qi can therefore ward off illness and prolong years. From this it can be seen that Daoism had a concept of hygiene quite early.
"Treading through the five peaks, the eight seas hear and know; demon kings bind their hands, attend and guard my pavilion"—this passage is fairly simple and needs no explanation.
"Fierce foulness disperses; the Dao-qi forever remains." After fierce foulness disperses, only the foulness is released; for better results the Dao-qi must also forever remain. This is like when a place has a strange smell: after clearing the odor, one still places some fragrant objects there to improve it faster.