Knowledge category · 05

Rituals and Customs

Rituals

Rituals, festivals, and local customs. This directory lists public entries assigned to this category, organized by knowledge entity and page.

Scope

Ritual offerings
Vestments and ritual objects
Altars and ritual documents
Festivals and deity birthdays
Sacrificial customs

Category directory

Rituals and Customsentries

97 entries

Xuhuo Lüling Deng Tianjun Dafa

欻火律令鄧天君大法, Deng Tianjun Thunder-Rite Text

Xuhuo Lüling Deng Tianjun Dafa is a thunder-rite work in Daofa Huiyuan centered on the divine officer Deng Tianjun. Its descriptions of deities, petitions, and expulsion belong to religious literature, not proof of weather control or healing.

Transmission of Precepts

傳戒, Chuanjie, Conferral of Precepts

Transmission of precepts, or chuanjie, is the formal conferral of a body of Daoist precepts. It is especially associated with Quanzhen ordination and should be distinguished from personally observing a rule or receiving a ritual register.

Daochang

道場, Dao Chang, Ritual Space

Daochang can denote a sacred or ritual space, and in Daoist usage it can also name the ceremony held there. The word is shared across religious traditions, so its meaning depends on whether a passage concerns a place, a gathering or a ritual event.

Daoist Codes of Discipline

道教戒律, Daoist Jielü, Daoist Precept Codes

Daoist codes of discipline are bodies of precepts and community rules that regulate religious conduct. They developed in multiple traditions and periods, so they do not form one uniform code shared unchanged by all Daoists.

Dujiang (Liturgical Chant Leader)

都講, Dujiang, Chant Leader

In Daoist zhai-jiao rites, dujiang names an officer who leads chants and guides the ordered participation of other liturgical personnel. The title can have other meanings in non-Daoist historical writings, so its context must be checked.

Daoist Ritual Vestments

法服, Fafu, Daoist Liturgical Clothing

Fafu denotes vestments worn by Daoist ritual specialists or shown on divine images. Forms, colors, headwear, and meanings vary by period, liturgical role, and textual tradition; no one historical dress code applies to all Daoists today.

Falu

發爐, Opening of the Censer

Falu is an opening declaration in Daoist zhai and jiao liturgies, associated with a hand censer, incense, and announcing the purpose of the rite to divine beings. Its wording and interpretation vary across liturgical books.

Ritual Registers

法籙, Falu, Daoist Ritual Registers

A falu is a Daoist register and credential transmitted within a scriptural or ritual lineage. It may record received teachings, divine offices, religious rank, or duties. Receiving one situates a priest or practitioner within a line of transmission and its responsibilities; a falu is not merely another name for every talismanic drawing.

Daoist Ritual Implements

法器, Faqi, Fa Qi

Faqi are objects used in Daoist liturgy and recitation. The source material for this entry chiefly discusses sound-producing implements such as bells, drums, cymbals, chimes, and woodblocks and their roles in ritual music; that sample does not describe every kind of faqi.

Fayin (Daoist Ritual Seal)

法印, Fayin, Daoist Ritual Seal

Fayin is the name for a seal used in Daoist liturgical documents and talismanic writing. Its inscription can name a deity, an immortal, or a ritual authority. Particular designs and uses differ by lineage and text.

Fangshu

方術, Technical and Divinatory Arts

Fangshu is a broad historical label for technical, divinatory, medical, and other specialized arts in early China. Its scope changed over time and should not be equated with Daoist religion as a whole.

Fulu

符籙, talismans and registers, Daoist talismans and registers

Fulu joins two related Daoist terms: fu, talismanic documents with distinctive writing, images, or marks of sacred authority; and lu, registers recording divine personnel, religious offices, or affiliation. They often come together in register transmission and liturgy, but are not the same kind of document.

Fuzhou (Talismans and Incantations)

符咒, Fuzhou, Talismans and Spells

Fuzhou joins graphic talismans and spoken or written incantations. Their combination and social setting differ across sources; no one material form represents all periods.

Gongyang (Offerings and Support)

供養, Gongyang, Daoist Offerings

Gongyang may mean an offering made before a deity, material support for Daoist practitioners, or reverence for teachings in a scriptural explanation. Its sense depends on who receives it and on the text in which it appears.

Huashen (Ritual Transformation)

化神, Hua Shen, Transformation into a Deity

Huashen is a Daoist ritual and contemplative term for imaginatively assuming a divine identity during liturgical action. It describes a transformation of ritual role and awareness, not the general Chinese word for a transformed divine manifestation.

Huatan

化壇, altar transformation imagery

Huatan is the ritual idea of envisioning a Daoist altar as a sacred realm. Texts describe this transformation through images and liturgy, not as a demonstrated physical change of space.

Huanglu Zhai (Yellow Register Rite)

黃籙齋, Huanglu Zhai, Yellow Register Fast

Huanglu zhai is a Daoist fasting-rite category associated especially with rites for the dead. Its meaning and classification were elaborated in Lingbao and later liturgical texts; references to salvation or relief describe religious aims, not guaranteed outcomes.

Huanglu Zhai and Jiao Liturgical Program

黃籙齋醮儀, Huanglu Zhaijiao Yi

Huanglu zhaijiao yi names a liturgical program for a Yellow Register rite. The cited source sets out an elaborate sequence concerned with memorial care for the departed, including preparations, petitions, offerings, and a concluding thanksgiving.

Jianzhai

監齋, Supervisor of the Fast, Liturgical Supervisor

Jianzhai is a title for an officer in some Daoist fasting rites. Historical manuals assign the officer oversight of liturgical order, restrictions, and mistakes, often alongside the gaogong and dujiang. Its actual duties depend on the manual and period.

Jiao

醮, Daoist Offering, Offering Ceremony

Jiao began as a term in older offering and libation rites. In Daoism it came to designate a broad range of rites honoring deities with offerings and formal liturgy, often paired with zhai as zhai-jiao. Names, scale, texts, and participants differ across periods and local traditions.

Jiejia Chuangong Yi

接駕傳供儀, Jiejia Chuangong Ritual, Offering Presentation in a Jiejia Liturgy

Jiejia Chuangong Yi names a Daoist liturgical text concerning the reception of a divine procession and the presentation of offerings. Its extensive ritual language does not establish a procedure shared by every temple.

Welcoming the Divine Procession Liturgy

接駕迎三寶科儀, Jiejia Ying Sanbao Keyi

Jiejia ying sanbao keyi names a Daoist welcoming liturgy. The recorded text first addresses the Three Treasures and the Three Pure Ones, then depicts the ceremonial reception of the Jade Emperor's procession.

Daoist Precepts

戒律, Jielu, Jie Lu

Daoist precepts and regulations govern the conduct of clergy and other adherents and also name a category of texts in the Daoist Canon. Their contents, recipients, and modes of transmission vary across communities and periods; early admonitions and later Quanzhen ordination rules are not one unchanging code.

Jinbi Yuanguang Huoxi Daxian Zhengyi Lingguan Ma Yuanshuai Mifa

金臂圓光火犀大仙正一靈官馬元帥秘法, Secret Rite of Zhengyi Lingguan Marshal Ma, Fire-Rhinoceros Marshal Ma Rite

Jinbi Yuanguang Huoxi Daxian Zhengyi Lingguan Ma Yuanshuai Mifa is a Daoist ritual text centered on Marshal Ma Sheng, known as Ma Yuanshuai. Its divine imagery and petitions are historical religious material, not a medical or weather-control manual.

Jinlu in Daoist Sources

金籙, Jinlu

Jinlu can name a Daoist ritual category connected with Jinlu Zhai or, in other writing, a sacred register or heavenly order. A source may relate it to Huanglu, but not every occurrence denotes the same rite.

Jinlu Zhai (State-Oriented Daoist Fast)

金籙齋, Golden Register Fast, Jinlu Fast

Jinlu zhai is a category of Daoist communal fast historically associated with rulers and the welfare of the state. Its name, patrons, and place among other rites changed over time; one ceremonial text does not define every period.

Jin Zhong Yu Qing

金鐘玉磬, Bell and Qing Pair

Jin Zhong Yu Qing pairs bell and qing instruments in Daoist ritual sound. Their alternating tones mark a shared space and gathering; claims that sound summons spirits are religious interpretations.

Jiutian Zhai

九天齋, Jiutian Zhai Rite Category

Jiutian Zhai is a Daoist communal-rite category linked in liturgical writing to the Jiutian Shengshen Di and prayers for the state. Some sources reserve its sponsorship for the ruler.

Juanlian

捲簾, curtain-opening rite

Juanlian is a named Daoist liturgical action whose curtain image signifies an audience before divine beings. Song ritual books discuss its form, while later manuscripts show further variation.

Kaozhao

考召, Ritual Summons and Interrogation

Kaozhao is a Daoist ritual category in which a specialist symbolically summons and examines spirits believed to be causing harm. Historical descriptions also show how judicial language entered ritual performance.

Keyi

科儀, Ke Yi, Daoist Liturgy

Keyi refers to prescribed forms and sequences in Daoist religious activity, and can also denote the manuals that record them. In different historical texts, ke may concern communal rules as well as ritual procedure; keyi is not the name of one fixed ceremony.

Thunder Rites

雷法, Leifa, Thunder Ritual Traditions

Thunder rites (lei fa) are a family of Daoist ritual traditions, especially prominent from the Song period onward, that connect thunder deities with inner cultivation, talismans, divine marshals, and liturgy. Shenxiao, Qingwei, and Zhengyi settings developed different texts and lineages; thunder rites are not one isolated technique or a single school.

Ritual Command Tablet

令牌, Lingpai, Daoist Command Tablet

A lingpai is a Daoist ritual tablet symbolizing the issuing of commands in a rite. Sources describe wood or metal examples inscribed with words and images, including thunder-rite titles; its form and meaning vary with the ritual tradition.

Lu (Daoist Registers)

籙, Daoist Registers, Lu Registers

A lu, or Daoist register, is a document of religious transmission that may list divine offices, names, talismanic writing, and the recipient's position. Receiving a register can mark affiliation and responsibilities within a specific lineage; it is neither a single talisman nor an ordinary membership list.

Luotian Dajiao

羅天大醮, Grand Luotian Jiao

Luotian Dajiao is a name for a large Daoist communal offering rite. Its reference to Daluotian situates an expansive pantheon and collective requests within a Daoist cosmic imagination.

Mihun Fa

迷魂法, Bewildering-the-Soul Rite, Mihun Ritual

Mihun Fa names a dangerous class of historical ritual accounts about gaining control over another person's awareness for spirit interrogation. The accounts involve children and impaired consciousness; they are evidence of beliefs and coercion, not a practice to attempt.

Miaohui (Temple Fair)

廟會, Temple Fair, Miaohui

A miaohui, or temple fair, is a recurring gathering around a temple or shrine. Worship, performance, social contact, and trading may each be important, depending on the place and period.

Mingzhen Zhai

明真齋, Mengzhen Zhai, Mingzhen Fast

Mingzhen Zhai, also written Mengzhen Zhai, is a type of Lingbao fasting rite associated in older sources with remembrance and religious aid for ancestors and departed spirits. Its name appears in Southern Dynasties material and its textual form changed later.

Muyu

沐浴, Ritual Bathing

Muyu ordinarily means washing or bathing. Daoist texts also use it for ritual purification and, metaphorically, for a pause or rebalancing in alchemical writing.

Ritual Bathing of the Departed

沐浴科儀, Muyu Keyi, Ritual Bathing Liturgy

Muyu keyi is a Daoist funerary liturgy in which bathing and clothing symbolize the cleansing and preparation of a departed spirit. The Chinese source preserves an extended ritual script rather than a brief doctrinal definition.

Neizhai

內齋, Inner Fasting

Neizhai is a Daoist fasting or purification category emphasizing an individual's inward quiet and discipline, often explained through Zhuangzi's 'fasting of the mind.' Later manuals distinguish several internal fasts rather than one fixed rite.

Qisi

祈嗣, Prayers for Offspring

Qisi denotes historical prayers for offspring in Daoist and folk settings. Its prominence reflects family succession, often with a preference for male heirs, not a proven means of conception.

Daoist Hand Gestures

掐訣, Qiajue, Ritual Finger Signs

Qiajue denotes patterned hand and finger gestures in Daoist ritual traditions. Named positions on the hand can symbolize stars, trigrams, directions, or divine figures. The gestures belong to a larger ceremonial language and are not evidence that a hand position itself produces a supernatural result.

Qingci

青詞, Daoist Qingci

Qingci is a type of written address used in Daoist zhai and jiao settings and later recognized as a literary form. Its name is associated with colored paper and writing, while its purpose and format vary by text and period.

Qinggui

清規, Qing Gui, Rules of Purity

Qinggui are rules for communal life in Quanzhen Daoist temples and monasteries. They can address daily conduct, ritual etiquette, division of duties, and responses to breaches. The rules of different temples, periods, and texts should not be treated as one unchanging code.

Daoist Celebration Liturgy

慶賀科儀, Qinghe Keyi

Qinghe keyi names a Daoist liturgy for a celebratory observance, particularly the commemoration of a deity's birthday. The recorded form is a communal temple rite, not a generic instruction for every celebration.

Rainmaking Rites (Qiuyu)

求雨, Prayers for Rain, Rain Petition Rites

Qiuyu means historical rites and prayers for rain in times of drought. Records of a rite do not establish that it changed the weather.

Sanbu Jiuji

三步九跡, Three Steps and Nine Traces

Sanbu Jiuji names a three-step, nine-trace type of Yubu in Daoist ritual literature. Later authors associate its numbers with celestial lights, qi, and time.

Sanhua

散花, Scattering Flowers in Daoist Liturgy, Sanhua Ke

Sanhua is a chanted element in Daoist fasting and offering rites, evoking reverence, the arrival of divine beings, or care for the departed. In some Hong Kong Quanzhen settings it also names a separate liturgy. Early sanhua did not necessarily involve scattering real flowers.

Sanhuang Zhai (Historical Daoist Fast)

三皇齋, Fast of the Three Sovereigns, Dongshen Sanhuang Zhai

Sanhuang zhai is an early Daoist ritual category associated with the divine Sanhuang. Southern and Northern Dynasties descriptions differ from later texts sharing the Sanhuang name. Claims of pardon, rescue, or health are religious hopes, not verified outcomes.