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Encyclopaedia of Ancient, Obscure and Esoteric East Asian Religious Practices

Rokushiki no Kinki — Six Forms of Taboo

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

This canonical ID (20) currently groups 6 source layers with divergent titles. Milestone-1 migration preserves every layer below without inventing a single merged narrative. Status: needs-review.

Also attested under these titles

Section titled “Also attested under these titles”
  • Pure Land Visualization
  • Far Roaming
  • Shintai
  • Onmyōdō Purification / Exorcism
  • Thunder Rites — Leifa General Operational Grammar

Research layers

Section titled “Research layers”

Layer 1: Pure Land Visualization

Section titled “Layer 1: Pure Land Visualization”

Source file: 01_Buddhism.md

The Contemplation Sūtra tradition gives a sequence beginning with the setting sun and water, then jeweled ground, trees, ponds, thrones and finally Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta.

Purpose: stabilize Sukhāvatī as a contemplative reality and orient rebirth aspiration.
Reliability: A.

Layer 2: Far Roaming

Section titled “Layer 2: Far Roaming”

Source file: 02_Daoism.md

Chinese: 遠遊 yuanyou as a broader motif
Visionary travel through heavens, stars and divine palaces. Shangqing meditation transformed poetic “roaming” into highly structured inner/cosmic journeys.

Reliability: B.

Layer 3: Shintai

Section titled “Layer 3: Shintai”

Source file: 03_Shinto.md

“Body of the kami,” an object serving as the principal material locus of a shrine’s deity. Mirrors, swords, jewels, stones and other objects can function as shintai.

Access: often hidden from public view.
Reliability: A/B.

Layer 4: Onmyōdō Purification / Exorcism

Section titled “Layer 4: Onmyōdō Purification / Exorcism”

Source file: 04_Syncretic_Japan.md

Ritual specialists used formulas, paper effigies, calendrical calculation, directional rites and spirit-pacification techniques to address pollution and ominous influences.

Reliability: B.

Shinbutsu Shūgō

Section titled “Shinbutsu Shūgō”

Layer 5: Thunder Rites — Leifa General Operational Grammar

Section titled “Layer 5: Thunder Rites — Leifa General Operational Grammar”

Source file: 08_PRIMARY_SOURCE_PROCEDURE_UPGRADES_v1_7.md

Chinese: 雷法
Period: especially Song onward
Authorization: RITUAL MASTER / PRIEST / LINEAGE TRANSMISSION

Purpose

Section titled “Purpose”

Thunder rites deploy the authority of thunder bureaus, martial deities and ritual masters in exorcism, healing, rainmaking, disaster-aversion and restoration of cosmic/social order.

Prerequisite authority

Section titled “Prerequisite authority”

Historical and modern lineages can require:

  1. ordination or ritual-master status;
  2. transmission of the specific fa;
  3. covenant with a thunder deity/general;
  4. texts, seals, talismans and altar implements;
  5. knowledge of inner cultivation used to generate/actualize thunder power.

General ritual sequence

Section titled “General ritual sequence”
  1. Purify practitioner, altar and ritual precinct.
  2. Establish the thunder altar (leitan) where the lineage requires one.
  3. Internally collect/refine qi through the lineage’s neidan or visualization method.
  4. Visualize or invoke the relevant thunder bureau/general.
  5. Perform bugang/yubu where prescribed.
  6. Form the required hand seals.
  7. Recite the thunder incantation.
  8. Write/activate the corresponding talisman or warrant.
  9. Issue the command/petition through the celestial bureaucracy.
  10. Dispatch the thunder general/marshals.
  11. Perform the concrete application: exorcistic correction, healing, rain petition, boundary protection, etc.
  12. Confirm or ritually acknowledge completion.
  13. Recall the dispatched forces.
  14. Thank/dismiss the deities.
  15. Close the thunder altar.

Learning

Section titled “Learning”

Do not learn “Thunder Rites” generically. Identify the named lineage/text first: Shenxiao, Qingwei, Tianxin, local Dongxuan Yushu systems and others preserve different technologies.

Research note

Section titled “Research note”

Song/Yuan manuals frequently hybridized elements from multiple Daoist and Buddhist ritual traditions.

Layer 6: Rokushiki no Kinki — Six Forms of Taboo

Section titled “Layer 6: Rokushiki no Kinki — Six Forms of Taboo”

Source file: 13_FORBIDDEN_TABOO_RESTRICTED_INDEX_v2_1.md

Class: FORMAL RITUAL-PURITY LAW
The Jingiryō preserves taboos concerning:

  • mourning;
  • visiting the sick;
  • eating meat;
  • capital punishment;
  • determining punishment;
  • evil pollutions.

Research task

Section titled “Research task”

Future expansion should retrieve the full legal wording and durations from the relevant codes.