Lei Ting curse charm

[3] In some cases these coin charms request that Leigong should act "with the speed of the law" - “急急如律令.” The name "Lei Ting" (雷霆) comes from Lei (雷) which is an abbreviation for "Leigong" (雷公) or "Leishen" (雷神) who is the god of thunder and one of the officials in the celestial Ministry of Thunder and Storm who could punish on behalf of Heaven,[4][5] and Ting (霆) meaning "thunderbolts" as these thunderbolts would be used for the destruction of malicious spirits as it is the noise of the thunder produced by the drums hold by Leigong that causes death of the wrong doers.

As Hanzi characters were used on amulets magical powers were prescribed to them by the superstitious, during the Han dynasty Chinese numismatic charms started to be worn as pendants to protect its wearers from the influence of bogies and evil spirits.

[11] The ancient Chinese people believed that decrees and mandates issued by the government had absolutely authoritative power over them which expanded their belief that Hanzi characters somehow had magical properties.

Taoist exorcists and priests claimed that they could use Hanzi characters and Fu script to make decrees that influence the spiritual world, for this reason the inscriptions of Lei Ting curse charms resemble official decrees and documents issued by the government of imperial China but ordered by Laozi and the person being decreed was Leigong whose job it is to punish people guilty of moral crimes such as unfilial sons or daughter as well as evil entities using the Taoist magic to harm others.

Laozi is often referred to as "Taishang Laojun" (Chinese: 太上老君; Pinyin: Tàishàng Lǎojūn) on Lei Ting curse charms, this title was posthumously given to him by the Emperor of the Song dynasty in the year 1013 AD.