Lingbao School
The Lingbao School is a synthesis of religious ideas based on Shangqing texts, the rituals of the Celestial Masters, and Buddhist practices.
Although reincarnation was an important concept in the Lingbao School, the earlier Daoist belief in attaining immortality remained.
The school's pantheon is similar to Shangqing and Celestial Master Daoism, with one of its most important gods being the deified form of Laozi.
The "yinyang masters" popular in contemporary northern China are defined as Zhengyi Taoist priests following the Lingbao scriptural tradition.
This organization of texts and ritual provided a solid foundation on which the Lingbao School prospered in the subsequent centuries.
[5] Some early Lingbao scriptures borrowed so many Buddhist terminological, stylistic and conceptual elements that Zürcher describes them as "Buddho-Taoist hybrids".
[13] Lingbao cosmology deviated from Buddhist beliefs by proposing that the heavens rotated around a huge mountain known as the Jade Capital, which was the residence of the Celestial Worthy, the Daoist version of the Buddha, and the primordial deity.
At the end of a short cosmic era, the moon was prophesied to produce a flood that would erode the mountains, renew the qi of the universe, and change the rankings of the members of the celestial bureaucracy.
At the end of a long cosmic era, evil creatures were unleashed, heaven and earth were turned upside down, and metals and stones melted together.
The people who followed the correct teaching revealed by the god of the colour would be gathered up by the Queen Mother of the West and transported to a "land of bliss" that would not be affected by the apocalypse.
[18] Below these two main gods in the celestial hierarchy were those deities associated with the Southern Palace, where spirits went after death to prepare for rebirth.
Beneath him was the Director of the Equerry, who was in charge of the life records of the spirits, and Lord Han, who controlled Fengdu, the city of the dead.
[21] Despite a belief in reincarnation, the Lingbao School maintained the traditional Daoist idea that certain techniques could allow an adherent to achieve immortality.
Later on, as the Lingbao movement developed religious institutions and an established clergy, ritual practice became more of a communal rite.
Lingbao Daoism also shared the multidimensional aspect of Daoist ritual, meaning that it was carried on at several different levels simultaneously.
The final type of ritual, which has not survived, was the human Jade Register, which was performed to ensure the salvation of mankind.
[26] The canon itself is a mix of previous Daoist traditions, combining features from the Shangqing School and the Celestial Masters, along with other ancient texts and even some Buddhist ideas.
The two most important texts of the canon besides the Wufujing are the Red Book of Five Writings (Chi shu wupian) and the Scripture of Upper Chapters on Limitless Salvation (Wuliang Duren Shangpin).
